Engine Punk

A sense of occasion at the start after 100 years of motorsport organised by the Launceston and North Cornwall Motor Club The Launceston and North Cornwall Motor Club put on another challenging trial again with the 35 th Launceston Classic trial on the 30 th May. Last year it was postponed due to bad weather and the club did a great job in squeezing the 34 th trial in just before the national lockdown occurred. After the Pop Trial and the President’s Trial , the LNCMC took us back to Lew Wood and Eastcott Down where they had cunningly fashioned some really nadgery sections to make up for the dry conditions. They managed to find some mud but pressure washing the car off later that sunny evening took much less time than usual. We’ve almost got used to the paperless signing on but this was my first trial with a bouncer. Bouncers, you’ve been missed! Take a bow for that daring young man on the trapeze, roll bar and windscreen frame, Mr Graham Beddoe. During the winter lockdown, I’...

Another great photo by Pete Brown. There's an awful lot going on here. Stuart and I are bouncing hard. (Photo : Peter Brown) Regular perusers of my ramblings will already know about my taste for Austin 7 specials. We've had the Oliver Way designed Salamanda Special , the Reliant powered Cattley 7 , a splendid MG and Austin 7 device  that wowed the crowd at Wiscombe Park, Mrs Jo-jo , Mr Jo-jo , the baby Bugatti RA special and even Simplicity itself.  There are many others I would like to have a good look at and most recently it was the Austin 7 Ulsteroid of Stuart Palmer, Professor Emeritus of Side Valve Sorcery at the University of Torbay. This little car is an MCC long distance trials machine in Class O and last year I had the chance to passenger Stuart on the Camel Vale Motor Club's  Presidents Trial  near Hessenford just off the A38. The Ulsteroid is based on a 1935 Austin Ruby long wheelbase chassis so there's enough legroom for Stuart's dad, who's taller ...

John called his series of specials Spenceley Specials. I really like the play on abbreviations for the SS JAG  (SS being the pre-war name for what became Jaguar) but he reckoned it just confused people!  In 2000, long before my first digital camera, I took some snaps of this machine at the Easter meeting at Tregrehan. The programme described it as a JAG but it didn't look like any Jaguar I knew. I was also intrigued by the SS JAG badge on the radiator. Sir William Lyons originally traded as SS before WW2 but adopted the name of Jaguar postwar for obvious reasons. Curiosity piqued, I thought it was worth taking some smudges of it. This is the same car at Wiscombe Park in 2008 but with a Riley 1496cc engine At the time this machine boasted a 2-litre Pinto engine but it subsequently turned up at Wiscombe Park in 2008 with a Riley 1496cc motor. I recently bought a superb book on RGS-Atlantas and was intrigued to find this car in it. It also appeared on a Facebook page for 50s and ...

At the start from left to right, 1900cc BMW 316 of Rob and Michael Holden, 2 litre Escort of Ken Bassett and Liam Hartley, Class winning X90 of Simon and Charlotte Lewis and Darren Ruby with Lisa, Ashley and Zak in their BMW E36 Compact. The 2021 Presidents Trial took place on 18th April, organised by the redoubtable Camel Vale Motor Club and back to its usual slot after Covid caused it to be postponed to October in 2020. After a freshen up of my steed during the winter lockdown and survival in the MCC Pop Up Trial, I entered the Arkley-MG as a singleton although I could have had a bouncer. What we can, and cannot, do changes frequently and I tend to lose track of where we're to. I wasn't the only driver without a bouncer but if you had an MSUK licence holder in your bubble you were laughing and if you didn't you could still laugh but behind a mask. This 454 CID Range Rover  was on recovery duty Conditions were very dry, much drier than when Stuart Palmer and I competed in ...

Car 54 where are you? On Chilli Bridge (Photo : Steven Price) The 2021 MCC Pop Up Trial was no push over. Although conditions were uncharacteristically dry for April, there were twelve difficult sections, many with restarts. Over 130 road miles and including hills regularly used in the Land's End Trial, the Pop Up Trial took competitors through a landscape they were lucky enough to only ever seen by moonlight. If they were unlucky, they got to not see it, as it was shrouded in mist or hidden behind sleet reflected in their headlamps. That's Exmoor in the dark for you. Last year's Land's End was postponed and then cancelled due to Covid 19. Subsequently, neither the Edinburgh nor the Exeter Trials took place, despite hours of preparation work behind the scenes. The postponed Presidents Trial took place last October  when restrictions were briefly lifted and I dabbled with some autosolos and autotests run by local motor clubs. In anticipation of MSUK permitting a gradual ...

This is me getting up Simms! With Simon Knight (Photo : Pete Brown) To celebrate one a half tons of Vintage Things, - yes! 150 of them - here is my cheekily little Arkley-MG. It originally started life as a 1275cc MG Midget in 1973 but by the time I got to know it, over 20 years ago, it sported the bodywork of an Arkley SS and completely different running gear. My car stands a lot taller than other Arkleys The Arkley kit consisted of a new bonnet and boot moulding for careworn Spridgets. The man behind them was Modsports racer John Britten and I first read about the Arkley SS in Peter Filby's Alternative Cars 1979. Production began in 1970, with moulding produced by the Lenham company, and cars based on really early Spridgets needed a bespoke hood. Conversions based on post 1967 cars don't need a special hood so my M-reg example can use a standard Midget hood. (More of that later.) Arkley survival rates aren't bad considering that rust was the main reason they were converte...