Engine Punk

Patchy coastal fog wasn't forecast at Blue Hills 2 this Easter but tyre smoke was.  Richard Hayward suffered a blow out but may have cleared the section otherwise. It was a huge disappointment to not even make the Bridgwater start of the 2025 Land’s End Trial after all the work on the car. I drove the car up in heavy rain but making steady progress with the Arkley-MG’s single speed wiper. I fuelled up in Cullompton and the new fanbelt squeaked as I started and pulled away. No problem, thinks I, I have two 13mm spanners about my person for this very purpose. As soon as I was at Sally’s place, I made the most of the dimpsy daylight and adjusted the fanbelt. However, the alternator’s cooling fan was just touching the adjustment bracket. Then one of Sal’s friends wanted to move her car and instead of a “Vroom!” I got a “click, click, click” and a suddenly shy ignition light. “Bolleaux” as our continental neighbours might say. It wasn’t having it. It didn’t wanna went. Sally’s niece and...

Despite an interest in light cars (and medium-sized ones I suppose) I also like lumbering great beasts. This is a particularly fine example that belongs to some friends of mine. Gravitas in metal For many years, this Bentley Mk VI James Young saloon languished in one half of a two-car garage, a mournful shape without front wings or radiator. It had been left to my mate's grandmother by the old man for whom she had once kept house. Jerry’s grannie was not a large lady but could still see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals. However, one day the handbrake cable snapped and the Bentley went into a supermarket plate glass window. It then sought retirement at the back of his parents’ garage for remedial work. Time passed – as it always does – and more remedial work began to mount up. I couldn’t really make out the Bentley’s shape properly where it stood. There was just enough room in the garage to squeeze behind the wheel, make engine noises and pretend you were a “Bentley Boy”...

Martin Matthews and Colin Satchell approach the restart on Eastcott 1 in their UVA Fugitive As the Arkley-MG’s recuperation from the Exeter Trial continues, this year I marshalled on the 39 th Launceston Trial held in Lew and Eastcott Woods. I already knew access to the start at the wood yard was challenging for road cars and, with a bumper entry this year, parking would be difficult so I parked just off the road in and set off to walk. Fortunately, Becky Macey gave me a lift and, among the front-wheel drive vans struggling with loaded trailers and a Land Rover helping where it could, she polished up the steep and muddy concrete slabs in her Skoda that made up the entrance to the woods. Schmokin on the start line - not M ötley  Cr üe  but Richard and Katie Kinver in their Class 8 Ford Special  It was a good thing I blagged a lift off her for my felloe marshals for the day, Joe Caudle and Andy Prosser, were just setting off. Together with Chris Jory on his Honda XR, we ha...

Arkley-MG all set for the 95th Exeter This year’s event saw me entered again as part of the Team Inappropriate massseeve but also I had chosen as my running chumrades those dirt -dashing do-badders from downtown Doublebois, Adrian Booth and Darren Wilton in Age’s Triumph TR2. Add in Age’s sister Gill and her beau, Pat, in Katy the MX5 and I felt comfortably surrounded my fellow enthusiasts. In the navigator’s seat for the first time was my belle, Sally Livsey. Sal was supposed to have been with me on the Camel Classic but had been ill. How she would find an overnight, long-distance classic trial in January would soon be revealed. I had also volunteered to be a travelling marshal, despite many of my trialling viewing this as a kiss-of-death if I hoped to actually finish any event. First time out for Nora, the TR2 On the eve of the 2025 Exeter Trial, I fitted a new battery isolator switch. This was because, twice in the week before, the Arkley-MG had occasionally suffered from an inapp...