Clutchless on a hovercraft
Living in a Yorkshire village in my early 20’s, a friend with a Mk1 Escort 1100 2-door invited me to share a camping holiday trip driving to Calella in Spain. It was memorable for three things a) ants in the tent! b) whilst away I decided to ask my girlfriend to marry me (she did!) and c) on the way home the clutch cable snapped just before we got to Calais for our return Hovercraft ferry!
Although my friend thought this was a disaster, I had served my time as a Ford technician and was able to drive a car with a broken clutch. The technique is to start it in first gear then try not to have to stop again if possible! Changing gear on the move without a clutch is a fairly easy job, once you get going…
The first hurdle was getting onto the Hovercraft… We explained to the staff and they would load us last. With everyone else embarked, I started the Escort and drove round in circles until waved it up the ramp and stopped on board. First hurdle overcome!
Travelling on the cross-channel hovercraft was a 35 minute adventure in itself, great fun!
Once at Dover we went to the nearest Ford dealer. They didn’t have a cable but kindly made some calls for us (no mobiles then). As it was a Saturday the only dealer they could find with a cable in stock and who would be open when we could get there was at the northern end of the Dartford tunnel, not exactly on our route home! We drove there (using our maps, GPS did not exist) trying to avoid having to come to a stop, as it would strain the starter, battery and gearbox to get going again. It was a VERY interesting drive, especially round the outskirts of London, trying to appease other drivers who couldn’t possibly understand what was going on. The Dartford tunnel queue was particularly challenging and of course we had to stop to pay the toll…
The Escort was brilliant, soaking up all the abuse and we finally reached the dealership and bought the new clutch cable. Fitting it was relatively easy and we were finally able to head home to Yorkshire, two drivers very appreciative of a piece of equipment most take for granted in a car – a working clutch!
Those were days when cars were ‘mechanical’ and these things were possible. Today you reach for your mobile phone and the recovery service. Very handy maybe, but where’s the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge in that?
