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www.leylandprincess.co.uk THE ‘MONKEY RUN’ This is our Princess, which I purchased earlier this year
with my brother and a friend, with the view to take part in a 'rally' to
Porto in Portugal and back. Whilst rally is a somewhat generous term,
the Monkey Run, which a couple of pals and I organise each year, is an excuse
to go to a part of Europe for a week or so. This year there were a few
who dropped out at the last minute, and we ended up with well over one entry
in to the rally (two in fact)! Ours was, of course, the mighty
Princess, with the second being a Hillman imp. There are a couple of non moveable rally rules that we
adhere to, these being that the car must cost less than £500 (hence Monkey
Run) and should be registered earlier than 1985, with first production
earlier than 1980. We threw a fair bit of money at her prior to the
trip (a loop-hole in the £500 rule), as we had purchased her off an older
chap, who had put it under wraps for some years, and consequently a little
work was needed to get her 'race ready'. In truth part of the Monkey Run
idea is to help restore older cars such as these. In many respects the competition was largely over before we got to Dover as the Imp had a few 'minor' issues, largely relating to overheating (hence the open engine look on the Imp), misfiring, and failing exhaust boxes. Fortunately the guy who owns the Imp races Davrians and consequently knows the car inside out, and there were a few roadside adjustments made along the way. The rally went as fast as the slowest car, which of course was the Hillman and needless to say London to Porto and back is a long way at 45-55 mph. It should be noted that following some extended debate and
speculation, the Princess made it there and back with issues no more
significant than the odd misplaced key incident (then again she has only
done 27k). A week or two after our return to the UK we discovered a
pool of greenish liquid under the front end of the car, and the hydragas
writing was on the wall. With her infrequent use I would imagine that
the rubber in the hydragas unit would have become brittle over the years.
We want to get her up and running again, if anything because she certainly
has a hell of a good long life ahead of her, and it would be a shame to lose
a well maintained piece of British heritage. Elton Carran. November 2004. If you’d like to know more about the Monkey Run, email Elton CarranE@pbworld.com |
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