1924 Small Car Trials

[Steve kay]

In 1924 RAC ran a Small Car Trial, for four wheel machines under 1,600 cc,  cyclecars were excluded. This was based in Llandindrod Wells. Whilst competitive, this was meant to show how production cars entered by individual makers could perform over six days. There were certainly no specials or private owners. Repairs were to be carried out by the drivers, the Gwynne team however had calculated that the number of penalties earned by having a car full of spares would be easily outweighed by time saved,  a gamble that was most successful.
There are two reasons for mentioning this. One is to seek further information about the sole Austin entry driven by Gunnar Poppe. With a couple of years competition activity, the Seven was already making a name for itself. Yet Poppe had much trouble, and retired on the Thursday of the trial. The car had to be a factory entry, but do we know if he had little support, or why the Seven underperformed. What have Seven historians unearthed?
The other reason is to find out if anyone might be interested in a Centenary Celebration in April next year. The  Southerly loop from Llandod was via Llandovery and Sennau Hill, and the  Northerly loop across the challenging heights of Bwlch y Groes. Road surfaces are greatly improved, sadly the bigger “watersplashes” such as Beulah now have bridges. The hills are as character forming as ever.
A couple of us intend to have two days of fun, or would that be hard work, in April, but if there is further interest this can become more formal with a correct roadbook and lots of historic notes. Please contact via PM or email; stevekaytwo@btinternet.com

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Actually there is a third question. Amongst Austin Harris’s magnificent LAT archive is this image, captioned in the report in Autocar as Gunnar Poppe at Penybont. Sitting at my desk with OS maps, google map on the screen and copies of Pevsner to try to identify the church, I cannot find the spot. Poppe is driving South, but does anyone recognise it? If it was not so wet I might suggest that Howard puts on his deerstalker and whizzes out  immediately.

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Now what has happened to the picture? Gosh, damn, bother and similar words.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Steve

My money is it being the church at Llanbadarn fawr just a half mile south of Cross gates on the A483.

https://explore.osmaps.com/pin?lat=52.26...&zoom=12.5

Cheers

Howard

PS I may be up for a centenary bash seeing as it’s on my doorstep.

[Mike Costigan]

That looks like it's on the A483 just south of St Padarn's Church, Crossgates (or Y Groes if you prefer!).

Curses! Howard beat me to it.

LAT reference a3131 if you want to check Austin Harris' website.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Steve

I think the Automobile Palace was operational then. And Tom Norton would have been very supportive of such an event. So the photos of the event on the LAT site showing garage scenes may have been taken in the palace garages (not in the automobile palace itself as that is a concrete building).

I can’t place the other photos as they may well be miles away from Llandod.

Cheers

Howard

[Tony Griffiths]

That sounds like an excellent idea, Steve. I hereby appoint Mike Costigan as the official photographer or, if it's a competitive event, as my navigator - in which case you might as well hand over the trophy now!

[Steve kay]

Dammit, how did I miss that one! I think I must have misjudged the tower proportions, any other excuse acceptable? Pevsner describes the tower as "low two stage containing the porch, machiolated parapet with pyramidical roof." Fancy missing that.

Thanks for the interest, a lot of work has gone into the route, now we need to find April dates that are suitable for as many as possible. As for the suggestion that Mike Costigan becomes the official snapper in the cockpit with Tony Griffiths, images of them whizzing up Bwlch y Groes in third gear chasing red kites will be available before the event. The trophy will appear on the forum long before it is purchased.

[austin]

For those not used to using my site, phots of the event are here:

https://austinharris.co.uk/photos/?new-i...r%20Trials

The image mentioned above is this one:

[Mike Costigan]

Chris Garner is having trouble logging in to Friends, so has sent me the following text:

Poppe started in Class B ( cars priced between £130 and £170 ) The Seven being priced at £165. Two other cars were in this class - Trojans each priced at £157. 10s.

First Day:
Route 1 in the morning Poppe failed on a hill and had to be pushed, resulting in him losing 100 points + a further 60 in stopping to drop passengers (?)
Route 1 in the afternoon Poppe was fastest in Class .

Second Day
Route 2 in the morning again fastest in Class.
Route 2 in the afternoon again fastest in Class.

Third Day
Route 2, morning and afternoon, again fastest in Class.

Fourth Day
Route 1, morning and afternoon. Poppe failed on hill. Car's engine faded and stopped. All attempts to restart it failed, so he retired. Reason unknown.

I'm sure Poppe had Factory support but even so sometimes that support can still fail to revive an engine!

The Trojans had a clear field, both completing the 6 days of trialling each losing around 600 points each, less than two Argylls, a Seabrook and a Galloway.


It sounds to me like magneto trouble.

[Tony Griffiths]

Chris Garner is having trouble logging in to Friends, so has sent me the following text:

Poppe started in Class B ( cars priced between £130 and £170 ) The Seven being priced at £165. Two other cars were in this class - Trojans each priced at £157. 10s.

First Day:
Route 1 in the morning Poppe failed on a hill and had to be pushed, resulting in him losing 100 points + a further 60 in stopping to drop passengers (?)
Route 1 in the afternoon Poppe was fastest in Class .

Second Day
Route 2 in the morning again fastest in Class.
Route 2 in the afternoon again fastest in Class.

Third Day
Route 2, morning and afternoon, again fastest in Class.

Fourth Day
Route 1, morning and afternoon. Poppe failed on hill. Car's engine faded and stopped. All attempts to restart it failed, so he retired. Reason unknown.

I'm sure Poppe had Factory support but even so sometimes that support can still fail to revive an engine!

The Trojans had a clear field, both completing the 6 days of trialling each losing around 600 points each, less than two Argylls, a Seabrook and a Galloway.


It sounds to me like magneto trouble.

I wonder if, at the time, 'dual' magnetos were available? A dual mag might, typically, have a single drive input but with two separate spark generators. The type can be found on some light aircraft as a redundancy safety feature.

[Mike Costigan]

An alternative scenario is low fuel level on the hill. Note in both cases the failure occurred on Route 1, so possibly on the same hill? I think there were severe penalties for refuelling, even if spare petrol was carried on board.