LINCOLN GETS BACK ON TRACK
LINCOLN COSMOPOLITAN RUN BY Julian Balme OWNED SINCE 1991 PREVIOUS REPORT March 2020
At the beginning of the year, much to my surprise and delight, I was invited to compete at the 79th Members’ Meeting – barely three months since my previous outing at Goodwood (Our classics, February). The race was for pre-’56 saloon cars and entitled the Sopwith Cup, so it was the turn of my faithful old 1954 Lincoln, Wooly Bully, to put on his dancing shoes for a 20-minute thrash.
I have to say that I wasn’t nearly as apprehensive as I had been on my most recent outing at the 78MM, despite not having done anything competitive with the car for more than 10 years. The Goodwood team wanted to stage a slowerpaced tin-top race, so immediately there was less pressure. All I had to do was get the Lincoln out of storage and make sure it would pass scrutineering. However, with my cars scattered all over the country and as yet no workshop space to talk of at my new home, this wasn’t quite as easy as I’d hoped.
Wooly Bully was still garaged in London, and the first thing I encountered on trying to extricate him from his lair was a flat battery. I couldn’t whine too loudly because it was dated 2003 and I figured I’d had my money’s worth, but it did signify the start of a worrying trend. The race belts and fire extinguisher were of a similar vintage, and the racing tyres were even older. The back of the sofa was going to be well and truly ransacked and the piggy bank robbed for this one.
The previous strenuous outing in the car was the Le Mans Classic in 2018, after which I ended up having the radiator re-cored, but that aside I haven’t used it much, so a spirited run down to Merlin Motorsport would no doubt alert me to anything else that needed attention. That part of the journey west was in daylight, but once I’d left Castle Combe and headed into the setting sun, the ignition warning light blinked into life. I managed to get home, using the headlights sparingly, but a day later I got on to Adam Blackbourne at Down to Earth Auto Electrics to order a new dynamator.
Other than that, plus the subsequent pain of replacing parts
on the drive, the car ran as strongly as ever, but by way of peace of mind I drove it toc ck two weeks before the meeting to get a second opinion. The team found a slightly weeping brake cylinder – which, remarkably, I was able to obtain from the amazing Us-based Rock Auto in less than five days.
It was back in 2006 when Wooly and I were last out at the Goodwood Revival in the St Mary’s Trophy, and in those 16 years an awful lot has happened within the ranks of 1950s racing saloons. The vast majority of the cars are now much lower, leaner and faster than they ever were, but with 90% of the grid being piloted by owner-drivers, it was a much more civilised contest with only three cars failing to finish, and all due to mechanical woes.
The word ‘development’ is a stranger to Wooly, so I wasn’t expecting any improvement on my best lap of just under 2 mins, but I’d forgotten just how gutless the acceleration was. The Lincoln’s forte is bowling along the fast, straight roads of the Mexican plains between 85mph and the ton, not negotiating second-gear chicanes. Well, I say second gear, but with an antiquated Hydramatic gearbox it’s anyone’s guess. So a lap of Goodwood consists of trying to build momentum back up, having more or less parked the car at the end of each circuit.
Nevertheless, and despite having nobody to play with, I still had fun and, although I failed to crack two minutes, all of my laps – bar the one where a Jaguar MKVII spun in front of me – were within a second of each other. Even more rewarding, though, was that after an absence of 16 years Wooly attracted a gaggle of new admirers, top of the list being two marshals who were filling up at a petrol station just outside Chichester at the same time as me before our journey back home to Devon.
RUN BY Martin Port OWNED SINCE March 2016 PREVIOUS REPORT Dec 2021
Although its commuting days are behind it, the Series II hasn’t been idle of late. I’d long harboured the thought of taking it on a fishing trip – the Volvo 240 estate into which my dad and I used to pack our gear was perfect, but it seemed relatively modern some 35 years ago, so I wanted to do it in a true classic.
Completing the father/son circle, my youngest and I filled the tub with tackle and enjoyed a lovely autumnal day casting for trout – the bulkhead vent proving a perfect aperture for rods when relocating, and the 88in looking right at home in such an idyllic setting.
Slightly more on-brand, the next major outing was a Camel Trophy gathering at Bob Ives’ Hampshire farm. He and brother Joe were the only Brits to win, and the launch of Nick Dimbleby’s tribute (Book of the month, January) was reason enough for a reunion of competitors and vehicles – my presence justified by being the book’s designer. It was humbling when a number of those who had endured the challenge spent time looking around the Trans-africa SII with real interest.
Winter always brings with it the potential for snow and the chance to be smug about owning a fourwheel-drive classic. That was short-lived this year, with little more than half a day before the small amount that fell had melted, but it was long enough to highlight an issue that I hadn’t experienced since the days of commuting in my 1967 MGB: carburettor icing.
Although hardly a disaster, this would make the Land-rover tricky to keep going at lower revs until the warmth of the engine bay took hold. There was definitely moisture in the air, but I saw little reason for the sudden arrival of the issue until I recalled that I’d been forced to put in some E10 fuel on a recent trip. Based on others experiencing similar problems, I figured that the higher ethanol content was to blame and using nothing but E5 since seems to have sorted the issue.
Although the short-wheelbase car doesn’t have the load-carrying capacity of a 109in model, you can still manage some impressive hauls if you try hard enough. When my eldest son announced he was going to buy a motorbike, we decided that the 30-mile round trip was small enough to ignore van/trailer hire. The purchase – a ‘café racer’-style 125cc – slotted straight into the back with the tailgate down and, once strapped in, was a secure and unchallenging load… a good job, seeing as we had to repeat the exercise soon after when a flat battery left him stranded.
The signwriting on the tub sides and hardtop is something I’ve kept an eye on since I took ownership of the car, and I sometimes battle with the temptation to touch it up. When I recently visited the home of Carters Steam Fair for a shoot, I took the Land-rover with me, secretly hoping that signwriter extraordinaire Joby Carter would offer his opinion. The first thing he did after saying hello was to walk straight over and enthusiastically circle the Series II, poring over the aged lettering. His response to my question of what to do with it was simple: “Nothing. It’s bloody lovely as it is.” With tongue firmly in cheek, he then proceeded to position his mahl stick and brush and pretend to touch up the lettering, but it was great to have the opinion of someone considered one of the best in the business.
Finally, after years rumbling on in the background, it was satisfying to send my Trans Africa Land Rover to the printer (Book of the month, July). Now it’s finished, that does leave me with the dilemma of what to do next. I guess the only thing left is to start adding to the list of place names on the hardtop. Anyone fancy contributing to the fuel for a return journey?