Dodging Ducks

 Another weekend, another event booked (Piston Heads Meet at Thruxton) and having failed miserably for the last 2 weekend trips, I was determined to go to this one, despite solid rain forecast all day - and for a change, they were right.

With such bad weather, I just decided to take the fastest motorway route to Thruxton in the hope the weather improved and I could have some fun on the way back.

The meet itself wasn't great - just a car park in the middle of the circuit with some interesting but fairly average cars:

I guess this must be some company who rent Alpine's for the track?

Lots of GR Yaris's:

Covered in xmas lights:

Never seen a BRG Ferrari:

Possibly my dream car:

Glorious sounding Aston:

Weird body kit:

I did get a nice bacon and egg bap, however 😋

The weather was still junk but I set my satnav on some interesting roads and actually had a surprisingly fun run, mainly because the weather meant there was much less traffic than normal.

Stopped off at C&M - a few nice cars but nothing too exciting:

Even with heavy rain, huge puddles everywhere and traction control off, Barry is such a well-sorted car. Obviously I was driving slower than usual but not by a huge amount and not one twitch from the rear ( a couple of aquaplane moments) - really good fun.

No planes or trains, just automobiles

 So I did buy a ticket to the Army Air museum for today because even though I'd been once before (and it's an excellent museum), they had a model railway event on as well and I have a hankering to one day build a model railway layout.

I did ask the Porksters if anyone wanted to go but obviously got no takers - it was a 2 hour drive each way, so not everyones cup of tea. And not even mine, in the end 😉 - I didn't go. Partly it was the weather report but also I decided I probably had to go see my dad for a change (although he doesn't really deserve it - long story).

I wish I listened to my own advice - IGNORE WEATHER FORECASTS!! It started off very wet but the sun came out around 11am (forecast said 3pm) and it turned into a lovely day - annoying.

But I had a decent drive:

Met my son for lunch at Torque Cafe and followed behind him on the way back, in his tyre smoke. He still drives like a nutter in his M4, sideways at every opportunity. It's very stressful behind him because I'm sure he's going to end up in a ditch and really stresses me out - I'm sadly not enjoying my drives out with him. He has amazing car control but it's so unnerving...I really worry his skill is going to run out one day.

I don't know why but Barry is acting weird; my ABS is triggering much more than it ever did and last week, I had a real moment on the brakes into a fast corner - car wobbled all over the place and I almost thought I was going into a ditch. Strangely, it doesn't seem to happen when I turn traction control off. This is not due to road conditions (dry every time) - am I just driving faster than I used to (and more conscious when traction control is off) or is it the recent EBC brake pads? I just don't understand it...

In other news, I finally got my bike going last week after 2 years on a trickle charger. It started first time and passed its MOT on the same day. Insurance for the year is £75 (!) and, more worryinly/significantly, I had a really great ride. I'd forgotten how unrestricted a bike is - traffic is irrelevant because it's so easy to get past slow drivers and I've so missed filtering past queues of traffic. Even a ride in rush hour was enjoyable. 

This is concerning - should I just go back to my bike for fun runs? A hell of a lot cheaper and a friend is doing his CBT in January and wants to get a bike - could be fun to do rides together. We'll have to see...

Meeting the competition

 Sadly, the Porkster group is really dying a death - another member has sold up and no-one is interested in coming out at the moment. We did get one new guy joining from the Boxa forum but I feel he will be disappointed.

With that in mind, I joined in with my ex-kit car club on a run at the weekend. I don't normally join them because they insist in meeting at 7am and normally over an hour away from me, which is just too early for me. However, this weekend was a closer meet-up, so I dragged myself out - and I'm glad I did.

I say 'ex-kit car club' but really they are now a Lotus club as the one guy who used to have a kit now has an Elise and he plans these runs with a few other Lotus drivers. The kit car people are invited but not many of them around, sadly (one of the reasons I sold mine).

The weather was lovely; cold but sunny, heated seats proving their worth. We met up at Pease Pottage services on the M23 and then had a fun, 2 hour run round Sussex, ending up at the Chalet for breakfast:

There were 2 other Elise's parked out of shot. The green Exige was only on it's 3rd run out all year (the guy has a new baby) and the guy with the Evora has 3 other Lotuses!

The new grilles doing their job:

The excuse for this run was the annual stop at a war memorial in Stopham for their Rememberance Day service, which was a little surreal; a group of car enthusiasts in jeans standing among a small group of locals in their Sunday finest, with a couple of uniforms and rows of medals on show. But they seem to like us and we had a little chat with a few of them.

An enjoyable run back on my favourite route from Petworth - a nice half-day out.

Below is a bit of video from my new waste of money, RayBan Meta glasses which have a built in camera for photos and video. I say a waste of money but actually, for these POV videos, they're really good.

MOT time

 ...and it didn't go well; a fail on that most difficult of issues to fix, emissions. Barry only failed on the HC level, so I took him to an exhaust specialist, assuming that I had an exhaust leak and now might be the time to splash out on that new front exhaust section. But no, all was leak-free, which was a surprising result.

Not sure what else to do, I blindly left it with a specialist, 911Excellence in Horley. They diagnosed a dodgy O2 sensor and they changed the MAF sensor - a rather unexpected £440 bill but at least I've got my MOT, although they said it was still close. However, I didn't get a printout of the emissions results, which, if I was being cynical, I'm might question if those changes had actually done anything and had they just frigged the test? But I might be being a bit TOO cynical...

I'm also beginning to wonder if the Kumho tyres I fitted to the rear recently are the source of Barry's blancmange ride at speed; someone on a forum says the Michelins I had on before are known for a stiff firewall and maybe these Kumhos aren't? Anyway, considering cutting my losses and buying new Michelins instead...we shall see.

A note to point out that I've just had my 2 year, 15k mile anniversary with Barry and if you look at my costs page, I've spent just under £6,000 (not far of what he cost to buy!), which really is more than I'd hoped. Has it been worth it? Yes, I think so, although I hope the bills don't continue at that level...

Been on holidays, so no interesting runs out recently, soz!

The Krauts are invading!

 Today was German Car day at Brooklands. Sadly, the apathy of the Porksters group continues and I could only persuade one other person from the group to come along. I padded it out with another from the Boxa forum and another from the PPCC club for a grand total of 4 - oh well...

I suppose one advantage of this small group was the superb location we were allocated, right outside the famous clubhouse, opposite the beautiful Napier Railton barn:

 

The Napier is in that green building in the background but my camera wasn't good enough to sort out the contrast.

The rest of the meet was very good, although surprisingly few Porsches - I counted only about 5 other Boxsters and a similar number of 911s; quite strange. There were a huge number of beemers, Audis and Mercs, as expected (apologies for the lack of pictures), including the huge group of C63s my son is a member of - or should I say, was!

Yup, after 18 months of ownership (a record for him), the thunderous C63 is sold and it all happened within 12 hours; my son told me on Saturday morning that he had decided to sell, partly because of the cost of the thing but also because the Nurburgring has given him a taste for the track and the C63 can't get on any tracks because of the noise. So, he spent Saturday searching, found what he wanted, drove to Bournemouth (2 hours away) and did the deal! He doesn't hang about, my son...

So what's he got, I hear you say? A sensible-sounding BMW M4, completely stock, 425bhp. I thought, "OK, that's better than the mental, C63", right? Nope...

The C63 has a rep as an animal because of its headline 6.3 litre engine and it is - but it's NA, so all the power comes in high up the rev range - 0-60 is 4.3s which is obviously quick BUT the M4 is 3.8s. It has 2 turbos, a small one for low revs, a bigger one at higher revs, no turbo lag at all and has more torque and less weight than the C63. Because of those turbos, all that torque is available at 1k revs - the thing spins it's wheels in the first 3 gears in the dry! It is absolutely nuts and scary as hell as a passenger as it crabs sideways up the road - far worse than the C63 ever was. I now understand all those YT videos of people crashing in a straight line. My son, however, seems to have it under perfect control after less than a day with the thing and is ecstatic...hopefully, he won't wrap it round a tree.

It has occurred to me that my recent wobbles with Barry is because of the new brake pads because thats when it started - are the fronts now much better than the rear (although same EBC pads) and the weight transfer is unsettling the car? Because it's worst as I brake hard for corners....hmm...maybe in combination with the new rear tyres?

American Iron

 New tyres fitted - made no difference at all. On a run at the weekend, my traction control light came on far more than normal and the waywardness remains. Now, the roads were wet and the tyres are new, so maybe not scrubbed in? I turned off the traction control and didn't have any issues ie. driving into a hedge, so not really sure what is going on. I'd say maybe the shocks are losing it but then I'd expect the ride to soften, which is not happening. Maybe it is just the colder, damper weather?

The run I mentioned was a short country route to Pine Ridge golf course in Bagley (I think?), which holds a monthly classic car and hotrod meet. It was pretty small and seemed to consist mostly of 60s-80s American muscle cars, with only 1 or 2 hot rods but it was a fun run and, as always, a great bacon and egg roll:

The nicest wooden wheel I've ever seen (they are normally too spindly for me - this was pretty chunky):

A Morris Minor with supercharger - probably upped power to 60bhp?

This was the star of the show - the guy bought it like this and it was last painted 25 years ago in California, which is an amazing job:

A mere 7L engine:

Haynes Meanz Cars

 I had a choice of a long (250 mile round trip) journey to the Haynes museum for a special car meet they were having or save it and do a long weekend in Wales next week. Deciding it was unfair to leave my wife a week before my daughter leaves us to go to university, Somerset it was...

The Haynes Museum is a very nice car museum - I last went over 5 years ago, so it was due another visit and they were having a big meet this Sunday. The weather was great when I left home at 8am and my TomTom satnav gave me a really good route to the museum, using the A30 which I much prefer over the soulless A303.

About half way there, the weather turned and the heavens opened - fortunately, it stopped just before I arrived at the museum and stayed dry for the rest of the day, although the car park was a muddy hell and Barry badly needs a clean now.

The actual meet was very good - all the usual suspects (Astons, Ferraris, Porsches, 80s Fords, old Brits etc), with some extra weirdness as well - my highlight was this 1924 Rolls, which spent most of it's life in Africa, hence the ivory tusk on the bonnet and the rifles on the passenger wing:

It's still used regularly, driving 5k miles last year and has never been restored - amazing.

Quite a few other interesting things - a 90s MG ZRX (or something), with a 4L V8. I remember when these came and they were generally laughed at but they've aged well, I think:

Dunno what this was but looked mean:

Beautifully built Volvo Amazon Estate:

Nice Dino:

A slammed Jaaag:

A Fiat 130 (I think?) - you can see the Ferrari heritage from the Mondial etc:

A HUGE Buick:

One of those classics I'd love to own if I could afford it:

Inside, the museum had changed a bit since I last saw it - the Red Room (my name, not sure if they call it that) was awesome, with a 986 Boxster in the middle:

This is an Alfa Romeo - stunning:

Curves and angles - which is better? It's a tricky one:

The V16 engine from a 1930s Cadillac:

An absolutely stunning 30s Duesenberg:

An immaculately restored '65 Mustang:

If I ever repaint Barry, this might be the scheme I'd use:

And finally, a very rare (1 of only 3 in the UK) Scirocco Cabriolet - damn ugly but pretty special:

All in all, a good, if not rather long, day out and I had a fun hoon on the way home. 

Barry is feeling a bit 'loose' sometimes - I'm not sure if this just me finally getting used to his intricacies, the shocks due replacement or the almost bald rear tyres. Tyres are due to be replaced this week - see if that changes anything...

BTW, forgot to mention that Barry broke the big 100K mile barrier on day 1 of our Alps trip and has now just ticked over 103k miles - a few more years left in the old guy yet...