2026 Exeter Trial

 

Wot no air filter?

After a great deal of re-work on the Arkley-MG I felt – for once – adequately prepared for the 96th Exeter Trial. Sally and I actually completed the one Tamar Trial last October and since then I’d had the powertrain apart to address leaky gearbox and axle oil seals. Finding the right oil seals took some time.

The novelty has worn off somewhat when parts people ask me what the car’s registration number is. Even if the car shows up on their system, they’ve never heard of an Arkley-MG. In fairness, I shouldn’t expect them to have.

For me, part numbers have never gone out of fashion and I am building up a list of them for my Arkley-MG Ford-VW special as developed by Professor Adrian Booth. AI has proved surprisingly helpful.

The non-starting issue that stopped us starting the Land’s End Trial last year stopped after I’d cleaned up all the earth connections and fitted a new battery as a precaution. Sally had also bought me one of those glove box sized starter packs you charge off a USB cable.

The day before the trial I realised the fan sensor switch on the radiator was playing up. The tell-tale lamp on the dash was on all the way home on a run out to Callington. It had also been flickering on and off. The car drove as if cold and needing more choke. 

I had noticed it coming on more than usual on the Tamar Trial but that was such a warm day, some of us in open cars had to use sun block.

The original MG temperature gauge hasn’t worked since I bought the car. It’s incorporated with the oil pressure gauge, which does work, and a new combined one is quite expensive, so I’ve come to rely on the fan switch and the tell-tale lamp on the dash to monitor engine temperature.

I thought about wiring in a switch for when I thought the sensor was too over-enthusiastic but the car has a manual over-ride switch to activate the fan in anticipation of the engine getting hot, particularly on the long, wooded sections we get on the local one-day events around home. I decided to switch the fan on manually in situations where experience told me the sensor used to activate it.

I drove up to Sally’s in the daylight on the Friday and we went from her place to Haynes without any starting or running issue apart from a slight hesitancy on part throttle.

Making the start was an improvement on our efforts in the 2025 Land’s End when we didn’t even make the start.

Referring to my service history notebook, since then I’ve gone through the starting circuit, re-energised the cigarette lighter so we can charge phones and confirm how inaccurate the speedo is using a sat nav.

As well as addressing the elusive non-starting fault (It wasn’t a starting fault – I would have been pleased if it had started) and the oil leaks, that car has had new gaskets, new seat runners, a refurbished exhaust manifold, new throttle cable, 3-in-1 clutch kit since the box was out, not to mention several attempts at the tracking to correct terrible front tyre wear and I welded up a crack near one of the suspension mounting points and some rust treatment (why do I treat rust when it’s so horrible to what I care about?).

I don't have many photos of the 96th Exeter Trial but here's one of the engine going back into the car

What I will mention is Adrian Booth adjusting the tracking with a metal pole with a spike on each end and then rubbing his hand over the tyre treads to detect any feathering. He since checked it with an optical set-up and tweaked it further.

Consequently, I was pleased to sign on at Haynes without any noticeable tyre wear and with engine working.

After queuing for the handbrake and special test at Windwhistle, there was a queue of about an hour for Underdown. Just before we arrived, the marshals had four recoveries to effect and, with the fan switched on, the car felt as if it was running cold and bogged down just after we’d got around the sharp left hander. I had to use my memory and proximity awareness there because the sat nav screen blocked my view and the screen steamed up.

Back on the road, I had trouble pumping up our tyres. The offside took ages and the recently re-tubed nearside seemed to be letting more out than was going in. I feared the tyre valve was split but had a sneaking feeling my tyre inflator wasn’t inflating properly.

After we negotiated a route amendment, we re-grouped at Musbury services and I borrowed air from Pat. This re-assured me that the tyre was okay. The sealing around the tyre valve was the issue.

Gatcombe Lane proved no problem but by the time we got to Waterloo, in the company of Pat and Jill Shaw in their MX5 and Adrian Booth and Darren Wilton in Age’s TR2, there was ice on the roads. We got quite out of shape whilst braking downhill to approach a junction and the mud on the lane approaching Waterloo was frozen. There was a queue and I started the engine from time to time to keep the engine warm.

You could see how cold our engines were from the vapour in the exhaust of the cars in front but when the MX5 in front of us pulled away the steam didn’t go away. My car chucked out steam!

I switched off and when the hill was clear tried to re-start the engine. It took longer than usual to fire and I noticed an orange flashing lamp in my footwell. This was accompanied by shouts of “Fire!” from Mike Greenwood and James Shallcross, the start line marshals.

Sally and I bailed out and I grabbed my fire extinguisher. I could see the glow through the glass fibre bonnet. With our fellow competitors on either side, we lifted the one-piece front end to reveal the air filter was on fire. I couldn’t get the pin out of my extinguisher. There’s a little plastic cap to stop it coming out by accident. Mike knew about these things already and with a quick squirt blew the flames out.

The GRP bonnet was sooty but undamaged. Wiring on the wing by the carbs didn’t look too clever, though. Dave Haizelden popped out of the darkness and said we would be towed out and within minutes we were back in our car and on the end of a tow rope.

It was a long climb out behind the Land Rover of Adrian Rendell and his band of helpers. Along the way, I thought about what could have possibly caused the overheating in such cold conditions. I knew someone with a vintage Riley once that boiled in winter once because its radiator was iced up. I feared the engine might have suffered something terminal.

The fire damage doesn't look any better without flash. What looks like dried milk powder is from Mike Greenwood's fire extinguisher.

This wasn’t the first time my car had spat ignited fuel back through its carbs. It happened a coupla years ago outside Adrian’s workshop, that time starting from cold. I had a wet rag to hand and stifled the flames with that. In that occasion, the air filter was the only casualty.

At the top, our running mates were waiting for us and we held a quick post-mortem. We hadn’t lost much water and after topping it up Age asked, “Will it run?”

It did and kept running. Despite the melted wring loom, we had headlamps but no indicators or (oddly) fuel gauge. Looking in the header tank of the rad we couldn’t see any bubbles to suggest head gasket trouble.

In a strange re-run of what happened to Adrian’s TR2 last year, we made our way to Greendale for coffee and formerly retired from the trial. Our mud brothers and sisters took some time to re-appear and the carpark grew a covering of black ice, which caught a number of people out.

Once we’d borrowed more air from Pat, we drove on to our hotel at Newton Abbott and still attended the club supper. If we’d lost our lamps we’d have been in trouble and if ever I called them lights I’d have been in trouble with my headmaster who would say “Lights? They’re lamps! Light is what comes out of them!”

We had a great night at the club supper and were in exalted company on our table – no less than three Triple awards that night for Neal Bray, Ian Cundy and Lester Keat.

Pat and Jill had a very good trial after we parted. We were relieved they didn’t have to wait for us to supply us with air. They only failed Donkey Trot and Simms. Age and Darren only failed Simms.

I always go to bed after one of these events marvelling at the MCC magic that conjures up an event from the hard work of so many volunteers playing to their strengths in such varied skill sets. It would be impossible to organise something similar from scratch today but the MCC has a collective reserve of experience and organisational momentum – not to mention goodwill – that makes classic long distance overnight trials not only possible but so damned good.

An M type Midget that also made it to our hotel 

The following day, on the way home, the Arkley-MG used no more water and ran alright without its air filter. In the workshop, I’ve already begun refreshing the cooling system and fitting a new fan switch and supplementary temperature gauge. A rolling road session is also on the cards as well as a review of flame trap arrangements although, if it’s timed and tuned properly it shouldn’t shoot flames out the carbs – right?

I am pleased the car wasn’t a goner, which it could have been. If it was going to catch light, on the start line at Waterloo was probably the best place to do it – in the dark, where the flames were easy to spot in front of cold marshals with effective fire extinguishers – although I can’t pretend to recommend it.

I am mystified why my car boiled when it did. As Simon Robson said, “It must have been one of those things.”

In future, I shall have to carry a big can of multi-purpose Stop It! spray although I wouldn’t want to get it anywhere near the Arkley-MG’s starter motor.