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
