Engine Punk

On the way to Clinton and killing a tyre In 2023, I was a non-starter for the Exeter and a non-finisher for the Land’s End Trial. This was caused by a double whammy of a dying engine ignition module and oil seals crying enough on the back axle and contaminating the Arkley-MG’s rear brake shoes. An intense remediation programme with the critical help of Adrian Booth enabled Graham Beddoe and me to complete both the Tamar Trial and the Camel Classic later in the year. Our performances were unremarkable but we had grand days out with our motorsport family. I reckon these intense local one-day trials are an important forcing ground for exploring what the car can do. It also shows up what the driver can’t do - or ought to be doing. Front tyre on the inner edges had increased significantly, despite several adjustments to the tracking. Prior to the Exeter Trial, I had the car checked on a four-wheel alignment rig and this revealed how much the front camber can change when the suspension...

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...

And we're off, with a Mexican (or Illogan) wave (Photo : Sam Barker) I was really looking forward to the 99 th Land’s End Trial for 2023, 21 observed sections and 4 special tests sounded really good, with Class O machinery mixed in with the main trial. This was an especially enticing prospect after getting a Gold last year. Did I ever casually mention I got a Gold last year?   After getting around half the Launceston Trial, the Arkley-MG was running well, having been a non-starter for the Exeter in January . Binky motored down on Friday in the arvo and we set off for Plusha for in plenty of time for a yarn to two before the off scrutineering only to discover we had no working offside rear sidelamp. The harder we looked, the shyer the sidelamp became and then the brake lamps became all coy and went and hid as well. Adrian Booth waved us over to his Land Rover and he produced a circuit tester like the one I’d left at home and Matt Robson joined in with his meter as well. We soon...

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 ...