I haven't updated my blog for a while, so here goes - whats been happening since Drive it Day, well, firstly my wife and I went for a cruise around Italy in July, very nice ship - Azamara Quest - lots of good food and some great sights, not least the Galleria Ferrari at Maranello. Yes I was let off my leash and allowed to go on my own on a ships excursion to see the museum near the Ferrari factory. Strange that most of the people on this trip were men, whilst their ther halves were sunning themselves on board ship!
I was very impressed by the museum which is a homage to a both sports and F1 cars. My favourite was the David Piper Le Mans racer which still had its historic tax disc on!
In all the journeying around Italy, the only soft top cars I saw were Ferrari and Aston Martin - came back to England and they're everywhere! - All the usual classics from our own Triumph stable and the myriad of modern ones, particularly MX5's, and those tin tops that are nopw so common - give me canvas(vinyl) anyday!
A couple of Sundays ago my Father and I set off early to travel down to Goodwood for their Softop Sunday in the Stag - breakfast was a bit pricey - but where else do you get such a good display of cars for free. The Stag performed faultlessly although it does seem to hold pressure in the cooling system for a long time - I think this winter will see some new headgaskets being fitted. We also went out for a picnic in it last Sunday to Ashdown Forest with our Daughter and her husband.
Lastly - the Spitfire is being prepared for the forthcoming 10CR - just finished changing the oil, oiling the trunions, setting the ignition timing and treating her to new plugs.
Roll on the 10th September - lets hope we get further than 2 counties on this attempt.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Drive it Day and other things
Well a lots happened since my last entry, my wife and I have been away on a cruise around the West Indies, The Spitfire passed its MOT with Flying Colours and we've had our Drive it Day run. Before I get onto that, as a Stag owner, I was pleasantly surprised by this sign in St Kitts. 
And I thought when driving a Stag, any hour was happy hour! Anyway, onto last Sundays excursion, as it was Drive it Day, our local TSSC area, West Kent had a run out in support of it.
And I thought when driving a Stag, any hour was happy hour! Anyway, onto last Sundays excursion, as it was Drive it Day, our local TSSC area, West Kent had a run out in support of it.
Our start point was our regular monthly meeting place at the Cock Horse in Hildenborough, 13 cars in total turned up, a Stag, Hurricane, GT6, Bond Equipe convertible, 4 Vitesses, 3 Spitfires and 2 Herald 13/60’s. A quiz was handed out requiring an element of observation through the day to complete.
We started out at about 10.15, and were videoed leaving the pub by a friend of one of our members – these have now been put on Youtube at :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAB35N0cjI
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QAxWOvxvOw&feature=related
We proceeded to our first stop at the
After about 30 minutes we left and started on the biggest leg of our journey to the Bodiam Castle Inn where some members had a pub lunch whilst others tucked into their picnics.
The run to Bodiam was along some lovely roads taking in the
A short drive then brought us to Biddenden Vineyard, a well known producer of Cider and wines, and more importantly, free sampling! More purchases were made, and then it was off to Headcorn Airfield for our final stop, where we managed to park up in a nice orderly row of fine examples of Triumph’s best!
Apparently we missed our Canterbury Area colleagues by about 30 minutes – they had gone to a pub half a mile away but we didn’t find out until the following day.
Overall the weather was excellent, all the cars performed faultlessly and everyone enjoyed it, the quiz was a tight finish with Steve and Tina Gordon winning first prize, second was Alan and Carol Beal, and Malcolm Wing and his wife came in Third.
For the technically minded this is what my Sat Nav recorded
65 miles total run
Max Speed 50.4mph
Moving average speed 29.5mph
Moving time 2 hrs 12 mins
Total Journey time 5 hrs 1 min, - this meant before we got to Headcorn, we were stopped for 2 hrs 49 minutes
And now the icing on the cake, I've just booked the ferry for Club Triumphs 10 Countries Run in September!
Monday, 16 March 2009
Such a nice day - shame about the leaky hose!
It was such a lovely day again today that I took the father-in-law out in the Stag for a run at lunchtime - his comment during the drive was ' isn't the car running nicely?' - full of confidence I replied, yes its been running really well since its service last month.
FOOL!!!!!
Got home, parked up to get a few things before going out again when I noticed a pool of coolant under the car - a cursory examination confirmed it wasn't from the expansion bottle overflow - damn - as I was pushed for time, put it in the garage and went out in the Superb.
Just had a better look at the engine and after 5 mins running the water issued forth from a pinhole leak in the angled hose that connects to the water pump - phew - I was imagining all sorts of water pump problems.
FOOL!!!!!
Got home, parked up to get a few things before going out again when I noticed a pool of coolant under the car - a cursory examination confirmed it wasn't from the expansion bottle overflow - damn - as I was pushed for time, put it in the garage and went out in the Superb.
Just had a better look at the engine and after 5 mins running the water issued forth from a pinhole leak in the angled hose that connects to the water pump - phew - I was imagining all sorts of water pump problems.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
New Tyres!
What a difference new tyres make!
As part of the preparation for the 10CR I decided to renew the tyres on the Spitfire, although not old, I had two Goodyears, one India and one Pirelli on the car, all 155/80 X13's on standard rims (although the spare was 145/80!) so putting the best 155/80 in the boot I trawled the internet for a good offer.
I eventually concluded after much research that the Avon CR322 was a good choice (after all they fit them to the Caterham Classic), and the best deal I found was at Tyreshopper.com, £20 cheaper than National Tyres who have a BOGOF offer at the moment - and the price included valves, balancing and fitting at National Tyres.
I had them fitted yesterday, the difference in ride and handling is amazing - much lighter steering as well, and the back no longer kicks out at my favourite roundabout under accelleratation.
They are also a low rolling resistance tyre, so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on fuel consumption on the 10CR
So my recommendation : Use Tyreshopper.com and consider Avon CR322's if you're looking for a standard replacement tyre.
http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/article.asp?id=160&title=Avon-CR322
As part of the preparation for the 10CR I decided to renew the tyres on the Spitfire, although not old, I had two Goodyears, one India and one Pirelli on the car, all 155/80 X13's on standard rims (although the spare was 145/80!) so putting the best 155/80 in the boot I trawled the internet for a good offer.
I eventually concluded after much research that the Avon CR322 was a good choice (after all they fit them to the Caterham Classic), and the best deal I found was at Tyreshopper.com, £20 cheaper than National Tyres who have a BOGOF offer at the moment - and the price included valves, balancing and fitting at National Tyres.
I had them fitted yesterday, the difference in ride and handling is amazing - much lighter steering as well, and the back no longer kicks out at my favourite roundabout under accelleratation.
They are also a low rolling resistance tyre, so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on fuel consumption on the 10CR
So my recommendation : Use Tyreshopper.com and consider Avon CR322's if you're looking for a standard replacement tyre.
http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/article.asp?id=160&title=Avon-CR322
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Drive It Day 2009 Preparation
Had an interesting time today, went out in the Stag with Del Holman, the AO for West Kent TSSC to survey the route for this year's Drive It Day Run.
The theme this year will be visit places of interest throughout the Weald of Kent with a short trip into East Sussex, ending up at Headcorn Airfield
We couldn't visit our first port of call, the Yalding Organic Gardens as the village was flooded yesterday, we also had to modify our initial run south today because of ice!
We headed south through Hawkhurst to Bodiam which will be the second stop for either a lunch stop in the Castle Inn, or a visit to Bodiam Castle, whichever people prefer. our route then took us briefly into East Sussex before stopping at the Morgan Motor Museum. See photo's, a private collection of Morgan 3 Wheelers - unfortunately this will not be open on Drive it Day - but it made for a very interesting diversion.
see http://www.morganmuseum.org.uk for more info.
We then drove up through Tenterden to the next planned stop at Tenterden Vineyards, home to Chapel Down Wine where we had to sample the excellent champagne! - Del even bought two bottles.
Our next stop was Biddenden Vineyards where we had some coffee to soak up the champagne! A very nice gentlemen showed us the process of refining apple juice for bottling.
Our final leg took us to Headcorn Airfield which will be our final stop for a picnic and a tour of the wartime Air Museum there.
See http://www.1940.co.uk/activ/visit/lashend/lash.htm
The theme this year will be visit places of interest throughout the Weald of Kent with a short trip into East Sussex, ending up at Headcorn Airfield
We couldn't visit our first port of call, the Yalding Organic Gardens as the village was flooded yesterday, we also had to modify our initial run south today because of ice!
We headed south through Hawkhurst to Bodiam which will be the second stop for either a lunch stop in the Castle Inn, or a visit to Bodiam Castle, whichever people prefer. our route then took us briefly into East Sussex before stopping at the Morgan Motor Museum. See photo's, a private collection of Morgan 3 Wheelers - unfortunately this will not be open on Drive it Day - but it made for a very interesting diversion.
see http://www.morganmuseum.org.uk for more info.
We then drove up through Tenterden to the next planned stop at Tenterden Vineyards, home to Chapel Down Wine where we had to sample the excellent champagne! - Del even bought two bottles.Our next stop was Biddenden Vineyards where we had some coffee to soak up the champagne! A very nice gentlemen showed us the process of refining apple juice for bottling.
Our final leg took us to Headcorn Airfield which will be our final stop for a picnic and a tour of the wartime Air Museum there.
See http://www.1940.co.uk/activ/visit/lashend/lash.htm
Whilst on this journey an interesting problem arose with the Stag, on occasions the engine would not turn over and the voltage gauge read very low. Subsequent investigation and research when home suggests this may the battery, so guess what I'm doing tomorrow!
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
A Year Goes By
It's almost a year since I was reunited with the Stag since it's enforced rebuild last year., and it's been immortalised in 3 august publications, firstly the SOC magazine, followed by the TSSC Courier magazine, and this month was featured in Club Triumphs Club Torque, yet despite my scatter gun approach with the article, the only recipient not to publish was Triumph World - still 3 out of 4 isn't bad!
The Stag has just come back from Faversham Classics again, this time, only for the MOT and a service to sort out a curious misfire above 3500 revs under load. Despite my own attempts I couldn't find the cause of this, FC did - it was the electronic ignition sensor which was slightly loose - how did I miss that. All was well with the car bar a little welding on the front exhaust boxes for the MOT, a bit of brake adjusting and wheel bearing tweaking, so I now have a 13month MOT (it was a bit early)
There is one slight (but potentially expensive) caution on the invoice - the dreaded words 'possible early sign of headgasket failure' - referring to a tendency to spill coolant out of the overflow when hot and run hard. As a precaution, I have ordered a new radiator cap and put some trusty K-Seal in the coolant system to see whether this resolves the problem. Failing that I shall have to start saving up!
The real question is - do I want to change my entry into the 10CR from my trusty Spitfire and take the Stag instead - more comfort at the cost of less economy, hmm I think I need to satisfy myself that the head gasket is OK first before I do anything on that front. Stoneleigh is coming up soon, so that should be a good test for the car.
The Stag has just come back from Faversham Classics again, this time, only for the MOT and a service to sort out a curious misfire above 3500 revs under load. Despite my own attempts I couldn't find the cause of this, FC did - it was the electronic ignition sensor which was slightly loose - how did I miss that. All was well with the car bar a little welding on the front exhaust boxes for the MOT, a bit of brake adjusting and wheel bearing tweaking, so I now have a 13month MOT (it was a bit early)
There is one slight (but potentially expensive) caution on the invoice - the dreaded words 'possible early sign of headgasket failure' - referring to a tendency to spill coolant out of the overflow when hot and run hard. As a precaution, I have ordered a new radiator cap and put some trusty K-Seal in the coolant system to see whether this resolves the problem. Failing that I shall have to start saving up!
The real question is - do I want to change my entry into the 10CR from my trusty Spitfire and take the Stag instead - more comfort at the cost of less economy, hmm I think I need to satisfy myself that the head gasket is OK first before I do anything on that front. Stoneleigh is coming up soon, so that should be a good test for the car.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
Brooklands New Years Day 2009
Had a great time today, went to the New Years Day Classic show at Brooklands in the Stag. There were 5 of us Stags there in close proximity thanks to the arrangements made by a certain V.Mad of the Stag Owners Club Forum (informally known as Chris!). So in some respects it was an SOC Forum meet, something that happens fairly regularly, the last being a night run through London just before Christmas - I couldn't make that one
.
Not only was it nice to meet them, it was also good to put some faces to forum names, anyway, back to the show, lots of great cars there including a really immaculate Triumph 2000 which also impressed the Stag boys.
My own car seemed to relish the light traffic on the run up the M26 and M25 to Brooklands, sitting quite happily at 75 ish most of the way - it now makes me think about running this in the 10CR rather than the Spitfire as currently entered. Any way, enough of these ramblings, here are some pictures
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