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Where can I run my tethered car?
The Retro
Racing Club
and the
Great Carlton Raceway
One of the greatest frustrations for tethered car enthusiasts has been the lack of opportunity to run their cars in Britain. If you were a member of the BTCA and raced either a modern FEMA car or a more recent vintage model, then there were the European tracks, but for the collector, home builder and fun runner there was little opportunity, unless you were prepared to risk the compass circle at Old Warden, and its propensity for wrecking cars. It was something of a red-letter day then, when it was announced that the inaugural meeting of Peter Hill’s Great Carlton Raceway would be on 12th June 2011.
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Amazing metal work by John Goodall | Oliver Monk's 'school car' | PAW 'lightweight' |
The Retro Racing Club holds a unique position, having been set up by Peter Hill in 1996 to ‘Encourage the building and running of tethered racing cars of the more traditional type.’ This was later extended to include vintage tethered hydroplanes as well. Peter started by publishing a regular newsletter that ran to seventy issues over twenty two years and then expanded the club’s activities by offering numerous drawings, castings, and a variety of tyres to assist those interested in building or restoring cars.
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Almost a 1066 Conquest | Doc 2 from 1948 | Running as it used to be |
Conscious of the need for a facility to run cars, Peter built a track at his home, which became the regular venue for Retro Club members for fun competitions and thoroughly enjoyable ‘days out’. Apart from the couple of portable poles that were set up on car parks in the South West, the track at Souldrop was the only permanent facility available in this country. This was used extensively until the end of the 90s, when a move to Lincolnshire brought an end to the ‘Souldrop Speedway’ and the opportunity to run cars.
There were promises and hopes surrounding possible sites for new tracks which all come to nought and the BMCC portable track did offer some facility until that group imploded so spectacularly. The only prospect on the horizon was that Peter did intend to build a new track when time and money allowed. Eventually construction did start, but an unfortunate series of health problems and family tragedies meant that the track was not finished until 2010.
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Dick Roberts' sidecar | Peter Hill's 1066 MRC | Galeota 'Speedster' |
The track at Great Carlton is 7 laps to the ¼ mile and with the pouring of a wide apron during the 2013 season offers the ideal and unique opportunity to have a run with anything vintage or vintage style, as long as a certain degree of common sense is involved, speed wise. Since the Retro Club has been in operation, members have build dozens of cars of amazing variety, as well as rescuing and restoring original models, and here is a chance to try them out.
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Beautiful Cleveland air-car | Rytm powered Ferrari 312T | Cox 049 'flyer' |
The track can clearly be seen on Google earth, but more recently, the photos below were taken from a drone.
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If you have
an interest in tethered cars, especially being able to run them, then it
is certainly worth joining the Retro Racing Club. For further details of the Club and the long
list of available plans, both for cars and tethered hydroplanes, contact
Peter Hill by the power of electronic communication at
arty.pole@gmail.com
2020 Track day Sept 6th
The relaxation of
CV restrictions allowed Peter Hill to schedule the
first Retro Club track day of the season for early
September. A double header with Buckminster the
previous day did reduce attendance somewhat but this
did allow more time for the long postponed tabletop
sale of a portion of the late Keith Bragg’s
modelling items. Everyone present went home with
cars significantly more full than when we arrived
and wallets commensurately less full. When activity
finally got underway, the venerable ‘Goer’ was
hooked on to the line to blow the track dry.
Unfortunately, the itinerant gardener did not notice
the line tipping the car over, neatly removing the
fuel tank in the process. As the old saying goes ‘if
it's lose and shouldn’t be, use Duct tape’ so
it reeled of its first 50 laps at a regular 3
seconds per lap with the tank taped on, a true
bodge. Another 50 laps were completed while Pete
Hughes persuaded his 049 into life and then it was
on to horsing duties for this little special that
uses commercial parts in an aluminium chassis.
Starts and runs well after the winter muck was
cleared out of the system. Pete is a great
enthusiast for these 049s and was seen secreting a
box of engines in the back of his car, along with a
chassis and wheels that should appear united before
too long. His Prop Rod is probably the most lethal
car on the track with its pusher prop exactly where
the fingers tend to be but on this occasion apart
from a slight nip it started easily and ran out a
full tank at around 25mph, possibly the longest run
it has ever had? By way of remembering Keith, his HB
engined, all aluminium aircar was given a run. The
first time he put it on the track it was quite quick
and so it proved this time, until it performed a
complete somersault, splitting the tank in the
process. Dave Coe has a mantra
that says ‘never have a last run’ and so it proved
for the ‘Goer’. After eight years and something like
3,500 laps of the track in that time, metal fatigue
finally won after a further 40 laps, with one wheel
and the part of the chassis it was attached to
vanishing into the undergrowth but even this did not
stop it. Sadly the ‘Goer’ is
no more but like a Phoenix, it will rise again, but
as with Dr Who, in a different form. A very pleasurable
lunch break with discussion on the merits of various
pork pies took us into the afternoon and a series of
cars from our host, starting with the Green Frog.
Well, when I say starting, that was the intention,
but it wouldn’t, even after 'the jolly good
thrashing' it received last time out. Neither would the famous Leyat, but
that was down to the needle valve that had been lost
last October and inadvertently not replaced. That
just left the ED Racer, office chair special, which
last time out refused point blank to start, but this
time fired up and trolleyed off happily for far more
laps than anyone could be bothered counting. With
just ‘yours truly’ fit for horsing, it was down to
doing a Lembit for a last run with the PAW
Lightweight. Herself was tasked with holding and
launching it, only to complain about the fine mist
of burnt paraffin, castor oil and ether emanating from the exhaust
that spread itself liberally over her. That heady
aroma is what we go for isn’t it? Beans, pears and
withies gleaned, assorted boxes loaded and off just
before the promised rain arrived after a second
great day, made even better by the relative lack of
traffic on either occasion. Peter has scheduled the
next meeting for the Friday preceding the SAM
October Fest, Friday 16th
October. Thanks
to Anne for the copious supplies of tea and coffee
throughout the day and to Peter for all the work in
preparing the track eleven months on from the last
time we enjoyed running cars there.
Retro in
the Rain
Rain everyday in
October so far, record rainfall in a day since 1891,
was it going to stop for the final Retro Club hoorah
of the season, was it 'eck as like, despite what the
BBC and the delightful Julie led us to believe.
Looked promising though until we dropped out of the
Wolds and could see the curtains of rain ahead of
us. Conjecture as to whether Peter would even have
been able to mow the track area as it had been so
wet and speculation that it may well have been a
wasted journey? Well, he had, but with the track
awash there seemed little prospect of any action, so
we all did what we are best at, chatting, along with
delving into boxes and bags and admiring what had
been assembled, and what a selection. It is an often
erroneously used word, especially on ebay, but until
there is any evidence to the contrary we were
privileged to be able to handle and admire three
unique Oliver twinshaft motors and a couple of
others of which maybe one other example exists.
In a car that broke the
British five and ten mile record in the hands of
Gerry Buck was the only disc valve DI twinshaft of
the six or seven built in 1949 that is known to
exist. One of John Goodall’s ‘Busy’ replicas has
just been fitted with the only rotary valve Mk I RV
known to exist in plain bearing form. If that was
not enough, in the back of a very early, factory
built, Proto Two Five car was the only ball raced Mk
I that has been recorded, but still it went on as
another ‘Busy’ had an original Nine Port twinshaft,
again possibly the only one around as the other one
may well be a converted aero engine, as was the
original Oliver Jaguar. A Tiger Two Five with a
standard Mk II Oliver was somewhat overshadowed by
the other cars, but beside them was John Goodall’s
Slabang with an engine built specially by John
Oliver that has exceeded 100mph. As the rain fell
gently on the corrugated iron of the ‘pit area’ and
windfall apples more noisily there was plenty of
time for a massive photographic session to share on
the website. Steve Betney shattered
the relative peace by bench testing his Redfin
twinshaft, and a noisy beast it is indoors. Slightly
surprising was the very limited range of adjustment
on the compression screw between it running sweetly
and not running at all. Still a mystery so best to
leave the twiddly bits alone once a setting has been
established. John Goodall was going through the same
process with his Oliver, prop bolted to one side
where a wheel should have been to avoid a tread
being thrown as can happen. The rest of us availed
ourselves of a last opportunity for foray into the
modelling paraphernalia of the late Keith Bragg and
add to the not inconsiderable sum that Retro members
have already raised for Barbara. Where there grounds for
optimism, was the rain easing off enough to have a
go, well yes. Never really stopped, but now light
enough to sweep the track clean of debris and the
largest puddles and hitch on a line. It was obvious
that only air cars could be run so first up was da
dah, ‘The Phoenix’, the reincarnation of the ‘Goer’
that met its demise last time out. A new chassis
with modern damped front suspension but still the
same old reliability so in the course of the next
hour or so it reeled off 250 laps, the trusty PAW
still doing the business. Amazingly, the car created
a dry line of sorts, but also cleaned all the muck
off the surface down to the concrete. Peter Hill had
made a new tank for the last car Keith Bragg had
made with the HB glow motor. Started off lively
enough but then ran out of go due to a split fuel
tube. Duly repaired it was fired up again but there
is a problem with the fuel system somewhere so Pete
Hughes hitched on his Cox Prop Rod that did so well
in September, and guess what, it did equally well,
running out an entire tank. That’s it he said, put
it away for the winter, but as Dave Coe was not
there with his woeful, ‘never have a last run’
warning, we persuaded Pete to have another go. Could
not resist a fiddle so wound the needle in for a bit
more speed, but it ground to a halt, so needle back
to where it was and another successful run. And that really was it.
Peter, with neatly bandaged finger after Keith’s car
bit him, tried to coax some life into the Green
Frog, but after showing so much promise as a project
initially it now seems to have acquired a severe
attack of the gremlins of late and will not start.
As we were all suffering varying degrees of dampness
by then and with no sign of it getting any better, a
general exodus took place. E&M
Maserati Now, as you know, I
have this thing about the A47 but little was heard
about it for a while as we have had some wonderful
trips, but my goodness, this made up for it. My
tractor and agricultural vehicle spotter’s handbook
was nearly filled up by the time we reached home,
never seen so many on the roads, and huge they were
as well, plus we have found a new winner of the
carrot crunchers game of ‘who can get the longest
queue behind them’. From Sutterton until it turned
of at Holbeach a maze harvester proceeded at a
sedate 15mph for 8 miles without ever pulling off
and so it went on, the last convoy just four miles
from home with three enormous Massey Ferguson
including one pulling a double bulk trailer. Spuds,
beet and mud in the Fens but mainly maze further
east for all the digesters springing up. So ended a very
restricted year at Gt Carlton but we have to feel
lucky that we have got any running in at all given
the strange times we live in so thanks to Peter for
preparing the track and hosting the two meetings
that were possible.
Preferred material, aluminium
Pete
Hughes 049 Special
Prop
Rod circulating
Pete
Hughes and Kingcat
Keith
Bragg's last aircar
The
demise of the 'Goer'
Leyat
with well oiled pilot
Uncooperative Green Frog
ED
2.46 Racer power
Original Oliver disc valve DI
Oliver
MkII by JSO
Original Oliver RV
John Goodall's unique line up of Original and
replica Oliver cars
Oliver Fury replica
Original Oliver MkI RVB
Original Oliver Nine Port
John
Goodall with 'Busy'
Steve
Betney twiddling with the Redfin
The
'Phoenix'
Pete Hughes with Cox
Prop Rod
Recalcitrant Green
Frog
©CopyrightOTWPeterHill2020