Engine Punk

In their gleaming red barchetta (apologies to Rush fans) George Osborn and Celia Walton wait in the queue for Tillerton Steep. In floods that were at times of biblical properotions, I renewed ,my acquaintance with the Reliant Riatopless of George Osborn (Monster Raving Looney Party) and Celia Walton (madam editor of Triple, the magazine of the Motor Cycling Club). After a brief and highly successful flirtation with a Proton Satria Sport, George went back to his highly modified Reliant for the 2015 Edinburgh. However, he managed to buckle the front suspension arm on that event and came home thinking on how to improve his chances. He fitted a 13 inch front wheel and made a new front suspension arm. A new much stronger suspension arm was called for after 2015 Edinburgh Trial When we saw him at the foot of Tillerton Steep, he was quite pleased with his modifications and it looks like the Rialtopless has gained a new lease of life. It still has the standard 848cc Reliant powe...

So as I headed west, warm and snug in a Hyundai 4x4, Binky (Mr Robert Robinson-Collins to you) settled down to wait in the rain with our wounded steed, the Candidi Provocatores Allard. Five minutes after we'd split up, the AA recovery truck arrived and the old J1 was quickly loaded up and strapped down for the journey home to Andover. The driver folded up his mirrors for the narrow lanes down to the main road to Bovey Tracy and chatted to Binky about our recent derring do. Then when he got onto the wider road he folded his mirrors back out and lo! One of the straps on the car was loose. When they stopped to re-tighten them, the Allard did not look its normal self. There was a distinct lack of offside rear wheel. Fortunately, a very nice man in a Mercedes pulled up as they were staring at the exposed brake back plate and asked, "Is this yours?" In the back of the car was the missing wheel and tyre, complete with brake drum and recently sheared driveshaft. ...

We had poor visibility most of the way After the wettest December on record, the going was going to be muddy for the 2016 Exeter Trial and as I headed east from Kernowfornia I could see great swathes of earth had been carved out by the water from the newly ploughed fields and dumped in ditches and roads and other vestiges of human infrastructure. This year starters from Popham were the first off and, running as No.109, your brave boys found themselves only 6 cars away from the front of the pack. Having been at the tail end of classic trials for a few years we were interested to see what the conditions would be like, especially on Simms, which seemed to get polished and sweaty as the day draws on. Although not cold with our cast iron cabin heater ahead of us, we got very wet even on the drive from Popham. I had given some thought to having a zip sewn into my trousers and jackets but I hadn't actually done anything about it. I was quickly reminded how my Hein Gericke jacket w...

It probably won't be as sunny as it was on the 2015 LET I am just getting into the Christmas spirit. It's a time of year when you can connect with perfect strangers by simply wishing them a Merry Christmas. And then it'll be Happy New Year, which has always struck me as an odd cause for celebration as there's nothing to stop you celebrating the time at any point in the year (old or new). It's still a good excuse for a party. But then there's the Exeter Trial. I SAID AND THEN THERE'S THE EXETER TRIAL! Sorry - I'm getting  a bit shouty becasue the Candidi Provocatores are in the 2016 Exeter Trial and starters from Popham Airfield are not bringing up the rear this year - we're running towards the front of the pack for cars at Number 109 so your brave boys Binky and Ginger will be pretending we're flying a Messerschmidt. It'll be interesting to see if the sections are easier or more difficult than they were running as tail-end-Charlie...

The Raven 4WD in action I was strolling nonchalantly round the paddock at Wiscombe the other day... No that's not right. Let's start again. I was running round the paddock at Wiscombe in an over-stimulated state of febrile excitement caused by all the amazing rolling sculpture when something stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a Hillman Imp gearbox. Not only that, it was upside down and attached to some wheels. This could mean only one thing - it must be in some sort of mid-engine device. As my senses struggled to take in what they were seeing, I realised it was connected to no Hillman Imp engine This was no Vixen ! Instead, there was a crossflow Ford running twin 40s. Then things started to get really weird. There was an extra alloy case on the back of the imp box that ran to the nearside and sprouted a shaft that ran forward. My mate Pete Low was quicker on the uptake than I was. "It's got four wheel drive," he said. "Look, it says so on...

Our nighbour in the camping area this year was the supercharged Rawson Riley As usual I went to the VSCC hillclimb at Wiscome Park this year. I met up with my old mate Pete Low (he who constructed the Super Vee ) and we made a weekend of it. The weather was wet but still better than last year when there were rumours of the meeting being cancelled - although nobody really took these seriously. Besides the cool, dense air enhances power and the track soon dried out. In fact I even manged to get surnburnt on the Saturday. Slippy slider in the wetty gripper as Mr Stanley Unwin might say As usual, the paddock was bursting with interesting stuff on 2,3 and 4 wheels. The sun shines on Miss Bacfire I could stand and stare at the constructional details of Formula 3 500s all day, it seems. It's always good to see RIP An old favourite is RIP or the RIP special. Described nowadays as a four wheeled Morgan, it's going better than ever and Charlie Martin's derrin...

Vote for me! Thanks everyone for your messages of congratulation on my re-election as MP for Harrow East. I will admit to being a little surprised but am encouraged to think that I’ve been doing something right recently – although, on reflection perhaps I should say, instead of "right", the ethically proper thing to do. However, I am saddened to see my views so mis-represented in the press, the TV and other anti-social media. My views on gay marriage have been completely mis-represented . Let’s be quite clear – I am in favour of it. As a heterosexual man, I see marriage in the cultural and historically British sense as being a field of open and underhand conflict in which one spouse stops the other from doing the things they like. See how marriage is depicted in the media, the language on the street and moaned about in the workplace. Let’s face it – marriage needs reforming. Two people, who genuinely harbour affection for each other, should enable and support t...