Engine Punk

Good old Lee - he'd brought some overalls just in case Well, we had great plans the other day to fit a luvverly pair of specially shortened drive shafts into the rear axle of the Candidi Provocatores Allard, refit the axle and do the Testing Trial the following weekend but it didn't work out. This was the view along the good shaft and - as you can see - it's twisted along the length of the keyway and probably wouldn't transmit power for much longer We did a trial fit of the driveshafts and turning them in the diff it sounded "funny" - funny as in odd. This is the end of the broken shaft Bolting it up locked the diff and not in a good way. A lot of head scratching followed but we were heartened by the arrival of one of our buds, Lee Peck, motorsport nutcase, engineer and all round good egg. After more scrutiny, it would appear that the newly machined driveshafts are not a matched pair and that one of them has the gears machined into it at ...

Binky points out what looks like a piece of snapped steel carrot still in the hub This weekend I whizzed up to Binky Towers to help make good the damage what we done to it in the Exeter Trial, namely replace the halfshafts. People in the know have told us to replace both shafts and not just the one that's broken. The theory is that the survivor is probably structurally compromised in some way and will fail before too long when subjected to the sort of stress we'll put it under. It's far better to get a pair, although I suppose we could have the unbroken one tested somehow. The rear wheel was decidedly wonky The Allard hadn't moved since it was put away when it came home from Ilsington so we gingerly pushed it out of Rob's packed workshop into the carport where it usually lives. This has been boxed in with scaffolding until recently to fit solar panels to the roof of their house. Once the car was in our operating theatre for the day, we jacked it up and rem...

Every garage should have one - a Ridge Cannon When we snapped the offside driveshaft on the Candidi Provocatores Allard things looked bad for an entry in this year's Land's End. However, through the powers of social maxima, which is social media for larger than life characters, Lee Peck put me in touch with Brian Partridge. Brian won his class on the Exeter while Binky and I were snapping things so there was no pressue for a new bouncer/navigator. Stuart Crouch was to have obliged as animated ballast but his wife snapped her Achilles tendon and he had to pull out. Regular Engine Punk browsers may remember Stuart and Will enabling us to start at Popham when our coil packed up. I am trying to present this substitution as partly returning that huge favour. Binky, on the other hand, spent Easter at home for the first time in ages. I think Mrs Binky is okay about this. The scaffolding for the solar panels has been dismantled so he can get the Allard in its usual hom...

Let's hope the weather is this good again Team Robert won't be in the 2016 Land's End Trial because we still have to sort out the broken halfshaft. Logistically, this happened at the wrong time for The Odd Couple at Wobbly Cottage (Mr and Mrs Binky) for the Allard's usual home was barred by scaffolding and their garage is only just big enough to get the car in. I was going to go up this weekend and lend a hand now that the scaffle is gone and the carport accessible but, due me having the snots and other real world issues impinging on the sunny world of classic trials, this has been postponed until after Easter. We weren't going to be ready for the LET anyway and hadn't entered but... I will now be bouncing for Brian Partridge in his Class 8 Cannon. Brian took the Class Award on the Exeter and bouncing/shouting directions duties usually fall to our mutual friend Stuart Crouch. However, Stuart's had to drop out due to family illness and Brian and...

My neighbour calls it a little grey slug but forgets how it rushed her to a radiology appointment in Derriford, England, when her hospital car didn't show - so that would be a slug as in a bullet then Let me share a secret with you. The New Mini is not really the new Mini. The new Mini is actually the K11 Micra. The New Mini is a fashion accessory - almost one of those ultimately disposable handbag cars you get in this year's colour - and not what you could call basic transport. In the BMW Mini's defence I will admit to admiring the new Cooper S and friends who own them rave about the build quality and reliability. They are good cars and, thanks to the supercharged versions, have brought cheap blowers to the masses of special builders throughout the land, but the Mini DNA has got lost somewhere. That is probably because that mis-placed DNA ended up with those lovers of all things Mini, those Japanese fellows. And fellowettes. They even built a factory in Britain to ...

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. ...