Dominos!

(I have had to edit this posting as I wrote it after consuming a bottle of wine)
Feels like the years are passing very quickly, I still cannot work out why as one gets older times passes quickly-loads of theories have been expressed by some wise old sages, but time is a unit so I cannot understand this..............

A few rumblings about the past year, been a good one I think, with some top events being enjoyed!

Biggest downer was the HCR, poor maintenance resulting in nsf wheel bearing failure near Crossgates in the middle of Wales, inexcusable! Massive apologies to James Carruthers, he certainly did not wish to spend 4 hours sitting as a passenger in a recovery truck!

The event I enjoyed the most was certainly the Club's Autosolo at Bovingdon Aerodrome, so good to see 30 or so CT members enjoying their cars and all competing against each other and the clock. I did quite well until the rain came down in what must be described as biblical proportions, after that my times fell away. I could'nt cope and therefore got beaten by Mike Helm, Nigel Abdullah and Andy Martin-well done chaps.
For next year I am really looking forward to the event again to be held at Bovingdon again, Nigel Abdullah who will set out the tests, has promised to make them longer by exploiting the amount of runway that we will be given by the landlords of the aerodrome. The tests were a bit cramped foir the bigger cars, therefore the added space help to make the saloons more competitive and o course a little less work for the drivers!
Bovingdon is a weird place as it used to be a Bomber Command and 8th USAF Bomber base during WW2, it seems sad that it is better known these days as a weekend market venue, an incongruous useage-all cheap shit and junk food! The aerodrome has been used for as a venue for various films including '633 Squadron', 'The Battle of Britain' and 'Mosquito Squadron'.
Anyrate, I cannot wait for the CT A'solo on 19/07/10!

The 10CR was weird and in retrospect a great event, the highlight for me being the Le Mans stops and the strange one at Condom in France, one made very extraordinary as I run into an old mate of mine just after we left, one of only two people I know who live in France-this blew my mind! BTW Terry Wogan has a place in Condom! All in all great fun and massive thanks must go to Dave Kent for being good company and always willing to get stuck in when the bonnet needed to be opened, this happened alot as we had lots of dizzy problems!

Next year I look forward to more Autosolo events, Track Days, the HCR, the Stoneleigh show and of course the highlight, the RBRR.

Anyrate enough musings, I must wish all CT friends and members the best of luck and hope that 2010 is a good year-considering the amount of events that we can look forward I think that owning a Triumph and being a member of CT will mean a good a year can be looked forward to, I cannot wait to get out there and start having fun!

2009 was good, but I am certain that 2010 will be better-onwards and upwards!

RBRR 2010

As you all know, I am the Main Organiser of the Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run. I am very lucky to have 3 very talented guys to help organise the event, these being: On maps: Nigel Abdullah, on Entry Admin: Jason Chinn and on IT: James Carruthers. In fact owing to the amount of work that they are doing, I seem to have nothing to do at present! Good lads eh!

Anyrate its all go, so far 39 entries have arrived at Jase's house, gawd knows how many will arrive tomorrow. Its seems like RBRR fever has descended upon the Club-fantastic stuff!

Its a top event and I cannot wait to be in the car park at 'The Plough' getting ready for the driving odyssey that is the RBRR!

Expect to see all the lastest info about the event on the CT website and upon the RBRR Blog that will be featured within the 'site.

Out of my mind on cake and speed!

Last Saturday I took part in the MGoT/CT Track Day at Oulton Park, and what a great weekend I had.

I travelled up to Oulton Park in the company of my old mate Darren Reynolds who was taking part in his fist TD using his very standard Peugeot 205GTi 1.9. We met with Dave Langrick at the B&B I had booked, and were later joined by Dale Barker, Dave and Dale using their respective notorious (within CT circles) cars, Spitfire mk4 with 2.0 six cyl. engine that has been lucas fuel injected and Herald Convertible fitted with 4 pot 1500cc engine. We then all met up with Doug and Katie Foreman at the pub they stayed in Tarporley called 'The Forresters Arms' (Seemed to be a great pub-nice vibe). D and K were using Katie's mk2 GT6, this car already being used for its 3rd event in so many weekends, the previous events being the Oxford MC Autosolo at Sliverstone and The Regis Rally, held down in Sussex. This little car has been pretty well unused for 15 or so years and within 4 weeks of purchase by the Foremans has entered 3 demanding events-good stuff or what!

After a quick pint in The Forresters we went next door to a Thai restaurant for a spot of grub and wine in Dave and Katies case-a riotous couple of hours were then enjoyed, culminating in Dave doing a Peter Sellers impersonation, you had to be there but it was bloody funny!

So the to TD on the following morning, we woke to a nice cloudless morning and after a small but appetising breakfast went onto Oulton Prk for the usual preliminaries of signing in, briefing and noise testing-the limit being a liberal 105db.

Then it was time to do our 'Sighting' laps behind a Vauxhall VX220 sportscar, these relatively slow laps showed two things, one being that Oulton Park is a teriffic race track and the other being that it was dammed slippery!

This left two more sessions for the morning, as they say on BBC1 F1, the track started to come back to us as it dried out and by the last session a dry line was more or less descernible. This meant that the previous tip-toeing around driving could be dispensed with and all drivers could start to explore their cars and the limits of handling and speed.

Honestly, I thought Oulton is one of the best tracks I have driven and I was itching to get stuck in after lunch. This consisted off a sarnie scrounged off Dave and a cuppa brewed up on my small camper stove, followed by a piece of fruit cake-all very cheap but very welcome as the weather was quite nippy and had brought on a hunger! Dave regaled us with a CT event rating system based upon dundee cake, one cake being something like a TD, two cakes being the HCR, three cakes being the RBRR and four cakes being the 10CR! Bizarre and surreal, but in a way accurate. Katie and Dave spent a good fifteen minutes giggling about this and the ability of my kettle to make tea making a time consuming past activity, I pointed out that tea making is a serious business and like most nice things should not be hurried, their answer to this is unprintable! If I had used my brain and remembered that as most UK tracks now have good facilities I should have taken my electric kettle!

Dave talking to Katie about his 'Cake' theory (She looks to be texting though)! The 'Stove' is in shot!

Anyrate enough talk about the good old Brit staples of tea, sandwiches and cake and talk about the next few sessions. Mercifully the track had fully dried out and presented a nice dry surface, this enabled some faster laps to be completed, well when I say 'fully' I don't mean Druids, this was still as slippery as well, an eel, after gradually getting a bit cocky and starting to prove how well balanced the 2.5 is, she bit me in the bum with an horrendous spin, one minute forward facing motion, the next minute backwards along the track, onto the offside verge and hey ho we were off to the barrier, a quick correction and I'm off across the track onto the nearside grass to stop amid clouds of rubber smoke and crap! Like a proper berk I then managed to stall the car, however a quick turn off the key I was off again wheelspinning down to 'Lodge'. I then made a complete cock of that corner, however managed to get around that to have a breather as I went along the main straight. I was gutted about this as up until the spin I had been gaining upon Chris Shaw and his rapid but innocuous looking SAAB, here was me thinking of where I could overtake him, oh well.

The next sessions were somewhat subdued as rain came down therefore the track resorted to be a ice rink! All in all though a great day, I do hope that one day we can all return to enjoy in dry conditions what is a challenging circuit.

By the way I must say that the GT6s present were superb, As well as Katie's lovely mk2, Keith Dandridge was there with his just re-painted silver mk2, Roy Lacey and his always improving white mk1 and Tim Ward and his fantastic just 'out of the box' mk3-how low is that car! Reckon the old car culture is waking up to the fact that the GT6 is an under-rated gem!

A nice photo(?)(Left to right: Dave Langrick, Katie Foreman, Doug Foreman, Dale Barker, Martin Randle and me)!!!

Afterwards it was time for the now traditional 'CT De-brief' in a local boozer, the Shrewsbury Arms being chosen, all present agreeing that Oulton Park was fun. Dave then suggested that we adjorn to a chippie he had seen in Winsford for fish and chips-bloomin' lovely it was as well. Nothing like chips and a can of coke on the side of the road! Dave was full of great ideas all weekend-top lad!

I left Winsford at about 18.00 to get home for 20.45. One snag being that I had no overdrive, this has previously shown no sign of a problem, I therefore hope that a wire has become dis-connected during the spin! I shall have a good look next weekend.

I must use this space to thank Chris Shaw for all his hard work in organising the CT presecence at Oulton Park, nice one Chris. Also of course, thanks to Dave Livingstone and the MGoT people, nice that all that silly Triumph v MG rivalry is disappearing.

Also, cars of the day either Peter Jackson's rapid 2.5Pi mk2-fast car or what or the yankie V8 engined MGB convertible-that car was so stable and looked to be so well engineered. Its great to see old cars being used like this. Also forgot to mention Lloyd and Ken McNeil's Standard Ten, what a car, they were at Cadwell Park earler this year and again caused alot of good comments as well as being fast!

Only one or two events left, the main one being the Bedford Car Club 'Santa Rally' to held just before Xmas. This is quite important as it could decide who wins the CT Drivers Challenge, if Mike Helm decides to take the 'Drivers Championship, its between me and Mike Bishop. I will more or less be in the hands of Ellis Stokes who will be navigating for me, no pressure then. I know that if Ellis is on his game we could beat Mike, brave words eh!

Looks to be a good way to end the year!

This is the modern world!

Went to the Pistonheads Sunday Service this morning at BMW's UK HQ at Bracknell. I went with some old friends of mine who own more modern cars.

These are their cars, a Pug 205GT1 1.9, Subaru Impreza Turbo amd BMW M3, and of course my old saloon at the back! Darren is bringing his 205 to Oulton Park.

The car park was full of modern cars, mainly M3s and Subarus, however did spot some nice older machinery, a nice Cooper S and a Fiat Abart 500-60s not the modern big thing! Unfortunately it was raining very hard whilst we were there, so we did not stop long. My fave car was a Caterham R500, very nice, BRG with orange rim to the nose cone. Also spotted a couple of nice Focus RS, these newish Fords do look big. I'd love to have a drive, I love my ST but must admit would like to try something that had a bit more power.

The saloon went well on the drive over to Bracknell, the moisture (!) coupled with the 123 dizzy certainly transformed the car, she seems so much snappier. in fact so much so that I may take her to Oulton Park next weekend for the MGoT.

Onto that, I have had real problems today attempting to get decent brake pedal feel on the GT6 following the installation of these Wilwood calipers. It took nearly two hours to bleed her, but I still ended up with a soft pedal. I used my usual brake pipe bleeders which have a one-way valve fitted, and are then passed through an old plastic water bottle.

These bleeders cost £4.95, so I have one for each bleed nipple-makes the job very quick and easy-normally that is! The pic. shows one, the one-way valve is inside the bottle.

These Wilwood calipers have two bleed nipples one each side of the unit. The actual bleeding screw is very small, being 1/4AF, therefore I had to use a small piece of vacumm tube to ensure I had a reasonable seal to be able to bleed properly, but try as I might I could not get all the air out-time to just check on all the joints and leave overnight whilst I chill out!

I will have another go at these on Tuesday night, if no joy then its 2.5 for Oulton!!!

The Devil was in my car!

Jeez, where does the time go?

About time I worte about my latest Triumph news, so here goes.

GT6 mk2:
I have not used the car much as I was concentrating on getting the 2.5 ready for the 10CR. In fact the only use has been to take the car to a CT North London meeting at The Plough and entering another Oxford MC Autosolo event .
The Autosolo was last Sunday (04/10/09), before the event I decided to change the anti roll bar to the correct GT6 item, I have been using a Spitfire 1500 arb for years with obvious under-steer issues. The change in conjunction with polyurethane bushes has as expected resulted in a far more neutral handling car, if still prone to understeer! Still one cannot change basic laws of motion!
So to the A’solo, after a nice drive to Silverstone through deserted roads from Chertsey to Silverstone through Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Buckingham to the venue at an early time I arrived to be met by Mike and Matthew Helm in Mike’s Spitfire and Katie and Doug Foreman in Katie’s newly acquired mk2 GT6-royal blue-very nice!!!! Doug was supposed to be using his Herald, unfortunately he could’nt finish the engine re-build he is undertaking so had entered the GT6. As they had only picked the car up on day before this was surprising, what a baptism of fire! As agreed previously Katie was driving my car, and I was seriously conscious of the fact that she could beat me! The first runs were on a very wet surface, and by lunch after 2 ‘Tests’ I was 2.3 secs. in front of Katie, after the 3rd ‘Test’ I was still 2.1 secs. in front and looked to be on my way to my first Class win at this sport. All I had to do was get two competitive times in and I would win, however my first run at the 4th and final ‘Test’ I wrong slotted, but the next two were fine for a ‘Wet’ run. Sadly for me during Katie’s and Matthew’s runs an entrant in another class in a Golf GTi lost a wheel meaning a 45 min delay, as the sun had come out the course started to dry out. This resulted in damp and dry runs for them both, meaning that they decimated my times! Katie therefore won the ‘Historic’ class by 0.1 sec from Matthew and 1.2secs from me!

I watched Katie driving my car, boy has she got a talent for driving these cars, during the whole day she hardly put a foot wrong, some of the lines she took being very precise, in fact she flattered my car, very impressive. Of course she now has her own GT6, so she can use her own car next time! Doug did very well in the totally standard car, and was constantly managing to reduce his times throughout the day. It was weird looking at this car as it reminded me so much of what my car looked like when I bought it in 1983! Doug, has so impressed me, 7 months ago he was hanging onto life by way of a life support machine following his awful M25 crash and is now entering autosolos and navigation rallies, what a trooper, good man!

I see they did 'The Regis Rally' in the car, it seems to have found some 5.5J solid steels, looks good-its gonna be fascinating to see this car over the years and the way it gets transformed. I must admit I have been mystified recently by comments on the CT Forum that suggest the mk2 GT6 is not the best looking example, I feel that with its higher mounted bumper it looks more purposeful, one only has to look at the Group 44 racers to realise this!

Next plans, well the last 2009 motoring event for me will be the MGoT Track Day at Oulton Park in early November. For that event I have just fitted some unused Wilwood 4 pot calipers that I bought years ago from a a chap that Ellis Stokes knows that was going to use them on his Kit Car. These went on relatively easy, the only pain being the need for some longer fasteners to fit the caliper adapters onto the mk2 GT6 caliper mounts, I ended up using suitably strong cap head 7/16unf set screws. The edges of the GT6 caliper mounts needed to be slightly ground down to facilitate the alloy caliper conversion brackets. At the moment I have a new set of green stuff pads in the calipers, however will probably change these to a set of Mintex 1144s.

I still have not fitted the tubular top wishbones to the car, reckoning on doing this after the TD. The other priority is to sort out the rear end damage, might well take the car up to MW restorations in Saffron Walden, Mike Wilkinson is a good guy who did some bodywork on the car years ago.

2.5Pi Mk1
I made the decision during the event to buy a 123 Electronic Distributor, which I duly did, buying it from Southern Carburettors from Mitcham. These are superb units and very easy to fit and as expected have cured some of my running issues. By the way Southern Carbs. are a nice company, the chap I spoke to was very attentive. Please do not confuse with SC Parts! All that’s left to do is to fit the spare cylinder head that I have in the shed.
One great bit of news that will help to ensure the longevity of the car is that I have started to use a neighbours garage to store the car.

A nice pic taken of the car near Aix le-Bains on the September 10CR, with James Carruthers superb 2000 mk1-which by the way certainly goes well!!!! Thanks to Craig Gingell for the snap.

Herald

Blimey, I have just moved the old thing off the front drive into the space previously occuppied by the 2.5. This of course means that I can crack on and get some work done on the car.

Last weekend I went up to see Roy Burrell who is modding the cylinder head for me, must say I am impressed by the work he has done. Roy was recommended to me by Karl Dandridge, Dave Pearson and Craig Gingell, so far I must say I am impressed. I collected the carbs and inlet manifold I had previously bought from Andrew Turner, Roy has cleaned up the tracts in the manifold and done a bit of flow work to the SU HS4s. Must admit I am starting to get a bit revved up over the thought of using the car.

She will need some bodywork repairs, as follows:

A)Front wheel arches to be repaired

B) Lower off side door repair

C)Lower part of offside panel between door and wheelarch

D) Repairs to rear deck on the offside.

E) Rear valance perforated, will replace with fibreglass units.

As I have previously mentioned that car is a 1962 Herald 1200 Coupe, that was stuck onto a 13/60 chassis at some point. This is great news as I can fit the overdrive gearbox that I have. In theory the cars spec should be as follows:

Engine: 1300 + 60thou, TH5 cam, modded head with bigger valves, carbs as above and tubular exhaust manifold with Vitesse exhaust system

Gearbox: Spitfire mk3 with J type overdrive. Works type overdrive toggel switch on gear lever.

Front Suspension: Red polybushed, with AVO shockers and 330lb springs (These will in all likelihood be changed for 480lb items). Spitfire 1500 arb with Jon Wolfe links.

Rear Suspension: Swing spring with red polybushes and AVO shockers.

Brakes: Front: 4 pot Hi Spec units with Mintex 1144 pads, Rear: Standard-though may be changed to GT6 units.

Wheels etc: 13'' 5.5J Dunlop solid steels with Yokohama 185/60 13'' tyres.

Interior: Standard except 6 point cage and added instrumentation (Rev Counter, oil pressure gauge and mechanical temp gauge). Will probably purchase (when rich!) some Corbeau period looking buckets.

Its riduculous as I have had most of the above equipment for years, just been so busy with the other cars ! Anyrate, I hope the car will be a nice little example, however it will not be in the same league as Craig Gingell's gorgeous supercharged Coupe. I hope to use her on next year's CT HCR?

Right that will do for now. Of course the biggest project that will occupy most of my time for the next 11 months is the CT RBRR. We have already started on this event and cannot wait for the weekend of the event in early October next year!!!!

10CR and all that

Well, the old car did the 10CR, had ignition problems but when she was running well the car was went well! However we did spend alot of time under the bonnet-missed really looking at the Milleu Bridge, which was a shame. Dave Kent was my co-driver, reckon he did 60% of the driving, and exhibited a never say die attitude towards my car-cheers Dave.

We spent most of the time in the company of Andy and Jason in Andy's Vitesse, James and Craig in James' 2000 mk1, Mike and Andy in Andy's newly acquired TR7 V8 and Russell and Carmel in Russell's TR6. Thanks for sticking with us! James' car only passed its MOT on the morning of the event and then did not miss a beat, top car!!

Andy M's Vitesse had a few issues that ended with him using a cut down Citroen valve spring to replace the one that broke, later on the overdrive on the car stopped working therby reducing their motorway speed. This is a terrific car, but I must say that Andy does not get to enjoy the best of luck with the car.

Highlights of the event being small things:

Such as bumping into an old friend of mine,Lloyd just south of Alencon, only people I are know in France are Lloyd and Abbi-blooming weird or what!

Enjoyed a pizza with Mike and Andy Bestard in Italy in a lovely town, Aosta I think.

Waking up in the car park to a cemetry in Condom, Lloyd told me that Terry Wogan has a place in that town.

Friday morning brekkie in a nice village somewhere in France!!!

Nice meal in Dunkirk before getting the ferry home.

The control stop in the car park opposite the entrance to Le Mans as the sun set was special-nice vibe at that stop.

Dale Barker's Herald and James Shackford's 2.5Pi mk1 receiving some attention at Le Mans. Below: Russell Banyard's TR6 and the similar car owned by Gerhard Bose. Poor pic. but as usual I hardly took any snaps!

So all in all a good trip, spoilt by the poor performance of my car, still that is what one will get if one does not look after these old cars! Worst part of the event was hearing that Joe and Frank Welling had their mishap in the Alps, still at least that car is repairable and will be back in use soon.

Yesterday I went to the Goodwood revival, last went in 2007 and I must say that the event was very good, however the cost is abit much. Highlights being the quality of cars in the Tax Exempt car park and the flypasts of various old planes, best and most awe inspring being the Vulcan-boy oh boy what a immense machine! On the way I followed a Ferrari Daytona along the A27 and A3, nice car, but srangely odd looking-think I'd rather a Dino 246! I will not be able to go next year as I will be flat out on the RBRR, but reckon every two years is about right.

Before I went to Goodwood, I fitted the Magnecor leads from the GT6 onto the 2.5, mis-fire issues gone!! I will order some Lumenition blue leads for the GT6 and keep the Magnecor's on the saloon. Also when funds permit, I will be fitting a 123 dizzy onto the saloon and will be changing the cylinder head.

Mumblings!

Been blown away by some of the tasty modern products that are now available for sale. At work yesterday I spent some time talking a colleague of mine who is a fellow music fan about the Ipod Classic that he has. He is a naturally cynical guy, and if he rates them well they must be good! I want to buy one in time for the forthcoming Club Triumph 10 Countries Run. None of my Triumph cars have radios or CD players in them as I would rather listen to the car and concerntrate on the driving, however for the 10CR I think it would be a good idea to have some way of listening to music whilst in the passenger seat and having a kip etc. Hope, Dave my co-driver does not read this and think I am gonna be anti-social!



Apart from cars both old and new,my biggest pleasure has always been listening to music, this all started in the late 70s with the punk rock explosion and ever since I have been a avid music fan. Luckily I grew up at the time of John Peel on the radio and he inspired me to get into all types of music, basically open my ears and enjoy all types. My one barometer has always been to attempt to judge if the artist/group etc is really interested in music for its own sake or just making music with a view to make money or maybe become a c list celebrity! This might sound naive, but I genuinely believe that some people exist who are not slaves to the dollar/pound/euro! Take The Beatles, I remain convinced that the money was not the driving force behind their career, it was down to the fact that they just wanted to make and play music, alright they certainly made alot of money, but then they produced quality songs!



My Ford Focus is always full of CDs and CD cases, that go careering of the front seat at the first sniff of a corner. Therefore I hope that the purchase of a Ipod will cease this problem, seems that the downloading of my music will be easy, I hope it is as I have loads of the stuff.



I have always been one of those sad b*stards that likes lists and I thought it would be good to list my fave LP/CDs and singles:

Long Players (Jeez, how long is it since this label was used).

Mezzanine: Massive Attack

Pet Sounds: The Beach Boys

Heaven Up Here: Echo and the Bunnymen

All Mod Cons: The Jam

Love: The Cult

Screamadelic: Primal Scream

Lost Souls: Doves

Ferment: The Catherine Wheel

Hunky Dory: David Bowie

Fear of Music: Talking Heads



Singles

The Killing Moon: Echo and the Bunnymen

Whats Goin' On: Marvin Gaye

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight: The Jam

Ashes to Ashes: David Bowie

The Bottle: Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson

She Sells Sanctuary: The Cult

The Changing Man: Paul Weller

Eight Miles High: The Byrds

A Forest: The Cure

Party Fears Two: The Associates



Just looked at the above list, not alot of vareity there then, looks like I forgot Mr Peel's example!Apols. if I seem a bit up my own one, but I am genuinely excited about purchasing an Ipod and downloading the music. Yep, I have always been one of those types who makes compilation tapes/CDs for friends!



Onto cars, well its been a busy couple of days.



GT6: Took the car to Moordale Motors to let Dale Barker jave a look at the car, his feeling being that the car needs a new rear valence as it will not be easy to get the panel looking good following the bump on the M3 the other day. No way can I charge the full value of the job to the chap who hit the car so I will ask him to pay a portion of the cost. Otherwise nothing is planned for the GT6 at present as I have to get stuck into the 2.5 to get that ready for the 10CR.



I took the 2.5 over to Richard Brake's place yesterday and he has very kindly agreed to carry out some much needed welding to the sills so that I can obtain the dreaded MOT certificate. I have previously mentioned that I have another better head for the engine. I am in two minds about changing the head, the engine pinks quiet badly under load. The dizzy is quite worn, I have attempted to retard the ignition to no avail so I think changes are needed. However the head I have is supposed to be a good un with large valves and a bit of porting work having been done. Giving this some thought, I think I will fit the new dizzy and see how she goes, then if still pinking I will change the head. On the subject of a new dizzy, bit shocked at how expensive the 123 electronic items are now owing to the weak pound, was thinking about one for the car, looks like I will get a re-con'd Lucas jobbie.



I mentioned the Ford Focus I have as my company car. Must say that the car is an absolute hoot to drive being a 4 door ST, must be the best modern car I have had use of. The engine is quiet heavy and therefore it oversteers, but years of Triumph ownership have prepared me for that characteristic. I have now done 63,000 miles in 2.333 years and the car has proved to be totally reliable, bit like the two Mondeos I had before. I know people go on about the ST being a bit flash, but I really like mine and will be sad to see it go next May. What next, gawd knows, possibly the new Alfa Romeo Focus equivalent. From the leaked photos I have seen this car looks like it could be very nice, however will it just be a modded Fiat? I'll probably stay with another Ford, well built, reliable, good chassis and relatively cheap when compared to say German cars

Umm!

Just got back from my trip to Cornwall in the little car.

The trip was made for two reasons:
a) Go and have a look at the Pub/Hotel we hope to use for the 2010 RBRR. Owing to the terrible service we received on the last RBRR by the staff and management of 'The Lands End Hotel', it was decided that we should seeks a new venue for Breakfast on the Sunday morning. Tony Quick, husband of CT's Cornwall Local Group Organiser, Sally Ann Quick has found a very suitable place, so I popped in and had a look. Looks fine apart from the fact that when we leave we will all have to drive into the local town and turn around at a mini roundabout. So I have just got to agree a price and have a chat with Nigel Abdullah to ensure he is happy and this new venue should be spot on?
b) Spend some time with old friends of mine who own a nice farm near Helston. Spent most of Saturday making and starting a massive bonfire, drinking beer and then popped along to Parr Sands for dinner. Nice time. Only shame was seeing a bloated Englishman with his belly out-jeez, put it away!

The journey to Cornwall took 9 hours on Saturday, awful weather but must say the little car did me fine. Coming home today I left Helston at 8.15, dropped my mate at the train station at Redruth (He works in London in the week-I beat him to the M25 in a GT6 v Train race!) and got home at 13.45, including for a little stop. However this included a shunt on the M3 near Basingstoke, basically I was at standstill for a few minutes, the traffic in front moved off and the chap in the Nissan FWD thing behind me thought I had moved away and drove into the rear of the little car. Caused damage to the number plate panel and paint damage to the whole of the rear of the car. Thankfully the cost should not be so bad so I hope we will not involve insurance companies. Shame of it was that the guy who was driving seemed a nice bloke and was genuinely upset to have damaged my car!

Oh well, 25.5years and never had anyone drive into the car before!

Good thing was that apart from the usual amount of Beetles and Camper Vans in Cornwall I did see a fair amount of old cars, the best being a French plated Peugeot 504 estate on the A30 near Exeter-marvelous looking car! Also had a drive along with a Daimler Dart/SP250 near Hayle Bay on the A30, rare old beast eh! Saw a fair few Triumphs this morn including a mk3 Spittie, a 2000 mk1 saloon and a TR5 near Wylie on the A303. Oh, and I got flashed by a MGB on the old A30 at Leckford on Saturday-blimey, oh riley!


So a mixed weekend, but all in all I must say the little car drove very nicely.

Catch up!

Just a quick one!

Did another 'Autosolo' last weekend, took part in the Sevenoaks District Motor Club event at North Weald Aerodrome near Epping in Essex. I was entered in the 'Historic' class alomng with fellow CT'ists: Katie Foreman (Herald 13/60), Clive Senior (Toledo), Mike Helm (Spitfire 1500) and Mike Bishop (Herald 1200). I came first out of the Triumph cars and 2nd in class, beaten by a Ford Escort RS2000. Luckily a Austin Healey Sprite fitted with a powerful 1900 Ford Zetec engine acheived FTD and was therefore moved out of class! Must admit that I was pleased, however I think I would have come third if Mike Helm had not had to go and get some welding sorted and therefore did not do all the tests. He's a real bandit, and bloody fast!

This event was different in that the Cones were not numbered, I was apprehensive about this, but in fact found it to be ok. We all taped the route diagram to our dashboards in case of problems. I only made one mistake, that being the first attempt of the 4th Test, as one's best two times count I was ok as my two other attempts went well. This event was definitely the fastest one I have done and very enjoyable. Must say though that I thought the previous w'ends Club Triumph event was better organised. The best thing about the 7oaks event was that we did not have to Marshal, time was therefore spent drinking tea, swatting wasps (Or not eh, Clive) chatting and bull*hitting! Doug Foreman was his new chatty self, and Katie seemed to be thinking its time for more power-easy answer and its spelt 'GT6'! Mike Bishop is getting bloomin' quick as well. Umm, thank the Lord for 6 cyls and 2000cc!

The little car did very well, once again the exhaust started to blow at the collector joint after the manifold. Really fed up with this as these exhausts cost so much money and one cannot get a decent seal. Last night was spent sorting this problem as I hope to take the car to Cornwall for a couple of days tomorrow. Otherwise the car is going very well, no other issues to talk about. Not sure what to do with her next, keep as she is or maybe lower the gearing to make her into a more competitive Autosolo car. This will involve changing the diff for either a LSD unit with either 3.89:1 or 4.11:1 ratio. I still have not fitted the Wilwood brake calipers to the car, this will happen soon.

However I must think about the 10CR and getting the 2.5 ready-next w'end? Saturday will spent at Curborough where my mate Mike is sprinting his Mini, have'nt been there since 1984! Jeez, time is flying!

Right Cornwall, here I come!

Club Triumph Competition Committee

I do hope people reading this do not mind me writing about the above Committee.

I think it is important to remember that Club Triumph is not a 'Classic' Car Club, but the original Triumph Motor Club owing to its 50s origin. By stating this I have nothing against 'Classics' but I think the terms 'Motor Club' or Car Club' portray the Club's history. The Club used to organise a wide range of events such as tours, autotests for new owners of Triumph cars, however by the late 70s membership was dropping off. The 'Classic car culture that sprung up at that time boosted interest in Triumph cars, membership starting to pick resulting in the membership of 1475 we presently enjoy. CT always had a problem in that it used to organise the biennial RBRR but for driving events more or less become dormant in between, thankfully the Club had the Show scene available to show its prescence.(Please note that the above comments are mine, not the Club's and certainly not the Club's policy).

This situation was relieved in 2003 by the first running of the 10 Countries Run, as conceived by Martin Randle. The other great tool in bringing together the membership is this website and its superb forum, making it easy to tap into the enthusiasm of the membership of make things happen-nice one, Mr Bennett!

Therefore in 2005 we formed the Comp. Ctte. and since then have produced some decent events, managed to get together a calendar of events that CT members can take part in and recently inaugurated four Championships. All of this hoping to make it exciting to be in the Club and of course further the use of Triumph cars either competitively or just getting them onto the road. The help of organisations such as Bedford Car Club, MG on Track, Caledonian Historic Motorsport Club and NESCRO must be acknowledged as they have been very willing to let our Members take part in their events, often making it unecessary to join their organisations. I do hope that this does not get read as self congratulatory, we are fully aware that we have lots of work to do to keep up the interest in Triumph cars and of course most importantly create or maintain events that the membership of CT can take part in and enjoy.

The aim of this Ctte is to provide cheap motorsport for the members of the Club to take part in. The Ctte will never be able to organise races or stage rallies, but we see no reason why we cannot organise fun events at the small budget end of motorsport culture. Talking with Dale Barker and Martin Randle, I think the CT Competition Committee have a few more exciting events planned over the next few years, information will be forthcoming as soon as finalised. This Committee is an imaginative bunch and whilst some of our ideas are a bit whacky the ones we run with are sure to offer a good time for CT members.

We have just held the first of what is hoped to become an annual event, the Club Triumph Autosolo and we managed to get 33 entrants together, this being far more than we expected. All CT members taking part seemed to be having a good time, whatever car they were using and however they were doing all were smiling throughout the day, not bad considering the awful weather we enjoyed. Top 3 results were:

1st. Mike Helm: TR6

2nd. Nigel Abdullah: Herald 1200 (Using Dale Barker's Herald)

3rd. Andy Martin: Vitesse 1600 (Ex Monte Carlo Rally car)

Their cars are shown below. Amazing pic of Andy's Vitesse eh!!

After the Autosolo, we have the first 12 Car Rally that the Club has organised taking part in Essex in August. New Ctte. Member Mike Banks has sorted this out, the attention to detail and planning he has done is top notch and again we are sure the event will be both challenging but fun.

Right, end of my sermon.

However, please get involved as driving cars is fun!!

Blimey, 2 useable Triumphs!

After an afternoon and early mornings work on the GT6 the longer driveshafts are now fitted to the car. As this involved stripping the rear suspension off the car, this meant dis-connecting the rear brakes. My old mate Diz popped over and pumped the pedal whilst I bleed the brakes. Alot of enthusiasts use 'Ezzi Bleeed' kits, personally I do not get on with these as I find it difficult to get a seal at the lid of the master cylinder. Therefore I have always used simple little bleeding pipes that have a one way valve fitted, these being available in motor factors for not much money. In fact they are so cheap that I have four of them are used in conjunction with small water bottles that have drilled caps with the pipe pushed through, makes it tidy for when they fall over as fluid does not get everywhere. So with one attached to each brake bleed nipple., its an easy job to whizz around and get a pedal, something like 15 mins.

So that was it the car is ready for next Sunday! After years of stripping and re-building rotoflex suspension and fighting gainst the distortion bought about by the rotoflex couplings its a joy to work with the CV suspension. The only sticking part is the attachment of the inner CV pot to the diff output shafts as getting the 3/8unf nylocs onto the studs is a bit fiddly. As usual the car exhibited positive camber whilst up in the air, however a reverse out of the garage and back in soon had the suspension sitting at the correct level, surprisingly enough it seems to be showing 1 - 2 degrees of negative camber now, weird as the longer shafts should not be at the end of the splines within the CV pots?

Its great to have the car back in use after its short time off the road. I mentioned last time that rot is starting to break out again, this is very apparent in the bonnet and the tailgate. Also badly affected is the return panel in the boot, this being badly holed especially in the area by the exhaust silencer box. Once the summer is over I will be taking the car to one of my mates houses as he has kindly agreed to let me leave the car in his dry garage. This means that the Herald can go into my garage. I think I am going to cost out how much it will cost to build a new double garage, luckily I will be able to buy all the materials very cheaply through work.

Right, next week I will be using the car in the Club Triumph Autosolo, I have also offered the use of the car to James Carruthers for this event. James is a tidy and smooth driver so it will be interesting to see how we compare, last time I did this I only managed to beat Katie Foreman using my car by 0.3secs over the day, I hope I can do better against James?

Found this photo of my car taking part in a TR Register Track Day back in 2004 at Mallory Park, really like it as the car looks to be going fast owing to the slight distortion, pretty little car eh!

This one is from the 2000 RBRR and is of my old mate Richard Arthers looking remarkably happy after 36 hours in the car!

Spanner time!

Been working on both the GT6 and the 2.5. GT6 to get ready for next weekends CT Autosolo and the saloon for last weekends CT National Day at Beaulieu.

I replaced the TCAs for the saloon, of course this was not easy as both the bushed joint was rusted solid on both arms and the drag strut to TCA joints were both rusted up. As speed was of the essence I bought re-con'd arms from James Paddock and bought a pair of secondhand drag struts from Canleys. This meant that I went up to Dave's to pick them up as well as the new longer CV driveshafts for the GT6. As I got there late in the afternoon we decided that a pint would be in order, so I popped down to The Manor in Fillongley with Dave and Joe Welling. Talking with them both, it looks like Canleys are about to enter another period of exciting new products for both small chassis'd, TR and big Saloon Triumph cars. I cannot divulge too much, but one or two saloon boys will be spending some money with Dave in September!

Anyrate back to the saloon, Saturday was spent sorting the front suspension out, I took the front subframe off the car and cleaned that up, re-fitted the frame, fitted the new TCAs and drag struts and then fitted the hubs etc. Followed by a good wash of the car it was soon time to get inside as darkness had descended! I enjoyed the day apart from the humidity. Only pig job being the fitting of the ARB links, these being the ball joint type as sold by Paddocks, I ended up having to drop the arb to get the link into place. Must say I did not find much difference with this better locating system, maybe its time to think about a different mounting and link them directly to the TCA. The car does roll, however I am loathe to fit a bigger diameter arb as I do not want any more understeer.

The next jobs to do to the car before the impending September CT 10CR are to get some localised welding to the sills of the car done to enable a MOT ticket to be obtained and change some UJs. Also of course I must change the cylinder head for the 2.5s unit I have.

Pic. showing the ARB link. I wonder how long it will last?

On the Sunday it was the CT National at Beaulieu in the New Forest. After talking to Doug Foreman during the week before the National, I offered to go and get the big fella from Ringmer, picking him up at 08.00. After an eventful drive we arrived at the National in a mega rainstorm making my fear of every CT National as a wet disaster seeming very probable. Anyrate it did not rain again, in fact many of us left the establishment looking a bit pink, especially Pete Fern and Alex Chandler, must be their ginger colouring? Besides is a pic of Mark Bland's fantastic 2000mk1, great the way mk1s are becoming so appreciated-Triumph's best?

It was great to see many old friends at the National. Good to see Doug and Mary Crutchfield in their glorious TR2, which got voted 'Car of the Day' following the submission of voting slips by nearly all present. Must say I was disapointed not to receive one vote for the 2.5, come on, open your peelers and see the quality of this car! Doug and Mary's TR2 won this award back in 2005, what is great about this car is that it is used, in fact I spent some time with them on the first 10CR in 2003. Last time I saw them was at last years Classic Le Mans, they were in Doug's gorgeous Morgan V8, they are always very welcoming and always good fun, some of Doug's observations are priceless and boy oh boy can he build a car!!

Also heartwarming was the reaction that Doug Foreman received from many who have not seen him since his M25 incident in March. The obvious fondness and greetings that he received from so many CT friends at the National emphasise the fact that he is a a popular sod! Doug's a strong old bugger, his injuries would have put paid to many a person, to see him walking around and obviously enjoying himself was terrific!

I always enjoy the CT National, it is not as big a day as the TR Reg or TSSC events, but it def. has a certain laid back charm, where the vibe seems to be have a chat, a cuppa and chill out talking about one's old car-seems ok to me! Club Triumph, the Club that likes to chat-dammed right!

On the way to Beaulieu we had passed a massive queue of cars on the A27/M27 attempting to get into the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as we seemed to have a ready made audience on the other side of the road I enjoyed giving the 2.5 some revs and letting the exhaust do the talking-fun if very childish!

I got in for about 19.00hrs after dropping Doug back at home, pleased in the fact that my work on the 2.5 had been successful and the car was definitely better than when I brought her back from Scotland following the LCC in June.

Above are the Vitesse of Nick Jones and 2000 of Chris Allen, both cars completed the last RBRR in October of 2008. I really like Chris' 2000, he uses it alot and the car has more or less converted Chris from being a Herald man to a big saloon man! As for Nick's Vitesse, I doubt if there is a more advanced Vitesse in the UK, the car features a Toyota gearbox, megajolt ignition and Nick's scratchbuilt single throttle body fuel injection. A superb car that will be going to Europe for the September 10CR. Also lurking in the background is Alex Chandler's 2000 mk1, a car that is coming on leaps and bounds, keep going Alex!

The snap below shows Carl Shakespeare's superb Dolly Sprint, this car also completed the last RBRR and is another example of a well executed rebuild where the owner is not scared to get out and use the car. I must get Carl to take me out for a spin in her sometime.

Right time to discuss the GT6, as mentioned previously the car did not get to Brands Hatch for the MGoT track evening as one of the driveshafts popped out. Well I stripped the rear suspension down on Thursday evening and have now got both suspension units ready to put back into the car after fitting longer shafts to the CV pots. Getting the old shafts out of the inboard pots was a bas*ard, ending up have to use some angle iron as a drift. Anyrate they are all back together and ready to go back in, one unit is in situ being held in with drifts at present as the picture testifys! Excuse the mess, but I slung everything back in under the car after finishing this evening. As can be seen my garage is a precast concrete type, this is hastening the departure from the world of the old car. In the 1.5 years I have left her in there she has taken on some serious rust owing to the way that concrete sweats. Once I have managed to save up some money I'd love to build a timber framed garage, however this could be some time as any spare dough seems to go back into the cars! I hope to have the car back on the road tomorrow night and will road test her on Sunday morning, cannot wait! Oh yes its the CT Autosolo a week on Sunday-fantastic!

At present I feel I have not done myself justice as my cars seem to be unreliable at present, the main reasons being complacency, lack of time and apathy! Spread too thin, umm!

Right too bed and then get up and meet some old friends for breakfast at a cafe, the three guys being friends of mine who I have known for 27 years and all having owned Triumphs at some point-TR6, Vitesse, 2.5Pi estate and Heralds. Might take the 2.5?

Blimey!

Umm, TD at Brands Hatch did not go so well, I had a good drive in the GT6 over to Brands around the M25 fighting and sparring with the continental lorries and got to within 1.5miles of Brands Hatch when disaster struck!

I was coming down 'Death' hill (Yep, the locals call that section of the A20 that, nice name) when the car lost drive, I managed to freewheel around the roundabout at the end and into the Texaco PFS. Quick look underneath to discover the OS driveshaft hanging out of the hub. Spent an hour attempting to get the shaft back into the CV joint to no avail. The best way to have attempted the job would have been to have taken the shaft of the diff end, push the shaft back into the outer CV and put bolt the shaft back onto the diff. However this would have entailed getting under the car supported on a small trolley jack on a hill, thinking about either the car falling on me or the car running down the hill damaging the underneath made the decision to get her recovered home easy! So first use of Peter James Insurance breakdown recovery system. Must say the company who picked me up, PJM from Swanley, were excellent, the recovery man took alot of care and was very courteous, not bad as he seemed to be suffering from the mother of all colds!
I must say thanks to Richard and Hilary Brake and Mike Banks for stopping and helping to move the car, they pushed the car up a part of the hill, no easy push, so thanks very much. Its great the help one receives from fellow CT members, all the members I come across are very friendly and pleasant.
I spoke to Dave Pearson, and he has sent me some new 1/2'' longer shafts, these will cure the problem, I will fit these next week and hopefully the car will be good to use for the impending Club Triumph Autosolo at Buntingford.

Managed to get home by 17.30, immediately leapt into the Focus and drove back to Brands Hatch. I took my crash helmet back with me and enjoyed passenger laps in Michael Helm's TR6 and Andy Martin's Vitesse (6003VC-Ex Works Monte Carlo Vitesse-I think driven by future Le Mans great Porsche driver (911 and 917) Vic Elford), both being great cars and very well driven. Mike showed me some great lines and boy did he attack the corners in the car, the ride over the rumble strips being impressive! Mike told me that the car has hard springs, but as is usual for cars when on a track the car felt lightly sprung. However I felt the roll was abit too much, Mike agrees and I believe he may source a stiffer anti roll bar for the front end.
Andy's Vitesse is a beauty, very well tied down and just it goes where he points it, very good-who said Vitesse do not handle? The biggest difference I felt between the two cars was the extra grunt afforded by the 2.5 engine in Mike's TR over Andy's triple weber'd 2 litre six. This was the first time I had been in Andy's car, and I was totally won over by the car, the attention to detail is superb, minor things like the seat belt webbing used to pull the perspex side windows up and down, the authentic haphazard layout of the dash being two examples of the hard work that has gone into the car when built by Canley Classics and by Andy since he got her back 3 years ago. Andy often uses the car for work, how many ex-works rally cars are used for commuting!
Andy and Mike are both proper enthusiasts and good members of Club Triumph who get out there and use their cars. Thanks to them for the fast but safe laps of Brands!
As usual Paul Michelmore was terrorizing the circuit in his glorious six pot injected Spitfire, what a car. I must get Paul to take me around a track sometime, sure it will be fun! I reckon Paul's car is as well sorted as a Spitfire with a six cylinder engine could be. If ever there was a car that makes me think about moving the engine back in my GT6 then Paul's car is the one, terrific! Also great to see Richard and Hilary Brake having fun in Richard's injected six cylinder Spitfire, afterwards in the pub we had a chat about the rear suspension of the car, Richard feels some more work being needed to tie the rear end down. He has just fitted CV driveshafts to the car, these being a design using Escort and Volvo parts, as many have found after moving away from Rotoflex driveshafts he has found the driveability of the car to be very much improved.

Whilst at Brands is was great to see Doug and Katie Foreman who were taking the opportunity to have passenger rides in various cars. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Doug is looking after his horrendous accident in early March, what a resilient chap!
Also present were Dave Picton and 'Fred', Slezak, Dave using his mk2 Jag and Fred using her mk1 2000. This 2000 is another great car that is used in alot of CT events, as usual Fred was driving the car in her spirited manner. Talking later on I was told that Fred is driving her newly acquired Spitfire mk3 to Finland where she lives and works at present, good luck to her on that mammoth drive. Evidently Dave has bought her a nice toolkit for the car so she should be ok if any problems occur!

On the subject of roll, my 2.5 rolls alot, as previously mentioned I have bought some harder bushed arb links for the car, it will be interesting to see how they affect the roll of that car, there always seems alot of lost motion on the normal rubber bushed arb links.

Anyrate after Thursdays fun I now seem to have 4 Triumph cars and not one runner amongst them! Looks like Sunday will be busy!

I am comforting myself with the thought that if the driveshaft had popped out whilst driving around Brands Hatch it could have been disasterous!

Getting ready for Brands Hatch, Jaguars and the 'Space Race'

Have decided that I will use the GT6 for this week's TD evening at Brands Hatch. Therefore I have spent some time today working on the old car, this consisted of making some plates for sticking on the inner wheelarchs to spread the load for the roll over bar fixings, all went well. However I have found that the bottom of the rear NS wing has broken away from the floor and is flapping in the breeze. After having a good poke around a fair bit of welding is needed, I will need to get someone to make some plates up and get welding at some point (Maybe its time to start to learn to weld).
I also fitted the 5.5J steels onto the car, however I do not think they suit the car so will take off and go to Brands with the Revs fitted.
I had wanted to fit the Wilwood brake calipers to the car, however I do not have the correct studs so will not bother for now. I hope to be able to find the correct studs at say the Silverstone Historic or buy some from Namerick the nut and bolt supplier in Hove, Sussex.

Sort of looking forward to the evening, reckoning on getting about an hour or so solid driving around the track. Chris Shaw the Club's Track Day Organiser has done a great job selling the tickets, at one point it looked like we would only sell 10 tickets, his networking skills are good!

Talking to Dave Picton and 'Fred' Slezak who always do the CT TDs, I understand that Dave will be taking his mk2 Jag along as he does not have a Triumph on the road at present. Its a great car that is now looking a bit scruffy, in fact very similar to the mk2 Jag that featured within the film 'Withnail and I'. Dave and Fred left it with me one Xmas whilst they went to the USA and told me that I could have free use of her over the break, so took it out on Xmas Eve for a tour of few local pubs with my buddy Diz. Gotta say I enjoyed the drive, the weather was lousy, but we had some fun in the car. It was interesting to compare the car with my 2.5 saloon, in most areas I felt the Triumph was superior. The handling and ride of the 2.5 was superior and felt more modern. However the Jag had more grunt but was let down by the recalcitrant moss gearbox, but boy did the car have some prescence and it felt special to be driving something different on Xmas Eve.


Must say that I think the mk2 is a better looking car than the Triumph, William Lyons could definitely draw and style good looking cars. I think Jaguar saloon cars were better looking than the sports cars they produced, the XJ6 series one being to my eyes the best looking saloon car ever made. One of my neighbours has a newish XJ Jag and it sure is one good looking car, especially since Jaguar added the duct into the front wing just past the wheelarch. So exciting that Jaguar seem to be making cutting edge cars after years of being overshadowed by the German luxury car makers. This summer will see the replacement Jaguar of the XJ saloon and from what I have read it looks to be a tour de force, the car will again be alloy bodied, glued together like the present XJ and will have the latest Jaguar V8 engines in both petrol and stump pulling diesel guises. If it looks and goes anything like the XF they will have a winner on their hands. Gotta say I get sad when I think about the way the British car manufactuering business went, this nation has produced some great cars especially in the 60s and its sad to think they have all gone away. I know some will say that one can still buy Minis, Bentley and Rolls Royce, but they seem sort of fraudulant, especially the 'plastic' Mini that is sold on a bogus 60s Britain ticket, reckon Issigonis must be turning in his grave! I just hope that BMW do not ever re-introduce the Triumph marque name, time to let the name die!

With regard to the saloon I have purchased two TCAs with which have polybushes fitted from James Paddock, also bought some up-rated anti roll bar links and a head gasket set for the impending cylinder head change. Must say I was impressed with the service and prices I received from this company, will use them again. I hope to get stuck into the car next weekend. As I have mentioned before I bought the head from Andy Pearce, he contacted me the other week to tell me to get the head on pronto as its a good one and I will notice an immediate increase in both power and torque. I cannot think why I have never fitted the thing?

On a completely different subject there have been a number of programmes on BBC commemorating the 40th Anniversary since the NASA Apollo moon landings. I was eight when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first stepped on the moon and don't really have much memory of it. But my word how amazing that they did such a thing, I think the computing power of the moon landing craft was less than the computer I am using to type this blog! Shocking really that the promise of the Apollo missions was not built upon apart from the Space Shuttle missions. One of the programmes had a NASA chap on who stated that they hope to go back to the Moon in I think 2018. Blimey from Kennedy's emotive speech about going the moon it took 8 years, even though the missions in 2018 will be alot more complicated it shows the speed and will power involved in Apollo!

Post Unofficial La Carrera Caledonia

Well back safe and sound from Scotland after a mammoth 535miles drive yesterday. I left Aviemore at 6.20am and got home at 14.40, not bad.

Following the trip, I have a number of issues to address on the car:

1. Bottom ball joints (TCA) need replacing. Some have told me that these are easy, some others tell me that one needs to get them done professionally, not sure. I see Rimmers sell rebuilt TCAs at £38ish. Seems dear, will shop around.

2. Valve seat recession is starting to get very bad. I checked the valve clearances at Callender and found that the car had no gap on the exhaust valves. Years ago I bought a 2500S head from Andy Pearce, so will have look at that and fit it. It is fitted with bigger valves so should be suitable.

3. I reckon the sills need to be replaced, the car is creaking and when jacked up the doors do not close very cleanly. (I remember this happening to a new Pug 405 I had years ago-good eh). Money being a bit tight means that I will have to wait abit though. The MOT test is due before the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run, so will hope to get the car through with some localised welding?

4. Ujs are knocking on take up, so will replace those once the problem ones have been identified.

Otherwise she remains a great example of one of these under-rated cars, what old sixties saloon car could travel 500 miles very easily in 8 hours and still be able to mix it with the fat cats in their modern Jags and BMWs on the M40 motorway as we headed to London!

Talking with Dave Langrick a couple of months ago he feels I am stretched attempting to keep two cars on the road, gawd knows what it will be like when I start to use the Herald. Still I have nothing I wish to do to the GT6, so hopefully expenditure will not be needed on that little car.

Back to the 'Unofficial' LCC, it was ok, but taking part on my own was'nt as good as I had hoped. However spending time with Dave Pearson and Jason Chinn was good, thanks to them for letting me tag along. Dave's Vitesse was fine, low geared but otherwise she went well, very nippy.

As usual the Scottish scenery was breathtaking, I always find it amusing that British people like to bog off to Europe, when all they need to do is travel up to Scotland and see such marvellous views, still leaves it all unspoilt. Best thing about Scotland is the sense of pride the locals have in their beautiful countryside, exemplified by the lack of rubbish everywhere.

The best moment for me during the event was finding a superb dinner stop at Dull, a village near Tummel Bridge. If ever in the vicinity, do go to the 'Adventure' business and have lunch-very tasty. As is the way on the LCC, the Saturday night was a bit boozie. I enjoyed a nice curry with Dave, Jase, Mike and Ive and then we stumbled into the Waverley Hotel to find Dave L, Frenchie and co already stuck into the beer, seemed rude not to join them. I waddled back to the Dreadnought Hotel (Reckon its days are past-knock it down!) at gone 12, marvelling at the darkness of the town, remember that in June it does not get dark until 10.30-11.00 up there. The Dread's Scottish breakfast lived up to its name-nouveau Brekkie anyone!

What to do next year now that McJim has finished the event. Many feel that Club Triumph should take it over. At last nights CT Ctte meeting we discussed this, but will have further talks and make a decision soon. One thing is for sure if we do, we must invite other old car clubs along, the variety of vehicles makes the event more interesting. Also Jim's knowledge of Scottish roads is extensive, so I am sure he would have to be consulted/utilised.

A Saturday afternoon stop when we bumped into the Notts lot.

Saturday early evening at the car park near 'The Dreadnought Hotel'. Looks like some of the usual CT small talk is on! Actually what a poor pic!

Car park at Kenmore, Dave and Jase look to be deep in conversation. Nice orange ST in the background eh!

So all in all a nice weekend.

What next, MGoT Track Evening at Brands Hatch on Thursday 25/06: I will use the GT6 and I hope to have the Wilwood brake calipers fitted.

As a postscript, if ever in Cumbria, have a drive along the B5305 from M6 jct 41 to Wigton, great road!

Off to Scotland

Thursday 09.00am:

Right, getting ready for this weekend's fun in Scotland. I was going to take the GT6, but as I need to be back in London for Monday nights Club Triumph Committee Meeting I have decided to use the 2.5.

The La Carrera Caledonia was a CT Drivers Challenge round, but as the 'Official' event was cancelled and we are now all taking part in an unofficial event, CT have decided to delete the event from the DC. Therefore I could have taken the Focus, however I suppose that would not be in the spirit of things!

The 2.5 has not been used since the HCR in April and I have had a number of issues to rectify as follows:

Re-build front NS hub include replace the stub axle and fit new bearing.

Fit a new electric fan. As the engine is now in the correct position (!) the crank shaft pulley fouls the Pacet fan, this has caused the spindle on the fan to break. Therefore whilst I await a smaller unit, I will fit the electric fan of the GT6. I will take a standard crankshaft pulley mounted fan with me as back up in the boot to Scotland. Only snag with that could be that the oil cooler will be in the way!

The carburettor throttle linkeage fouls the choke spindle bar, this will need a bit of light filing!

Adjust the valve clearances, standard camshaft therefore 10 thou everywhere.

That is it apart from a good wash-the car that is!

Thursday 11.00pm:

Umm, managed to get the above done today as well as find time for a 1.5hour kip on the sofa, I do like an afternoon snooze! Took the car over to Andy Martin's to pick up some items that he needs to get to Dave Pearson tomorrow (Some ex-works Rally Car parts-bit daunting having irreplaceable stuff in the boot) , the car seemed to be going well, although it is still pinking. This is down to the shagged out dizzy. I have two options, buy a 123 or buy a second hand Lucas unit that is correct for the car and get that re-built. Dave Langrick has one of those spare and will sell to me? At present I am thinking 123.

Tomorrow morning will be spent travelling up to Dave's to meet up with him and Jason. Also Tim Hunt is going to meet us as well, a spot of lunch and then off to the Old Stone Trough at Keswick. I will check the wheel bearings before I go tomorrow morning though!

It will be nice to get some mileage done in the 2.5, and after checking on Google Maps, I have found that the mileage from Aviemore to Crews Hill is 520miles! Looks like the long legged gearing of 27mph/1000 revs in overdrive top will be useful!

Below is a pic of the car and James Carruther's 2000 on last years LCC

Stub Stacks

Recently bought some stub stacks from Calver Tuning. I ordered alloy units, but as Keith Claver did not have any alloy ones to hand, he sent me a couple of Kevlar items-blimey, doubt if there is a slower car driving in the UK that has Kevlar items attached to it! Superb service though, I e-mailed back and stated that if he got some alloy units done I would be happy to replace, Keith kindly said not to worry! Nice bloke.

I was talking to the chap I have previously mentioned who beat me at the Bocardo Autosolo, he has used some of Keith's products on his Mini and found them to be very good backed up with quality service. Nice to hear of someone in the tuning world who is not 'Up their own backside'!

Right, time to sit down and watch the Cup Final, bit nervous, but hoping that Chelsea can beat Everton. Come on you, er Yellows!