Last night I joined members of the Stag Forum on their yearly Christmas run through London. I had arranged to meet some others from Kent and London at a convenient point (McDonalds, Billingsgate) prior to travelling to The Ace Cafe for the start at 4pm. Having safely got to Billingsgatefor 2pm, and having had a coffee the local members suggested using the A406 North Circular to get to the Ace Cafe, this was fine for a short while, then we hit horrendous traffic queues, resulting in us arriving at 4pm - 1.5 hrs to do 18 miles!
After a quick loo visit and coffee to sustain us we chased after the main pack that had left before us (29 Stags in total). The deigned route was to take us down the Westway, Shaftesbury Avenue, Regent Street, Picadilly, Trafalgar Square and across to the London Eye for the first stop. Unfortunately again due to traffic I lost the tail of the pack and missed Shaftesbury Avenue, so I went around Park Lane, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Birdcage Walk, Trafalgar Square and ended up at The London Eye before everyone else!
Luckily, some others had similar problems and there was a small group of us waiting the arrival of the main pack. By this time, some had fallen by the wayside for various reasons!
After a short break, we left for the City aiming to end up at Canary Wharf, I followed a Stag that suddenly darted up a side turning off The Aldwych, assuming he knew a shortcut around the raffic - no such luck it was a dead end - he simply turned off to adjust his sat-nav! After a 4 point turn as the road was very narrow, we resumed our course into The City. This is where my problems with the car started - the steering was getting very heavy, so I assumed that the power steering pump either needed fluid, or was knackered, having stopped by the roadside in Southwark Bridge Road to investigate further I noticed the front left tyre was very low on pressure - not wishing to grope around changing the wheel in the middle of roadworks, I used the Holts Liquid Tyre repair I had and abandoned the run and headed home.
Having investigated this morning - theres a nail in the rim so a tyre swap is need. The car also needed 2.5 litres of water adding to the system - further evidence that one of the heads needs a new gasket - it is booked into Favershams next month for this and its annual MOT/Service.
Spitfire - still not running - but there is a reason - I have a tubular exhaust manifold recently acquired from Ebay to fit - finally, I am getting rid of that pesky exhaust joint!
watch this space for further news!
