RogueRunners 22 Day One - An Expected Journey (360 miles after Thurrock)

 

On the morning of day one, I was awake before sun up & trying to be as quiet as possible getting the car out before heading to Thurrock for the start of Rogue Runners ’22 “The Middle Earth Tour”. The first part always makes me a bit nervous, I hear every creak & squeak the car makes & worry it the fist sign of impending doom & the ignominy of coming home on a truck. Fortunately until I refurbish the rear suspension this coming winter, the Stylus makes an awful lot of creaks & squeaks so I got used to it pretty quickly.

The weather was dry as I rumbled round the M25, but the car seemed to be going well. I arrived at the start to find two Sevens & two Elises, the third Seven arrived pretty promptly & we set off along the M25 / M11 to get us out of the South East as quickly as possible. 

After an uneventful run along the motorways we passed RAF Wittering with it’s slightly sad looking Harrier II parked outside & after a quick refuel at a stupid price, we found our way into the breakfast venue & were joined by Robert, who couldn’t come on the tour this year but had driven a long way just to see us off, Linda who was local ish & Duncan & Alison who had driven up from the south coast the night before & stayed over in a hotel.

After a very good breakfast in the Stamford Garden Centre, we waved farewell to Robert & headed out passing Upper Hambledon -  a village almost marooned on it’s own island in the middle of Rutland Water & passed directly through Melton Mowbray without stopping for pies. Further & further west we travelled in order to avoid Nottingham until we picked up the M1 at Kegworth & turned proper north. At one point Neil – who hasn’t been on a full tour before said over the radio “this road is really good” – much better was to come.

It was only 50 miles of motorway before we left the main roads & headed for the moors, there was a another fuel stop with about 50 Hell’s Angels loitering about, before we got to the good scenery & passed through Thongsbridge where we took Thong Lane to Netherthong – look, it’s on the map – why would I make it up?

The Stylus really is that small

Shortly after this, traffic lights at some road works spit us into two groups, but appropriately given the name of the tour we all drove past a guest house called The New Hobbit, but at Sowerby Bridge, my little group got further reduced when the lead cars went right when my SatNav was saying left, I got separated, but turned right in the hope of re-joining & could hear confusion & talk of turning round over the radio as my satnav guided me through the town & out the other side. I meandered along quietly by myself until feeling in need of refreshment, I called into a café / farm shop & had a coffee & an ice cream while the proprietor’s son told her all the things she was doing wrong – strange.

Back out on the road, there was a flash of yellow in the rear view mirror & Duncan & Alison caught up with me, which was better than driving alone, but by now my radio was properly playing up, I could hear them very faintly, but they couldn’t hear me at all.

A couple of flags by the roadside indicated the place I’d marked as a refreshment stop in Wensleydale, so we turned round & went back, to find the three cars I’d lost already there, along with a young lady getting very excited about all these interesting cars appearing at her relative’s remote ice cream barn.

Ice Cream Barn - tiny tiny windows

Three of us waited patiently while an old bloke ahead of us patiently watched the serving lady make up an ice cream, then told her that wasn’t what he wanted – a number of times, but when we eventually got our turn, my “apple crumble” ice cream was very nice indeed.

We were almost all back together as we got into some proper Northumberland upland roads & even through the poorly functioning radio I could hear Neil marvelling at the views, the excellence of the roads & the lack of anything on them. One more re-fuel & we rolled into Haltwhistle & into the hotel carpark, which meant getting the cars through that hole in the wall on the left, no problem for the Stylus, which is tiny & has a ridiculously tight turning circle.

The hotel was very nice indeed with, nice rooms (I was given a suite!), very good food & a good range of beers.

A quick sum suggested the Stylus was doing 41mpg, which I was very happy with, but proper blatting would reduce the average a bit.

So, day one done, destination reached, all the cars running well.

RogueRunners 22 - Prologue

I'm just back from the RogueRunners 22 - The Middle Earth Tour. I have notes & photos to share, but it's late, I need a bath & right now I'm just going to set the scene & tell you IT WAS EPIC!!

The scenery, the base town, the lack of traffic, the roads, the fellow travelers. All of it - EPIC!

Last year we decided that the north coast of Scotland was too far & we'd keep the time away from home down a bit, so we settled upon Northumberland / Cumbria & I found a little town called Haltwhistle right in the middle, in fact, right in the middle of Britain & there in the middle of Haltwhistle was the "Centre of Britain" hotel, so as these things do, the tour got named "The Middle Earth Tour" with each route named after a chapter in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or one of the films. Linda designed the tour sticker & we were all set to go.
Nine (not "the nine") grown adults in eight unsuitable cars, with over 2,000 miles to cover in a period of spiraling fuel prices. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Another Successful Trip

 

Lotuses - common

The plan was to take the Stylus on it's first proper post refurb blat, but there were problems, so the Quantum got another outing - it's had a lot just lately & been entirely reliable.

As ever I was awake at stupid-o'clock so got myself together, took the cover off the car & put the hood & windows down. Newlands Corner was reached after 1/2 an hour & I rolled into the car park to find 5 Elises.

"Is this the kit car club?" I shouted.

Then another two arrived. So seven Elises & a recycled forty year old Fiesta-in-a-posh-frock set off for breakfast in the steam railway cafe in Isfield. There were a couple of occasions on the route when I felt the Elises were deliberately trying to lose me, if that was the case they failed & we turned into the station more or less together.

It was closed.

Frantic googling ensued & a nearby cafe was identified. I got there first & although it was a little shabby, there was a car park, an outside space with tables & the breakfast was good.

After a feed & a natter I put in a surprise appearance at my Dad's & after an hour or so headed home, filling up with petrol in the cheap Sainsburys. The spreadsheet said the Q had done almost exactly 200 miles at almost exactly 40mpg, which is I guess 100 blatting miles at 35 & 100 cruising miles at 45.

Pretty good really 

Sorted

 After a trip into town to pick up a jubilee clip, I arrived home & got it fitted, then moved on to the bleeding brakes - sorry, moved on to bleeding the brakes.

I attached a hose into a jar, I released the bleed nipple, pumped the brakes, closed the nipple, repeated on the other side, tested the pedal - no different. I found a step stool, placed the jar of brake fluid on the top step, so the hose ran upward to it & any air leaving the caliper would rise upward. Did both sides again - no different. I went through it all again - & then I started thinking......

They are Sierra callipers adapted onto an Escort axle with after market brackets. Aftermarket stuff is generally suspect, so I looked closely at the brakes & sure enough - the bleed nipple is not the highest point!

I removed the lower calliper bolt, slackened the upper one & rotated the calliper round it, then bled it again - I could hear the air coming out. Same trick the other side & the pedal was firm like it should be.

Next job was to cut down the filler hose & fit the filler back onto the rear wing, it's awkward, but not any real problem - aircraft fitters develop very bendy arms.

Then put the 2 gallons of fuel back in & check for leaks - there were none, but the fuel gauge wasn't working. A quick investigation concluded that it was working, but needed a tweak on the float. That done it's showing just under the 1/4 full with two gallons in, so I fired it up & drove it outside to a/ tidy the garage floor, but mostly b/ admire the new look of it's pert rear.

Quantum News

 Not much, but then again it is really. I've been using the Quantum as my main car & the starting issue is completely cured & it's been outside without the "shower cap" & hasn't leaked in the few showers we've had. So really that's the car all fixed up.

Tank'd

The fuel tank arrived fresh from being welded & tested by my nephew's girlfriend Grace (who is VERY good at it). I didn't get chance to fit it that day because a bunch of old school friends were coming to my house for the first meet-up in a number of years. That is to say they are old school friends because I knew them at school - not because they're retro.

The tank is a thing of beauty, but would it fit? After the last of the friends had left the following morning I set too & yes, not only did it fit, it fitted beautifully, the only fly in the ointment being that as I jacked the centre of the rear axle to put the axle stands under it, the car slipped off the jack & the jack pad severed the cross-axle brake pipe - ARSE!

I've replaced the pipe, but as I type the bleeding isn't going well.

But progress has continued & the tank is now fully plumbed in except for one jubilee clip on the tank. I asked Grace to weld a high pressure pump mount on the tank in preparation for removing the low pressure pump & swirl pot, this meant a 12mm outlet & a temporary 12 - 8mm adaptor, but I have no pipe clips the right size.

But the fit is pretty perfect, the bottom of the tank is well above the axle line & more or less continues the sweep of the rear valance, so is invisible from behind the car

And it's slightly bigger

And there's no brass union on top, so the boot floor is now flat

And the filler cap on the rear wing is connected

And the new tank is 11kg (YES - ELEVEN kilos) lighter

And it has baffles

And the sender float is properly adjusted so the gauge will work properly

And it doesn't rub on the rear valance

Yes - I am quite pleased - how did you guess?

Stress-Free Blatt

 

With the successful fit of the PowerLite starter I embarked on a blatt with the Rogue Runners. This week the start & end points were convenient (OK they weren't way out east), so I was up with the lark - in fact I was awake SO early I could've taken the lark breakfast in nest.

I put the hood down, the car started beautifully & I met the others at a filling station on the A24. There were SatNav issues, so we would have to keep in sight of each other, the car started again & we headed off. After a while there were signs for a closed road, but the SatNavs usually know about these things & steer us round. Nope, this time it was our route that was closed, just before we arrived My SatNav was saying turn left when we went straight on, so after turning round that would be a right - no, it was now saying turn left in a mile, everyone else turned right & I followed. "No problem" I thought "I'll re-load the route & tell it to start at the closest point", easy. But when I tried that it just said "no route possible". 

Bugger.

So I followed the others - Brian ahead of me was kind enough to make sure I could see which way he'd gone at every junction. As a precaution I set the SatNav for the cafe & as we approached, it did indeed direct me to the car park - then out again & on somewhere else for another 50 miles. No idea what it thought it was doing.

We sat in the sun at the cafe, but were a little perturbed when the waitress said they were out of sausages!! We needn't have worried, when the breakfasts arrived sausages had been found.

After some time we headed home, there was a classic car meet around Arundel & some old bloke in an immaculate Triumph Toledo 1300 (why would you??) pulled out right in front of me & then laboured up the long hill doing 35. There were LOADs of interesting cars out today, which was good to see. By this stage I needed fuel & had to resort to buying a little for £1.69 / l - EEEK.

But the big news was that the Q performed just about faultlessly.

I arrived at my Brother's & handed over the fuel tank access panel & level sender as the Stylus' new tank is welded & will be leak tested this week. Then I'll have TWO fully working kits!

One final thing, I've adding a little decor to my Kitchen:-