About this site
Page updated : 19 February 2012Home > About this site
What's happening to the Wheelspin website?
After several months of inactivity I'm hoping to make some significant improvements and additions to the site during Spring and Summer 2012. The most significant change is that I wiil be expanding the historic (pre 1990s) Years pages into complete calendars for each year, listing all the major events for which I have dates together with notes of where reports and results were published in contemporary motoring magazines (primarily "Motor Sport").
I plan to start with 1948, and move forward through the early 1950s, then back through the 1940s and maybe into the 1930s. This is part of an overall strategy to concentrate my efforts on increasing our knowledge of the sport during the 1950s, the period when trials starting evolving into the three distinct trials disciplines that we know today.
Andrew Brown
February 2012
About this site
The site was launched in April 2007 to provide an online focus for everyone interested in the history of classic trials - one of the oldest forms of motorsport in the UK. The initial content was based on the vast quantity of literature, photographs, and movies that I'd acquired during the course of my research into classic trials sections, combined with a lot of more up-to-date material from my Section Begins website.
I'd never been entirely happy with the initial design of the website so in late 2009 I started implementing some fundamental changes which ended-up taking nearly 18 months to complete, the last pages to be republished finally going live in April 2011.
I should point out that, despite the website byline "the complete history of classic trials", the archive is very far from complete, although I am adding to it on a regular basis and I welcome contributions from all. The site is devoted primarily to the history of car trials, not motorcycle trials, but I hope the two-wheeled brigade will forgive me, and maybe start their own history website.
All the major changes and site updates are listed on the What's new? page or you can follow WheelspinTrials on Twitter for minor updates and other items of classic trials news and comment.
My motorsport CV
I can precisely date the start of my interest in classic trials. One of the first copies of Motor Sport that I ever bought (October 1967) included an article by Bill Boddy on his attempts to follow the route card of the 1935 Colmore Trial through the Cotswolds. This seemed like fun but it was another year before I acquired my first car, an MG TC (in the days when even impecunious students could afford classic MGs). By this time I had started to read more about trialling history, bought a copy of 'Wheelspin', and ensured that my regular trips from Bristol to Cirencester included a diversion via Nailsworth to view the Ladder. Competing in a few MGCC trials wetted my appetite but the poor old TC eventually cried "enough" and had to go.
Several years abroad, and the inevitable time, effort, and cost of bringing-up a family, prevented active participation in trials for over twenty years although I became a regular spectator on the Cotswold Clouds Trial, an occasional spectator on the MCC trials, and continued my research into historic trials sections in the Cotswolds. I'd also maintained my contacts with the MGCC and was delighted to be asked by Roger Stanbury to accompany him in his MG 18/80 on the Kimber Trial that formed part of the MGCC's 1995 celebration of the works trials cars. I'd been making noises about buying another MG for some time and I think Roger was on a mission to get me to return to the MG fold but the Rodborough weekend didn't have quite the desired effect. I came away having decided to forget about buying an MG, but to get into classic trialling as soon as possible. Within two weeks I'd bought my Marlin and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
I'm currently a member of the MCC, Stroud & District Motor Club, and the Marlin Owners Club, and also Rights-of-Way Officer for the ACTC. I even compete, with a variable amount of success, in classic trials when not researching historic trials sections and running several websites.