This article was first published in Issue 152 of Triple, the Official Journal of the Motor Cycling Club. “Why is an event that takes place entirely in the Peak District called The Edinburgh?” is one of the first questions asked by many newcomers to the sport of classic trials. Most MCC members will be vaguely…
Author: AndrewKB
The First MGs in MCC Trials
When I read that FC 7900, the Morris Cowley Special often referred to as “Old Number One”, would be making an appearance at Bluehills Mine during the 2025 Land’s End Trial, I thought it was time to revisit some of the facts and myths surrounding the very earliest MGs and their participation in MCC Trials….
Trials Trivia #8 – The Brighton to Beer Trial
This is something of a mea culpa post. I have referred, a number of times, to the Brighton-Beer (as it became known in its later years) as famously not starting in Brighton (Sussex) nor finishing in Beer (Devon) and, although this may have been true during the trial’s heyday of the 1930s, it was not…
Where is it? – #7
The car in the photo is the famous (at the time) Morris Special owned PreWar by C S L Burleigh and PostWar by Ashley Cleave. Burleigh seems to have used the car primarily for the MCC Land’s End Trials of 1937 to 1939, but Ashley Cleave was a regular competitor in many of the major…
Trials Trivia #7 – Vale Street
Those of you who were at the ACTC Dinner on 16th March, and were lucky enough to have been watching the video at the appropriate time, may have spotted an essential item of trials trivia, probably without even knowing what it was or why it was significant. The short clip showed at least one car…
Trials Trivia #6 – Higher Rill
This is, I’m afraid, one for the real historic trials sections nerds. Back in May 2022, Jonathan Toulmin and I were trying to confirm the location of a photograph, taken on the 1939 Exeter Trial, of his father, Maurice Toulmin, in the Cream Cracker MG TA Reg.No. BBL 78. It was noted as Higher Rill…
Trials Events Database updated
I have just published an updated printout on the Trials Events Database page.
Troll T6 magazine article added
I have just added an article from Kit Car International magazine for June 1993 to the Troll T6 page (scroll down the page to see the download link). Thanks to John Hammill for the scanned pages.
Troll T6 Register re-published
I have just re-published the Troll T6 Register on the Troll T6 page (scroll down the page to see the download link). This is, I’m pretty certain, the most comprehensive public listing of all 18 completed Trolls and their history, plus information about two further Troll chassis and the six Troll chassis fabricated by Arch…
The Wharton Special
Ken Wharton was not the first competitor to drop an 1172cc Ford sidevalve engine onto an Austin Seven chassis as the basis for a trials special, but he was certainly the first to make the combination really work. He won a number of events in 1947, and then had an incredibly successful year in 1948…