280 Shared

Shared the driving of Chris' 1960 Sunbeam Rapier to Gaydon and back for the Rootes day. After a rather early start (4:30am !) the day got better. Here we are for the off.

Chris drove first part and at 45-50 mph the car shook quite a lot - so as the wheels have been balanced I suspected a prop-shaft. When I drove it past 60 it started the clear so we stuck to 65.

We followed a classic MK1 Alpine into the event - that happened to be Stirling Moss' rally car - which was nice. Here it is parked up.

The range of cars was a better event than I had thought with a large range of Rootes Marques there - from pre-war Humbers and a few Singer Le Mans (what is the plural of Le Man's) to the 1950's Alpine through to 60's Alpines/Singers/Hillmans and Rapiers to the late 1960's stuff. Oh and bloody Fords again. No Series 1 as far as I could spot though ?

The museum - well I had been in before - so that was just a refresher of the car industry we have pissed away. Starting with this 1899 Riley motorised-cycle.

And ending with the smart MG replacement we never built. 

Lots of interest in Chris' car though which was nice.

On the way back I pushed it tot 70 mph, but noticed the oil pressure was a bit low (below 20 psi) when running slowly in the roadworks - but we were OK.