2023 Launceston Trial

I'd wanted to see the Zetec-powered Singer Chamois of Nick Symons ever since I heard of the build

On the morning of the 2023 Launceston Trial, the Arkley-MG (VT No.151) burst into life but then stopped as I warmed it up. It had been playing up the week before, cutting out at low revs but then firing up again a minute or so later. At the time, condensation inside the brand new distributor cap was my favourite theory for not wanting to run. As the car warmed up, the issue seemed to go away.

This time, however, it played dead for much longer. I checked for a spark but there was nothing and nothing at the king lead from the coil, either.

This was a bugger because I'd been a non-starter for the Exeter Trial in January. After replacing a rather corroded distributor car and rotor arm, I thought I'd cured the poor starting and backfiring.

Lovely MG J2 of Jon Moores, originally had 847cc but this time has a Duratec motor.

Graham Beddoe arrived and we went through it again. Fault finding is always better with two but didn’t make any difference. I knew I had a spare coil in the boot so tried that, without any effect. By now, we were late so I rang Adrian Booth who was doing the scrutineering for the event. In between requests to third parties to see double throttle springs and battery security clamps, he listened while I explained to him what had happened. He didn’t think it was the coil. Diagnosing from a distance, he reckoned the ignition module was at fault.

In digging out the spare coil, I’d noticed a similar ignition module with air cooling ribs, labelled in marker pen “VW Passat 1.8”. Graham and I swapped it over and the car burst into life. If I swapped the original one back on, it didn’t wanna went.

I was pleased to have found the source of the trouble and to have had it occur at home where I was in a position to do something about it. It was no longer intermittent either. Graham and I had a celebratory brew and I said I’d go over to Lew Woods anyway and see my mates, at least. Graham went home and fed bread to the ducks on the pond at Par. Actually, he delegated this task to his grandkids.

After pruning down the cooling ribs on the new module so it would fit under the bonnet, I motored over to Lew Woods without any further interruption.

Just inside the wood, a special test was in full swing.

“What time do you call this?” demanded Cap’n Cowling and after the usual ribaldry about time being relative to the observer and putting the clocks forward instead of back, he directed me to the wood yard where the marshals on the earlier sections were just returning for their crib.

Calvin Moores in his Marlin unfortunately retired in the afternoon with a damaged propshaft

Among them were Adrian, Pat Shaw, Jill Sanders, Simon Riddle and many other officers of the Launceston and North Cornwall Motor Club. After a quick conflab, I was back in the hunt with Pat as my bouncer/navigator. We even got a map. Most of the others had been told to just follow the arrows.

But did I want to?

The Class 7 Singer Chamois of Nick Symons was already on a trailer having broken a Porsche spec driveshaft on the second section. Mike Greenwood told me that him and James Shallcross had had to retire James’ Peugeot 205 because the clutch was slipping. I think Mike said the clutch was 5 years old, mind, so that must be several times round the globe in everyday use. I also saw a Marlin with a very wobbly front wheel and heard that an X90 and a BMW Compact had sustained body damage.

So, did I want to enter? You bet.

Samuel Teagle won the novice award in his UVA Fugitive

We started at Section 13, Zak’s Track, a nadgery section over tree roots with a restart for us in Class 7. This was followed by Deer Run’s Sister, which had developed a traffic jam. The marshals waved us on through in the end as attempting it was delaying an already tough trial.

Next were the Esses, right on the northern edge of the forest. I remembered this one. You start at an angle double back on yourself and drive very tightly around a tree. There’s no question of having a blast at it. You have to trickle it round and the Arkley-MG seemed to respond very well.

Jon Turner remarked how steadily I’d driven it. I was very pleased. The last time I’d seen him on a hill I’d almost run him over.

Keelan Hancock was second in class to Dean Vowden, who won overall

Simon’s Folly could be named after Simon Oates or Simon Riddle or Simon Groves. It was so slippery we couldn’t make the restart. On Bambi’s Exit we got a little further and we almost cleaned Eastcott 2, on the eastern fringe of the plantation.  I stalled the car on the final bend. If I’d trickled along just a bit slower to allow the front wheels to dig in and not plough onwards, I might have made it.

Pat is entered in next month’s Land’s End in his MX5 and was saying how much grip the Arkley-MG had. “Let the car do the work,” he said.

I think twice about getting my 205 muddy. That doesn't bother David Carter.

Simon Riddle, who once owned my car, said he'd never really explored what grip and revs it offered at low speed. We were climbing but spinning our wheels in the slippery conditions. If I throttled back, it didn't feel like I was getting any better grip and was in danger of losing momentum.

Woodpecker Drive saw us hardly get over the first tree roots but on Rip and Roar we just about made the restart. We couldn’t get away from it and couldn’t get any higher even with a run at it.

I rechecked my tyre pressures and found we were at 14psi when I thought I'd put them down to 12psi when we started. Dave Ball who was passengering for Rob Williams said they'd gone down to 6psi on occasion but found their buggy was prone to stall at those pressures with the increased grip.

I took our rear tyres down to 8psi on my gauge and that made a huge difference. If anyone knows where I can get an accurate gauge that only goes up to 35psi (and not 60 or 70 so the graduations are so small at the lower end of the scale) do let me know.

We saw Joe Caudle on Darren’s Dash and Darren Wilton on Pete’s Predicament where we  had to wait for the youngest competitor (age 9) on her motorbike to ascend. Smiley faces all round!

We finished at Up & Over, which involves crossing a track halfway up before trying a restart. Well, we got to the restart but couldn’t get away despite our lower tyre pressures.

Roger Ashby cleans Up and Over, the final section

We came back to watch the final cars and since time was getting on Up & Over was curtailed with the start moved to just below the cross track. This didn’t seem to help much. Dave Hazelden blew a fuse on his Omex ignition just he for under way but stormed up once he’d diagnosed and fixed it. Best climb, though, was Roger Ashby in the Coates Orthoptera (VT No. 155), this time masquerading as the Emmett Grockle Special. That old car had to work to find grip but Roger knows what his machine can do

Although I missed the whole morning of the trial, we got around okay without any mechanical or ignition mishaps. It was a tough trial and more than a worthy proving run for next month’s big event, the Land’s End Trial.