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Corinium Run 2008

Sunday 20th April

5th Anniversary

Tables of Achievement
Cirencester Efficiency Number	Fuel Consumption	Pence per Mile
Vehicle Age	Best Guess (mpg)	Overall (Car Number Order)

 

Corinium Run 2008 - Photos

 

84 starters arrived at the Highwayman Inn, Elkstone, to take part in the 5th running of the Corinium Run. This popular event is one of the HRCR’s series of Scenic Tours and has an added element in that it is an Economy Run, with cars fuelled at the start and end of the day under the eagle eyes of MSA scrutineers. Unfortunately, for the special occasion of the fifth run, fog shrouded much of the Cotswolds and the spectacular views of the early sections were blunted by the weather. Joint Clerk of the Course and Cirencester Car Club Chairman, Martin Saunders has an unrivalled knowledge of the roads, lanes and byways of this area of outstanding natural beauty and, for 2008, the route was to cover 120 miles.

 

As usual, the entry was varied in types and ages of both cars and crews. The oldest cars were James Goodfield’s 1949 MGTC followed by Philip and Doreen Hewer’s 1950 MGTD. Steve and Angela Cropley brought things right up to date with a 2008 Peugeot 308 HDi, that some recognised as Steve’s current long-term test car for Autocar magazine. In between Austin Healey’s (100s, 3000s and Sprites) were popular but Ford’s Escort was the single most numerous model with no less than 11 on the starters list. Skoda’s popularity amongst the modern cars could be seen by three Octavias and one Fabia turning up. Sunday 20th April was the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs’ Drive It Day for older vehicles, so it was fitting that so many should have been taking part in the Corinium Run.

 

The 36 mile Leg One took crews east from the start via Rendcomb, Withington and the Cotswold Hills’ tourist hotspots of Bibury and Northleach before a brief pause at Aldsworth where the cars were all weighed on a farm weighbridge. Introducing the running weight of the cars into the final calculations allows relative efficiencies to be calculated. This throws up some interesting results and direct comparisons between cars of different sizes and ages. The lightest runners were Jack and Virginia Endley’s Liege at 660kg (including crew, fuel and luggage) followed by Andrew Isherwood and Hilary Farbowski’s Caterham Sven at 680kg. Minis, Sprites/Midgets, the Sunbeam Stiletto and the Lotus Elan weighed in between 900 and 1000kg, Escorts between 1100 and 1200kg, modern metal (including sports cars such as BMW Z4 and Audi TT) commonly weighs over 1500kg due to all that safety kit and us wanting ever bigger vehicles. Ian McKenzie-Shapland’s Land Rover Defender 90 (1960kg) was eclipsed by Mat Cashen and Jason Downey’s Aston Martin DB7 Vantage Volante - which weighed 2080kg. However, the heavyweight champion was the Mercedes ML430 of travelling marshals Elliot and George Barnes at 2260kg!

 

The second section of the route was much flatter, running down through Fairford, past the airfields at Fairford and Down Ampney to the half way halt at South Cerney Lakes. This area has seen extensive gravel workings over the years but is now being transformed into leisure parks with holiday accommodation around the water filled pits. The Corinium Run’s mid point checkpoint was in the Coots Café/Bistro (the name points to the large numbers of water birds that are visible from the tables) but participants were also seen heading for the adjacent Old Boat House pub where more substantial fare was on offer. After eating, there was also the Cotswold Outdoor showroom for a spot of shopping! The array of cars that filled the small parking area by the Coots Café made a good picture. The Clerk of the Courses’ Talbot Sunbeam Lotus and Ford Escort RS2000 were joined by Austin Healey (100 and 3000s), MGs (TC, TD, B and Midget), Triumph Spitfire and Howard Dent & Stuart Turner’s stately Morris Isis. Visitors to the South Cerney Water Park were seen enjoying a free car show as they walked around the various sections of the gravel car parks. “Why have some cars got black-on-gold plates on the front, rather than the red-on-white ones?” was a common question to the marshals. The answer was that all those participants who have taken part in all five runs received the “special” gold plates.

Suitably refreshed, crews then headed out onto Leg Three which looped north-west from South Cerney before taking in pretty villages on the way back to Fairford. In Fairford, a road had been dug up, but the other joint Clerk of the Course, Simon Marks and Chief Marshal, Paul Leyfield (who were running two course opening cars in tandem) quickly arrowed and measured a short diversion. It turned out that the roadworks were very short lived, so later runners had unimpeded passage through the town. The next check point just split up the route and allowed crews the opportunity to reset their trip meters (which makes following the road book more straightforward as cumulative errors in different cars lets the mileage figures wander). From an organiser’s point of view, it allowed us to spread the cars out again and prevent large convoys developing – something that can cause annoyance to residents along the route of events such as these.

 

Part Four of the 2008 Corinium Run was nearly 28 miles long and saw the convoy thread its way through more picturesque villages, some spectacularly beautiful valleys and the ford at Duntisbourne Leer where photograoher, Stuart Greenstreet, was on hand to record every car splashing through the water. The scrutineers were waiting at the Centurion Garage to supervise the refilling of the cars and collect the Route Cards. Participants then returned to the Highwayman Inn, where Bridget Lewis and Keith Norman were hard at work entering data into the computer that soon produced the photocertificates, recording the car on the way round and the mpg, cost per mile and Cirencester Efficiency Number achieved. The presentations were much slicker this year. Instead of waiting until about a dozen certificates were ready, a time was announced for the next presentation and photographs taken on the day were shown as a slideshow, projected onto a large screen. When certificates were presented, these were accompanied by the relevant photograph of car and crew being shown on the large screen. This all happened very quickly and few participants found themselves waiting more than twenty minutes for their certificate once they had arrived at the Highwayman Inn. This new format of the presentation was hugely well-received by participants and praised in the many thank you e-mails and letters received after the event.

At the finish of the event, one car / crew combination stood out on all the tables of achievements (other than guessing what mpg they would achieve). It had only been possible to squeeze 2.16 litres of diesel into the Citroen C1 HDi of Malcolm and Tracy Middleton-Salt. Malcolm has headed the sheets on recent runs but the overall figure of 258.39mpg defied belief. The scrutineers even came up to the Highwayman for another look at the little five-door hatchback but (as expected) could find no trace of foul play. The course closing car crew described the car as going very slowly indeed, as it must have barely exceeded tickover in any gear all the way round! Malcolm has the patience to proceed at such low speeds (whilst keeping within the event’s limits of 20mph) but was also fast downhill when the engine was not needed to aid progress! The Cirencester Efficiency Number of this team was an amazing 98.24 and it only cost 2.14 pence per mile.

 

Back in the “real world”, Trevor and Linda Smith teased 76.56mpg (7.24 pence per mile) out of their Citroen Xsara Picasso, just shading Michael Stevens and Tim Hearne’s Skoda Fabia 1.9Tdi that returned 73.73 miles for each gallon of diesel (7.51 pence per mile). The little Liege of the Endleys was the most frugal of the petrol-engined runners at 67.49mpg (7.33 pence per mile – the cheaper Unleaded fuel helps in this calculation). Cliff and Linda Porter performed best amongst the pre-1980 cars, with a fuel consumption of 49.30mpg in a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper “S” (10.04 pence per mile). Event sponsor Mike Webb turned up with a 1975 BMW 1600S and, navigated by Chris Curtis, managed 43.27mpg and 11.44 pence per mile. The aforementioned Mercedes ML 430 only managed 15.07mpg to prop up this particular pile. Jeremy Wells and Pamela Moore’s competition Austin Healey 3000 only just bettered this by managing 16.08 mpg – curiously, Jeremy seemed quite pleased with that!

Turning to the Efficiency Achievements behind the Middleton-Salts, the Smith’s Citroen made a Cirencester Efficiency Number of 42.05. The much lower weight of Michael Stevens Skoda Fabia saw it’s Efficiency Number being 35.82, almost matched by Signing-On crew and Travelling Marshals, Ian and Christine Vout whose Audi A4 returned 61.95mpg and an Efficiency Number of 35.76. The featherweight Liege was back at 15.68 once its lowly weight was factored into the equation. Once again, the surprising 1971 Mercedes 220 of David Smith and Ken Abrahams proved the most efficient of the pre-1980 cars with an Efficiency Number of 18.50 (after using Unleaded petrol at a rate of 31.29mpg). The Webb / Curtis BMW was next up at17.06. Bottom of the pile was the Isherwood / Farbowski Caterham at 5.46. The light weight did not help, nor did the reported inability to resist the compulsive urge from the tuned Rover K Series engine!

 

There is another classification that is included for interest of those whose vehicles may not be able to reach for the stars in the more scientific tables. Stephen Preston and Shirley Bond predicted that they would return 36mpg from their MGF 1.8. Their actual figure of 35.94mpg was only 0.17% out. James Marks and Lewis Horwood predicted 47.50mpg from their Peugeot 309 (1.3) and were only 0.51% out with an actual figure of 47.74mpg. James’ brother, Haydn, had topped this table last year, but having a new car this time around saw him bomb to a deviation of 14.79% when his sporty Skoda Octavia VRS returned 42.61mpg compared to his and Vicki Merritt’s (rather optimistic) prediction of 50mpg.

Cirencester Car Club would like to thank the Organising Team and all the marshals that turned out (there were no less than 12 manned route checks along the way) including the Travelling Marshals – people that arrive early to follow the route and do a job (such as signing-on or running a control) – then complete the route, gaining a certificate souvenir just like “normal” participants. The sixth running of Cirencester Car Club’s Corinium Run will take place on Sunday 19th April 2009. Mark the date in your diary now!

For more information please contact Martin Saunders, quoting ‘Corinium Run’ by email

corinium

@cirencestercarclub.com

 

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