London to Brighton Veteran Car Run 2006 – 5^th November 2006 

Anyone who read my report from last year – “Caddyshake” – will know that Anita and I undertake this yearly event with Phill & Gerri Barton on their 1904 Cadillac. I say “ON” as opposed to “IN” because that’s exactly how it is. It’s an open top vehicle with a completely open front cabin i.e nothing in front to stop you flying straight onto the road in event of an accident. And if you’d saw the way some modern drivers cut and carved us up you’d wonder why accidents aren’t more common !!   They just don’t realise that whilst they have powered disc brakes on all 4 corners, all we have for a brake is a band which clamps itself around the drive train ( yes it uses a chain not a prop-shaft ). It’s a good job Phill’s on the heavy side and can stamp on the pedal hard. 

We left Watford and 04:40 and with no traffic around made Phill’s house in Smallford by 04:50. The Cadillac was already loaded up and so we set off to Hyde Park. By the time we’d unloaded, driven to the start and been shepherded to a spot it was 06:30 and still dark. You could just about make out some early morning rowers on the Serpentine. We got a welcoming cup of coffee, looked along all 500 veterans and exactly at our start time 08:07 we were waved off. Gerri’s daughter and husband drove the support truck again so they headed off to the first stop in anticipation of our arrival. 

The route took us round Hyde Park Corner, Constitution Hill, passed Buckingham Palace (waved to the Queen), St James’ Park, over Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Palace, Brixton, Balham, Streatham, Norbury ( where we had our first breakdown last year), Thornton Heath and into the barricaded town centre at Croydon.  Slight hiccup here – we had to cross a tram line right on a little incline and adverse road camber and as Phil slowed down the engine died – right on the Tramline!!   Marshalls quickly pushed us out of an oncoming tram – although admittedly it was a couple of minutes away.  After a little coaxing the engine started and we were on our way – but with a misfire.

We carried on down to Purley where we thought it might be an idea to put in some petrol and change the spark plug – yes, it’s only got one.  Now as the engine is under the rear compartment the only way to access it is to remove the wives from the back, take out boxes, blankets, newspapers, my flask of tea ( essential item ), the rubber floor covering and finally two floorboards. Then by laying into the back cabin via the narrow rear door you can reach down to the works. A word of explanation if you haven’t read my 2005 report. This car has a single cylinder motor which a hundred years produced 8 horse power. It has two gears provided by a system of pulleys and belts and no clutch. The electrics are something else and I’ll come to them later.  

So we changed the plug for a brand new one and feeling confident we put everything back – lo and behold it wouldn’t start. So everything came back out again, we cleaned up the old plug, put it back in and after some persuading it fired up and run but was missing a beat. We put everything back in the rear and decided to run it hoping the misfire would clear. Well, it didn’t – we made 100 yards and died in a Bus Stop.  A passing RAC van stopped, then another and then two more.  The co-incidence of having just filled up with fuel suggested dodgy petrol and I’m still not entirely sure that it wasn’t a contributing factor as it didn’t look or smell quite right.  After nearly 90 minutes they all gave up and off they went. Phill was resigned to calling back our tender and going home. Determined to get to Brighton, and with nothing else to do but wait I thought I ought to “earn my keep” so I started working out how they did electrics 102 years ago. I was convinced it was an electrical problem as we had no “buzz” – let me explain. 

Now a classic car, and some modern cars, use a coil and a set of points, enclosed in the distributor, to generate a spark. Veterans use a similar system but rely on a “Trembler”. This is an electromagnet with a vibrating plate on top which arc and sparks the lead which feeds to the Spark Plug. The trick is to make the plate “buzz” at the right frequency to deliver maximum output to the Spark Plug. But to get the spark you need to quickly build up the voltage on the H.T (high tension) side of the Trembler and release it thus creating a burst to the Spark Plug. You do this release, on the L.T (low tension) side of the Trembler with a set of contacts ( the “Interrupter”) which are opened and closed by a cam on the engine – however, these are in the open air under the car, next to the flywheel, where oil and muck get thrown at them. I’d already decided that the problem was more to do with electrics as I couldn’t get the Trembler to hum, let alone buzz.  I traced the L.T circuit from the trembler to a silly little switch which someone had fitted under the front floor board – now I can’t imagine why this was put here as it had no purpose- except perhaps as an anti-theft device!  Fat load of use on an open air vehicle with a getaway speed of 15 mph !!! A master switch on the dashboard already controlled all of the vehicle’s power so really it was doing nothing except providing another weak link in the electrical chain.  But I couldn’t remove or bypass it as the wires had been soldered in and bound up.  It then went on to the Interrupter. ( There is also another power switch on the Oil Feed control valve – that must be so that the engine can’t start without the oil being turned on. You see there’s no oil pump – it just drips oil onto the engine and finally onto the road..)  Unfortunately I didn’t have a multimeter with me so I couldn’t check for a broken connection but everything looked good. Then another RAC van drew up, Phill, resigned to going home, thanked him for stopping and told him our tender was on it’s way but I collared him before he drove off. He produced a meter and we determined that the live feed was okay but there was no earth return on the Interrupter. So I suggested bending and stretching the contacts a bit, which he did (he had thin nosed pliers – we didn’t) and we fired up again with the Trembler buzzing beautifully.  We put in some clean fuel from the back of his truck, put everything in the back cabin, again, and headed off. 

We sailed along – admittedly underpowered as the ignition had really only been bodged up, as opposed to being setup correctly, – down through Coulsdon, Caterham, Redhill and we crawled up Reigate Hill (which is the big killer where we finally retired last year) at about 3 mph in first gear - it’s only got two. As we went over the top we all cheered and careered off down the other side and clocked up 35mph as recorded by John in the tender following along behind.  We’d lost a lot of time and if we were to make it to Brighton before dark we’d really have to get a move on. Down through Horley and onto Gatwick we pressed   The power output was getting worse by the minute and required first gear and maximum revs on even the slightest incline. It was now 6 hours since we’d left Hyde Park and we were starving. Nobody had wanted any of my black, highly sugared Earl Grey tea so no-one had had a drink – except me - or anything to eat.   We stopped in a lay-by by an open Tesco Express and stocked up.

Anita and I took our turn on the tender and John and Pauline took their turn on the Caddy – but they didn’t even get out of the lay-by: no engine again.  By now Phill was understandably very tired from the extreme effort of driving this beast and we were all very cold. However, determined that John and Pauline should get their turn onboard ( they’d missed out last year as well) I cobbled up a connection to the spark plug and they were on the way with us behind in the tender.  As I was now following behind the Caddy I could see for the first time the amount of black smoke it was poking out – it was considerable. I followed them down through Crawley and then, as they really struggled, on to Pease Pottage when just as I was on the point of suggesting they pull over Phill did and signalled retirement.  The exhaust was really sooty around the manifold suggesting a manifold leak and that would justify the increased loss of power. I could have fixed it but by now it was getting late. By the time I’d taken off the exhaust, cleaned the joint and put it back with an improvised gasket they would not have made it to Brighton before the 4:30pm deadline. So, at 3:35pm, reluctantly, we called it a day with just 17 miles to go.  We loaded it back on the tender and headed home. 

Conclusion…..  last year we made just over a third distance, this year we did two-thirds - next year: all the way but we’ll re-wire those damned electrics first !!!  Next year I reckon we’re going to carry spare clean petrol of our own, crimps and crimping tools, thin nosed pliers, some tested spark plugs, spare points, multimeter and some Swarfega - I’m still trying to get my hands clean !!  

Our thanks, as ever, go to Phill and Gerri for inviting us to join them on this prestigious event.