Mission accomplished
Correspondent • Published 25 Aug 2011 09:30
Closeted away in a Maiden's Green garage workshop, off and on, for the last two years, Oliver Bettison and his son Alexander, emerged in the early summer, triumphant, with a pristine Mark II Dellow. It was a labour of love and a fabulous achievement.
❝My affection for Dellows goes back to my childhood when my mother, Jill, acquired a Mark I Dellow in 1956. She wanted some fun and so bought (for good money) what was a fairly modern sports car to compete in local west country motorsport events. The North Devon Journal and Herald took a picture of her competing in the Land's End trial in 1957. This was the era of 'specials' when it was usual for the more enterprising motorsport competitors to make their own cars - not just to compete in them. From that early inspiration the spirit of trials driving has never left me.
After qualifying as a lawyer it took a few years to be able to afford to participate in any form of motorsport and, initially, I competed in many cars such as VW Beetles and Hillman Imps but my ambition was always to get a Dellow of my own. I eventually found an affordable one in Liverpool, which I bought in about 1979. It looked complete and in good order but it had been very badly 'renovated' with a lot of rivets and fibreglass. It had the original side valve 1172cc Ford Pop engine, and a three speed gearbox and back axle, but when I first tried to trial it, it couldn't even pull itself out of a car park. The engine was awful and it was too high geared.
I decided that a complete rebuild with brand new aluminium panels, wings and floor was necessary. The wonderful craftsmen I met during this exercise never ceased to impress me with their skills of shaping, fabricating and rolling metal into beautiful fluid lines of the original car. Fortunately, a few of these skills are still about in Berkshire today. By 1984 my Dellow was in pristine condition but still with a side valve engine (although, by now, properly tuned with a correctly geared transmission). She was great fun but still not as reliable as a sensible trials car needed to be. The time came for the major conversion to take place, namely, a more modern engine, gearbox and back axle system to be installed and the removal of those cable brakes and fitting of hydraulic brakes all round. This was done in 1987 and she emerged as a really competitive and reliable trials car with a Ford Cortina engine, a four speed gearbox and a tough back axle. She was powerful, reliable and you could go for a weekend's motorsport with the prospect of a breakdown unlikely. A fun era of trailing followed. She did well in the muddiest conditions and the steepest of gradients, as demonstrated by a successful climb of Crackington Haven. Motorsport is never uneventful and in 1995 on the Exeter Trial she met with an accident on a steep trials hill and was badly damaged, but fortunately nobody was badly hurt. She was relegated to the back of the garage for about two years and, as my son Alex and his brother Barney also liked going trailing, we used a 'special' VW. We started work on her again in the late 1990s when we rebuilt the chassis and aluminium panel work and got the car back to looking like a Dellow. She was re-painted in old English white and only in 2010 did I start in earnest to get her on the road again. The engine, gearbox and back axle were all completely rebuilt and modernised and a new hydraulic brake system (to improve the old one) was installed and she was completely re-wired using modern relays and switching systems. A new dashboard was made and new steering system installed with a new wheel and in short she was completely renovated, with a deadline of the Goodwood Revival meeting of 2010 as the target for having her on the road.
With lots of work at strange hours having been undertaken she was ready for her MOT just one day before Goodwood, which she passed, so we could enjoy a fabulous day at out with her. She is a powerful car and I have driven her at 90mph. There are still adjustments I need to make to the gear box, but whatever final tweaks we make, you just can't beat driving along an open road in the sunshine for pure motoring enjoyment." Oliver Bettison
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 01 Aug 11
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