Club night is every wednesday
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
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NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGNotice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of Middlesex County Automobile Club Ltd. ("the Club") will be held on: Wednesday 21st April 2004 at 9pm at
to conduct the following business: 1 Consideration of: a) the minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Club held on 23rd April 2003; b) the Annual Report of the Council of Management of the Club; c) the Financial Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2003; 2 Election of the Officers of the Club; 3 Election of the Council of Management of the Club; 4 Consideration of any further business proposed by persons duly qualified to attend and vote at the AGM. Club members are reminded that, pursuant to clause 49 of the Articles of the Club, any member wishing to be elected to Council must: a) prepare a notice in writing nominating him or herself for Council membership; b) arrange for the notice to be signed by a person duly qualified to attend and vote at the AGM; c) prepare a further notice in writing stating his or her willingness to be elected to Council and sign this notice him or herself; d) forward both notices to the Secretary not more than 28 days nor less than 4 days before the date fixed for the AGM. This procedure is not necessary for any persons already members of Council who will be seeking re election after retiring from Council at the AGM pursuant to Clause 46 of the Articles of the Club.
A BIG THANK YOU GOES TO CHRISTINE, SARAH, MIKE AND ROB! FOR YOUR MODELLING EXPERTESE WHICH WE SAW ON 3rd MARCH AT THE REGALIA EVENING! AN EXCELLENT JOB DONE! WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITH OUT YOU! THANKS FROM PAUL & HAZEL HOPKINSON Now, as it happens, someone who will remain nameless (but his brother is the champ sec, and he has quite a lot to do with the website!), has supplied me with some pictures of the night. I cannot let the shot of Mr Cawthra go without running a caption competition. Send me your suggestions, and the winner will win something from Tom’s never-ending supply of Eastern European chocolates (or I’ll just buy you a drink!)…… 
That was the year that was...Part 1 By Gus Morison Christmas 2002 was a bit memorable - having only really competed on the Tour of Mull regularly for the last 10 years, a decision was made to 'get out more' and make something of the piles of bits in the garage. The only way to do it was to do a championship and have a few carrots to aim for, so after some debate and checking of calendars, the Focus 3 Welsh National Tarmacadam Championship was plumped for. This meant eight rounds over the year with best 6 results to count but spread between mid-west England and the south of Wales, there would be some travelling to do. A 309 shell happened to have most of the right stuff in it so a 16v engine with twin 45's and a demon Maniflow system was mated to a MI16/309GTI hybrid closer ratio gearbox, fitted with the tried and trusty GPA tarmac suspension and a set of Willwood four-pots on the front. A pair of new and decent Cobra seats and new 3-inch 6-point Willans belts were fitted before going anywhere - cheap insurance when you can walk away. To try and do the championship events a bit more properly than usual, the MCACs very own Oakington Stages on the 16th February was entered as a bit of shakedown, and also to try and get a car to the start line for change. Anyone who knows Gus will know this is a tall order and so it proved again with numerous 'last minute' jobs taking all night (literally) to sort out. To add insult to injury, the padlock key for the trailer had been 'filed safely' and turning the house upside down at 4 in the morning failed to find it. Only one thing for it, and the car was driven from Shrewsbury with the firm brief not to break or bend it. Fergus had flown down from Scotland the night before and was less than impressed with the overnight shenanigans, especially as the car arrived with 5 minutes to spare before 'lock-in', but we settled into survival mode. To add to the overall nervousness, there was a definite rattle from the valve gear - damned hydraulic tappets - so we set off using 5,000 rpm only. After the first stage, things hadn't got any worse so we had a bit more of a go. Surprisingly, we had a pretty clean run and unspectacularly ended up 20th overall and 9th in class - not too bad considering, and the car was driven home too not having seen a spanner all day! Next up was the North West Stages Rally at Preston on the 22nd February and the first Focus3 round. The usual pressures of time from working in London and living in Shrewsbury conspired again and we missed scrutineering on the Friday night but at least managed to have a decent nights sleep. Servicing was centralised and the barge was parked up since we figured that anything that couldn't be fixed at the roadside would take too long anyway. Those who have done this event will know that 'sealed surface' is very subjective and the first two stages would have been better placed in a forest championship. Things improved and the car was working well on the tight and twisty but still frosty surfaces on stage three and four. The valve gear problem was still present and bit home when the engine went onto three cylinders on the fifth stage. This, depressingly, was after we had been catching one of them new-fangled Subaru jobbies at the Leyland test track stage. Common sense set in and the car was put on the trailer early. As a package, the car felt pretty good and the stopping power on tarmac was impressive, but not the start to the championship that was needed. So it was down to Llandovery for The Tour of Epynt on the 15/16th March. The engine problem couldn't be ignored so a previously reliable 16v lump from Simon Price's old BX was fitted the day before (see the pattern yet ?!) and fired up at teatime. It sounded good so off for a quick run round the block only to see nothing but steam out of the exhaust. Umm. A quick phone call to the previous owner of the 'other' spare engine to see if it might be a goer and some little persuasion by Gus saw the two of us getting on with it and the car getting it's third engine in 36 hours. Fortunately, this lump ran like a clock and the car was loaded up and a few hours kip caught before going straight to emergency scrutineering on the Mabion Way. Epynt has always been one of Gus's favourite venues, but not having seen the place for quite a few years, some caution was applied as the place can bite - as many well know. Again the performance was encouraging until the nearside drive shaft snapped coming out of the square right at the Llandilo Fan triangle - the scene of that famous flying 'moment'. Gus wasn't impressed by this as these were 'clever' shafts with oversize bearings but it was the shaft itself that had snapped clean through the middle - making a cleaner cut with a hacksaw would have been difficult. Running around 180bhp shouldn't have been a problem for these so there was much cheesed-off depression. It also wasn't looking too good for the championship as finishes on all of the remaining rounds would be needed. One feature of the scoring was the 'double-dragon' with points doubled on two previously nominated rounds - both of Gus's were still to come and encouraged by the cars’ performance we resolved to carry on. The driveshaft problem was resolved with a phone call that fingered it as one of a bad batch and replacements were put in the post. A bit of break then before the R&M Williams Welsh Rally and returning to Epynt on the 2nd-5th May. Fergus couldn't make it for this round of the championship and Colin Mackay stepped in to the left-hand seat with Alistair Auld piloting the service barge on the ranges. Colin drove the recce car down to Brecon to run in the tyres and couldn't stop grinning when he got there! Some furtive driveshaft assembly took place in the car park at midnight on the Friday to assemble a spare for the car to avoid being stranded again if the lightning was going to strike twice. Colin was a little apprehensive, not having done pace notes since the mid-70's but didn't miss a trick all day. We used Brian Patterson's notes and they were absolutely spot-on, both in the Saturday morning recce and at speed. The first stage started halfway between the dual carriageway and Dixies with the Halda recording 129 mph before the first bend ! The times improved as the day went on - surprisingly given the recent 'match practice', and Colin thought we had been on the button for the first run down the new road, then we went a second or two a mile quicker the next time through - this was to become a common theme throughout the year. The only incident of note came at one of the triangles with a kick from the diff and too much driver enthusiasm ended up taking a nick out of the side of a front tyre (into the steel banding) against one of those conveniently placed army culverts. The tyre stayed up and we changed it at service, fortunately at the end of that stage, without losing time. The weather changed during the day and the A006T intermediates were swapped for the trusty A032's before lunch. Things were getting quite relaxed on the long straights with Colin running through recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner as the day went on - the car obviously needs more power. Overnight parc ferme was a sobering sight - an elderly 309 surrounded wall to wall by Subaru's and EVO's left me wondering if I was doing the right championship. A trouble-free run saw us 8th overall and 2nd in class on the National event. If all three events that weekend (Clubmans and Historics) had been rolled together - 150 cars - we would have been well inside the top 20. The awards ceremony was set spectacularly in the theatre at Brecon and we left with a dragon each for our efforts. This had been a double-dragon event and we picked up near maximum points - things were coming together and we left with renewed enthusiasm. Off to Caerwent for the Garth Tyres Summer Stages on the 8th June. More late night dramas meant travelling down on the morning of the event and meeting Fergus there, muttering again. This place also bites with its kerbs everywhere and tight bends putting great emphasis on neat and tidy driving. Large amounts of carnage during the day and another clean run saw us finish 20th overall and 4th in class and another double-dragon points load for our first championship finisher in class - all of a sudden things were looking not quite so bleak………… Part 2 is later in this issue!Jerry Weeks We have received the following letter thanking the club for it’s donation to Jerry’s charity of choice. The collection, at Club during late November/early December, was organized by Hazel and Paul Hopkinson, and I know Anne would like to thank them and everyone who contributed…… Ed.  2003 Time To ‘Play’ Again The day that I realized that the head gasket on my ‘toy’ 106 Rallye had gone, way back in September 2002 , I decided that the job needed to be done properly. This meant taking the car off the road and buying some ‘temporary’ transport. I thought about suitable alternatives and decided that it had to be a 205 GTi. I bought E370 KDE, a plain white, non-sunroof, 79,000 mile, 1600 GTi and before I even had time to put on some road tax, it was pressed into service. First port of call was Oakington to help set up the course for the Bomb Along Stages ’02. After a quick blast around the venue my ‘navigator’ Chris and I left to drive to Silverstone to attend Trax 2002 on the Sunday. I had come to the conclusion that this car was going to be good fun. A quick decision two days later had me repairing the 106 to sell, the funds being put towards building a competition car. After winning the Novice class on the September ’02 Twelve Car rally and marshalling on the Tempest Rally in the car, I started to look for a suitable 205 rally car base. Forward to December ’02 and I had given up looking and decided to transform the car I already had. I bought a 405 Estate to haul the bits around in and started to dismantle the 205. Just a word of note to anyone planning to do this to a 205 - the roof headlining is glued in and is a right bu**er to get out, and when it finally does come out, the roof panel has all the strength of a handkerchief. A friend was kind enough to rent me his garage temporarily and the 405 was backed up to the door while trim, seats, carpets and HEADLINING were despatched into the back of it. First thing to think about was the roll cage , this came courtesy of ‘Trig’ aka Paul , at Thingamies Beetles who had the rear part of a 205 Safety Devices roll cage, courtesy of Sav Johal’s very bent 205 rally car. After a visit to Autosport ’02 I had spent a large chunk of my budget on the rest of the roll cage, fire extinguishers, harnesses, electric cut out and a number of other items. As items arrived at home or work, I introduced them to the car and got an idea of how I was going to approach this ‘build’. I got an offer from Simon and Jo Tappin that I could triple enter their freebee 1200 Nova on the Autocross at Oakington. Brilliant fun - even if I was dead last. On the way to Oakington I stopped at Extreme Motorsport in Harlow and ordered my new competition seats. Then things started to get busy as Dave Watson and Andy Stacey (Stratos rally car) asked if I could service for them throughout the year. Roughly every two weeks they were competing so it restricted time on my 205. To keep me even more entertained I was then asked to service for Gary Elswood and Andy Greenland (Saxo rally car) in Belgium - unfortunately, not a good result due to being absolutely outclassed by the other machines on the rally. Back to my car that now was ‘with’ roll cage and a number of other parts courtesy of Sav Johal’s ex 205. Time to play now at PUGFEST ’03 and four runs up the Prescott Hill climb followed by a reasonable result at the Uxbridge Autoshow Autotest ’03. Now it was time to spend some more and a trip to Peugeot sport at Coventry saw me return with a lovely spangly new Quaife A.T.B. differential. A free gearbox from Dave Jennings was checked, fitted with the new diff, and fitted to the car. I had won a £50 Shenpar voucher raffle prize at Pugfest so I visited Derbyshire and returned with some more bits - later I also ordered a 12mm polypropylene sump guard from Shenpar. A quick call to Scrutineer Mike Madden saw him logbooking my car a couple of weeks before Bomb Along ’03. Now it was time to finish the details on the car, put in an entry for Bomb Along ’03, and sort final details and fittings with my navigator John Roseblade. Borrowing Dave Watson’s trailer on the Friday before the rally and sleeping in a tent on the Saturday night at Oakington saved a lot of money and helped to make budget rallying into BUDGET RALLYING! After a well-organised rally I finished reasonably, with only a few minor niggles on the car. What with marshalling, servicing, fixing, borrowing, scrounging and building my own car 2003 has become an extremely busy year with something going on almost every week! Many thanks to Paul, Sally, Dave W, Andy S, Dave J, Andy G, Garry, John, Simon and Jo and anyone else who has helped or ‘entertained’ me throughout the year , lets hope 2004 brings a lot of fun, entertainment and trophies to everyone!….. Kevin Fowler tbna Pugtop. 
Membership MattersBy Brian Catt Welcome to numerous new and re-joining members enrolled since the last magazine, many joining for the Oakington Stages. We hope they have a long lasting membership of the club and, of course, association with Motorsport: Steve Print, Tim Bridge, Martin Stockdale, Anders Howard, Andy Gwynne, Holly Bailey, Mandy Twynham, Clare Bullion, Richard Upton, Stuart Parkins, Steve Ball, Robert Thomson, Keith Fellowes, Vicki Price, John O`Sullivan, Simon Gudgeon, Carl Coley, Ian Wilson, Keith Davison, Ian Jackson, Stephen Simpson, Mark Booth, Chris Davis, Brandon Parker, Robin Bolt, Richard Edwards, Ron Aiken, Brian Neale, Geoff Moffitt, Kevin Thornburn and Brian Birkin. The MCAC Membership Card gives access to events where entries are invited from members of the London Counties, Eastern, Central Southern and Welsh Associations, and all events thus entered are “points scorers” in the Club Championships. Only events organised, or co-organised, by MCAC count towards the Middlesex Challenge, which was won last year by Peter Cox.
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