Engine Punk

  At the start of this year's Camel Classic, l to r, Simon Oates' Liege, Aaron Haizelden's John Deere Special, Emma Wall's Troll and the VW Special of Adrian and George Marfell For this year’s Camel Classic, the lovely Sally was to have been my passenger. We have entered the forthcoming Exeter Trial and had thought of a gentle drive out in the country with the Arkley-MG to get used to things. Instead, we entered the Camel Classic, which is nothing like a gentle drive out. At least, she would be able to experience tree roots motorsport at first hand and see the sort of sections we could expect. The first hills on the Exeter would be hidden by darkness. Perhaps that might be helpful. The sections on the Camel Classic are spectacular to the point of intimidating and I knew there would be a lot of reversing back down again.  Anyway, poor Sally developed a shocking cold a few days beforehand and had been in bed for three days before the Camel Classic. Even if she recovered...

This splendid Belgian-registered example appeared at the 2022 Imp Club National at Borden in Hampshire. It's a developed version of the DKW 3=6 and uses a 981cc (74 x 76mm) version of the 3-cylinder two- stroke engine ( VT No.13 ) that's fascinated me for many years.  In later years, DKW was held to stand for  Das Kleine Wunder, or the little wonder but in 1916 it originally meant  Dampf-Kraft-Wagen when   Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen built a  steam-powered car in Zschopau, Germany. When that venture failed, he made toy two-stroke engines for children under the name of  Des Knaben Wunsch or "the boy's wish". Once fitted into bicycle frames, these became  Das Kleine Wunder although some called the little Deeks the  Deutsche Kinder-Wagen, or "German children's car".  After a brief flirtation with rear-engined, two stroke-powered cars using a pumping cylinder for supercharge (I love that sort of thing), DKW introduced the three-cylind...

Just a part of my trialling family. Look at our steely determined gazes! No rabbits in headlamps here. L to R Pat Shaw, Bob Blackman, Michael Brooks, Gillane Sanders, Adrian Booth and Ross Sanders After the debacle of last month’s Edinburgh Trial, in which I “lost” a triple award – although I never really had one – and then  the clutch cable snapping at the top of Corkscrew, I entered the 77 th 2024 Tamar Trial as a late entrant. A rare choice for trialling is Jon Cox's Lotus Elan It really was just a snapped cable and Uncle Adrian had an old school go at adjusting my tracking. The new front tyres had been scrubbing out atrociously on the inner edge. Despite trying various tyre fitting bays using laser equipment, the car was still scrubbing off brand new covers all over the Peak District. Age used a long, graduated pole with pointers at each end to set toe in at 1/8 th of an inch. What I needed next was a shake down run to check there no underlying probs to the cable snapping an...

An adventure in which the Arkley-MG makes a new friend. (Photo : Graham Beddoe) For several weeks I had been telling people I had entered the 2024 Edinburgh Trial. When I announced that it took place in the Peak District, this confirmed their opinions on my powers of geography. This lovely and tough Ford Model A belongs to consistent Gold award winner and Triple contender Stephen Hill Only six people were in contention for a Triple on this event, one solo motorcyclist and five car drivers and I was one of them. Besides Graham Beddoe and me in the Team Inappropriate Class 7 Arkley-MG ( VT No.151 ), there were Mark Wills on his class B Beta Alp (on line for his third triple), Stephen Hill and his well-dressed gentlemen bouncers in their Ford Model A, previous Triple-winner Karren Warren in her class 6 VW Beetle, Annabel Harry in her red class 7 Hillman Imp ( VT No.78 ) and ACTC regular Paul Merson in his very successful Shopland MK 1 class 8. The Class O equivalent of a Triple is a Tri...