The time has come, over the winter I'll be taking the trusty crossflow out of the Fury & replacing it with a much more modern engine. Silly as it sounds, this will be quite emotional, as that very engine has propelled a car of mine for the last 14 years, firstly my Rickman Ranger, then the Fury. In all that time it's let me down once, which isn't bad at all. I love the sound it makes & the way it pulls like a terrier - not pulling super hard, but you can just feel it's enthusiasm - or maybe I imagined that bit - I'm only replacing it because I got a redundancy cheque & if I don't uprate the car now, I never will. The engine's not retiring though, a guy called Mark is buying it from me to fit into a Mk1 Escort he has, so it's sort of full circle really, as that engine was probably in an Escort when it first left the factory.
However, onwards & upwards & I've been drawing up some engine mounts for the new Zetec. I could just call Fishers & buy some, but I think I can make them lighter & certainly cheaper. The offside one.s no problem as the mounting points on the engine are in a similar place to those on the Crossflow, but on the nearside it's not so easy. I sketched out a few ideas for things that would be a/ strong enough, b/ light & c/ I'm able to make them in my garage. The first idea looked like this:-
It'd do the job, but it's not pretty is it? So I thought again & came up with this:-
Much neater & should work a treat. Of course the design may well get "refined" as I start working, so we'll see what it ends up looking like.
I've also started working on the engine itself, it's had a coat of paint & the 2.0l flywheel has gone in favour of an 1.8l one, the 2.0 one is like a millstone in comparison, & after all, weight is the enemy. I now really must order the special bolts for the big ends & the flywheel, so I can change the sump & get the engine ready for fitting.
Hopefully it won't take too long before I'm back out on the roads.
Last weekend may have been my last blat of the year. The Fury has blown another exhaust centre gasket & I really can't be bothered with keep changing them. Anyway, last weekend - another early start & a noisy trip through the new tunnel with wingmen Mango & AKAKeith. We set off at a cracking pace, but as I'd been awake with a steaming headache since 02:00 & had partaken of some serious pain killers, I was struggling a little withe the pace. It was after a certain amount of confusion around the turning point at Wantage, that I found myself following Mango again, he pulled over to take a cracking picture, then once again we set off in hot persuit, however we got seperated after another sat-nav dilema & then the phone went.
Mr Mango was just off the A4 with a very dead car. This was a bit of a disaster for him as he was booked to go on a club run to France the following weekend. He has a spare engine, but in spite of heroic efforts it was not to be. I carried on to the breakfast stop & initially thought I'd got there just after the rest of the SKCC, but it was just theat the queue for placing orders was dreadfully slow.
It was dark when I set off, I mean DARK. 04:00 in mid September is generally dark. I’d been checking the car over only 12 hours before & found a water leak from the pump, what to do? Abort? No – fill the passenger footwell with water bottles & hope there was enough to get me between fuel stops, for this was the big one. The re-running of the rained off trip to Land’s End for breakfast. The forcast didn’t look too good for this attempt either, we WERE going to get wet at some point.
I aimed the car west heading for Popham services on the A303, the meeting point. I’d only been there a couple of minutes, when a Caterham pulled in, this was Callum – he wasn’t even going to Land’s End, but had come to see us off & accompany us on the first leg. After another ten minutes Greenwoo, Nash & 2kwik (&son) emerged from the gloom & we entertained the services other customers – “you’re going WHERE for breakfast??” while greenwoo puffed on another cig & we all had one last trip to the loo.
Then with a cheery cry of the club motto “WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG” we belted up & headed into the night. We soon found out, as within five miles the hazards came on on the Greenwoo-mobile & it pulled into a side turning running lumpily on three cylinders (running on three it still has 50BHP more than mine running on four, but that’s not the point). We poked & prodded, wiggled important looking things & even gave the engine a collective “hard stare”, but it wasn’t to be, & the RAC was called. All this time a pair of dogs in the house opposite where we had stopped were having a rare old time barking their heads off – I hope they woke their owners up, several times.
The decision was made & waving goodbye to our downed companion (badly injured pride) the remaining four set off again. The plan had been to stop for fuel after only thirty miles as that made the 100 miles between fuel stops work better at the far western end, but our new leader had refuelled at Popham & assumed that the route going via a side road with a petrol station in it was a mistake, so as I refuelled, I saw him come back down the side road, out onto the A303 & race off in the mistaken assumption that I’d gone straight on, his wingman saw me waving from the forecourt & raced off to retrieve him, but that just spurred him on to greater efforts in the persuit. I paid for my petrol & Callum & I headed after them. By the time we hit Exeter it was pretty clear we weren’t going to catch them & Callum turned for home having exhausted his time available for blatting.
I drove on. It started to rain. I drove on. It got foggy. This was the worst bit of the whole day, driving alone, with rain building up on the inside of the screen, dripping into my seat, covering the mirror. But as I dropped down off of Bodmin moor the fog lifted, the rain ceased, & the roads got twistier & more interesting. Then, not far before Land’s end I spied a metallic blue seven at the side of the road – I'd caught up with them – but it wasn’t 2Kwik & son, it wasn’t even a Tiger. So I drove on.
I reached Land’s End about 09:30, still feeling remarkably fresh, but in dire need of a coffee. I asked the guy on the gate if I could take the car down to the famous signpost, he asked me if I was doing the “end to end”, I replied “something like that” & he let me park for free. Shortly after that the blue seven I’d seen pitched up. This it turned out, was a member of the “Locost Builders Forum” (LCB) who’d heard of our expedition & had come to see if it was true. We chatted while we waited for news of the others – and we waited – and we waited.
Around 10:00 my phone rang, it was Greenwoo, calling from Land’s End Airfield, he’d made it! The RAC man had cured his car by doing nothing-at-all (he thought it was a heat related issue) & he’d managed to catch up. Within ten minutes the other to re-appeared & we were all back together. Hoorah!
We took all five cars (the SKCC expeditionary force & Mr LCB) down to the sign post where we, the official photographer & a couple of dozen trippers from a variety of countries snapped away, then we headed to the airfield café for breakfast – the whole point of the trip after all.
Breakfast was served & devoured in proper SKCC style, generous potions washed down with hot drinks, & after a pleasant banter 2Kwik & son headed for home along the A30 / 303 & therefore missed out on the best part of the trip. The rest of us (now four) turned the other way & headed for the coast road, I’d driven this a couple of years before in the family personel carrier while on holiday & it was beautifully twisty & scenic. Mr LCB asked if we would be doing it as it was locally known as the Cornish Nordschief (Nurburgring). In the Fury it was 9 miles of utter bliss. By this time the sun had come out & we made the absolute most of it as the video hopefully shows, the road goes from just about nowhere to St.Ives so there was very little traffic & what there was either turned off pretty smartly, or pulled in to let us past – excellent.
I was enjoying myself so much I didn’t notice that only I & Mr LCB were there as we pulled into St. Ives, we chatted about the road, and we waited – and we waited (getting used to it now), then the phone rang. Yes it was greenwoo again, somehow further along the route again. He was already in Hayle, but Nash had suffered a breakdown & was awaiting the RAC. Mr LCB & I patrolled St. Ives in the hope of finding him, but we didn’t & met up with Greenwoo on the other side of town.
At this point we bid farewell to Mr LCB as he turned for home & the remaining two SKCCers headed east. We detoured along the coast again to the east of Newquay. I had intended to stop at Porth to rest up for the journey home, in the event neither of us felt we needed a rest, so we stopped briefly so I could check the water level – it hadn’t lost a teaspoonful – strange. While I was doing this a pair of hippy chicks engaged Greenwoo in conversation & took photos of the cars, then we were gone.
The rest of the journey home was uneventful except for the Greenwoo-mobiles bizarre ailment returning periodically. When this happened we pulled into a roadside hostelry & topped up our caffeine levels while it cooled. Never known a car fault cured by coffee before.
And then it was over. I got home about 19:30, just in time to miss tea.
The car averaged 30 MPG which considering how it was driven & the fact that it has a 35 year old engine fed by two huge Dellorto carbs, I was quite pleased with.
564 miles.
Get yourself a coffee before you hit the triangle, there's 15 min of it.
