REVIEW OF THE 2004 TRIALS SEASON

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Whatever else I might choose to say about the 2004 season, there's no doubt that the performance of the Marlin contingent was dominated by three husband-and-wife teams. Mal and Donny Allen get my 'Team-of-the-Year' Award for finishing 2004 at the top of our very own Marlin MCC League and also featuring as the highest-placed Marlin in the ACTC Crackington League. Although Mal was one of only two Marlin drivers to score in all three MCC events (One Gold and two Bronzes), he had to give-best - in the MCC events - to the other high-scoring Marlin pairing of Bryan and Pat Phipps (Three Silvers, one of which was a Best-in-Class). Bryan chooses not to register for the ACTC Championship but always scores very well when he and Pat 'come out to play' in the one day events - as two seconds in Class, in the Ebworth and Allen Trials, show. In third place were Pete and Carlie Hart who managed a Silver and a Bronze in the MCC events, and excellent scores in the three ACTC Championship events they entered.

Marlin participation in trialling stayed more-or-less at the same level as recent years with between 20 and 30 entrants in the MCC events, and 12 drivers scoring points in the ACTC Championships. There was slightly less overlap than normal between the names in the Marlin MCC League and the names in the ACTC Crackington League with only five drivers appearing in both. This is likely to change in 2005 with a number of new, and returning, drivers already making their mark. Howard Stephens may only have scored one Bronze in the MCC events in 2004, but his third in Class in the Cotswold Clouds, third in Class in the Kyrle, and Class win in the Mechanics show his calibre. Tim Smith is another Stroud Motor Club member who has notched-up some good scores since transferring to a Fiat Twin Cam-engined Marlin in 2004 and Jonathan Toulmin seems to be sorting-out his Montego EFi-engined Marlin very quickly after rather a lengthy rebuild time.

As regards the events, the three MCC events were clearly much more difficult than 'average' in 2004 with only 16 Marlin medals from 73 entries - just 3 in the Exeter, 8 in the Lands End, and 5 in the Edinburgh. For the one-day events it was very much business as usual with only Mal and Donny Allen travelling significant distances to compete, and most Marlin regulars patronising their local events only - which means huge entries through the Marlin heartland of Gloucestershire, Somerset and North Devon, and rather fewer at the geographical extremities of Cornwall and the Lake District.

As usual, there was one non-Marlin Class 7 driver who was seriously championship-chasing and dominating the Class results. When I started trialling, in the mid 1990s, both Class and Championship were dominated by Julian Dommett (Dellow). When Julian had acheived his ambition of winning the Wheelspin League, he started doing rather fewer events and Roger Bricknell (Vincent) became the man-to-beat in Class 7. This year it was the (nearly) all-conquering Andrew Martin and his Dutton Melos that swept all before them. With Andrew winning the Class on no fewer than seven out of the ten ACTC events he was in a class-of-his-own, scoring 94.2 points from his 'Best 9'. Mal and Donny Allen could only manage 54.8 points from their 'Best 9' and they were a very good second in the Class.

Apart from the constant complaints that the MCC make less-and-less differentiation between Classes 7 and 8 in their events, one topic seemed to dominated the latter half of the 2004 season, and that was engines. Even as recently as a year ago it all seemed quite simple - there were a lot of B-Series-engined cars, a lot of Pinto-engined cars, a few Kent-engined (crossflow) cars, and Bryan Phipp's Fiat Twin-Cam engined car. Now there are at least two more Fiat-engined cars - those of Tim Smith and Murray Montgomery-Smith, a few more crossflow-engined cars, and Jonathan Toulmin's solitary EFi-engined car. For those of us with B-Series-engined cars there is the additional debate of single-carb versus twin-carb with at least two owners swopping their twin 1.5" SUs for a single 1.75" SU and reporting a significant improvement in flexibility with little if any drop in power. But, of course, those with Webers think we're all crazy to stick with SUs anyway. The complexity of options available to the Marlin owner was brought sharply into focus when Pete Hart and I were discussing specifications with a couple of Class 3 Escort regulars in the bar post-Exeter. Pete and I reckoned that no two trialling Marlins were alike taking just the three main components of engine, carburettors, and tyres. On reflection we could think of a couple of cars that shared the same spec, but we were struggling.

So, for what it's worth, I'll put my head on the block and 'go public' on the perceived wisdom concerning the four most common types of engine in current use. Which is: Fiat Twin-Cam (best - high power, light weight, 5-speed gearbox available) > Ford Kent crossflow (good tuning options, compact, 5-speed gearbox available) > Ford Pinto (solid, 5-speed gearbox available) > BMC B-Series (least-best - heavy, only 4-speed or overdrive gearboxes available). But, as I've said many times before, don't embark on an engine-type swop unless you think it's really worthwhile - it's never as easy as you think it's going to be. Happy trialling in 2005!

This page published 14 January 2005