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Fun at Goodwood, Malpas, and the Cheshire tractor ploughing competition[Back to the News & Diary page]Revival Meeting 2006After a year's break from attending this great event, it was time once again to don 1950s clothing and attend the Goodwood Revival meeting. The cloth cap was dusted, the period BOAC shoulder bag dug out from the bottom of a cupboard, and correct overalls shaken to remove any hibernating spiders. Yes, time again to dress in 50s style and blend in with the crowd at Goodwood for another 3 days.We'd left it a little late to book into a B&B locally (easier said than done given the popularity of the Revival), so this time went down with dad's caravan in tow, deciding to camp in a site not too far from the circuit. I don't think we were the only Goodwood-ites camping at this site either, throughout the weekend various classic motors were spotted, outside either a tent or caravan. I remember seeing a TR3, a bright yellow XK150, a Sunbeam Talbot 80 or 90, and a Scimitar.
Anyway (minor rant over!), at least the action on track was enjoyable. There are some great vantage points around the Goodwood track, especially down near St Mary's and Fordwater. It was while strolling along this section that we saw the violent demise of a lightweight E-Type Jaguar, impaling itself into the tyre wall before spinning back on to the circuit, dismembered chunks of bodywork and wheels being tossed in many directions. This heavy shunt caused the session to be red flagged, and the driver was taken away for tests (fortunately he is ok). It took a while for things to start up again, mainly because repairing the tyre wall took some work by the marshalls. A repair crew turned up on the scene, driving an Austin Gipsy and a Thames 400e pickup, with all the required gear to get the wall rebuilt. It was then time to trawl around the paddock areas and photograph the interesting competition cars. I had been told by someone at Goodwood that the old Alfa that my Dodge once carried would be there, but someone had been given duff information as it was no-where to be seen, and wasn't listed as an entrant in the race card. Ho hum. Still, there were plenty of other lovely cars to ogle over in the various paddocks. Over the weekend the Supermarine Spitfire was celebrated (Goodwood was originally an RAF base during WW2) with flypasts by no less than 8 variants of R.J. Mitchell's classic design. Commentary on the Friday was given by Raymond Baxter, who was not in the best of health and sadly passed away shortly after the event. A full review of the Goodwood Revival for 2006 can be found here.  Malpas Steam Rally
'Er indoors is also very keen on old lorries (no idea how she got in to them!!) and there were some lovely restored lorries on show - my favourite was probably a smart REO coach, whereas 'er indoors seemed to take a fancy to a desert sand colour Bedford QL. The display of military vehicles was great too, the most fun probably being had by the driver of the hefty tank that took to the display area during the day. The roar of the Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 was something to behold (the engine is basically an un-supercharged version of the Merlin aero engine). Cheshire Ploughing Competition My birthday fell during the week this year, and handily coincided with a ploughing competition over near Smallwood. So we pottered over there and had a look to see what was going on. Each competitor gets an allocated section on the rally field, and has to do the best job of ploughing that they can. I'd not been to a ploughing comp before, and we were amazed at how seriously everyone took it. Tape measures were much in evidence, as were the judges, clipboards in hand, assessing the competitors' efforts. Points would be lost for wavy furrows, and clumps of grass on top of a furrow would be frowned upon so the drivers would often be seen hopping off their tractors, and manually fettling up any row that didn't look just right. All good fun, and plenty of classic tractors in evidence such as David Browns, Fergusons, Fords and even some horse-drawn ploughs to complete the scene. All in all an enjoyable few hours. There was also a large area for stalls and displays, but perhaps unsurprisingly they were mostly trade stalls, for modern farming equipment, tractors and so on, so wasn't really of interest to us.  Austin K2 breakdown lorry
This particular Austin had been with its original owner from new. Originally it had been fitted with a wooden dropside body, and then with a hefty manual winch for car recovery duties. In later years, following the owner's retirement from the garage business, the K2 had sat under a tree outside his house. Fortunately he'd taken the precaution of liberally painting old oil all over the bodywork, which had done a great job in preserving the steel cab and wings. The new owners plan to preserve this great old lorry 'as is', re-commissioning it as necessary but not stripping it down and ruining the patina, which is what often happens to old lorries. The Austin 10/4 now runs I spent a fair bit of time in September attending to my recently purchased 10/4 Cabriolet. First thing I did was drain off the ancient fuel that was still sat in the tank. Judging by the smell, it had been in there a long time, and the old girl would never have started on it. The fuel pump was also stripped and freed up, as was the carb float chamber. With a 6v battery connected up, the starter still worked amazingly. There was no spark, so I whipped the points off, cleaned them, and re-fitted them. I've not done much with pre-war cars before, so was surprised at the different layout of ignition points that Austins of this era use. I also made up a new set of ignition leads, re-using the original KLG plug caps that were still in good order.
The shopping list so far is: some 4.50x18 tyres with tubes (one exploded in the garage and made a helluva bang), replacement radiator cap (original is broken) and generally research sources for parts. The rad will need attention, and hopefully we'll pull the gearbox off and see whats not going on in the bellhousing/clutch area. A40 Devon MOT September also saw my '49 Devon pass its MOT. I'd already had a good look over and under it, so was fairly confident of a pass - but there's always the niggling doubt in the back of your mind, that you've forgotten something! it'd been greased recently, so all I did was check lights, brakes and so on, then booked it into the local garage. The weather was lousy and normally I'd not take the Devon out in heavy rain, but this time I had no choice. The car went fine, and I was pleased to get a straight pass, so thats another 12 months of legal motoring ahead (barring disasters!).  |
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