Load lugging again

Stuffed Aero with geer for camping.

Weekend away in dull and wet weather. 

Monday packed it up again using tent flap as shelter from the rain. 

Very useful. 

Golf fixed

Bit of Aero to town first thing. Then picked up Golf. 

Pesky speedo drive - glad I got the professionals to do it as I read horror stories of it falling off into the gear box. 

Late afternoon Alpine run too. 

Recalcitrant Mr E

Not started for a while and a bit miffed I suspect - so hard to get going. 

But rewarded me with a great drive - sucking in the cool August morning air and roaring over the bridge. 

Golfing Weather

MK2 to the garage to look at the speedo - needed speedos to swim through the rain storm. 

Aston and Caterham out

Early morning run in the Caterham. No doors - yes more exhilarating but windy. 

Especially that close to the ground. 

Letter got the Aston out for once - now on battery charger too as I feel I'm not using it much. 

Run in Audi and Golf Mk 7 to round off the day before the rain. 

G2R - again

G to R on Friday then sail up to the Deben. 

Early evening jaunt in the smallest member of the fleet - the Zodiac inflatable. First launch but started first time - 4 stroke and petrol. 

Saturday return leg. Then R to Golf home. 

Seven Fan Fixed

Oli replaced the offending thermostatic switch - warned the car up and it worked - switched on the fan.

Not sure why I was surprised it worked - more to the point how do you make such a switch ?

Working on a couple

Replaced Ferrari 'bellows' for the air filter - far worse than I thought it was - with splits hidden underneath too. 

New one seems to rest on the lower pipe too ?

Then looked at Caterham to find 1. I'd not put the radiator cap on completely so water was coming out of it and 2. The thermostat for the elec fan was not working. 

Got one in order. 

Rain set in

Aero round the block and the Ferrari part arrived - so that get's fitted tomorrow.

Golf speedo research showed a nightmare scenario of the speedo drive dropping off in the gear box...

Cleaning up

Fixed the exhaust mounting on the Golf then got all the mud off the Alpine. 

Then a run to bottle bank. 

Final MK7 potter as passenger. 

Long Day

Night in the open at the hotel - still not sure where we should have parked.

Lots of admiring at the show - but only one other Ferrari as far as I could see - where were they ?

 

Long run back on M25 and squeezed 280 miles from the tank - so it will do 300 at a push. Also found the air intake pipe is split. One more job for me.

Southern man

Down to Cranleigh in the Ferrari. 

M25 etc. not a bad run and via Brookside for a look too. 

They probably wondered what I was doing. 

Night run to hotel in the Surry hills - nice comment as we arrived but a bit of clutch burnt trying to manoeuvre in the dark. 

Wet and Dry

Late night Alpine run ended in thunderstorm and drenched car - tonneau held up well though.

Going to need a clean inside though as someone was a bit muddy !

308 cleaned and ready to go though on the morning. 

A and F

Aero to town, the Ferrari to get petrol before the storms hit.

308 prep

Cleaned and polished the Ferrari for the show - bad weather on the way - so will probably get rained on. 

Golf mk2 - fixed misplaced front splitter and found it has a broken exhaust mount so off to get one if those in the Caterham. 

Did not get one to fit so ended up buying on line. 

Passenger

Just a brief pop to the shops in the Mk7. 

Nothing of note on the roads. Well it is a dull Tuesday. 

Monday too

Back from London in the Aero - London traffic can be a bit frantic - good thing it's a big old car. 

London Bound

Aero to London via Heatherow - load lugging. 

Alpine National

Left at 07:50 heading for the Fens with 20252 on the clock. 

Car also felt more lively after (totally over) filling with BP 98 octane and a larger than usual dose of Redex plus Octane boost. Somewhere there is a leak when the tank gets too full - but I can't see where - made a mess on the forecourt though. 

Early run on A14 not the much fun but the second half was a picturesque 50 mile drive over the Fens I arrived at 10:17 - mileage now 20340 about 90 miles on the clock plus the 10% error so about 100 miles. 

Weather warming up very nicely - too hot by 12:00. 

Encouraged into the concourse as there were so few S1 cars - actually only 4 ! Forgot how ratty it's got - but very original compared to the pampered and over restored ones. 

Mumbling from the judges about the time it took for one car. Mine was second on the list of about 25 cars and only just done by 12:00. 

Not sure what they thought - and I'll have to leave before the results - but I assume lots of 3's and 2's do not score that highly. 

Worth going though as I picked up a pair of chrome window channels - unique to S1's - add it to the job list. 

Run back was great in the summer sun - punctuated by the bonnet coming open three times and witnessing a small accident. Some of the Fen roads are very bumpy though - need to check out the underside. 

Umm

Total of 0.5 miles in the trusty Aero. 

Umm that's about it. 

Oh and yesterday Classic and Sports Car had the first artical on the classic car market stalling - apart from 70's and 80's classics - especially the 308. 

Water water everywhere

And not a drop to drink - when it's from the burst pipe on the VW - top of the main pipe from the water pump so lots came out when I removed it. 

Caterham run to town and came back on 3 cylinders. Oli cleaned plugs up and then we went for a blast without the doors. Whoosh. 

I also don't think the fan is working. Add it to the list. 

Aero Dawn Wednesday

4:00 am start to take James etc. to airport in SAAB. 

Then cleaned and polished front half of the Alpine for Saturday. 

Two A's

Aero to dump - Aston to shops. It's much better with the new garage doors - you can open the boot. 

GGGGhent

Run in MK2 to the train station - water light flashing, suspension banging, headlining fallen down at the back and two holes have appeared in it. 

Not very concourse at all at the moment. 

Arrived in Ghent - Morris Minor soft top in the carpark. Very British welcome. 

Very few nice cars in the town - and the only classic we saw was a Customised Volvo Amazon the Morris leaving. 

Best was this bike - ITOM. 

Ride back the Golf it had no speedo and a banging exhaust - work pilling up now.