About this site
Page updated : 29 April 2011Home > About this site
What's happening to the Wheelspin website?
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 around Christmas 2009 I decided to bite-the-bullet and make some fundamental changes. It was just too complicated to try and run the old and the new sites in parallel so I removed all the old pages and slowly republished the new versions over nearly 18 months, finally finishing the republication in April 2011. All the major changes and site updates are listed on the What's new? page or you can followWheelspinTrials on Twitter for minor updates and other items of classic trials news and comment.
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.
Andrew Brown
April 2011
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.