If I’m not careful this will get labelled as the “dreckly” newsletter , the days have slipped away and I find I am rather late with my offering. There has been a small glimmer of light shining on our sport . On Sunday the 6th of September Minehead MC ran their Exmoor Clouds trial as a single venue event, the reports all congratulate Minehead on running a very good event, the videos of it showed lots of happy faces and plenty of mud, it was interesting to see cars competing without a passenger (not all), this could be the shape of things to come, although self navigating on a road trial could be interesting for those not having done it before. Camel Vale MC are planning to run their President’s Trial on the 18th of October, again as a single venue event, passengers are not required but if you do have a passenger who is not from your household you will be required to wear face masks. There is going to be a limited entry for this event so if you want to have a go get in touch with them.

Keith Johnston has given an update on plans for the MCC Exeter trial on the 8th & 9th of January 2021. As Keith says we have to accept compromises for the time being, the plan is to have three separate start venues, Tiverton starting at 19.30pm followed by Cirencester and Popham and converging on Haynes, after leaving Haynes it seems that all the sections will be attempted in the dark, with the first vehicle finishing at Crealy at 05.30 am. A little bit different to what we have been used to but it’s certainly imaginative and maybe this is how future events will run.

Our own committee had a “proper” distanced meeting on the 19th of August at Kelly house, items under discussion focused mainly on when we might be able to actually run an event, although we have a large expanse of private land available to use for running a single venue event such as the Tamar Trial the problem is that it is intersected with public footpaths which we would have great difficulty in marshalling to protect members of the public and competitors in regard to Covid 19. The whole Covid thing is changing all the time, I for one am very confused (no comments please) in what we can and can’t do, such as Yes send your children to school, average class size 25-30, fine, send them to an after school party with more than 6 attending from the

same class, not fine.??? Hopefully by the time of our next meeting there will be some clarity, or am I just being naive.

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And so over to our Club President Robin Moore

Alvis and the other lady in my life , Part 4

I think it is fair to say that the Golden Jubilee of Alvis celebrated nationally was an event that cemented many friendships in the Alvis fraternity. It was certainly a milestone in my motoring life that is indelibly printed in my memory.

This celebration of all things Alvis took place over ten days at the end of May and the first week of June 1970. It was blessed with glorious weather throughout this 2,000 mile tour of Britain. Supported by Alvis and Trust Houses, and sponsored by BP it was a grand occasion and a roaring success.

The format of the support we received will give a better picture of the event and all that was involved if I explain. The route was designed to cover all areas of membership and with the option of doing the whole run, or just joining in for the parts that came closest to where one lived. In theory every member had a chance to be involved to a greater or lesser degree. A basic route card was provided, but one was free to deviate or choose your own and visit places of interest en route as you wished. There was no time schedule, the only thing absolute was that you reached the official accommodation hotel each night in time for dinner. This was exclusively at Trust Houses where special arrangements had been made, and a courier was on hand throughout the tour. To make sure no one got lost during the day we had a couple of guys in a Speed 20 who kept their eyes on us as best they could, no mean task as there were 34 cars doing the complete tour.

The Alvis Co provided each of the participants doing the full run, with a small pack of essential and useful spares appropriate to the model entered, that would enable minor problems to be overcome and so to be able to continue. I remember my pack contained a couple of new valve springs, (inner and outer). There was no charge up front for this support and one would only pay for anything used, or return everything at the finish which was the Alvis works in Coventry.

My Grey Lady did not require anything from the pack, the only item that stopped working was on the very first day as we headed north from London, and that was the drive cable to the speedometer. I wouldn’t have bothered about that anyway, it was just annoying. BP’s sponsorship was 5 gallons of fuel each day, and a quart of oil each day should you need it. I don’t remember any oil burners on the trip, but we all made sure we could take on the fuel each morning, when after breakfast we would queue at the designated BP filling station.

RHTM to be continued.

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There was a little bit of good news at the recent ACTC meeting for drivers of Buckler and Dellow cars. There have been moves to get these cars reclassified as to which classes they run in, basically standard sidevalve type’s will now be eligible to run in class 2 with all the other oldie’s, modified cars will run in class 5 . Only the highly modified cars will need to run in class 7 or 8. This class change does throw up a curious question which I struggle to get my head around. Cars in class 2 are not allowed to run with an alternator, it has to be a dynamo. I did wonder if this was so that drivers could enjoy their lights going dim every time they took their foot off the throttle, a sort of “period” curiosity. I can see no other reason, alternators basically enable your car’s electrics to work more efficiently, surely that is a good thing, to see where you are going in the dark ? Check out the full details from the ACTC website.

On one Exeter trial I followed an Austin Seven for several miles and noticed his brake lights weren’t working, when we came to a halt I advised the driver of this malfunction, no malfunction, he advised me that when his car was built they didn’t have brake lights, he was obviously looking forward to the day when someone drove into the back of him, I didn’t share his views.

All for this month. J.T.

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Please note views expressed in this newsletter are those of the editor, not the club.