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TRAILING THE TROJANS                                                                                        By Nigel Welch (Webmaster)

Seems like such a long time ago, that I (along with my wife who, blissfully ignorant of what was likely to be involved) volunteered to track the Trojan’s round the south west on the Lands End Trial - and that’s probably because it is a long time ago !

Having made a whole host of plans, maps, post codes and grid references I felt completely prepared and set off in the ‘TroJag’ and hooked up with the ‘boys’ at Popham Airfield (tea and cakes, hmm,..). We waved goodbye to Phil, Steve, John and Richard and I thought we’d wait a while to let them get down the road a bit and do a bit of ‘on the road’ movie footage.... after all the TroJag wouldn’t have any difficulty in catching them up, would it ?  We set off after another cup of tea (so maybe 10 minutes) but didn’t see the pair of them until Bridgewater !   We chased the sunset for what seemed like miles and miles and we arrived before the Trojans but it remains a mystery as to how we managed to miss them on the road.

At Bridgewater (technically the start of the rally) all my intricate plans starting unravelling, when it dawned on me that taking photographs and video requires at a modicum of natural light ......  Fortunately the scrutineering area was reasonably well lit so I managed to get some footage and photos there, After John and Phil had changed their road sprockets for off road sprockets and we’d all had our first breakfast (of many as it turned out), they set off into to the night for some special stages and we aimed to meet again at the Culborne Stable Inn (Nr Minehead).

I caught up with John going through Minehead, politely stayed behind him whilst we went round the streets, but we then came to a fairly steep incline and as we know Trojan’s go up almost any hill, just not very quickly - so I unleashed the TroJag and sped past on to the pub.  At the pub we had more tea and more food (anyone spotted a common thread yet ?), but the pre-planning failed again - I should have taken a small mortgage out before buying anything - the thick end of £10 for 2 bacon rolls and 2 cups of tea, yikes !   The lads duly turned up and warned me (after the event of course) about how expensive this place was..... Thanks.

Next stop Roundswell nr Barnstaple in Devon - a petrol garage serving coffee, tea, food - and yes, you’ve guessed it - more tea etc. etc....  Met up with the cars and having noted how ‘nippy’ (near enough freezing)  it had become, I was surprised to see all occupants of the Trojans apparently unaffected - made of strong stuff these guys !

Next stop for us was at Widemouth Bay at just around dawn, temperature showing 0,degrees but with  wind chill (brrrr) and no food or tea available (grrrr).  Anyway, and not surprisingly Sue refused to get out of the car but I did and got some intriguing photos of the full moon with the sun in evidence on the opposite horizon (little things please little minds).  Didn’t meet up with the Trojans as we wanted to get on to Crackington.  A good job we left early because the directions and SatNav were rather unhelpful.  Anyway we did find it (eventually) and got some good footage of a number of cars including our two intrepid Trojans trying to get up the muddy and rutted hill - and a good job the farmers hawser/tow line was free to competitors - he’d have made a fortune otherwise.

From there it was on to Wilsea Down (Nr Camelford) - a control point at an animal market, but thankfully with a little exploration we all found the cafe and another breakfast ensued.

From there I altered my route and travelled straight to Blue Hills.  The Trojans have a driver and a co-driver, so there’s me (with sleep depravation kicking in) and an apparently perpetually dozy passenger, consequence.... I almost came to grief when I nodded off and explored a soft kerb - oops! On arrival I took 40 winks, but woke up to find that we’d probably missed the opportunity to get the best viewing vantage point.  What a picturesque place - absolutely stunning and the weather was terrific too.  The lads did the marque proud, both getting to the top of what appeared to be an impossibly steep, rocky climb - wow!

Conclusions

• I’m far from certain how John, Phil, Steve and Richard coped with their trials and tribulations - at least I had a warm and comfy car to travel in.
• Need more food and tea
• So much for 75+ years development in motor vehicle technology :
• >> Mid 20’s Trojan, mpg, about 40
• >> 1999 Jaguar, mpg about 22.
• Should I ever be persuaded to do this again it would definitely be better to have two teams following the cars and in my particular case, someone in the passenger seat who stays awake for more than half an hour at a time !

All in all - great fun

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