Busy Weekend II

 On the Sunday we went to "Brooklands Relived", a sort of Goodwood revival - ish. There's not much of the track left, but there were demonstration runs up the Test Hill, an Autotest event & a Sprint on the Mercedes World track. The cars were mostly '30s ranging from tiny Austin 7 specials to huge 4 1/2 litre Bentleys - lots of those. there was also a bit of "drag racing" on the start / finish straight, the surface is really far too rough, but it was good fun to watch.

Thunderbird & Chrysler New Yorker in the "Pride of Ownership" concourse.

"Vitamin T" was built by the esteemed Nick Butler (of Revenge & Andromeda fame). It's a Model T "Doctor's Coupe" designed by Fords so that Doctors could drive it wearing a top hat. It was looking absolutely splendid for a 40 year old hot rod, we spoke to the owner who also owns Andromeda & Nykilodeon - he's not a hot rodder by inclination, he just admires Nick Butler's engineering.

Austin 7 special - there were several, looking right at home here.

Bentleys - there were lots, mostly not pristine. That's not to say "tatty", they were perhaps grubby, definitely "used" which was good to see. There were being charged up the hill & hurled around the Autotest.

As I said - hurled around the Autotest ....

...& run up the Test Hill

Drag racing ish, looks like they're having fun though.

Some of the "races" were a little odd. Cobra vs. aero-engined special (the Cobra won). Entertaining, but odd.

MG vs Bugatti - the supercharged MG won every time.

Of course Vitamin T won.

Speedwell Mini - these were roof-chopped before delivery & had the vertical gutters / seams shaved to reduce frontal area, it was having great fun on the autotest.

I've no idea of the story here, but that's a Frogeye sprite, but without it's Frogeyes. Again, this was being hurled around the Autotest with some enthusiasm.

Properly sideways - he caught that & got it back straight before the next cone.

We've all heard of the "Rolls Royce of motorcycles" the Brough Superior, who knew there was also a Brough Superior car? I didn't, my girlfriend didn't - which is practically unheard of. 

At Brooklands there were FOUR, including Mr Brough's own car.

Type 37 Bugatti - quite a lot of money's worth I should imagine, just parked up, no-one around, no-one standing guard, no need. It was a very enjoyable relaxed event.

So all in all a very good day, not particularly what I was expecting, it was better than that, would I recommend it? Yes, we saw cars & events you wouldn't normally see & to illustrate that, I'll end with this pic.

We spoke to this chap, he's run the car at the VHRA hot rod races on the beach at Pendine (I was wearing my VHRA tee shirt), so the car gets used & used properly - well played sir - I salute you!

Busy Weekend

 There were a cople of things in the calendar this weekend, the "Air Day" at Blackbushe Aerodrome & "Brooklands Re-lived" at - unsurprisingly - Brooklands.

Air Day is a nice event, quite low key, but a bunch of interesting cars turn up & a bunch of interesting planes fly in. there isn't an airshow as such, but there are often "fly-bys" & joy rides, as well as the usual comings & goings. So here's the Stylus parked up between a lovely Italian Car - & a modern Ferrari.

The 500 had alloys & a pearl paint job & looked lovely in the sunshine.

After we parked, we started by looking at the planes.

I've mentioned this one before, Lockheed Electra G-AFTL, was bought for clandestine spying using hidden cameras to photograph Germany before WWII - look it up, it's a fascinating story.

There were a couple of Yakovlev trainers, bought in after the wall came down.

Also a couple of Miles Messengers, surely Sufficient in the tail department. Designed to a request from within the ranks rather than an "official" requirement, the war office initially refused to buy any out of sheer pique, but relented & several were used as transports for high ranking folk, including if I remember rightly, Montgomery into France on D-Day. This is the only surviving ex-military one.

We were visited by the BBMF Lancaster, which did three fly-bys & caused many a phone to be pointed skyward.

Two '32 model Bs, fantastic.

I've not seen this orange DS before, also, I've not seen a DS with alloy wheels before. These things must've looked like space ships when they were first shown at the Motor Show & everyone was driving Pops & Morris Minors.

More orange - but with added flake, there's not too many cars can carry off a big flake paint job, but it just looks so good on a Buggy.

And to finish up - A Sierra pick up with a working jet engine in the back - obviously.

Back To Work .....

 ..... well, not work work obviously as I'm retired, but looking round the Stylus there were a few odd jobs needed doing:-

Nearside Rear Wheel Bearing - It was weeping, I'd fixed the off side when I first bough the car, but didn't mess with the other side as it was dry & DON'T POKE AT IT! but a combination of pot holes & high lateral "G" had seen a small amount of oil escape. So I borrowed my brother's slide hammer & sorted that out - I think, I'll need to check it once in a while.

Camera - While we were away, one of the cameras was a constant concern, on day one it decided that after a coffee stop it was bored with video & instead took stills about two seconds apart for the rest of the day - just short of 6,000 of them! On other days it repeatedly switched off after about 15 seconds, on other days still, it worked perfectly all day. I gave it a hard stare in the garage when I got home & initially decided it had just broken & started looking at alternatives, but it seems it might be the memory card, swapping to another make seems to have bought it back under control.

Brake Lights - Duncan told me they weren't working on day one, I did eventually fix this while away & it was all down to my own stupidity, but though it's fixed, there's now only one switch on the brake lights again, so I need to look at adding a second one - not started that yet.

Tail lights - they're Fiat Coupe units & they're fine - they look better than most kit car tail lights (this is a bit of a bugbear of mine). As the Stylus is painted it cuts down my options, the Fury was gel-coat, so could be modified. I have come up with a way of "tunnelling" the light into the rear panel without cutting the body or damaging the paint. So far I have only done the stop / tail lights as the indicators are in an awkward place (when seen from the inside) & need a little more work, but I like the effect.

Front Number Plate - I like it, but it's a little too far inside the nose & in some lights doesn't show up well, also, the 3D printed mountings have cracked / split / delaminated, so as I write, there's another two being printed that will move the plate nearer to the front of the car & will be more resilient.

RogueRunners '25 - Epilogue

 

RR25 - what did we learn?

This was the most complex trip to date. Ten days, three hotels eleven people, but only five doing the whole trip & one of those didn't make it at all due to car trouble.

There were people who arrived after a couple of days due to personal commitments, there were people that left before the end, so it was an ever changing, swirling mix of people who just get on & like driving inappropriate cars. Did newcomers get left out? Did early leavers get ostracised? Of course not, we all just mucked in & had a good time with whoever was there.

That is the joy of the Rogues.

The Ecclefechan Hotel choice was a bit of a risk, as the owners hadn't owned it long & were refurbishing it, but they were true to their word on what would be ready for us & although we were the largest party they'd had for the longest period, they were more than up to the task, regularly changing the menu & making sure we were comfortable.

The roads were good - Ecclefechan looks to be "off to one side", but in reality it offers good routes to the west coast, north east towards Selkirk, east into Northumberland & south to Cumbria & the Yorkshire moors. Some of the smaller roads were potholey, but most were OK & the scenery made up for it - as long as you didn't hit a pot hole while admiring it.

And then there was the weather. We'd had a good spring, we had fantastic weather in Devon & I kept thinking "this won't last" - "this CAN'T last", but last it certainly did & apart from a very few spots on the windscreen the whole ten days was dry & most of it was wall to wall sunshine.

So, was it a success? I came home thinking it was the best RogueRunners trip yet & they've all been brilliant.

RogueRunners '25 - Day 10

Day nine had seen half the rogues head back to a hotel near Gainsborough, Day ten was very much "the parting of the ways". One was going home on the motorway, one was going to visit his daughter not too far away, so just Linda, Graham & myself followed the last of the route for a mere 70ish miles to a farm shop & café near Peterborough. But even then Graham set the controls for home before the refreshment stop. but that is the way of these trips, the last day is very much like the end of a Red Arrows display (bear with me on this) where each plane (car) heads off in a different direction in a spectacular(ish) finale.

So it was that Linda & I stopped at the farm shop, had a last cake & coffee, then bought enormous pork chops for our tea.

RogueRunners '25 - Day Nine

Time to head south, Our stay at the Ecclefechan Hotel had been fantastic, I heartily recommend it if you're touring south east Scotland & northern England, but one or two of us had jobs to get back to. Most of us were continuing with the route, one had already left to tour the rest of Scotland with his wife, one was going straight home, two were heading further north. The rest of us loaded our luggage & headed for our hotel.

To keep it simple we headed out of town on the A74 / M6 until just north of Carlisle, then we took to the A roads. There was an early fuel stop to make sure the sevens had enough to get across the moors, then after Raise 9where they should've been getting used the sight of us by now) we took B roads over the moors to the first refreshment stop at the lovely Brough Castle Ice Cream Parlour.

We did more moorland roads & passed the Tan Hill Inn - we could see it this year - then Masham, Pateley Bridge & the Toft Gate Farm Café

Next it was through the wonderfully named Blubberhouses & Otley, to another fuel stop at Pool-In-Wharfedale, we were heading mostly east, but run alongside the A1 for a while before arriving at Tadcaster & heading south on the A162, were passed the Drax power station, then got into the flat lands, so the roads got straighter, the A631 did its best, but we were almost finished by this stage, it was unfortunately straight 40mph roads with frequent villages at 30 or even 20 mph, if I was doing it again I would stick to the A1 for longer, but at Gainsborough there was a last fuel stop before we pulled into the hotel between Kexby & Willingham-By-Stow.

RogueRunners '25 - Day Eight

Route C - Hoik, Kielder & Hexam

Today's route headed out east, then turned north east on the B6357 through Mill Town & Evertown after which there was a slightly dodgy crossing of the A7 to get into Canonbie. We hugged the Scottish side of the border alongside Liddel Water (there may have been an Asda Water as well – I couldn’t say) through Newcastleton, which we’ve been though many times, but this very long, very thin village now has an interminable 20 limit. After that it was the lovely B6399, which we drove unimpeded to the outskirts of Hawick, then the B6088 to Bonchester Bridge & onto Saughtree where we take a minor road to cross the border at Deadwater.

There was a planned cake stop at Simonburn, which turned out to be delightful. There were two old coves taking tea as we bustled in, they asked who we were, Linda showed them a picture of the cars "Gosh" said one "they look like 1950's formula one cars". 

Next we found ourselves driving through Humshaugh & at Chollerford, turned onto the A6079 amid a cluster of Roman sites & a village called Wall. A brief spell on the A69 took us to a fuel stop in Hexham, then back on the A69 for a longer spell in the other direction to pick up the A686 though Bearsbridge to Alstone & Raise.

We were now reversing part of route B, going north to Lambley & across to Longtown where we turned north. At this point I was driving alone, so I said "Home James" to the SatNav & headed straight back.

The others briefly took the A7 to the B709 through Craigcleuch before tuning south again at Eskdalemuir to arrive in Lockerbie for a re-fuel & an easy run home.