Bored?

 Well, not much happened recently - the British weather has really played a blinder and it has rained almost non-stop for the last 3 weeks. I had a brief flash of sun on Saturday and put the roof down for a blast but it was 6 degC, so darn cold. Otherwise, my last few drives have all been roof up, which is unusual.

Since my wheel alignment, Barry feels a bit better but still a lot of tramlining - am I just noticing this more? I don't know...

I also had a slight leak of water into the frunk, which is a concern. I've managed to avoid any water ingress issues which are common in Boxster world and a little bit in the frunk isn't serious as there is nothing in there that could get damaged but still...

More of a worry is my general interest in cars/driving/Barry; it's a bad time of year, obviously, but the Surrey Boxster group is pretty much dead and I'm so familiar with all my local roads that they just aren't as much fun as they used to be. The thought of car meets starting back up soon doesn't leave me feeling that excited - am I just getting bored? I'm beginning to understand why people change cars so frequently in our car world.

I've got my main Euro trip in June booked and ready to go and that I am looking forward to but it does worry me how lethargic I feel. I'm more excited by getting out on my bike when this rain finally stops.

Hopefully, things will improve and I'm just being a hypocariac (see what I did there?)...

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...