Vintage Thing No. 12.1 - Trojan Utility in trials

Cheer up!

While I was in the queue for a cup of tea at the Bridgewater control on the Land's End Trial, I fell into conversation with the crew of one of the 1488cc Trojan Utilities and took the opportunity to ask them how much preparation they had done to their cars for trialling.

There were two Trojan Utilities entered in the trial together one crewed by John Wilson and Richard Potter from Portchester and the other one by Steve and Phil Potter from Fareham (where, as the song goes, "all the whores wear Calico draws and I knows how to tear 'em.")

I haven't tried this myself you understand. I have simply been assured of this quaint custom by friends of mine who live in those parts.

Despite their benign weirdness, Trojans are very well proportioned cars. I particularly like the way the skinny wheels look widened.

I'd seen them working on their Trojans at the start at Popham airfield and feared the worst but they were simply trying different carburettor settings. This proved to be a common theme throughout the trial because, before each section, up would come the floorboards and various adjustments would be made to the underfloor engine and transmission that are features of these fascinating little cars. This is the trialling equivalent of mild mannered Clark Kent entering a phone box and re-emerging as Superman, for these subtle mods to fuelling and gearing endow the Trojan Utility with extra special hill climbing abilities. And after their heroic perfomance was over, up would come the floorboards again and they would be quickly converted back to respectable family transport more suitable to the road.

Essentially, these cars have been built to trials tune that was evolved by the works back in the 1920s. Trojan entered what were then sporting trials as a means of gaining good publicity and there wasn't much that they couldn't climb, even if they only came up very slowly. The tuning to the engine wasn't particularly radical but by careful attention to ports and carburation power increased to a heady 15bhp at 1,500 rpm. The guys have discovered that anymore super tuning compromises drivability and reliability.

As with most things Trojan it's sometimes difficult to know what you're looking at. This the clutch and flywheel under the driver's seat.

The crew also paid careful attention to the gearbox oil because the gearbox has no seals it and effectively works like a Scottoiler on the rear chain.

The skinny little tires slice nicely through the mud to find grip and the exhaust note is extremely distinctive, sounding like a series of pop guns being let off in quick succession and not really like a car engine at all.

The final results of the trial haven’t been published yet although we shouldn't have much longer to wait.

But these ancient little cars, struggling up the roughest "roads" in the west country with an exhaust that sounds like a cheap sound effect, gamefully finding grip just when it looks like they've ground to a halt, cannot be beaten in terms of pleasing the crowd who, to a spectator, will them on.