Plethora of Porsches

 This weekend was a long-planned Tribal Gruppe run to the Cotswolds, taking in Jeremy Clarksons pub and a couple of other 'secret' stops.

I had an early start at 6.15am, 0 degC and very foggy. I took the simple motorway route and the fog didn't clear until the M40 but it left behind a beautiful, sunny day which stayed clear all day - amazing after the dreary grey of the last few weeks.

I met up with the first group of about 15 Porsches coming out of the services and we had a fun convoy for an hour to the meet point at Mollies diner:

Strangely, even though I hadn't booked, I got a table with Ric (guy from the Surrey Porkers group) and we had a nice coffee and bacon and egg bun - perfect!

A short, 15 minute convoy to JCs pub, The Farmers Dog near Burford where we filled the car park:

The pub itself wasn't open but the famous Grand Tour tent was, although they didn't do coffee (no English-grown coffee) so I just took some pictures:

After about 30 minutes of chat with a few people I met on the last run, we set off to Petroyle Restorations which were having a car day anyway, so we totally crowded the place out:

There were some great other cars here - thè owner of this camper van was a die-hard fan and won this beauty in a raffle! Valued at £75k:

Beautiful Ferrari 488 and Aston:

...and a very impressive Cortina with a turbo Cossie engine:

They were also restoring this Jensen interceptor, putting a 450bhp V8 in it:

The place was so packed, I had parked outside which meant I was able to leave before most of the others but I seemed to choose the opposite direction to everyone else, wandered through some tiny lanes alone and met up with some of the others halfway to the next stop, the Classic Motor Hub.

In the middle of nowhere, they also had garages of restoration projects and some beautiful cars for sale:

By now, it was 1pm and there was still another run to Caffeine and Machine near Stratford-upon-Avon but that was another 50 minutes away and I wanted to get home by 4pm at the latest - it would be a stretch if I went to C&M, so I set off for home instead.

I had a great run back, keeping clear of the motorways and choosing some awesome B-roads, getting home at about 4pm.

Got to say, Barry is such an awesome car! The banshee wail of the engine at high revs is magnificent and I feel like it can be heard for miles. How do people settle for EVs? Bloody lovely, it was...and since the drop links and pads change, he is completely rattle-free. I didn't realise how many little rattles there were but now he is silent, allowing me to luxuriate in the engine howl.

What a great day out 😀

Handbrake to Hell

 So, I've noticed my handbrake has been a bit weird recently; sometimes comes on with just a couple of clicks, other times the lever needs to be almost vertical. Some research suggests this is a common issue, as the pads delaminate or just crumble. Replacing them didn't look too horrendous, so what could go wrong? Bloody everything, is the answer...

1st issue: bolt holding the brake cable bracket snapped off almost immediately on the N/S and I noticed that had happened previously on the O/S as well and a previous bodger had just drilled a new hole.

2nd issue: on the N/S, the 2 small bolts holding the brake disc on came out quite easily but both on the O/S rounded off and wouldn't move. I had to drill them out using a reverse threaded drill - fortunately didn't take too long.

Taking the old pads out was quite simple; on the N/S, only one pad had some material on it, which fell off straight away. The other pad had a few crumbling bits on it. The O/S was a joke, just piles of dust came out with a few flaky bits - amazing my handbrake worked at all:

I cleaned up the hubs with a wire brush, ready for the new pads and that's when everything went to shit...

There are 2 big springs, 2 smaller ones and the adjuster, which all have to be fitted almost as one. I watched a helpful YT video which suggested the easiest order but initially, I just couldn't get it to work. They're only small springs but they have the tensile strength of an elephant and trying to get them in was a NIGHTMARE. After about an hour, I seemed to have them on but it didn't look right; one springs was stretched too far and the brake disc wouldn't go back on, suggesting the pads were too far apart.

I sweated and swore for another hour trying to get it to work but nothing helped. I left it for the night (lucky I started on Saturday) to have a think.

I tried watching a few more videos and suddenly, it clicked - I had the pads on upside down!!! In my defence, every picture of them shows them that way, so I assumed that's how they went on. Jees, what a doofus!!

So, in the morning, I switched them around and it was obviously better BUT now the problem was getting the bottom spring on. Once again, another hour trying to find a way to get it on and keep the handbrake levers fitted into the pads - bloody nightmare!

Eventually, I worked out how to do it - difficult to explain but requires holding the pad at 90 degrees to the spring, get it in the hole and then force the pad into position, using the leverage of the pad to stretch the spring.

BLOODY HELL!! One side done after a mere 8 hours of effort!

With my hard-earned knowledge from one side, it took a mere 20 minutes to do the other side.

The fun wasn't over; I still had to adjust the handbrake which caused a bit of an issue when one of the adjusters wouldn't turn but I was such a pro by now, I could take it out and free it up. Once replaced, the adjustment was quite quick.

The final job was drilling out the snapped bolt for the brake line bracket and finding a spare nut and bolt to replace it with.

Calipers and wheels back on - job finally done, a total of around 10 hours over 2 days!

Part of the reason for giving up my kit car was not wanting to struggle fixing it and here we are...I may have to bite the bullet from now on and just pay someone else to do anything. I'm not sure if it's worth the pain to do it myself...

Rattle Begone

 A quick trip to Nine Excellence in Horley to replace the drop links I failed miserably to do myself:

Took them an hour but they did have to get the oxy-acetylene torch out, which made me feel a bit better.

Most importantly, the drop links were the problem and my self-diagnosis was right; the rattle is gone. Much nicer, when spending money on something, to feel/hear the difference.

Forest of Cars

 Weekend trip was to Forest Row for a german and classics car meet. A few of us met up at Denbies and had an enjoyable little run to Tulleys Farm for breakfast:

Note the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso again - owned by a guy called Ace who has 7 or 8 other cars (including his yellow Boxster) and is about 35 years old - he says he works in 'exports and imports'. Yeah right - a definite drug dealer 😀

Also note the Peugeot RCZ next to it - the owner has recently sold his Boxster for this and loves it. It is quite good looking, I must say, but a FWD 1.6L turbo now mapped up to 190 bhp isn't great and the guy has had one before which died when it's head gasket went (typical Peugeot), so why buy another one? I know I wouldn't after that...

The meet itself was OK, with Peugeot owner getting very upset when they wouldn't let him in but did let in the Ferrari - there wasn't a lot of sympathy.

Some nice cars - I always fancied one of these big old 90s Merc coupes:

A 1980s VW Polo, similar to my 1st car (although mine never looked as good as this one):

Star of the show was this eccentric nutter in his VW camper, covered in solar panels and every space covered in gadgets, lights, screens, switches, plant pots - brilliant:

After the show, I went to Cearth's place to try do my drop links. It all started so well as it took 10 minutes to get the 2 nuts off, which I thought was the hard part. But oh no, no, no, no....

There is a bolt that goes through the hub and it was not coming out - 3 hours (!) of whacking it with a lump hammer, air hammer (my first time using it - fun!), heat (first time using a gas bottle - fun!) and nothing would move the damn thing. Later discussions suggest that the technique should be to cut off the other side of the drop link completely and get access to the bolt head but I didn't know about that and also, I'm not sure I'd want to do that because if that didn't work, the car is then un-driveable.

As it is, we put it back together and I am booked in to a specialist on Friday for them to do it - should be about £150. The only positive (apart from using new tools) was that it did feel like my old drop link was knackered (moved in a weird way compared to the new one), so I'm doing the right thing getting them changed.

Rattle and Horses

 A rare Saturday run with the Tribal Gruppe, starting at Maddings again, a cafe near Cranleigh which does a good coffee.

A good crowd turned up, including a rare 918 driven by an annoyingly young and good looking kid who was also a Porsche cup racer. At least the car was his dad's (replaced his Enzo) but damn, lucky kid:

A fun drive to a cafe in Cowfold and then on to the Half Moon pub in Kidford, which is owned by Jodie Kidd (she sadly wasn't serving behind the bar, as expected).

I meet a different set of nice people every time I go on these runs, so they are fun. However, the guy who runs these is a bit of a nutter (kicks people out the WhatsApp group whenever he fancies and doesn't like people talking unless they are regulars and don't discuss techy stuff, like fixing cars). I get the impression he's just about the social side and name dropping people he's met - I feel I may lose it with him one day. Oh well...

There is a very definite rattle from Barry's left front - hopefully, it's just the drop link, although that is supposed to be a bastard to get off. I've asked Cearth, who did my exhaust, if he is free to help me. Ordered drop links for front left and right (best to replace in pairs) for £90, although in some of the old receipts, there was some suspension work done on the right hand side only, so it might be easier to replace on that side.

Plucky Pheasant

 A cold meet up again with the Surrey Porksters at Newlands Corner. At around 2 degC, it was too cold to use the cafe there but  across the road was the Plucky Pheasant cafe, which I didn't know about (pretty sure it used to be a restaurant). An enjoyable, if not expensive, breakfast and natter was had:

Some nice cars in the car park as well, lots of Lotus's and this original (we checked the reg) Shelby Coupe, or something:

I have started hearing a slight clank from the front-left suspension recently, just on rough surfaces at slow speeds, so it may be time to consider some suspension work. Cearth was at the meet today and he seems very keen to help with the work in his full-service garage, so I might start pricing up some parts.

I'd also like to change the coil packs and maybe the plugs while I'm there - no evidence of the coils ever having been done and they're the sort of annoying thing that might just go in the middle of my Alps trip.

When England Freezes over

 The last week has been proper winter; a bit of snow (but not enough) and icy mornings. Just in time for my first meet with the PPCC at Caffeine and Machine near Petersfield.

It was a mere -5 degC when I got up at 7.15am. I had luckily put a small blanket over the top of Barry to try keep the ice off and it worked well for that area but the blanket hadn't been big enough to cover the whole screen or doors, so I had to use warm water to de-ice, which didn't work as well as I had hoped on the windows; they didn't drop fully when I opened the car and I had to use a bit of force, which I wasn't happy about. But it doesn't seem to have done any damage...I've ordered a cover from Halfords to just cover the roof and windows for future.

The drive over to C&M wasn't great - the roads seemed ice-free but I didn't want to risk pushing hard - got a nice view as the sun came up, however:

The meet was good fun; a good natter with some new people and some lovely cars in the group. I was told this McLaren owner is the slowest driver in the group despite having the quickest car:

The guy in the C63 (the 4L version) was keen to meet my son, so might try get him out to one of these meets. Beautiful Bullitt Mustang next to him:

Rare Porsche 25 - 25th anniversary edition with 4L engine, I think:

Barry in exalted company - not quite sure why they have a Lambo in a box but hey:

Love an F-Type:

Nice breakfast and coffee, good natter, fairly dull trip back and car is a state, even though I washed him the day before.