Engine Punk

September 2014 and Mighty Whitey 's future hangs in the balance I still have my aunt's old C15D van, which she christened Mighty Whitey . It's something of a family heirloom having been supplied new to her by Arnold's of Penryn in 1986. It used to have a dealer's sticker in the rear window that showed Falmouth mis-spelt as Falmoth but it's disintegrated entirely now. My parting comment on VT 44.1 was about sustainability and the intervening 10 years have been a testimony to that.  Following an engine failure on the M5, my C15D van is now a C15TD.  What happened was.... a complete loss of power just the other side of Exeter with lots of white and black smoke. I pulled onto the hard shoulder and when I tried the engine again it span over very quickly. No compression! On a diesel no compression means no ignition. There had been no indication of anything wrong with the engine. I remember a slight whiff of antifreeze going up Haldon Hill but the water temperature ...

I got up Simms. I broke a halfshaft. Everybody was brilliant. I had a great time. That's the executive summary of this year's event. For a more detailed account, please read on. Essentially the plan was this - meet Lee Peck (Mr Heritage Motorsport) at Okehampton to start from Betty Cottle's, get a feel for the car in my second event with it since the Camel Classic, make it to the finish at Torbay, meet up with my trialling family over the Club Supper, spin a few yarns, recount more tales of derring-do over a hearty breakfast, swing by Betty's again so Lee could pick up his truck (did you see what I did there?) and then drop the Arkley-MG back to Adrian Booth's workshop for another chinwag and perhaps a brew. Scrutineering at Betty Cottle's. The pub is much cosier inside I got the first bit right. I also met a few familiar faces at the Okehampton start. Pete Adams was there with his two boys, Shaun and Scott. Their naturally aspirated diesel 205 now pack...

It looks so innocent I bought this car with the intention of robbing its engine but during the drive home its fat torque curve endeared it to me and I couldn't kill it. I was looking for a replacement engine for Mighty Whitey (VT No.44) and through suddenly not having a van anymore buying a running car gave me the means of getting  said engine to the Boogie Wundaland workshop as well as the opportunity to see how it went. I did not expect this little diesel Peugeot to go quite so well. I changed my plans forthwith and bought a 1.9 turbo diesel Citroen Xantia to sacrifice instead to get my dear old van going again but that is another story. 1.7 litres of blown dieseasel The engine in Michael Morpeugeot is very similar to the 1769cc unit in my Citroen C15D but comes with a turbo and a five speed box. The character is thus transformed. Instead of a frugal slogger, this powertrain takes this little car on a romp to the top of any hill and then wants another challenge an...

This machine is now a mystery to me - I thought I was talking to Ryan Tonkin when I spoke to driver/constructor of this trials device but completely got the wrong end of the stick we discussed this  I've now edited the original post to read not Ryan Tonkin (he was in the VW buggy you might be able to see in the backgound)  Another vehicle that I liked at the Launceston trial was this neat VW buggy entered by Ryan Tonkin (not). Its workmanlike appearance caught my eye and it had obviously been recently painted. I noticed a couple of tell-tale scrapes along the sills and, in talking with the crew, I discovered that it had already seen quite a lot of action, despite having only been completed the previous summer. Not Ryan Tonkin bought it already converted into a buggy but substantially reworked it to make it more competitive. His passenger (sorry I didn't catch your name  - would have been worthwhile me paying more attention to whom I was talking all the time r...

I haven't competed in motorsport for a while and haven't marshalled for even longer. When I heard about this trial, I volunteered to marshal. It's always good to help out and it was a chance to look at some interesting machinery and see how some very successful drivers approach some tricky sections. I soon discovered that a lot of those involved were people I knew so it was a highly social event,too. Clerk of the Course was none other than Adrian Booth and I found myself marshalling with a few other local trialling "names". The 24th Launceston Trial was held in Lew Wood, an extensive and - in parts - extremely steep pine plantation between Lydford Gorge and Lew Down and was run by the Launceston & North Cornwall Motor Club. Some of the sections feature in the Tamar Trial so it was a good opportunity to practice The format was slightly different from the classic trials that I was used to, in that sections were marked out by numbered poles. If an entran...