In October 2023 I was taking part in our local car trial around the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean when a loud CLUNK from the rear axle brought progress to an abrupt halt. Fast forward to the end of March 2025 and I finally took part in another event from the driver's side of the car. Not that it was my car. That's still being repaired. After the axle failure had been fixed came the MOT test from hell. Much welding was required and that involved me teaching myself the art…which is not a quick process. As it stands I am about three-quarters of the way through the list.
So this wasn't my car, but Nick Deacon's multiple championship winning Suzuki X-90 . It's the car to beat in it's class and the car in which I have already been navigator on three events so far this season. For the ROSENREG TRIAL on March 2nd, Nick had very kindly loaned it to me. But that's jumping ahead somewhat.
Class 90 lines up at the start of the COTSWOLD CLOUDS TRIAL
On the first weekend in February I stepped in as passenger on the COTSWOLD CLOUDS TRIAL (above) at the last minute, as Nick's usual passenger, Ben, had injured his shoulder in a mountain bike accident. This is always a very tough event, and in the picturesque surroundings of the Cotswold Hills, under a clear blue sky we had a dramatic day. Nick fairly unhappy with progress at times , but going brilliantly at others, was quite sure we were falling behind our rivals. In fact they were having an even tougher time! In the end we won the class by some margin.
At the finish of the COTSWOLD CLOUDS TRIAL overlooking Minchinhampton Common
Four weeks later we had an even better result on the MARCH HARE TRIAL - which ran from Honeybourne airfield near Evesham to Minchinhampton Common, via the picturesqure Cleeve Hill overlooking CheltenhamRacecourse . This is the first event I have done without dropping a single point all day. We ‘cleaned’ everything!
Paul & Hannah Bartleman's Mk1 Escort Estate and others on the MARCH HARE TRIAL
Again the weather was lovely and the route picturesque, although a bit difficult to follow at times. Could it have been the vaguaries of the route book or just my own lack of concentration in reading it out? I also have issues with telling left from rigt, always have! It was a bit stressful back in my rallying days ("Flat left over crest…NOOOO THE OTHER LEFT!!!!")
Simon with Nick's X-90 before the last section on the MARCH HARE TRIAL
But in any case we breezed through every hill without issues and finished the day with not only a gold medal and another class win, but 2nd place overall.
Two weeks later we competed on the TORBAY TRIAL in Devon, which uses several hills from the famous Exeter Trial - including the notorious Simms. This hill features in dozens of YouTube videos as the most popular spectator point on the whole event, and the atmosphere can be like a stage on the Lombard RAC Rally back in the good days with people in bobble hats crammed into every vantage point .
VW Beetles at the start of the TORBAY TRIAL
The 1-in-3 incline of Simms is compounded by horrendous bumps and slick rock shelves. It's been in use as a trials hill since the 1930s, and reaching the top is a rite of passage which most people never acheive. But we did!
Nick with his ultra successful X90 on the Torbay Trial
But we then got stuck on another famous hill, Tipley, where a stop-and-restart was required half way up , right on a slick piece of stone slab. We got moving but then broke traction, and despite much enthusiastic bouncing in the seat from me - and a lot of tyre smoke - we just could not get going again. Our main rival on the event Brian Hampson, who's got one of only two supercharged X-90s around, managed to keep going and gained just enough points to push us down into second place at the end.
Suzuki X90s waiting at the nottom of Tipley. The section that cost us the class win
Two wins out of three hadn't been a bad record for the early part of the season . And here I was, a week later, with the car that could and should win . No pressure…
In the passenger seat was my old friend Ian Beale. Ian and I were at school together back in the stone age, and we were a crew when I started rallying in the early 1990s. I drove, Ian navigated. Blimey… that was 34 years ago! We did team up again in 2023 and did a couple of events, the last of which resulted in the aforesaid broken axle.
Jennifer Molyneau's X90 awaits the start of the Rosenreg Trial under a blanket of fog
This time around we were in a very different kind of event, in which everything took place within one wood. And there was no navigation required on road sections. There were no road sections. There were a lot of ‘observed sections’ (hills), 32 in all , which was about twice as many as an average trial. And they had been laid out earlier in the week when it had been dry and dusty. It wasn't dry and dusty now, it was soggy and foggy. This led to everything being a great deal more slippery than anticipated by the organisers, and on many of the sections we barely got off the startline. But then neither did anyone else. It was frustrating, but as the day progressed the conditions improved a bit - as did our technique, helped it must be said, by growing familiarity with the car. It was certainly more spritely than mine, the engine revving more easily and the rear suspension being a lot more compliant . But the brakes weren't as good. However as the great Pentti Arikkala once said “Brakes are biggest enemy of speed” …
Simon and Ian's borrowed X-90 on the ROSENREG TRIAL
We were running in convoy with the X90s of John Cavendish/Dave Slade and Jennifer Molyneau/Clive Gardiner, which at least gave us the reassurance that we were all racking up a lot of penalty points . When we finally cleaned a hill (zero penalties), it felt like a huge achievement and we only did that three times all day.
John Cavendish & Dave Slade among the wild garlic on the ROSENREG TRIAL
Right at the end we managed to pick up two punctures in successive ‘sections’ ,and things got a little tricky with the second one as the jack started sinking into the ground. This is when a bit of help is useful, and in car trials people just get stuck in and do just that. With some stirling assistance from Ella-Jade Tozer-Cox , who was driving a Mazda Mx5 a few cars back in the queue, we got the car high enough to replace the offending ‘flat’, although everyone was plastered in mud afterwards. But it had been a lot of fun once the intial frustration had been overcome.
John & Alan Wheeler's Dellow Mk2 sadly cooked it's clutch early in the event
At the finish, as per usual, the results were still being handed in from the farthest corners of the venue, so it took a few days for Nick to phone up and congratulate us on winning the class - and doing so by quite a margin. He was chuffed to bits that his car had done the business once again!
Thanks to Nick for the loan of the car, to Ian for passengering and to Stroud and District Motor Club for putting on a memorable event in trying conditions.
