Appreciated a decent sized restart box at Felons Oak but cocked up the tarmac Special Test by not reading the instructions properly. All 4 wheels over B instead of stopping astride then stopped astride C instead of flying finish. All own to me.
Got to Barbrook to find people and cars and people everywhere and a 30 minute Q for the control (thats on foot not in the car). Good job it wasn't raining! The smart people sent someone for refreshments so they could eat while waiting. IMHO the problem was that competitors didn't obey the instruction to wait at the preceding unmanned holding control.
Shame about having to make Beggars artificial with all that tape. Do you get penalised for hitting it? Have to look in the instructions.
Delighted to clean Rodneys Revenge for the first time in years. Waited at the road for Neil who didn't come. Along comes Simon Groves to tell me Neil has broken down on the exit track. We go back to help and find a drive shaft has broken. He had a spare but it took the four of us more than an hour and a half to fit by which time it was light, the course closing car had long gone and we found the diff had locked as well.
Nearly got locked in the forest as nobody came to check the exit track was clear but I had spotted the marshals leaving on a track below and ran to tell them we were still there.
Got the car out of the forest. Called the AA who weren't bothered about the Skoda being a trials car. AA took the Skoda and gave Neil a hire vehicle and we went down to see Blue Hills and distract Dave Cook (sorry Dave)
Michael
How was your Lands End Trial?
My lands end was totally vicarious from the settee in yorkshire and I relied on your posts, Michael, to cheer me up. I'm going to sulk now that you broke down. Would you be more careful in future so that I get my updates reliably? :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't break down John. The Beetle was going like a train. It was my mates car that went pop and we decided to stay and help him. Drove the Beetle down to Blue Hills afterwards and home to Bedfordshire today. Regarding Neils car. If you insist on putting a 3.5 litre Rover V8 in a Skoda Rapide....
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this is the right place to write it but my lands end...
ReplyDeleteMy first Lands end was in 1990 and I regularly competed until my last in 2002
So after a much talking about it I decided this year should be the one, I had to either rebuild my mk1 escort or buy something else... A marlin seemed like a good idea or perhaps an MX5, but with little time I ended up with the easy (ugly) option a Suzuki X90 :(
I spend a little time prepping it, just basic stuff and kept it hidden in the garage!
Fifth gear where originally going to be using my brother (Phil) TR3A- so he had been off and bought Then spent hundreds of hours prepped a TR8!
A few weeks ago fifth gear pulled out, so my passenger (neil) ended up getting a drive of the 3
With a stand in passenger (thanks Richard and sorry Charly for him missing most of your wedding anniversary!) we where ready.
Anyway the event!
On collecting Richard I realised i should have bought an estate with the amount of food He had bought with him!
We blasted down to the start and got on with the boring bit to Bridgewater! Until the v8 had alternator issues luckily it was the closest point to home on the route so Phil popped home and replaced it but he had to miss the average speed test.
We all met up again at Bridgewater and started the trial proper :)
The first few sections where a little learning curve / getting back into the grove, the ugly box was growing on me more and more.
Cutliffe lane was great I was very impressed with ugly when we cleaned it even with a puncture at the top.
Crackington was a battle, the tyres where a little hard and we where in the early numbers so the clay was deep and sticky, the little ugly box kept going just! We where on the rev limiter for a long time could have had a conversation with spectators but we got out!!!!!!!
It all went wrong on Hoskins, we got off the restart but that was it tyres too hard :(the first fail.
Bishops wood was a disaster too the restart was very wet and looked so slippery I stopped as early as I could but we couldn't move... Red restart box looked like a walk in the park. :?
Blue hills was as awe inspiring as ever as you drive down the access route, the sections didn't disappoint either, all 3 of us damaged NS front wheels on the same rock judging by the scares
It was a great event and the ugly truck is good! still going to hide it but I will be giving it a few tweaks and use it again roll on the Exeter
Mike you have my sympathy of not competing upon all the sections but with the car still running well. We pulled out after Rodney’s with an unfit driver. I was under the weather at the start and put it down to working late on the car. It developed into a nasty bug which made driving unsafe. Ann drove the car back. The Lands End is thoroughly planed with all the sections to be fair and reasonable. Outside factors are beyond the control of the C of C. This year some of the conditions that prevailed upon the day were not by design – being as detailed as I can say. Welcome back JeepmadMike to the real world of the MCC. Sounds like you had a blast of an event but which TR performed best ?
ReplyDeleteSome great pictures on Blue Hills 2 by John Salter
ReplyDeletehttp://johnsalter.multiply.com/photos/album/69#
A great Trial , spoiled by the last section !
ReplyDeleteBlue Hills 2 must be one of the roughest , car damaging sections in the country
A section on private land , owned by the oldest Trials club .
WHY ?
It was criminal asking some of those lovely old cars [ Fraser Nashes etc]to attempt such a section
BH 2 is part and parcel of the L E trial. If you think its to rough for your car then enter in class O, sorry but I don't see the problem!
ReplyDeleteI was running number one on a bike which meant arriving at bridgewater in daylight and doing cracking ton in the dark! A real first for me.
ReplyDeleteThe diversion caught me out on beggars, a dab after jumping out of gear on the slab at bishops wood. It was very dark and foggy from daracott to widemouth but the company I was riding with made it a fantastic trial.
There was some discussion at Wilsey down about cancelling daracott- did that happen for the cars??
I think Dave parry damaged the exhaust on his Subaru just trying to get to the re start!
The square plates of clay were massive on crackington and the biscuites were nice at the exit from Hoskins.
Just some of my memories from this years lands end.
I would have said that blue hills wasnt to harsh on prewar stuff in the trial proper? Afterall vintage can usually take it much slower. It was no harsher than several sections other sections but has to many large loose rocks and holes for class 0. a pair of class 0 Morgan's That where in front of me where plaining the route between BH1&2....
ReplyDeleteAs for TR performance the 3 climber better than the 7 but the ugly zuki did better....
apparently the outfits were not allowed to attempt blue hills 2
ReplyDelete'because it was too dangerous'
I think I can make a genuine claim......to be the first modern MGF to finish the LE and the first to successfully climb BH2 amongst others. You just don't know how satisfying it feels after all the failure! As usual it was a cracking event.....although I thought it was a bit tougher than last year.
ReplyDeleteWell! My first Lands End. What a great event! Having got a bronze at the Edinburgh last year on my first trial and then failed miserably on the Exeter, clearing only about half the climbs, I was a little nervous about the Lands End and its reputation. It all started off fairly uneventfully with a straightforward run up from Plusha. The first couple of sections came and went relatively easily and then we hit the fog on Exmoor. Long delays at Barbrook meant that we needed to get a move on but after Barbrook the visibility was down to about 20 metres and, worryingly, I was sure I was on the wrong road and had about 10 other competitors following me. Luckily Simonsbath eventually appeared from the mist. Sections came and went. From the start, Rodney Revenge looked particularly intimidating, looming out of the forest above us but our Suzuki slithered to the top without a stop. Things just kept going without a hitch from there on. Stunning road past Widemouth Bay and we really enjoyed things when the rain stopped. When we reached Hoskins my partner was having a chat with the passenger in a blue green beetle who said that Hoskins was her least favourite climb. She told us to keep to the left after the restart and just keep trying. The restart flag went down and we immediately slid over to the right but I kept my foot down and after what seemed like minutes, we started to inch forward in clouds of tyre smoke. To my astonishment we inched all the way to the top. Amazing, only now the gearbox was whining like an old mini. I was just starting to get my hopes up when we got to Bishops Wood. Hopeless! We immediately slid backwards from the restart with no sign of any grip at all.
ReplyDeleteThe sight of Blue Hills was everything that people had said, intimidating to say the least. Our friends the Beaumonts in another Suzuki in front of us produced a huge cloud of smoke at Blue Hills 1 but didn't quite get to the top. They must have warmed the stones up for us as we crept over the line without too much drama. Apart from trying to drive up the bank, BH2 was just about cleaned although we nearly ran out of revs at the finish.
So, all in all, not a bad trial. The Suzuki survived and as long as we didn't mess up the special tests and got all the restarts right, we should be on for a silver. I'm quite astonished after our Exeter performance but completely hooked now. Can't wait for the next one.
Kevin Sharp
Liz, Katy & I really had a great second outing in 'our' 40 year old Pop, courtesy again of Clive Kalber who is now its loving owner. Lots of smoke then wonderful progress off the Cl 7&8 Hoskin restart! That, and launching up Crackington like we did back when I was a teenager...made up for the sore eyes en route to Simonsbath-in-the-Fog. And now seeing the provisional results, showing just 5 golds, I'm actually quite pleased with a bronze. Anyway, Clive was out filming many of us on Hoskin, and captured a masterful climb by Tris White - who I see was docked with a fail there. I'm happy to verify his clean if he wishes, and maybe there's others who have a query there?
ReplyDelete