Engine Punk

Torum on the 2021 Launceston Trial I first came across Torum outside Georgie Mellor’s engine tuning establishment in Plymouth. I’d brought my Siva Llama there in an attempt to rectify a lack of puff above 60 mph and outside was what you might call a “cobby” trials car. This would have been around 1999, by which time Joe Caudle and Andy Prosser were successfully campaigning Torum in classic long-distance trials. Torum began in 1985 as a Midge, a component car built to plans offered by John Cowperthwaite of JC Sports Cars. For about £30, an enthusiast received templates and plans to turn a tatty Triumph Herald or Spitfire into a vintage-styled sports car. After getting so far with the project, family commitments and a career in teaching intervened for 10 years before Joe could resume construction. I asked Joe how he got into motorsport.   “I first remember becoming interested in motorsport and cars at an early age when my Uncle Harry used to visit. He went to the Grand Prix r...

Stephen Bailey's MG Midge during tea and cake after his successful ascent of Sutcombe Hill A Midge was a kit car you built from plans available back in the eighties. More of a self-build affair, some parts were purchasable to ease the construction process. Most were based on Triumph Herald chassis, which made the process of construction fairly easy especially if you had a vintage style radiator shell to hand. Stephen Bailey built a Midge but then felt he could build another one specifically for trials. Instead of a Herald he managed to find a pre-war MG chassis and used most of that as the basis for his Class 8 trials special. hardly anything else MG went into. The running gear is mostly Ford with a 1620cc Kent engine. This has a single SU on quite a long inlet tract for torque, hence that round thing on the bonnet. I think he used Triumph uprights I asked him how he'd registered it and he said he'd built such a long time ago the DVLA trusted anyone who was bui...