Engine Punk

Rickman Metisee of Neil Browne This year's Tamar Trial took me to some obscure parts of countryside that were probably familiar to regular competitors. The 2019 event impressed me with the varied sections, some of which were very close to home but previously unknown to me. Simon Riddell and Nigel Cowling said on that occasion that they were trying to show us more of the county.  Groover Groves and Luke Butler at the start of the Tamar Trial in their Troll. Graham Beddoe was on a marathon post-Covid road trip so my navigator and bouncer for the 2021 Tamar Trial was Adrian Booth. Many of the hills were familiar to him and I knew the sections in Lew Woods and, of course, Crackington and Angel Steps. The hydraulic jack had been a bit lazy on the  Launceston Trial  earlier in the year. The pump for this had enjoyed a quieter life raising the roof on a Fiat Punto and after some experiments with electric power steering pumps, Adrian decided something beefier was required. He fo...

The Coates Orthoptera just before last year's President's Trial On the 35th Launceston trial earlier this year, many people were frankly amazed by the performance of Roger Ashby in his Coates Orthoptera. It sounded so crisp many of my friends thought it was running a Ford cross-flow engine and it nearly won the event outright. I’d seen the Coates Orthoptera before and, in chatting to Roger in the past, discovered that, although the components are fairly commonplace, they are put together in a very effective manner. The powerplant of the Coates Orthoptera at the Launceston trial featured a single downdraught 1.5" SU. This followed experiments with twin 1.25" SUs and Roger says the car ran a lot better. The Coates Orthoptera is essentially an Austin 7 chassis with a Ford side valve 1172cc engine. This was quite a common combination during the fifties and typically used an E93A engine but the Ford motor in the Coates Orthoptera is a later 100E. These offer many advant...

  The Gregory Special and Cannon of Ian and Nigel Moss The first ever Heritage Trial took place on the 4 th of July this year at Blackmoor Farm, near Woolminstone, south west of Crewkerne in Somerset. This event is intended to tempt out the older types of trials cars that could still give a good showing in ACTC and MCC trials but with a much lower risk of damage. The Alf Foster Special is just the ideal sort of car for this event. Sorry about chopping off the top of your head, Richard but you suddenly stood up straight Recent changes in the trials class structure put the Candidi Provocatores Allard J1 in Class 5 instead of Class 7. This would mean less restarts which are punishing on elderly drivetrains. It would even be in Class 2 if the Allard ran on cross plies but the available treads don’t offer much grip and are expensive. Also, we damaged the Allard’s axle on Warleggan on the John Aley Trial, completely without a restart. Still managed to finish, though - stance! Tony Mar...

In this picture of the Allard in the queue at Warleggan, you can just make out the end of the axle before  the end of our John Aley Trial That last cliffhanger left your brave boys with an immobile Allard at the top of Blue Hills. We couldn't go forward. We could roll backwards but had no drive in any gear. Gareth White was spectating after losing his Marlin’s rear electrics soon after the start and he noticed the end of the axle going round without driving the offside wheel. The horrible clicking noise was the snap of the key and then it moving against the hub as the axle turned. Willing hands bounced us around so that we could get towed out by a JCB.  In these circumstances, I remember the end of Spike Milligan’s TV show, where the cast would shuffle forward, repeatedly saying, “What do we do next? What do we do next?” Binky lives near Andover. I live near Liskeard, which isn’t quite on the way. If we could get the car recovered to Binky’s place, the driver probably wou...

I think the new white wheels really suit the Candidi Provovatores Allard My John Aley trial experience began with a rail journey to Andover near where Binky lives. Ever since we broke a perch bolt on the 2018 Lands End, he’d been chasing down parts for his Allard J1 to sort out the damage and engineer a better solution in keeping with the character of the car. At last! The only thing he needed to do on the day of our departure was drill holes for split pins for the hub retaining nuts on the freshy rebuilt rear axle and we’d be off! Imagine his disappointment to discover that the headlamps and front sidelamps didn’t work. Imagine, then, my disappointment to discover not only that but the prospect of missing the trial and having to make an alternative journey back home to Cornwall. However, maximise the positive. If Binky waggled the headlamp relay, the headlamps worked. This was regardless of the headlamp switch position. I tried a similar waggling technique and succeeded in sto...

If you ride a white bike, people will mistake you for a highway cop - unless it's an X7 I have often wondered why I should like the Suzuki X7 as much as I do. It defies logic. There are better bikes. There are more sophisticated bikes that are also more reliable. At 1.87m tall, I sit rather tall in the saddle for an X7. In fact, I look ridiculous on one. It doesn't take me much thought to justify my enthusiasm. In 1979, when I was 16,  the Suzuki GT250X7, to give it its proper title, was the fastest of the learner legal 250s. It was the first ton-up Suzy 250 when it was introduced in 1978. It wailed beautifully and spawned a host of desirable after market goodies such as clip-ons, rear sets and spanshions. Part of the X7s reputation was established in the motorcycling press. There were all manner of tuning articles and the most famous were the 250 shoot out series in Motorcycle Mechanics and the development of Brian Crichton's bike in The Biker. The X7 didn't reign for...