THE LONDON-EDINBURGH RUN

THE LONDON EDINBURGH RUN

139 CARS IN M.C.C. ANNUAL TRIAL —PARK RASH CHIEF OBSTACLE

ALL the M.C.C. runs necessitate travelling a long way before there is much of interest in the way of hills, but to many drivers the long preliminary run through the night is all part of the fun, and it certainly gives a chance to those who have not had time for very full preparation to do odd jobs on the cars, and so be more prepared for the obstacles when they arrive.

Also, the early part of this year’s Edinburgh was rendered rather less tedious than usual by reason of being run at 26 m.p.h. average, which, although hardly quick for the Great North Road, was better than the 20 m.p.h. of early events. The cars, for the first time in the history of this event, headed the procession, and 139 of them left Barnet for the North at 9 p.m. on the Friday evening.

The course followed the Great North Road to Wetherby, where it turned west to Harrogate, and breakfast was served at the Granby Hotel, the first man leaving here again at 5.30 a.m., and the first observed hill, Middle Tongue. Owing to the water splash at the foot, the early cars

carried a good deal of water up the hill, making it less pleasant for the later cars in the manner of Hustyn in the Lands End of last year. However, the results were not serious, and those who treated the right hand bend with care and respect found little difficulty, and failures were chiefly due to trying to be clever. From here the course led over hilly and winding roads to Kettlewell, where the notorious Park Rash had to be

attacked. This bill, which consists of a very steep straight ascent, followed by a left and right acute S-bend, was in very loose condition, and failures were numerous. Following the corners, the hill continued over a grassy section, which was not improved by efforts on the part of the natives to direct the natural course of a stream over it, with the result that many cars got bogged near the top.

The hill was, however, in perfectly fair condition • for a suitable car properly handled, and the performances of the entry on this hill gave an excellent idea of the various competitors’ ability, in that it combined the worst features of a trials hill, namely, deep, loose going, sharp bends, and (higher up) slippery surface.

The main trouble seemed to occur on the first steep slope, which, owing to the depth of the loose stones, as well as the gradient, caused a large number of failures with complete lack of power. On being pushed as far as the corners, however, most of the failures contrived to keep going on their own. The early cars were mainly good, Patrick’s Hornet and C. M. DavislAustin Seven being particularly noticeable. Bear and Giles, on 2,300 c.c. Bugattis, were very fast in

deed. Failures then became more numerous. Heard’s 3-litre Bentley failing low down with wheelspin, aggravated by terrific wheel bounce, which a tighter setting of his shock absorbers might have eliminated. Major Douglas Morris (Wolseley Hornet) had to be pushed round the first bend before he could get going again. Then followed a series of excellent climbs by Powis-Lybbe (Alvis), Bickford (Lancia-Lambda), though his small tyres caused much wheelspin, H. C. Hunter (Riley), J. Torrome (Standard-Avon) and P. Lees (Frazer-Nash), whose was quite the fastest climb so far recorded. This

„. make shone above any, not only because of the excellent climbs made, but because they all performed well. They played with the hill, Roberts, Wright, Cadbury, Jones, and Appleby, to mention but a few drivers of the marque, being excellent. A climb deserving special mention for its Speed. irrespective Of size, was R. A. Brown in a sports Austin Seven, who evidently mistook the corners for their counterparts on Shelsley Walsh !

Smeaton’s H. E. and Gamble’s AngusSanderson caused ‘a certain amount of delay, having to depend entirely on locally supplied horse-power to ascend at all, but generally speaking there was little delay, and the marshalling was very efficient.

Many makes showed considerable variations in performance, the M. G. Magnas being an example. A. W. Smith and S. W. Cottee gave examples of what should be done with this model—though the latter had hardly sufficient ground clearance. Other good climbs in this class were made by A. C. Cookson (Magna), 13, J. Erith (Hornet), who also grounded on bumps, but A. P. Wright (Hornet) failed and was towed, as was Stone (M. G. Midget), C. H. Barnett (Singer), H. jeffris (Riley), Manzoni (Salmson), and H. F. Deane (Standard).

Kehoes’ M.G. Magna was good, but, like others of this type, grounded repeatedly. Waddicor’s Riley Gamecock was very good indeed, as wereTseveral other Rileys, while individual climbs which should be noted were Scrogg’s old,Trojan, slow but absolutely certain, and Collier’s old Morris Cowley, which wasTas fast as many of the sports cars, both being well cheered. Morris-Goodall’s Aston Martin was misfiring badly, but climbed well in spite of this. The next test after Park Rash was Askrigg, normally fairly simple, but this year complicated by the stop and restart test which was held on it. Failures were numerous, as a nasty gully was chosen as a suitable restarting place. Here the performances varied more with drivers than with makes of cars, there being good and bad of most makes. After some

indifferent road but pleasant scenery competitors arrived at West Stonedale, which caused little trouble, and so on to Carlisle, and then a dull run to the finish. The restart test and Park Rash really made up theltrial, and so effective were they that the M.C.C. should not find this event much of a drain in the way of firstclass awards,