Ocean Rain!

Blimey, ain't it rained alot-title should read  'Oceans of rain'! Thought I'd post that title as it from one of my fave lps!

Not alot happening here, the Spitfire is coming back to life. I have been so slow with the Spittie, I hope to fire her up at some point soon. I have a few things to source for the car, mainly fasteners and clamps. Then it will be time to 'time' the dizzy, a 123 item I bought for the Herald project when I had spare money, adjust the valve clearances, top up the carb dashpots, stick some fuel into the tank and turn the ignition switch! Must get a wriggle on!

However, before that I have another project to do, that being the construction of a car port to house the Spitfire and the Saloon. I am just about to order the timber and hope next weekend to start to build the frame. These will be the conventional method of using 100 x 100mm tanalised timber sections using 24'' Metposts to locate the posts into the ground, these being held in place using concrete. The roof will be corrugated bitumen sheeting with occasional clear PVC sections let in to provide light. I also intend to build in some electrical strip lighting as security/task lighting. Site clearance has been fun, quite a few trips to the dump have been undertaken taking the tree I have had to cut down and an old decked area that was in the way. One of my pet hates has always been frogs and toads, and my god do I have a lot of those slimey perishers living at the end of my garden-ugh!!! Just something about the way they move, so naturally they have stopped play whilst I waited for them to vacate my premises! It'll be great to dry store the cars as last winters rather harsh conditions affected the cars, the saloon really suffered. I intend to fence the port to reduce the rain getting onto them.

The Saloon has been used abit recently, went to Wales in her with some other Triumph owning friends and my old mates Diz and Darren. A good weekend was spent hooning around some Welsh roads with an overnight stay in Aberystwyth,  a real cool time all in all. We went to Pendine Sands, I was amazed at the number of people there, a real seaside beach atmosphere. We went inside the 'Museum of Speed' to view the 'Babs' land speed record car, an  interesting vehicle that struck me as being almost lorry like in its construction, Parry-Thomas was a brave man.
A few of the chaps along with us were about to use their cars on the CT 10CR event and basically used the trip to shake out any gremlins, no car really suffering from any maladies.
For the Saturday night as is the way, a rather nice curry was enjoyed in Aberystwyth and a few beers, but it must be said that most of use were knackered as we had all started at an early time, meeting in Ross on Wye at 08.00hrs, meaning that we left from Surrey, Nottinghamshire and Essex at godforsaken times!
 Left to right, Diz, Darren, Jason and Carl (Carl was gagging to get going as he was thirsty for a beer), photo taken somewhere in Wales

The Sunday morning was spent enjoying a leisurely drive up to drive the Evo Triangle. This section of road being made famous by Evo magazine as they use it for some of their road testing. Whilst the roads were fun, not sure it was worth the trip. Still we did find a nice cafe in the vicinity where cake and teas were enjoyed. Then it was time to get going home, all going our seperate ways. I must thank James Cooper for the welding he did to the car to get an MOT, two nights of welding and grinding needed to build in some solid steel, the car needs new sills!

Carl Shakepeare's lovely Dolomite Sprint and Tom Key's rejuvenated TR6









The GT6 is still with Dave P, it being agreed that he took his time as he inundated with work. I hope to pick her up this coming Tuesday, can't wait. Then I must get her ready for a trip to Cornwall in December, this being used to celebrate the 30th year of ownership since buying the car!

Otherwise car related stuff has been the CT Historic Autosolo at Bovingdon the other Saturday and the start  of planning for the CT Round Britain Reliability Run for October 2014. I entered the 'Solo using the 2.5 and had a complete nightmare, coming third in class, beaten by some wonderful driving by the two James, Shackford and Carruthers, James S coming second overall, my word how good was that. I was keeping up with him, but my third test was horrendous as I wrong tested on one run and then hit a cone on the third run, this decimated my times and pushed me well down the running. James C's megajolted car was fantastic and sounded so pure. Other stand out drives, were Matt Shannon in his BMW 2002, Gill Senior in hubby Clive's Toledo and of course, Mike Helm who won the event in his TR6 rally car. I made a solemn promise to myself  that I must use the Spitfire next year!

The 2014 RBRR opens for entry with publication of the November issue of Club Torque, please see the CT RBRR blog for news!

Last time I posted this blog, I was moaning about the company cars I have had since saying goodbye to the Focus ST. Well, my employers have since decided that the company car scheme should be revised. Therefore, I was lucky to be able to order a Mini Cooper Clubman SD, the 2.0litre diesel version. Not a bad vehicle, but she does have a flaw, that being the ride, gawd, are the dampers working? Otherwise everything else is good, the car has now done 2000 miles and she is starting to loosen up, the engine does develop lots of torque. Bit of a vibration is present at about 2500 rpm, I wonder if that is due to the engine mounts though as my mate has BMW with the same engine and his does not suffer from thee vibes. I could have ordered a Focus Zetec S with the 1.0 ecoboost engine, probably should have done, but the Mini was decided upon as I wanted a car that was made in the UK. I realise that all profits will go to Germany, but at least UK input is present. Hers's a pic!

 

 

The Spitfire

Rather lovely Alfa Romeo Giulia in Goodwood Revival car park

Really nice Cortina GT, this was a stunner, the 5.5J steels really looking good-sorry missed from the photograph.

The 250SWB of Vincent Gay, paddock at Goodwood-what a car! This car featured in my best memory of CLM ,the sound of this car at about 6500 rpm going up the start finish straight at Le Mans has to be one of the best things in life!