Blog

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update, in part its been a very busy few weeks at work, working on US east coast time which limits time in the evenings but closer to home I’ve also had to deal with the consequences of a pretty disastrous weekend at Loton Park Hillclimb at the start of the month.

I was competing with the Classic Marques championship for what was meant to be a 2 day meeting,. In practice I was running well, only a few tenths of my PB time but in the afternoon exiting the last corner there was a big bang, followed by a death rattle from the engine and a lot of smoke.

After being recovered b\ck to the paddock, thankful that I now trailer the car to events, the strip down began as soon as I got home. The problems started to appear straight away upon listing the rocker cover with a sheared rocker arm and two bent pushrods but worse was to come when I lifted the head with a gaping hole in No 3 piston that had been punched through by the conrod.

By the time everything was stripped down the block already at +60 is badly scored and at best would need a new liner but could well be cheaper to start with a fresh block, the piston was barely recognisable from the remnants littering teh sump. Luckily I have a spare engine built up and more or less ready to go into the car so it won’t be season over for me and providing I get no more drama’s when I return to Loton at the end of the month, I’ll be at Wiscombe in September for the MGCC SW event.