Tripping Tuesday

Caterham picked up for service and fix - might be the A Frame he said.

Used Aero roof rack to transport stuff in the drizzzzellll.

Dreary end to May so no classic car action. 

Unloading

Took the surplus bricks out of the trailer. Cleaned up SAAB a bit. 

Passenger in Golf. 

Utility trip in Aero. 

Dull old day. 

Jobs day 2

Ok 300 bricks in 2 loads. 

Jobs day 1

Aero cement carrier. 

Bleeding brakes

Started with an odd thing - I went to the car wash:

And odder it was the AERO that got the treatment. As a reward for crossing Europe.

The decided to look at the brakes on the Alpine. Tinkered with the rear drums hoping it would help. It did not. Then looked into the reservoir and it was almost empty - DHO. Topped up and bled the front nearside and it was as good as ever on the test circuit.

Improvised a tool too allow one person to do the job. A stick. 

The 308 round the block to celebrate.

Trying again

E-Type spare wheel now fixed down properly after I made a top clamp. 

Still has the 'tinny' rattle at low speeds but not above about 40. Seems to be coming from the front near side. Who knows. 

Car goes very well though so I'll just try to enjoy it for now. 

Final Caterham run of the first year this afternoon - 'clunk' worse if anything so glad it's being collected next week. 

Total miles in 12 months were 1662. Not bad going even sharing with Oliver I probably did 1500. 

All out lads

Took content of boot out of the E-Type - then went for a spirited run - nice to see 10mph per 500 rpm in fourth. 

Went well - some slight rattles still though. 

Next I'll work on the boot floor. 

Alpine back - but not stopping

Alpine returned but the brakes are very 'soft and long'. Not sure why - will have to investigate.

Old seal fitted on rear of hub for protection too, so should be ok...

Run out in E-Type to drop off the chain saw and to celebrate the sunshine - chap instantly spotted I'd put the chain on backwards which might explain the poor cutting - my mechanical ineptitude is only surpassed by my enthusiasm. Finished the day with an additional Aston jaunt.

Both cars are very different - and have brakes. Rattle back at times in E-type too. 

Poor fit - even for the profeshionals

Alpine to garage for the wheel bearing.

Turned out the rear seal was just the wrong size and some fool had damaged the old one. 

Then the shims on the break calliper were too hard to do - so the upshot is another day in the shop. 

Run home

Still no petrol in the stations in France as we left. Aero packed for the run home.

Back after close to 1400 miles.

Cost of Tolls was Euro 30 for the three stretches.

Still nothing of note

Perhaps a Citroen Ami in the car park. Looked like it had been there for a while.

Oh and no petrol - stations closed or Jamed full ?

Retro Friday

4CV van in car park and another old car (Panhard) I could not place on the road.

Also an AJS motobike on the back roads. 

Thursday pottering

Popping along to shops and lake. 


Saw abandoned Renault again on the back road as usual and nice 2CV in car park. 

 
Not a lot else. 

Wednesday wondering

Too and fro in rural France.

Tuesday two hundred

About 225 miles back to our place - strange "booming" sound at steady 60 like something was loose.

Monday to Monet

400 miles plus - and a slight de-tour via Saarbrucken we did not plan.

Car filthy when we set off with Suffolk mud but mostly Eifel pollen. 

But cleaned by the heavy rain on the way. 

Arrived in sunshine looking ok. 

Probably only a 30 min delay as well overall in eight hours. 

A few more Audi miles.

Driven around again.

Photo time

1121 taken at the Nurburgring.

Here's a Ferrari 458 (I think). 

Good Roads

A nice run in the SAAB through sweeping bends - 15k of nice roads plus hairpins - crying out for a small nimble classic car.

Off road SAAB after 400 miles in Europe

After 8 hours of traffic jams - starting with the M25 - we were almost at our destination. The most interesting cars were a set of Datsun 240Z's etc. On the train with us off to Spa. Not sure how I missed it was the Soa classic weekend ?

Usual Brussels problems. 

Then we found the road we needed for the last 5 miles closed. So we follwed a sign post ... It was for walkers. 

Managed to get there in the end. 

Prep time

Just pottering - getting ready for the trans-euro jaunt.

Aero ready and waiting. 

If at first ...

Aero first thing to meet up on N17 planning. 

Then gave the Alpine wheel bearing a second go having spoken to a fellow owner who said - "be bold and hit it hard to get it out". 

But there is nothing to hit (from the inside). Plan b to garage. 

Taking the noises for a ride

E-Type out in the sunshine for a routine shopping trip - the rattle came with us and brought a friendly bump. Sitting in the car park it was looking very red in the bright sunshine.

Quite incongruous among the grey shopping cars.

Still sounds more plane than car with the hum of the six cylinders.

PM run in the Caterham - being gentle again to minimise the clonk - I think we'll leave it for now until it's fixed.

Finally, Aston on charge as the drizzle arrived.

Looks like Moderns again for a few weeks.

Couple of runs

Caterham - gently - to E. Packed with boxes. 

Later E-type run - lots of looks and smiles. Something about the car that delights. 

Mind you it was very dusty - dusted it before I went for the run - then stopped to clean it - bloody rattle keeps appearing. 

Alpine abject fail

It went ok to start with. Breaks off in 30 mins - spit pin out of castellated outer nut another 30 mins. 

Hub off with ease which is the bit I had worried about then...

Then I was unable to remove the inner bearing from the hub. No matter what I hit or tried it was as if the outer bearing was welded in place. 

So I put the lot back together and will wait for the professionals to fix it. Umm. 

Aero run to the dump feeling sorry for myself - then had to remember I've only got three more fabulous cars to enjoy myself in. 

First world problems. 

Finished off the day with an Aston and Ferrari drive. 

G2R and then G2E

Hot sunny day and first sail of the year.

Dash on the boat more complex than the average car too.

Then hop to unpack boxes etc.

Sun kept shining but left the fun cars resting.

Clunk Click every trip

Caterham washed and polished so looking very shiny and ready for a run.

First we had to escape from the roadworks across the drive.

For a trip to the marina and a photo next to a wrecked MTB that sank in Shotley and had to be recovered.

On the way back the car decided to make the 'clonking' noise worse. Probably a Universal joint or something (I hope). So I booked it into Chris at 7 workshop for MOT etc. end of May.

PM Dash

Caterham in the setting sun. It needs a clean - job for tomorrow.

Hesitated on pick-up - probably needs a long run.

Two runs

Ferrari out in the sun to get the new battery for the SAAB. 

Then painted the Alpine bumper silver on the inside. Also ordered wheel bearing kit. 

Run in the E-type late evening as the sun continued to shine. 

Summertime feels in reach. 

More fun than you can handle.

Monday weather held. In no time the Aero was all packed up again and the Alpine ready to go.

Then the SAAB refused to start - so had to be bumped as jump leads did not do the trick - must replace them. Old GM battery on the car so could be 10 years old.

Worst still the Alpine squeak came back big time on left lock - wheel bearing as flagged the MOT probably - the noise got progressively worse and forced me to stop to check the wheel was not falling off - I almost gave up on the run home and got a truck out - but soldiered on and the noise went away eventually... not sure what damage I've done. About 50 miles with the problem.

So two jobs tomorrow - fit a new battery and order a part for the Alpine.

IWM Duxford Spring Car Show

It had been a cold and somewhat blustery May bank holiday weekend so far, so it was with a surprise that we set off for Duxford in the Alpine with the roof down in the early spring sunshine. The car looked good, having passed its MOT a few days earlier, although I’d have to admit only after the garage welded in a plate to repair the sill and I gave it a quick spray paint to make it presentable, oh and I also fixed the handbrake ratchet. (I’m into my 16^th year of owning the car and I run it all year round - one day I’ll get round to a proper restoration.)

We had been camping nearby, so only had a short run to the show, having chosen a mix of backroads and the M11 for the last stretch as I know the car copes fine on the motorways with the overdrive box. Unfortunately as we neared the Duxford turning the traffic was already backing up badly onto the motorway. However we took a crafty detour at that point, behind the runways and sped along an empty backroad with the Alpine suspension bouncing on the rough single track road as a test. (Did I forget to mention it needed a new leaver arm for the MOT too?)

Anyway, having made it to the right gate for the display cars we found the organisers were overwhelmed and were forcing all cars into the display area entrance which had gridlocked the approach. Although the temperature gauge made a bid for the warm end of the scale in the queue my car was OK - several of other cars having to pull over blocking access and adding to the general chaos.

Eventually getting through the entry gates we quickly made our way down to the area that Rob (our area rep) had reserved and met up with the early arrivals. We eventually had six cars in the line-up, with the planes on display on the infield making a nice backdrop. We also had our new banner to proudly unfurl, which we duly set up.

The cars in the East Anglian group are a good selection, from my series one to several series four and five’s, and we made a well turned out display. Different in several respects it was interesting to show the many people who took an interest the evolution from the more basic S1 to the quite refined SV models.

The show seems to have become an interesting mix of both older classic and quite modern cars. The older contingent were mainly British and American, with the modern’s mostly coming from Germany (BMW and Mercedes) and Japan (MX5). It was probably 50/50 in the mix. One thing we noticed was that there was very few traders on site – only about three stalls – one selling the usual grubby auto jumble, one selling cleaning products and one selling model cars. Given that the IWM has to become self-funding I think they missed an opportunity there.

However, Duxford is an Air museum foremost so we also made full use of the available exhibitions in the hangers. My stand-out exhibit being an engine - the 80 HP Le Rhone, a rotary aircraft engine, produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône (I learned afterwards) but this one was confusingly stamped ‘Made by WH Allan and Sons in Bedford’.  During the day there were several aircraft in the air and flights in the two seater Spitfire (a snip at over four thousand pounds for the memento) but Alan, one of our long standing members, admitted to having flown one himself in the 80’s which seemed a much better memory.

 

Many of the cars seemed to leave early, but we stayed on to the end – with Rob, Alan and I taking advantage of the space that was released to park under the aircraft for a set piece shot.

Towards the end as the sun started to set we all went our separate ways but I could not resist a second quick evocative picture next to the Spitfire (sadly a replica) outside one of the hangers.

I’d like to say the Alpine performed faultlessly all the four days and 150+ miles we covered, but on the way home the doggy wheel bearing started to fail and I limped back the 60 miles quite on-edge until the squeaking went away. A new one is already on order though to keep me occupied in May.

Thanks to Rob for organising it and sorting out the great pitch – all of the local members we met and chatted to - and I’m sure we all enjoyed it as much as my wife and I did.

Sunny Sunday Show

Off to Duxford in the Alpine - rain held off all day. Mainly modern cars in fact but show was fine.

Grabbed a sneaky pic by the spitfire too.

But the question the foxed all the Corvette owners was why the logo reversed for the 1984 model year ?