Less of a Hustle

 I have been complaining about Barry feeling a bit loose recently, wondering if it was the new rear tyres or dodgy brakes - and it then got suggested that wheel alignment was the problem. I had the alignment done 2 years ago and I thought that should last years but no, it seems some people do it every year!

So I went to Kwik-Fit, who offer a free alignment check and then just £130 to do the adjustment. The guy did the check and said it was out BUT he couldn't do the alignment because some of the bolts were seized. I called 911Excellence and they said new toe-arms (the most likely seized bit) and an alignment would cost me £750 - ouch! I considered asking Cearth to use his garage and do it myself but reading up, it's a real PITA job - I decided to bite the bullet and pay the man.

Car booked in and 1 hour after dropping it off, they called to say they had managed to get the bolts off, so no need for new toe-arms - brilliant! So the geo just cost me £300 (including new bolts). Expensive but less than I was expecting, so a result.

Today, I went up to Wimbledon for the monthly Southside Hustle, a car meet on the residential roads of Wimbledon Village. It was very busy with some interesting stuff:

The Corvette was refusing to start, hence the bonnet up  - typical classic car behaviour 😀

I went for a blat to see if the alignment had made any improvement - difficult to tell with the torrential rain and huge puddles everywhere but it's definitely better, although not sure if it's as good as I remember it. I'll have to check another time...

Trains, at last

 So after my failure a couple of months ago to go to a model railway exhibition, another chance arose this weekend.

First though, I met some of the Porkers at the Chalet for breakfast - finally got 5 of them to come out, although only one other in a Boxster. That was Chris, who has also decided to come on our Euro trip in June - he's bought his Tunnel ticket, so reasonably committed. Also, Dave (who I thought had sold his Boxster but hasn't) also expressed an interest for him and his son (who also has a Boxster). I've sent him the details...

We had a nice chat over a big breakfast - it was great to catch up.

I then had a 40 minute drive down to Bognor Regis for a quaint and surprisingly busy model railway exhibition. I'm hoping to retire early in a couple of years (probably won't happen but I can dream) and I need hobbies and I've always wanted to build a model railway - I'm not that bothered by trains, I just like the building, especially the small details, like this:

The main decision for a layout is what gauge to use. The 2 most common are OO and N gauge, N being much smaller and less common. However, I really liked the N gauge displayed at this exhibition - you can fit much more in the same space:

An enjoyable 90 minutes...

I drove home via the Goodwood cafe which has a weird pricing policy; sandwiches are £10 but 2 scones, cream and jam is £4.50 - no brainer for me. Weather wasn't great but that does keep people off the roads:

A nice thrash back via my favourite back route rounded off an enjoyable day.

New Year, New Caff

 Happy New Year to my 100s of fans 😊

New Year's Day is, surprisingly, a big car meet day - major events at Brooklands Museum and a few other well known places. However, I can't ever book these because I normally have a late night on NYE, so I'm not getting up in time for a 9am meet.

However, there is a new cafe that opened up a few weeks ago and it looks promising for future meets, so after getting in at 3am and sleeping until 10am, we thought it would be a good excuse to go there for lunch.

The place is called Fuel Road House and is just down the road from Torque Moto cafe, my normal go-to place. This place is much bigger inside, although it was very quiet on NY day, understandbly but I think it will get pretty popular:

On the weekend, my son and I went to a meet at Leatherhead golf club - a lovely sunny day but it was -4 degC when we set out and it took a while to drag itself up to just over freezing! Bitter but not too bad in the sun and some great cars on show:

Stupendous Aston - no idea what model but so gorgeous:

A Ferrari 812 GTS - very expensive:

This guy obviously does not have plastic gear wheels in his roof mechanism:

Being such a nice day, we thought we'd pop over to the new Fuel Road House cafe again, to see if it was any busier and it was:

Obviously, Barry was the best car there:

...but he is very dirty. I really should give him a wash but in this cold weather, I worry about the water getting somewhere and freezing, causing some damage. My son washed his car the day before and he couldn't close his passenger door in the morning - he had to get a hair dryer to unfreeze the lock! That's my excuse for not washing, anyway...

Ahoy, Me Hearties

 Saw a meet advertised down in Portsmouth (Port Solent car meet) and decided to go check it out. With my son driving sideways behind me, as usual, we had a good run down via the regular small roads in that direction and the meet was pretty good, with a nice selection of stuff:

I put my roof down later but it was too cold first thing:

If i was going to get a classic, i do fancy a Sunbeam Alpine:

This is Ramos and his very loud GT4 - he's part of the Surrey Porksters group but i've only seen him once before out with us:

I quite fancy one of these as well - Triumph Bobber:

We then stopped off at Caffeine and Machine on the way home - some really nice stuff there as well:

The final run home was awesome; light traffic, some great roads- loved it. Great day, overall. 

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.