Stag update and a bit of history!

I've been using the Stag a fair bit over the last couple of weeks, mainly to put mileage on the new engine so that I can put it in for the next oil change and head torque. Consequently its now booked in next week having reached the requisite 1000 mile mark. This new engine just gets sweeter as the miles go on and its getting increasingly difficult to keep to the 3000 rpm limit - only 4 more days to go!

One thing I did notice recently was a bit of driveline vibration between 50 and 60, so today I took the car into my local National Tyres for the wheel balance to be checked. I have good experience of this tyre supplier having bought tyres for my Skoda, Spitfire and the wifes Ka through tyreshopper.co.uk for fitment there.

They balanced them all, but pointed out that the offside rear was very difficult to balance as it was slightly buckled, this is strange as looking at the wheel it seems to be in better condition than the rest. Anyway, they did get a good balance on it in the end and I took it for a good run up the M20 - admittedly at a slightly greater speed than the legal limit and more than the 3000rpm for just a few minutes, what a difference - the vibration had gone completely. Just need to sort out the slow puncture in the spare now and swap the wheel.

On a slighly different topic - still Triumph related in a way, I have been scanning in some old 35mm slides on a new slide scanner I bought from Maplin and came across some photo's of my first Triumph Herald a 1966 1200 convertible taken during a holiday in Cornwall in 1973 with my then Fiancee Rose (now wife) - hence the strange photo of me pointing to an appropriately named road! You can see from the photo that this was my Hippy look!

The next photo was taken outside the holiday cottage we had rented - I seem to holding the local cat!
The last photo is taken in the driveway of Rose's parents back in Kent. I remember that we had to stop on the way home at Heathrow to wire up the exhaust rear box as it started dragging along the ground whilst travelling along the M4!

RBRR 2010 - A long awaited result!

After 2 failed CT 10CR events in the Spitfire I can now hold my head high and say 'YES - We've done it!' My friend Graham and I reached The Plough last night after 2000 odd miles in the Spitfire on this years Round Britain Reliability Run.

We were exhausted, the car was exhausted (but running) and elated as we went to get that final signature in the roadbook, certainly a new experience for me! Roll on the 2011 10CR!

The beginning of the run was very wet and we were stuffing rags around the most leaky parts of the hood for the first couple of hours and then it eased off the further north we went, By the first stop at Blyth we were actually beginning to dry out. The car was running well, although I was a little concerned that it had started to show some slight rattling under hard acceleration from the bottom end but decided to ignore it - I was determined to get to the end!

We had a good run though the night rolling in to Edinburgh Airport in the 2nd half of the pack, having been passed by the faster cars on the way up. Dawn was breaking as we reached the next control at Skiach which made for a lovely run up the coast to John O Groats and breakfast! After a very welcome meal at was off to take the obligatory photo as proof of our adventure so far. It was then time to depart off to drive the great roads, in particular the B871/B873 by Strath Naver down to Altnaharra. This was the first time we took the hood down as it was warm and sunny. We had a great time on this road, following a 2000 at a decent speed.Our next stop was at Conon Bridge - more food and coffee!. We departed in the sun to drive down past Loch Ness and up through Glencoe (nice clean toilets at the Glencoe Visitor Centre). By this time, the rain had started again so the hood went back up. By this time we were about an hour behind schedule and arrived at the Stirling stop (Morrisons Garage) for coffee and very nice Scotch Pies.

The next part of the journey was the run down to Lancaster Services past Glasgow, this was another damp and somewhat boring run as it was the M80/M73/A74/M6 during which we had to stop to change drivers - sleep deprivation was beginning to show its effect.

After Lancaster we headed towards Wales stopping at Gledrig for fuel, and refreshments. After this was a nice drive down to the Sugar Loaf Picnic Area passage control. in the early hours of Sunday morning. As there was limited space here we travelled on after getting the roadbook signed and stopped by the side of the road to change drivers. At this point we were approached by a friendly policeman who pulled alongside as asked if we were OK - after explaining we were changing drivers he asked if there was a special rally on as there seemed to a lot of cars around, so the next 5 minutes were spent explaining what we doing - they were suitably impressed!

Following this we travelled down to Monmouth where admittedly we took a deviation from the route and took a quicker route to the M4 to pickup some time. As I got out of the car at Gordano Services on the M5 I noticed that the ignition light was glowing and the Battery Condition Gauge was only registering 11.5 volts - I hadn't noticed this earlier as the steering wheel boss hides the light. A quick diagnosis confirmed the alternator was not charging.

Fortunately, before the run, my neighbour Andy in Car 98 (Toledo 1300) had discussed spares and he agreed to carry his old alternator as a spare, so once he arrived at the services I put it on my car and we were back in action. The rain started halfway through this process and continued with high winds until well into Cornwall making the drive very arduous at this point.

We were about an hour behind schedule when we got to Lands End and saw many fellow Triumphers going in the opposite direction to the breakfast stop at Scorrier
The breakfast was excellent and plentiful, after adding another half-litre of VR1 to the car we headed off for the next stop at Bude, an easy run and more coffee and cakes! The sun was out so again the hood came down for the run across to the Badgers Holt Control Point at Dartmeet. I have to confess that this time I plugged the destination into the Sat Nav to let Graham get some sleep as a consequence we used a longer but quicker route to get there.

After Badgers Holt was a quick run to Pimperne Village Hall, Graham knew most of this road well so we swapped driving and I catnapped until we got near. I still can't work out how Graham manages to sleep so soundly in a Spitfire! At Pimperne we were greeted with lots more Tea/Coffee and excellent homemade cakes. From here was the trip to the final control stop at the TR Register Offices at Didcot, again we decided beforehand to let the Sat Nav do the directions and take the quickest route there - we wanted to get back to The Plough as quickly as we could as we were now over an hour behind our schedule. Having successfully got our roadbook signed and used the TR Registers loos we followed the roadbook instructions back to The Plough. This was entertaining and at a few points we questioned the wisdom of following them until we saw the ques on the M40 when we passed over it. Eventually we joined a traffic free A41 and a similarly quietish M25 for the final trip to The Plough.

After being greeted on our return, getting the roadbook signed at the finish we settled down to a pint of Shandy and food.

We had a great time, and the car performed almost faultlessly, I even started ignoring the rumbling bottom end bearings during Sunday afternoon as the realisation that we were going to make the end finally dawned on me.

There are many people to thank for making this a successful event, My great friend Graham for agreeing to do the event with me, Andy for donating the alternator, the organisers, Tim, Jason, Nigel and the many others who helped them.

My 3rd and most successful CT event - roll on the 2011 10 Countries Run!