Classical Gas

Went yesterday with Don (Stringer). After a leisurely stop off for breakfast at Willoughby we arrived around 10.30 to find the place was already heaving. Lots more people around than the last two years I have been. Almost immediately we bumped into David Alderson who was in charge of the Motorcycle Hall where the MCC had a stand. No video this year which was a shame. As interesting as the bikes and the Morgan on the stand were they are not what the club is selling, its the events. Successful Exhibition stands are all about Light, Movement and Sound, always have been always will be!



Don Stringer talking to David Alderson who was in charge of the Motorcycle Hall

Moving into the car halls there was something for everyone. However therewere an awful lot of new and newish vehicles. IMHO nothing should be allowed thats less than 20 years old!

Neil's "C" was looking good on the Y&C stand where I had an interesting chat about capacitors. Following the advice I picked up a couple of DCB 101C types. Will try those and see if they last more than a few hundred miles.



There was a Mk 5 Dellow on the Ford Sidevalve Owners Club stand

There was plenty of other stuff to see and a reasonable autojumble to browse so we didn't leave until gone 4, to join the huge traffic jams around Coventry as plod had closed the M6, making what should have been an hour and a bit journey back to Bedford last three and a half hours.

Click Here for more pictures

Michael and Mike in LOC 827 tackle Wigber Low in this picture by Don Stringer.

Click Here for more of Don's Edinburgh Pictures

A firm fixture on the Classical Gas calendar and all the better now the Mechanics Trial has been moved so the two don't clash.

Getting close we wondered if it was on as the roads were remakably free of VW's. No worries though as the place was heaving inside and there were plenty of stalls with all sorts of stuff, new and old. Hertz VW club had decided not to have a stand but most of the other usual suspects were present. They included Jim Calvert of Stateside tuning who along with Robert Clough was responsible for the engine in OOY.

Lots of interesting cars outside. Not many Beetles anymore but lots of Type 2's.


Picture to follow

Notes from the organisers
Results

Pictures by Barry Walker

It was a really wet one. It started raining just before we left Chaos manor, just after 8am and the heavens remained open until lunchtime.

I was looking forward to the last event of LOC 827's little season (Aviva Classic - Class 0 Edinburgh - Guy Fawkes). After this attention will shift to the Beetle from the Exeter to the Lands End.

Since the Lands End the radiator had been refurbished and this proved successful. The car seemed fine and off we went in the rain.

Keith Pettit and Peter Manning had laid out seven sections on the long Kensworth grassy bank. They were not too bad in the morning, while the grass remained, but became harder in the afternoon when the grass had gone, even though the rain had stopped.

LOC 827 went fine for the first round but developed a fit of the sulks with three sections to go before lunch. First it ran out of battery and had to be bump started, then it wouldn't run properly. At lunch we took it out on the road for a quick run to recharge the battery (No alternator remember, we are running a Dynamo). It wouldn't pull properly. We thought about having a run for home but decided to return to the paddock and having a look at it.

The points were OK, they hadn't closed up. So we changed the condenser, and for good measure the plugs, both of which involved removing the distributor. This seemed to do the trick and all went well during the afternoon.

We stayed on for the results and were tickled pink to win "best Falcon", which was presumably awarded on Index. We will see when the results come out. Howard Blackwell won our class in his Suzuki XC90 and Mike Pearson won overall.

Now to clean off the mud, get the carbs sorted (it runs far too rich) and get it an MOT before putting it away till next spring.

Attention will shift to preparing the Beetle for its trials season and hopefully getting the A7 running. However there are some jobs to do on LOC 827.

• Dynamo Mounting
• Condenser issue. Look at Electronic Ignition?
  
• Sort the parking brake so the handle doesn't stick in my knee.
• Change from +ve to -ve earth?

Dry Conditions meant plenty of medals

A comparatively easy route, and dry weather, meant the competitors won this years battle against the club, with a lot of happy MCC members winning a medal on the trial and 14 the coveted triple. The organisers had a lot of problems gaining permission to use sections and favourites like Litton Slack and Great Hucklow were omitted. Of the sections that remained Putwell and Bamford were considered much rougher than usual.

It was nice and dry without much wind when competitors gathered for the start at Tamworth Services, those arriving to early getting a nice surprise a few weeks after the event when they got a parking ticket for staying too long! These didn’t include Peter Mountain or Don Stringer as neither were able to take the start.

The run in to the first section at Wigber Low was over good roads. The MCC had made the holding control a time control as well. With the prospect of penalties for early arrival lay-bys and driveways were full of competitors whiling away time, which in the event may have been more disruptive to the local community than an orderly queue on the deserted country road where the holding control was situated! Ross Nuten was one of those parked up with his Dellow Mk2, not waiting but broken down with electrical problems. At the time Ross thought it was a  capacitor issue, but after a re occurrence on a Falcons Brickhill Trial the following week, it appears the inside of the Aldon distributor had come apart.

Wigber Low didn’t present any problems to the main trial and failed only a couple of bikes in Class 0, including John Turner on his Lambretta Li 150. With such an unsuitable machine John deserved a special medal for finishing the route, despite being rather intimidated by the omni-present course closing car for most of the trial.

Having passed Haven Hill on the way to the first section the route went in a circle before retuning to this rather rutted track across a field before venturing into a small wood. Here competitors on the main trial did a restart and diverted off to the left, round a taped off chicane. This was controversial as it wasn’t mentioned in the routecard and in the end those who wrong routed were credited with a clean, including Bill Moffatt in his Reliant Scimitar who would have lost his Triple had the section stood.

Class 0 bypassed Clough Wood, where car competitors had their usual long wait for the bikes to clear, this section always causing them problems. It didn’t pose to much difficulty for the  four wheeled brigade, Nick Farmer in his Cannon Alfa being a notable exception. The engine kept dying despite Nick changing most of the ignition and cleaning out the fuel system. After the event Nick discovered the problem was the ignition switch.

Then it was North up the A6 to the quarry complex where Class 0 had their own nice little section at Deep Rake with a restart before joining the main trial for the Deep Rake Special Test and the Black Harry section where they were didn’t have to do the restart. These sections were quite exposed. A cold wind had whipped up which wasn’t so great for the marshals. These sections didn’t trouble the scorer to much apart for poor Reg Taylor who was penalised for hitting a marker on Deep Rake.

While Class 0 went off for their breakfast at Bull I’th Thorn competitors in the main trial went to Putwell, considered by many to be the roughest hill on the trial. Robin Barlow would certainly agree after breaking the diff on his Dellow Mk2, running in Class 8 because of its OHIV cylinder head. Despite being so rough there were were few failures but it did claim the scalps of Kevin Barnes in his Liege and Beetle mounted John Looker. Michael Weeks punctured in his Midget but still cleaned the section, going on to win a Triple in his first MCC season.

Class 0 went directly to Calton after the break, missing out the main trials 25 mile loop as they visited the sections at Bamford Clough and Elmore. David Alderson was Chief Official at Bamford and reckoned it was a lot rougher than when he last drove it a few years ago. Competitors in low powered cars who eased off over the bumps payed the price when they  didn’y have the power to re-build their momentum. Classes Seven and Eight had a restart. It proved to much for Nick Farmers Cannon Alfa which was still not running properly and Paul Bartleman was another Class 8 driver who lost his gold here. In Class Seven the restart wasn’t Liege friendly Julian Lack, Mark Endley, Kevin Barnes and Steve Kenny al being penalised. Arthur Jones was clean in his larger engined car running in Class Eight and Colin Marshal proved it could be done with a Reliant engine in Class Seven. Myke Pocock had a drive shaft pop out but fortunately had a spare and was able to change it back down in the village. The good news was that the engine is finally running well.

After Bamford the main trial headed south to join class 0 at Calton. There was a section called Elmore on the way, located on the rough track between Brough and Abney, heading over the top of Bradwell Edge, bypassing the usual run through Bradwell itself. Everyone had a restart on the section, which competitors reckoned was another rough one. It certainly wasn’t very friendly too Stuart Harrold and Chris Phillips. The rocks proved to much for one of the balljoints on the front section which popped out, disabling their Troll as they exited the section. Not to be thwarted they, like Fred Gregory on Putwell a few years ago, found the missing nut and were able to continue to gain a gold.

Down at Calton Classes 0 and 1 didn’t have to restart but the others did. This wasn’t very Falcon friendly and both John Parsons (VW Buggy) and Peter Thompson (Opel Kadett) were given fails. John’s Buggy sports a type 4 engine, a smart paint job and a different number. However, it is the well trialled machine, campaigned by Graham Marshall before he switched to the RDT and David Thompson before he purchased his Troll from David Alderson.

Stephen Kingstone had been clean up till now in his Midget. He was also to fail on Calton and was given a run back on the restart at the Excelsior section where everyone except Class 0 had to stop and get going on the polished stones between the ninety right and nighty left, their efforts captured by John Salters lens. The dry conditions made the section easier than some years but it still claimed Myke Pocock in his Skoda and the Suzuki X90’s of Howard Blackwell, Marvin Hurst and Peter Grenyer. Brian Alexander proved it was possible to get away in a heavy XC90 but unfortunately he had failed the previous section at Rakes Head.

There was nice bit of green laning between Excelsior and Moneystones, so the route could bypass the village of Hartington. Unfortunately there was some confusion between the route marking and the route card. Some of the early numbers followed the routecard before getting lost, going back and following the marking which was correct.

Moneystones was similar to last year. Everyone had a restart in one the Edinburgh's tiny boxes. Class 0 had a straight run up the track but like Haven Hill the main trial had a diversion that wan’t mentioned in the route card. Unlike Haven Hill this stood in the results, costing Stuart Roach his triple, as Stuart was shown as stopping in his Austin Seven.

The same sort of layout was used just across the A515 at Middleton Steep. This was the last section for Classes 1 to 6 who didn’t have a section at Dudwood, only driving the special test there.

There was a lot going on at Dudwood, centered on a farm. Class 0 had their own section. The lower part, on a surfaced track, wasn’t too problematical but as it went into the trees there was a restart, followed by some ruts which provided ground clearance issues for some of the lower slung cars. Jonathan Laver was just able to ease his wheels past the sections end board to gain a coveted Trio award in his MGB GT.

The other Dudwood section was for 7 and 8 and proved a sting in the tail. There was a restart and all the Lieges remaining in the trial failed. It did require a bit of power and there were trees to catch the unwary, as Nick Woolett found when he hit one, damaging a front wing and loosing his gold.

The Dudwood Special Test was the last competitive section. It was fortunate the weather was dry as there was a soft bank to surmount towards the end. As it was there were a few failures including Paul Allaway who lost a gold in his Astra and Barry Clarke who according to the results didn’t!

It was still blowing a gale back at the Bull I’th Thorn finish, not encouraging competitors to stay and chat unless they could find some room in one of the crowded bars. The day finished with club supper in Buxton. This wasn’t very well supported, and with no “words from the management”, provided an anti-climax to what had otherwise been an enjoyable event. It was disappointing not to drive some of the usual sections. However, it was still an interesting route although the very dry conditions didn’t give the sections the bite the organisers would have wished for.

One of the most respected men in the game "Shep" was famous for standing on one leg when the score was 111 or a multiple thereof.

Click Here for Sheps obituary in The Telegraph

Click here for BBC Tribute

Dry Conditions meant plenty of medals

A comparatively easy route and dry weather meant the competitors won this years battle against the club, with a lot of happy competitors winning a medal on the trial and 14 the coveted triple. The organisers had a lot of problems gaining permission to use sections and favourites like Litton Slack and Great Hucklow were omitted. Of the sections that remained Putwell and Bamford were considered much rougher than usual.

It was nice and dry without much wind when competitors gathered for the start at Tamworth Services, those arriving to early getting a nice surprise a few weeks after the event when they got a parking ticket for staying to long! These didn’t include Peter Mountain or Don Stringer as neither were able to take the start.

The run in to the first section at Wigber Low was over good roads. The MCC had made the holding control a time control as well. With the prospect of penalties for early arrival lay-bys and driveways were full of competitors whiling away time, which in the event may have been more disruptive to the local community than an orderly queue on the deserted country road where the holding control was situated! Ross Nuten was one of those parked up with his Dellow Mk2, not waiting but broken down with electrical problems. At the time Ross thought it was a  capacitor issue, but after a reoccurrence on a Falcons Brickhill Trial the following week, it appears the inside of the Aldon distributor had come apart.

Wigber Low didn’t present any problems to the main trial and failed only a couple of bikes in Class 0, including John Turner on his Lambretta Li 150. With such an unsuitable machine John deserved a special medal for finishing the route, despite being rather intimidated by the omni-present course closing car for most of the trial.

Having passed Haven Hill on the way to the first section the route went in a circle before retuning to this rather rutted track across a field before venturing into a small wood. Here competitors on the main trial did a restart and diverted off to the left round a taped off chicane. This was controversial as it wasn’t mentioned in the routecard and in the end those who wrong routed were credited with a clean, including Bill Moffatt in his Reliant Scimitar who would have lost his Triple had the section stood.

Class 0 bypassed Clough Wood, where car competitors had their usual long wait for the bikes to clear, this section always causing them problems. It didn’t pose to much difficulty for the  four wheeled brigade, Nick Farmer in his Cannon Alfa being a notable exception. The engine kept dying despite Nick changing most of the ignition and cleaning out the fuel system. After the event Nick discovered the problem was the ignition switch.

Then it was North up the A6 to the quarry complex where Class 0 had their own nice little section at Deep Rake with a restart before joining the main trial for the Deep Rake Special Test and the Black Harry section where they were didn’t have to do the restart. These sections were quite exposed. A cold wind had whipped up which wasn’t so great for the marshals. These sections didn’t trouble the scorer to much apart for poor Reg Taylor who was penalised for hitting a marker on Deep Rake.

While Class 0 went off for their breakfast at Bull I’th Thorn competitors in the main trial went to Putwell, considered by many to be the roughest hill on the trial. Robin Barlow would certainly agree after breaking the diff on his Dellow Mk2, running in Class 8 because of its OHIV cylinder head.

More coming............

Saw this advertised while browsing the net and at £10 to get, or £9 for us seniors, decided to go along. After a leisurely breakfast at Nettys Cafe Willoughby on the way we arrived to find a two hundred yard queue snaking around the car park as there were only two people taking money on the door. Fortunately it moved pretty quickly and we were inside after about fifteen minutes.

The Queue to get in snaked around the car park

Once inside we found it was quite a big show. Filling the two big inside halls, plus the outside hall and part of the cattle shed! Lots of interesting stuff to see. A lot of clubs had stands, including the Ford Sidevalve Owners and The Ford Y & C Register, both of which I am a member. Two of the Geoff's were manning the Y & C stand and we reminisced about the Tour of Holland when we fist met them.

The Buckler Register had a stand and had a chassis which had been discovered which it was claimed had never been built into a car. Lots of pictures of the cars in use including quite a few trials ones and I recognised Stan Hibberts car which I once towed from the hard shoulder of the M3 down to the comparative safety of the A303

Apparently this Buckler chassis has never been built into a car

Lots of stands in the Autojumble, lots more than Race Retro or Enfield that we usually go to. Actually bought a few things, including a Starrett 1 to 2 inch Mic to go with the Starrett 0 to 1 than I bought in 1963 when I was an apprentice.

All in all a good do and we will go next year.

This was a big event for me. My first MCC long distance event in an open car, my pretty much original 1951 Mk1 Dellow LOC827.

I bought the car from Richard Shirley about a year ago and had a nice autumn driving it around locally and competing on Falcons local Guy Fawkes Trial. This started my acclimatisation to the world of side valve engines, three speed gearboxes, vague steering and mechanical brakes. It went reasonably well apart from having to regularly pour vast quantities of oil into the engine. Getting my new building finished, trialling the Beetle and acquiring a Ford Model Y meant I didn’t get this sorted until the following September. Taking the car on the Aviva Classic (nice event, shame about the insurance) I discovered the little drip from the radiator when I bought the car had turned into a torrent. On with the epoxy radiator sealer. That held it for a while but a test run bought the leak back when everything got hot and expanded. No matter, lots of water and some Radweld in the spares bag in case it got worse and we were off.

I had also fitted a refurbished water pump from Small Ford Spares since the MSA Classic as that had been leaking as well.

It was clear and bright when we set off from Chaos Manor just before 2 am. It was a straightforward run up the A5, with a pause at Hinckley to top up the radiator with about a pint of water. Arriving at the start we enjoyed confusing scruitineer John Blakeley with a different car and soon it was 5.25 and we were off into the night.

Our rate of progress to the first section was rather slower than some of the racers behind us and we were overtaken by at least half a dozen cars before we approached Wigber low where we waited for 15 minutes just before the holding control to avoid booking in early. We let the rear tyres down to 12 psi for the section and left them at that for most of the trial. How nice not to pump up at the top of each hill.

A few words with Chief Official John Wilton at the bottom and we were off. I needn't have worried, the Dellow coped magnificently and we were soon past Don Stringer, who was taking pictures as he hadn’t been able to get his Austin Seven ready in time, but didn’t recognise Graham Austin who was marshalling at the top.

The next section, Haven Hill, was only a few miles away, in fact we had passed it on the way to Wigber Low! Unlike Wigber Low we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be a deeply rutted track which caused problems for some of the low slung racers who had zoomed past us on the run-in. No problems for us as we had a straightforward climb. It was more of a problem for the main trial who had to divert off the track with a restart. This was clearly marked when you got there, but caused some confusion amongst competitors and the MCC scrubbed it from the results.

We saw Richard Andrews stopped at the top of the section, pouring Radweld into his Dellows radiator, which was leaking from the same seam as our! We were still resisting the temptation as I had read what was in the stuff and I was concerned that the leaking rad might become even more blocked than it was already, as I judged at least half the waterways were blocked from what I could see with a torch.

There was a bit of a road run to the quarry sections where Deep Rake, a Special test and Black Harry were situated. Deep Rake was a nice little section, with a restart, for Class0 only. No problems but we paused afterwards to let the car cool down and add more water. The poor old Dellow was pretty hot by now, with the temperature gauge just under 100 degrees. That radiator was going too the man on Monday morning!

It was mid morning by now and as came the daylight so came the wind, which was very strong and very cold. The drive to the breakfast halt at the Bull I’th Thorn will be remembered by the difficulty in stopping the car getting blown off the road and the wind blowing my hat away. The latter problem was solved with a change to a flying helmet with a chin strap!

We didn’t check the water at Bull I’th Thorn as the wind was so strong we were concerned the wind would blow the bonnet away! A check at a sheltered spot down the road revealed the rate of loss hadn’t increased and we started to think that we might get the car round the route and drive it home again!

There was no Litton Slack on the agenda but we did get to drive down the approach track and wonder how many trilas cars had gone missing down the ravine on the left!

Calton stopped quite a few Class 0’s who presumably had ground clearance issues. We were fine here, and also at Excelsior where we sailed up as we didn’t have a restart on the dreaded polished stones. By now Class 0 was running towards the front of the field, having missed out several loops, including the long one up to Bamford Clough. However, many of us lost time as we there was a perceived conflict between the route card and the route marking on the way to Moneystones. Like many others we followed the route card and got lost before retracing our steps to follow the route marking which put as right again.

Although we didn’t have to do the deviation at Moneystones we did have a restart, one of those ridiculous short boxes on polished stones. Being clean so far we decided to take no chances and let the tyres down to 9 psi. This was probably a mistake as the car stuck like a limpet and we had to slip the clutch like mad to get away.

We failed the next section at Middleton Steep. Class 0 had an easy route but still a restart. For some unknown reason I put the car in neutral while waiting for the flag and snicked it into 3rd rather than 1st to pull away. I realised what I had done immediately I tried to let the the clutch out, put it into first and pulled away easily. The car hadn’t rolled back and Mike was certain we hadn’t failed. I wasn’t so sure that marshals viewed it that way. When the results came we had ORL against our name. I am assuming that was why we given a fail although possibly they considered we hadn’t stopped inside their very short box.

We cleaned the Class 0 section at Dudwood, which with our ground clearance wasn’t to bad although it was an issue for some of the lower slung cars. Then it was back to Bull I’th Thorn to sign off and a rest at the hotel in Buxton before the MCC supper which was disappointing as it lacked the atmosphere always generated at the Trecarn. It wasn’t that well attended and if the MCC hierarchy were present they were, with a notable exception, adopting a low profile with no speeches etc.

We drove home the next day. I was chuffed to bits to get the car round and home. My first big adventure with such an old car.

 

TO BE CLEANED UP & PICTUES ADDED