2022 Exeter Trial

Team Inappropriate lurk in the hotel car park.

Preparations for “Noddy goes trialling again in an Arkley SS" began some months before the 92^nd Exeter trial. After the Tamar Trial in October, I had come to notice a notchiness to the steering on the Arkley-MG. All that wheel waggling to move the front wheels from lock to lock, persuading the car to elbow its way up sections like Angel Steps, seemed to have taken their toll around the straight ahead position. The steering wheel would move freely for about a centimetre at the rim but then grew stiff. There was also the small matter of the MoT in December. I know my car is exempt but I like the peer review of my work by a professional.

I ordered a replacement steering rack and discovered there were two sorts. You can have a thin one or a beefier one. I ended up with a thick one but found that the Arkley-MG used the thin sort. They’re not interchangeable.

During a chat over a brew of tea at his workshop, Adrian Booth told me that my car had received several racks over the years. He said his preference would be to use the thick sort so he machined up some new alloy mounts for me and increased the clearance of the steering column between zorst manifold and chassis while he had my car on his ramp

Prep for the Exeter also included new front dampers (from a Lada Riva, obviously), a revitalised hydraulic pump and ram for the car jack and a bleddy good clean and grease up.

Binky drove down from sunny Andover to start from my place. For 2022, we just had to turn up at Haynes museum at Sparkford. The MCC chose not to include the touring assembly and three starting points as this kept the road mileage below 200 miles and allowed a full and perfectly formed Exeter Trial to go ahead under the current Covid regulations.

The weather was largely persistent rain throughout with brief spells of pseudo-dryness to lull us into a false sense of aridity. Initially I had opted to wear a new pair of Muck boots my sister gave me for Christmas but just driving down to the valley floor from my house was enough to swap them for some old Oxford boats. They were too bulky with massive soles and pushed my legs up to the steering wheel.

We saw many old friends at Haynes. During the epidemic, we'd become hermits for health reasons and I sometimes felt the world was too peopley even when I was by myself but trialling is immensely sociable and I felt re-habilitated into society. We had masks and the MCC snood could also serve as  a face covering if ever we were caught out.

Stuart Palmer was a bit fed up. After pampering his Austin 7 Ulsteroid, it had chucked a load of water out and he suspected it had blown the head gasket.

Signing on was all electronic and scrutineering involved a socially distanced check of our lights and the threat of more in depth spot checks. Binky got a little badge to prove we’d passed muster and after a health conscious bacon bap we set off at 03:15 (we were car 19) for a restart and timed special test at Windwhistle.

Waiting for Wooston

I got Binky to lower our tyre pressures for Windwhistle as I hadn’t appreciated that this was a tarmac section. The sense of anti-climax may have made me stall the engine on the special test but incompetence syndrome is probably a more likely explanation.

Underdown was more of a challenge. The approach and exit tracks took some care but the section itself seemed to have plenty of grip. The recent rainfall appeared to have washed the goo away. As we emerged into the wood yard to pump up our tyres, though, the car faltered and nearly cut out. I’d been aware of a growing tendency to fluff or pop, especially when starting form cold, so began to wonder if there was dirt in the fuel, despite fitting a new air filter.

I have been using Super Unleaded E5 in the Arkley-MG ever since the introduction of E10 in 2021. I have a suspicion that fuel quality has reduced generally to get us to buy disposable electric cars, especially as other cars of mine have suffered vaporisation with E5 and increased fuel consumption on E10.

I also wondered if water had contaminated the fuel.

Noddy goes trialling and does Classic Regularity Tests. Anyone got a hat with a bell at the end? What sort of hat would you call one?

Gatcombe Lane was a new one to me although Binky remembered it from years ago. It had a socially distanced start line and a strategically placed marshal with a flashing red head torch to aim for up  a bumpy track.

There was a queue at Norman’s Hump and the Marlin in front of us developed a flat battery and had to be pushed out of the way so we could have a go. The lower section looked incredibly rough in our headlamps but our brave little car bounced and crashed over it and I chose a low point to stop for the restart, which was at the foot of the next incline after the cross track for Observed Section 5, Clinton. We got away okay and found the upper part of Norman’s Hump to be less bumpy. Looping around for Clinton, there was another wait and more cars with problems. A Cannon had lost all sparks on its electronic ignition and Lester Keat’s Hillman Avenger had what sounded like a front wheel bearing on the way out. He was confident he could repair it, once he could see what he was doing, since he had a spare.

We didn’t have a restart on Clinton (Class 8 did) and there seemed to be enough grip. Ian Cundy in his Golf was determined to nail Clinton as inexplicably it had caught him out on the John Aley Trial. Sure enough, he showed it who was boss.

The Arkley-MG seemed to find good grip on Stretes and Passaford Lane although we made a bit of a mess of the second timed test at Core Hill. There was part of Passaford Lane where the engine note began to rise without any increase in speed but less beans allowed the tyres to grip with a lurch.

Despite Ray Goodwright's Arkley living across the same valley from me, this was the first time we'd manged to get our cars together.

At Crealy Park we had a photo op with Ray Goodwright’s blue Arkley. This one is low and has a 1400cc Rover K series engine running on throttle bodies. His navigator was none other than metal guru Professor Booth himself and they were entered in Class R in the Classic Road trial for “much-loved machinery.” Ray gives his car stick in track days and I pamper mine away from the hills.

Having made it to Crealy, Stuart Palmer reviews his options.

We also saw Brian Partridge who had lost his brakes on Clinton (the one with a Class 8 restart). He'd struggled on that far, frequently topping up the fluid, but subsequently retired his Ridge-Cannon. 

Brian Partridge about to keep his fluids up

In my opinion, the organisers made the right decision to scratch the restart on Tillerton Steep and all of Kingswell. Kingswell was a waterlogged slurry pit two years ago so goodness knows what it was like after the rain we had in 2022. We hadn’t brought our snorkels, either. The restart at Tillerton developed issues after half a dozen cars had got away, apparently. We didn’t know this as we approached from an odd direction, having had to improvise our route now that Kingswell was dropped.

We were saddened to see the green Rickman Ranger of Team Sample sidelined by the ford at the foot of Tillerton by broken Ford components. Lee was underneath it and we knew it couldn’t be raining that hard. Anyway, Rangers have roofs. He’d unfortunately smashed the diff on the restart and was fitting his spare.

I was keen to master the restart on Tillerton Steep but secretly pleased to hear they’d removed it this year. It was rough and the box would have been in an awkward place for us. I was still pleased to get out the top.

Fingle is an old favourite of ours. I like its sweeping nature but, again, the track after the Section Ends boards was incredibly rough.

There was a queue for Wooston Steep and we saw Lee Peck who’d just replaced a rose joint on Nigel Jones’ Kraken. They'd broken it on a rough patch cresting the hill after Fingle and we knew straight away which bit they meant.

I approached the restart on Wooston with respect. It had obviously caught many out and quite a few had to come back down again after a failed attempt even without having to do the restart. I stopped low in the box and pulled away gently and the little car took us out of the section very nicely.

Ilsington Village Hall was an oasis of tea and cake although the car parking marshals had their work cut out.

Our climb at Simms started off well. We found grip on the restart and gathered momentum towards the really lumpy bits further up. We bounced and crashed over the rocks but came down hard on one lump that threw us over to the right and onto the raised bank, which was topped off by a large stone. We came down at an angle and ground to a halt but managed to get away again only to fall into one of the bomb holes near the top. Despite lighting up the tyres and waggling the wheels, we failed to lay down a rubber road to freedom – as the Night Rider would have said – although Binky bounced like a nutter. On reflection, I will try throttling back a bit in case the tyres have got sticky enough to grip – they smelt sticky enough – and also use a little handbrake to pre-load the diff. This got me out of a bombhole on the President’sTrial when the nearside front wheel was way off the ground.

Getting out of that was just as exciting as getting there. Duncan Stephens produced a strop and hooked that onto our tow rope. With half a dozen marshals hauling and me kicking the tyres and lighting the fires, we made it to the top and a gaggle of sympathetic friends, Nigel Cowling and Ian Moss among them.

Next time I’ll try bouncing left.

The People's Choice - the flat twin Austin 7 special of Hughie Walker. He made Simms look easy.

Tipley was rough but we found grip alright and we then had the prospect of climbing Slippery Sam in daylight, a first for us. The restart was on a concrete platform and the Arkley-MG is neat enough not to fall off its edges but the bends further up were really rough and incredible stony. It was difficult to avoid the lose boulders and the ruts, despite my unconventional lines. 

By the time we signed off, it was just about daylight still and we’d run pretty well to our allotted time. Despite the elements, the trial ran well for us and was very well-organised with good judgement over Kingswell and Tillerton.

Stuart finished in Class O, despite his Austin 7 boiling itself dry several times along the way, and Lester's suspected wheel bearing turned out to be a tin dust shield on the propshaft

We were delighted to see Team Sample’s Ranger at our hotel and, at breakfast, heard all about their derring-do. Lee said he’d never seen so much debris in an axle! Also, he discovered a rear wheel cylinder was leaking but fortune smiled on them and the nearest motor factors had one on their shelf. They’d had to retire but were still able to enjoy their family staycation in sunny Newton Abbot.

We also had the opportunity to admire VAT 69, the flat twin Austin 7 special of Hughie Walker, and the Coates Orthoptera of Roger Crashby.

I was really pleased the way the car went. It didn't falter, despite the idle speed getting low with the lights and wipers all working. I was pleasantly surprised by the Radar Dimax Classic tyres. The tread pattern wasn't what I'd seen in the pictures on the net but at least I hadn't checked the box for the white wall option. We had no punctures on a classic event for the first time that I can remember and they gripped well in the conditions we met.

My much loved Arkley-MG has now been polished. This is the before picture in case you wondering. the various watersplashes along the 92nd Exeter rinsed most of the mud away.