Well Lit

The Stylus has Fiat Coupe tail lights, it's quite a common choice on Styllii, they look better that trailer lights, but I've always felt they bulged from the back of the car a bit. So I drew up & printed some mounts to move them inside the car, with alloy looking tunnels & I have to say I'm pleased with the result. The outboard ones have been a faff as the original builder put in "pods" in the wheel arches to waterproof the back of the lamp units & I had to make new, larger ones by using an old bucket as a mold & making new  GRP pods. Fitting the offside one was also a faff as the fuel filler gets in the way, but it's done now.

I think that's looking pretty good, one more to do & some fettling, but I'm very pleased with the look.

It's Trying To Tell Me Something

 On day 6 of the road trip, the fuel pump decided not to play ball in the hotel car park, this was better that out on a moorland road, but still not a good thing. I fiddled with fuses & all those things you do when you're not sure where to begin & suddenly it was working again - excellent. I quarantined the old fuses & the rest of the trip was great.

A week or so later I went to Screwfix - 50 yards before I arrived the engine died - no fuel pump. I pushed it into the Screwfix car park & gave the fuse a hard stare. It appeared to be fine, but the plastic around the "fuse wire" bit looked a little bulged, had it been getting warm? I swapped the 10a for a 15a & it fired straight up - excellent.

On testing, both the 10a fuses were fine, which was odd. Then yesterday I decided to go to my brother's. I got no more that 1/4 mile when the fuel pump stopped & no amount of wiggling the fuse was going to re-start it. Then the starter stopped working as well. I pushed it home.

Once in the garage I had the dash out of it & poked around a bit. There was a large orange wire coming from the fuse box, it came from the fuel pump relay, there was a large grey wire going to the fuse box, it went to the fuel pump fuse. You might think that they would just join together somewhere near the fuse box - or even be just one wire. No, this is a Kit Car & further more, a kit car that's has several

owners, many of whom have "improved" it, so between the orange & grey wires was this collection of random sized wires & connectors. I simplified it down to the minimum it needed

Then I looked in the boot where there is a "security switch" which turns off the fuel pump. As I reached round the back I thought one of the terminals moved & on further investigation, the spade terminals were insulated with clear sleeves, BUT, the sleeves were over long & the terminals weren't gripping like they might, furthermore,  one of the sleeves looked like this:-

That's been getting hot that has. So my assumption is that the spade terminals weren't gripping well, the over long sleeve sleeve, helped by some vibration - pushed against the switch body & slowly slid one or both of the terminals off until it was just touching & occasionally not touching at all. So I've fixed that.

On to the starter. The button is made to a pattern issued by the air ministry before WWII, so it's somewhere between 60 & 90 years old, but the type was used in Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters, Mosquitos etc as engine starter buttons. I had one in the Fury & I have one in the Stylus. The one in the Fury got a bit petulant & I gave it a squirt of WD40 & made it's life easier by making it fire a relay to fire the starter solenoid rather than firing the solenoid itself. That seemed to work. The one in the Stylus has only ever fired a relay & there seemed to be power in all the places that power should be, so I took the switch apart & cleaned out the ancient grease from around the terminals & gave it a squirt of WD40 for good measure & it seems to be working better. It's been around the local roads a few times - only as far as I was prepared to push it back from - & it's been fine, I shall do more testing tomorrow.

So, overall I'm quite please with the Stylus, it's been dropping hints that there was a problem for a while, but causing me the minimum of inconvenience. 

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.

RogueRunners '25 - Day Seven

Route F – It’s Just Called Route F, OK?

As you might've guessed I couldn't find an obvious name for this route. 

Today Mark left us to collect his wife from Edinburgh & tour Scotland in the Alpine, Duncan was resting a poorly foot & in Mark's place, Steve was with us from Dunoon in his Elise. 

We left EkkyFekky by crossing over the A74(M) & pointing north east, at Boreland we took a B road that more or less follows the line of the A74(M) before joining the A708 up the valley of Moffat Water, past the Grey Mares Tail waterfall & Wormy Sike, until just after “The Loch of the Lowes” where there was a very scenic coffee stop at St Mary’s Loch.

At one stage we were descending a long straight hill & I decided to pull out & overtake a slow BMW we'd been following for some time. As I got along side it & could see properly, a Land Rover pulled out of a quarry at the bottom of the hill & turned towards me - EEK! I hit the brakes, the BMW hit the brakes - which didn't help me at all - but it soon realised I was out-braking it & went in front so I could nip back in behind & thus avoid the now stationary Land Rover. 

Zoom in & you'll see Elises

In actual fact, everybody missed everybody else with a quarter of a mile to spare, but it was a little worrying for a few seconds. No-one had done anything wrong, the Land Rover couldn't see me when he pulled out, I couldn't see it when I started the overtake, we were all below the speed limit - it was just a little "exciting".

At Cappercleuch we took a minor road across the moors, which passed the Meggit & Talla reservoirs & is known to us as the Devil Sheep road – but still no Devil sheep! At Tweedsmiur we took the A701 south west to meet – but not join the A74(M). After a sharp right, we took the B797 for a few miles & after another very sharp right, up over the moor to Crawford John & the B740 south west.

At Sanquhar there was a fuel stop, but sadly the tea room had closed, we left town the way we came in & the A76 took us all the way to the B741 for Dalmelllington. South on the A713 through Eriff & Drumjohn brought us to Carsphairn where the café we’ve used in the past is also closed. So, we headed along the valley of the Water of Ken to St Johns Town of Dalry & shortly after that, attempted to have coffee at the Kenbridge Hotel as we had on one of the other routes. Today it was equally locked, but apart from someone mending the roof, there was no-one about, so some of us headed off in search of refreshment elsewhere, leaving Linda, Brian & I.

In the boot I had three bottles of water & some cereal bars in case someone broke down & needed a truck I could leave them with some sustenance. So we walked into the hotel back garden, sat at a table overlooking the river & had our snack, used their loos (it was open for the adjoining camp site) & moved on.

We headed to Bogue to find the A702 through Corriedoo to Moniaive where we turned west past “S. Snape Plant & Engineering” – I thought Voldermort killed him - obviously he just changed careers.

Soon after that we got to Dumfries, Lochmaben & Lockerbie for fuel - where a small boy cycled onto the forecourt to as Linda about the cars & finally back to EkkyFekky.