Dawn contacted me recently to see whether I had any further news on the building project – I had been ‘a bit quiet’ about it! Was I still working on it or had I given up and thrown it away?
The answer really was that I needed to get the old Mallock sorted so I could do a bit of driving instead of just building!
The engine was sent to John Hewat for the gearbox to be repaired. What we didn’t realise was that it would need three round trips to Kent and one to Snetterton to achieve this! Poor John and Colin Billings must have been sick of the sight of that gearbox as it just refused to work until the internals from the first engine were put in. In the end it all got a bit rushed but just managed to get the car to the Green Belt Sprint at North Weald. To say I had a smashing time is putting it mildly, as you can see by the photographs (Below Right).
Prior to the event I had made a very basic air box to fulfil two functions:

a) To keep the rain out
b) To ram the air in

The effect this had was probably in my imagination, but the car did seem to accelerate much more quickly. It was on the second straight bit after crossing the runway and changing up a gear that I hit a bad bump and the car took off at the front, the rear wheel landed on the grass the car swapped ends and headed towards the fencing backwards.
I am quite amazed at how strong the car is and because the wing is behind the car it and the stays absorbed quite a bit of the impact. The offside pod was also damaged. Investigation afterwards discovered that the offside front disc was binding severely on the pads and would not turn by hand. When the callipers were removed, both pistons had seized. Yes the callipers were Triumph Herald with plated steel pistons, no lightweight billet callipers with s/s pistons here. These were replaced and the disc spun round quite freely, so nothing bent. I assume what happened was that when the front end lifted off over the bump, the offside wheel stopped rotating and locked when it landed, and that was that.
One other consideration was that I was running the wing at more than 5 degrees, so the down force would roughly equal four chaps sitting on the back, but the springs were only 220 lbs rating, so the car may have been running on the bump stops, with only the tyres acting as suspension.
After various conversations with Mallock, it was decided to change the spring rates front and back to 400lbs, 320 lbs respectively, in preparation for Hethel.
The damaged bodywork has been repaired to keep it all together, but not cosmetically. Carrying out all this work had necessitated removing the wheels, but when I started to put them back in the car I was short of four wheelnuts, which of course are not everyday items – panic! Searching failed to turn them up so another couple of calls to Mallock and another four were sent by courier, for Saturday morning delivery, at great expense. They arrived – and didn’t fit the holes in the wheels!  Well, you can imagine what I felt like!  I thought I had better have a cup of coffee to calm myself down but the day was not to end there – our German Shepherd dog, Tanja, who had been fine earlier in the morning, was taken ill – her breathing was difficult and she looked poorly. Eventually the duty vet was contacted  -it was the day of the local Hadleigh Show so most were there with the horses, coos etc – but as we moved her in her basket to the car she just died. It was very sad, she was a smashing dog, and she will be missed. What a crap day!
I thought, that’s it! I phoned and left a message with Tina and Neville Moon that I would have to withdraw from Hethel.  Putting the cover back over the Mallock what do you think I saw sitting next to the old engine?  Four nice little wheel nuts!
So – back to the original question – what was it? Oh yes, the car building . . .no, I’ve not thrown it away! The sticking point is whether to make it totally for the track or perhaps road and track. That of course would mean using standard approved bits, an interesting choice. The rear, which is complete, would be OK, with a handbrake, but the front end would require a different design based on available uprights necessitating a change in suspension design and the space for feet with the emphasis on safety.
I will let you know which way I go!

Rob Hume
PS – I seem to have escaped the bill for re-landscaping the lawns and fencing and in particular the lovely green bottles that seem to be plentiful in that area of North Weald!

A little bit of damage to the Mallock.