Engine Punk

  That's not just the early morning sunshine that's so dazzling - it's the level of preparation on some people's cars. The CMR Special of Jon and Calvin Moores could be too shiny to get muddy... (not) 2025 saw a great deal of activity on the Arkley-MG but not much actual action. After a Did Not Finish on the Exeter and the Edinburgh and a Did Not Start on the Land’s End, I thought I might try a little drive in the country with Sally. The 78 th Tamar Trial, run by the Launceston & North Cornwall Motor in memory of Peter Cooper, started from Maunders Yard in Launceston on a glorious autumn morning. In recognition of this Indian summer, the L&NCMC had raised everybody’s minimum tyre pressures on almost every hill. Frinstance, the first hill, Petherwin Old Hill had a minimum tyre pressure of 18psi for us in Class 7 and a restart on a sneaky deviation but, as the start line marshal said, we didn’t have any problem getting away. Only a couple of hills had no limit ...

English by looks but rear-engined in nature (Photo : Saco) When I wrote about Little Jim in my original post , there was a conspicuous gap in the narrative. Some details about the pre-war Little Jim were known to me but the next prototype for a very small car for the Rootes group was even more mysterious. All we had to go on was a mention in the Henshaw's book about the Hillman Imp,  Apex - The inside story of the Hillman Imp. This, of course, was the eventual flowering of the small car concept developed by Rootes. In the Henshaw's book, Little Jimmy i s described as rear-engined and powered by a two-cylinder version of a Volkswagen air-cooled motor. These pictures of Little Jimmy popped up on the Auto Puzzles website in 2014 and eventually appeared via a link on the Imp Club Facebook page. What's that coming over the hill? (Photo : Grobmotorix archive) It took a while for the puzzle to pan out. By a process of elimination, the Rootes group were eventually identified and C...

  It all looks so innocent At the 1999 MCC Testing Trial, I took these photos of a Skoda convertible with a difference. These are rare cars and getting rarer but this car was unique. It was based on a VW Beetle chassis. Beetle chassis have much to recommend them and during the sensational seventies many manufacturers used them as the basis for their exotic kit cars. The Nova and Eagle spring to mind. There were many lesser known ones like the Centron and the Car with No Name . The obvious thing to do, to counterpoint all those exotic faux supercars, was to mount a convertible Skoda bodyshell on a Beetle chassis and go trialling with it. This is the Skeetle built by Dave Nash. Dave built a series of trials specials on Beetle floorpans, which used MGB and Reliant Scimitar GTE bodyshells as well as this one with a Skoda body. Beetles and Skodas have a great deal of trialling heritage so combining them in this way seemed to be an innovation that would be assured of immediate success....

In my recently acquired copy of Hot Car magazine for January 1973 I've spotted this advert for an original GP Centron. This is the one as originally conceived with the lifting canopy instead of doors by Pierre du Plessis at GP Concessionaires Ltd and just look who's selling it. Then check out the spec. There's a Porsche flat-6 engine in the back and an ominous comment about being for experienced drivers only. I interpret this as meaning that it was far too fast for its chassis. It would still have had a Beetle chassis and all the joys and disappointments that brings. Nowadays there's quite a lot of chassis tuning expertise for Beetles but back in 1973 cars like these were pioneering ways of showing the limitations of rear-engined swing-axle layouts. But the invitable question is - does this car still survive? And if it does is the paperwork straight? And if that admin hurdle can be overcome, can the latest corner better goodies be applied to it?