Epiphany in the Peaks

 Well, WHAT an awesome day!!

I have often thought about getting a classic car, a 60s sports car of some sort ideally. But I know very little about them, nor do I know anyone with one. So when I saw an ad for a day driving 4 60s sports car in the Peak District, well, it's like they heard me.

I booked this a few months ago; a half day (although it was about 6 hours) where you drive 4 different cars; a Morgan, MGA, MGB and a Frogeye Sprite.

The run is set in Buxton, so I went up on the Friday evening and stayed in a beautiful old hotel, 5 minutes walk from where the hire started:

The drive up was fairly dull motorway and the day of the event started very grey and ominously damp, although not actually raining. I was up early and had an enjoyable coffee and cake for breakfast:

While I was waiting for the organiser to appear, a bunch of great cars also turned up, off on a run of their own:

Eventually, our guy arrived along with 3 other couples and we got going. The format was a 5 car convoy, with the 4 classics in increasing modernity/power trailing behind the guys Jag. My first drive was a 2010 Morgan, with a 1.6L Zetec engine, similar to my kit car:

A great looking thing, the easiest of the lot to drive and surprisingly comfortable.

Next up was the '66 (or about there) MGB - this had a 2L version of the engine and a 5-speed box. After the Morgan, it was the most modern feeling, although the clutch bite point was stupidly high and it did feel very floaty:

My favourite was the MGA:

The steering wheel was too close to my chest but it was the most secure feeling car and it's engine sounded beautiful; a lovely grumble from Weber carbs, although the guy had fitted an MGB engine, so I'm not sure what they normally sound like.

Last and least was the Frogeye Sprite:

 Surprisingly, it wasn't it's tiny size that was the problem; it just felt very rattly and like the body wanted to go in a different direction to the chassis. Worst of all, the top of the windscreen was right in my eye line, so I either had to bend down a little or strain up to see ahead - not very comfortable. 

We had a beautiful amble around the area and managed to avoid any rain, with the sun making an appearance at the end:

It was a great day - all the cars were surprisingly comfortable and driveable, sounded great and everyone stared and smiled at us. 

However, we only got to a maximum speed of about 50 mph and all the cars felt a little sketchy at that speed. What today proved is that you don't need speed to have fun (I couldn't stop smiling all day) but I think being limited to less than 70 ALL the time would get wearing when you did need to cover some distance. Motorways would be scary as hell...

And then I drove back and the best part of a great day happened....after driving these 4 classics, what it did show is how ABSOLUTELY FECKING AWESOME Barry is. The reassuring clunk of the door closing, the beautifully smooth engine note and ride - within 5 feet of setting off, I felt like I had moved forward 50 years (which I had, obvs).

I drove back through a bit of the Peaks, taking it easy, revelling in the creaminess of a Porsche flat 6 and occasionally feeling it's power when a clear bit of road opened up. I took the motorway for a while until south of Brum and then peeled off into the Cotswolds. I stopped every now and then to change the satnav route to avoid just going straight back to the motorway and the weather obliged, with blue skies and sun. The Cotswolds are SO amazing and it seemed like everyone stayed at home to keep the roads clear for me; I basically just followed the compass on the sat nav and headed south, turning off main A roads regularly onto smaller lanes - it was fan-bloody-tastic!!

And I had an epiphany - classic cars are great BUT you can also drive slow in a more modern car and get the same enjoyment. And when it's time to put the hammer down, just for fun, or to get home, you've got heated seats, a stereo, 280bhp of loveliness and it is less likely to break down.

AND, in 20 years time, Barry will be the age now that these cars were today, so if I keep him, I'll have a classic car and people will smile from their 300mph autopiloted rooms on wheels and reminisce about their youth when they see me.

A truly special day...

Off to the races

 On a glorious evening, I went to a meet arranged by the Legends Driving Club at Lingfield racecourse, which is only 30 minutes from me.

Some lovely cars in a beautiful setting:

...and some corkers of Barry:

A fun evening...

The Sun is On

 Yes, the weather continues to be a little chilly but sunny and dry - perfect convertible weather.

I went on another run with the devilish Tribal Gruppe, starting at the same place but visiting a nice coffee place (Deveroast) in Botley:

After that, we took another run to a burger van in a layby on a hill overlooking Portsmouth - a great car place with lots of yoofs and their modded beemers plus a load of bikes.

There were at least 15 cars, with some real interesting people; the 911 GTS on the left in the pic above was owned by a friendly chap who had his son with him. He is obviously VERY loaded as he is paying for his son to race BMW M4s in some series or other. The 997 parked to the right of me was bought for only £18k at auction (normal price is nearer £30k) - it had a new engine 20k miles ago and has only done 66k miles in total so no idea why it was so cheap. The owner didn't know either - he had gone to the auction to bid on an E-Type! :-) 

A fun drive home topped off a 150-mile day.

I realise that the organiser of these runs is not a popular guy in the community BUT he is still the only one doing these sort of runs ie. quick meet, mad dash to the next place, another coffee, another mad dash and home. So I may do more, as long as he keeps the cost to the £4 I paid for this one.

Mid-week, I popped out to Torque Cafe for lunch - a beautiful day and a glorious cruise in the sun:

My son is still waiting for the insurance to decide on his car and he is getting very panicky that they may try to refuse his claim because of undeclared mods. He's hoping they won't look too closely at his car - it will be a good test to see how stringent they are. If you listened to social media (always a bad idea), they will refuse you for adding an air freshener and my son has done much more.

Disaster strikes

 It was all going so well last week - went on a nice evening drive in the sunset:

But it's all gone to pot...the cause? My son (kids, hey, who'd have 'em?). On a late night drive, he crashed his beloved BMW M4 😞

Thankfully, he is fine but the car is most likely to be a write-off and he will never get back the many £1000s he has spent on upgrades and mods. He had just bought some new, cheap rear tyres (he wears through them so quickly, he doesn't buy decent ones) and they certainly contributed to him losing control on a fast corner and spinning into a hedgerow. However, he does drive like a nutcase and there is no question that is really the main cause (which he admits).

The car actually doesn't look too bad; lots of front body panels damaged, a couple of very mangled wheels and missing trim. However, there will almost certainly be some suspension damage, a definite radiator leak and the side airbags all deployed (but not the steering wheel/dashboard, weirdly). Very unlikely that is economically repairable...

Selfishly, this probably means my euro trip in late June will be off; I need to confirm and pay for hotels in May and it is unlikely that the insurance will be resolved by then or even if my son would like to go on a trip in whatever he gets next. He won't be able to afford anything decent and he may not want to take a lesser car on a road trip. I'll consider going alone but it would save money and work holiday days if I just cancel.

Depressing times...

Hotting up

 The weather is starting to warm up and I've had a few daytime runs at lunchtime with the roof down - nothing too exciting but fun nonetheless. 

Today was a longer run out to the wilds of Kent. I normally go south of home but today was east and it was very good; traffic seems a bit quieter and some really good roads out that way. I ended up at Hawkhurst fisheries which has a nice cafe and great lake views:

All by my lonesome as my son went to Wimbledon for the Southside Hustle we went to a few weeks ago (I didn't fancy going again so soon) and I didn't even bother asking the Porkers group.

My son has just had both turbos replaced (and upgraded) on his M4 under warranty and spent another £x000 on various other bits for his car; it's now up to 650 bhp!

Dance with the Devil

I've had a nice week with Barry; an evening run to a gig which meant an 11pm return ie. zero traffic and hooliganism ensued. Then a nice, slow Saturday run in the sun with the wife - more enjoyable than I expected as we do live in a pretty part of the world when I go slow enough to look at it.

Finally, today, a run with Tribal Gruppe round Surrey/Sussex. I went on a few runs with them last year, which were pretty good but they started to get expensive (originally about £3 but started going up to well over a tenner), so I stopped going. However, the organiser has had a LOT of bad press recently after he took a group to France and just dumped them halfway through the trip! Now, reading between the lines, it sounds like he wanted, like me, to just drive and drive fast but others on the trip were expecting slower speeds and more sight-seeing. They complained and he threw his toys out the pram and left them. I've spoken to him a few times on the previous runs and he was OK but not really my type of guy; a bit of a name-dropper and he does have a little clique of regulars he concentrates on.

However, he drives like me and chooses good routes, so it works well for me (and this run was back to £4), so off I went. We met up at Maddings, itself a great location because just the run there is one of my favourites. About 20 Porsches turned up, so pretty good turn out:

From there, we had a short run to Petworth:

...and another short run to the Maltings pub (once owned by Chris Evans):

The run was a good speed and nice roads and I had some fun chats with a lot of very rich 911 owners - except for an old Cayenne someone turned up in with their whole family ( 😀 ), Barry was the cheapest car by a long way. But everyone was very friendly, so an enjoyable morning out.

The run back was just as good and traffic was quite light, probably because of the huge price of petrol at the moment.

Springy Sprungy

 It's still cold but the sun has FINALLY made an appearance this year and today was lovely - roof down for the first time on a short run out to Torque Moto cafe, which was heaving with some nice stuff:

A 45 year old DeLorean - crazy how good looking it is for that age:

...and some great quotes on the steps (you'll have to zoom in):

With the sun shining, the roof down, the exhaust howling - reminds me why I have Barry.