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...

Long way for a cream tea

 My mum and sister live right down in the heel of Cornwall, 270 miles and a 5 hour drive from my house, so I only go down once or twice a year. It can, however, be a fun trip if the traffic is OK, which it was this weekend.

However, on the run down, I started getting some vibration in the steering wheel and through my seat above 75 mph (I'm not going to lie to you, I don't really follow speed limits and I tend to cruise at 90 or so, with various forays into 3 figures when I get too bored - sue me).

With dire thoughts of expensive suspension work needed, I decided to do the cheap stuff first and took Barry to a tyre place to get the wheels balanced. Lucky I did - all 4 tyres were out, the front left the worst. After that, normal smoothness was restored.

It seems that Boxsters are very sensitive to tyre wear...I also discovered that my rears are only just legal, which hopefully explains the waywardness I felt on the way back. The Alps and the ring took more out of them than I thought...

Garage Time

 My brake pad warning light lit up and although I knew the pads had a decent life left in them, I'd already bought the new ones a few months ago when I got the rears, so no reason not to do them. I thought it was also time I sorted out the mesh behind the front grilles, to stop the leaves getting in.

My jack is just too small (it was designed for my very low kit car) to lift the Boxster, so I had to borrow one from Cearth. Once the car was up on axle stands, I thought I'd just whip out the pads - all the YT videos showed it being very quick. But no, oh no...not for me.

The main pin holding the spring and pads in just would not shift, no matter how hard I whacked it - and on both sides!! Unbelievable...

After an hour or so of trying, I thought I'd make a start on taking the bumper off instead and that went much better:

Took the radiator shrouds off and found a fair amount of crap in there:

Cleaned all out and then used the mesh I still had from when I did the nose cone on my kit car, just cable tied inside the bumper:

I didn't make it quite the right size but not many people are going to look that closely and it will stop all the usual crud getting in there:

I left the brakes overnight and had another go - lots of WD40 and really hammering the shit out of the rods FINALLY got them out - Holy cow! I can only assume they haven't been done for years and there was a bit of rust I sandpapered off.

Once the pins were out, it took no time to put the pads in, using a new brake piston spreader tool I bought. However, I couldn't re-use the brake wear indicators as I'd bought non-OEM pads and the EBC yellows did not have the right size of hole to fit the wear sensors in.

I made sure to use copper slip on the pin to hopefully make this less of a nightmare if/when I have to do it again. I also cleaned the calipers off a little, so it looks a bit better and cable-tied the wear sensors out the way:

Went out for a short run and all feels OK, although there was a little squeal just as I got back and there is some dust on the wheels - hopefully, this will go away with a few more miles.

Wings and Wheels

 A beautiful month of weather (this global warming is awesome) has meant some great runs and a nice holiday. Last weekend was a short run to Tulleys farm with 4 of us and today, a slightly longer run out to Headcorn aerodrome with pretty much the same people:

We had a great drive with some traffic but enough clear roads to make it enjoyable. Tim is a local biker, knows all the roads and drives at the same level of nuttiness that I do, so great fun.

The aerodrome was very busy as there are loads of people doing parachute jumps and a wing-walker company:

An enjoyable bacon and egg bap, coffee, natter and then an almost reverse run home - made for a great half day out.

Our Porkster group is slowly melting away, with at least 6 or 7 regulars who have recently sold their Boxsters, hence the small numbers we get on these runs. Even Dave (the blue 718 today) is considering an upgrade to a 911. Might just be me and Tim in a few more weeks 😀

I'm trying to wring as much as possible out of this glorious summer, so I'm going down to Cornwall to visit my mum in 2 weeks, then a big meet at the Haynes museum in Somerset the week after that. I'm also playing with the idea of a long weekend to Wales in September but only 50/50 on that - see how it goes.

Pomp and Pageantry

 The hugely successful Bromley Pageant died 2 years ago when the London ULEZ zone was extended to include Bromley, instantly adding £20 (or whatever the charge is) for 75% of the entrants.

Fortunately, it's been moved to the South of England showground in Ardingly and today was it's first showing at the new location. Apart from the 40 minute queue to get in, it's a much better location for me, so myself and several of the Porkers went along.

In an effort to put more into the club, I had a banner made up and ordered some business cards with a QR code to the FB group I had created - we left them on a few Boxsters and Caymans we found at the show:

There were 7 of us in total (I couldn't get us all together for the pic), with one of our number bringing along his other car - see if you can tell which one it was:

A great show, with such a huge range of cars from all eras and manufacturers:

My previous kit car club, SKCC, were there and I had a nice catch up:

A fun day out, good chat, great weather...

Nurburgring Gallery

 Just a quick post to share the pics I bought from the various companies who sit around the track and take some great pics - £100 for 10, well worth it.

Alps to the Ring Tour - Epilogue

 Well, we're back home to dreary work - but what a trip!!

Let's start with some stats (for me):

Mileage: 1,866 miles
MPG: 23.5

Fuel: £514 (mix of 98 and 95)
Food: £497
Hotels: £320 (7 nights)
Tolls: £33

Weather

The one factor you have absolutely no control over - we did have 3 days of rain at the start, which made the Swiss Alp passes a little less exciting than they could have been but they were still impressive. After that, it was dry and warm, turning to hot and sweltering for the last 2 days.

I have been spoilt by my 2 previous Euro trips that were wall-to-wall sunshine, so I guess I'm owed something lesser this time around - can't complain.

The Roads

The main reason for going - our crowded little island (especially in the SE) is a real struggle to enjoy if you are an enthusiastic driver.

France is, in my experience, the best country for roads-to-traffic ratio. You can drive for miles in France without seeing a roundabout, a traffic light, any signs of humanity and only the occasional car. The only downside is that when you do get into a town, they do like their speed bumps.

Switzerland has the best quality roads, no speed bumps and low traffic density as well. The scenery is awesome but the food is very expensive - pretty much double UK prices. And Swiss people are not very friendly - sorry if any are reading this.

Germany has great roads but there is a lot of traffic UNLESS you stick to the L and K roads - no-one on those and they are lovely. However, being such a populated country, there are little towns every 5 miles or so even on the fun roads, so you don't get long stretches of hooliganism before you have to slow for a town.

Luxembourg is beautiful, roads as good as Switzerland but we literally took about 45 minutes to get across the whole country.

Belgium is much like England - bad surfaces and busy traffic on main roads but we did find some smaller roads that were clear and fun.

The Cars

My son's C63 was the star and the villain of the trip. He started blowing blue smoke early on, which we thought was an over-filled oil level but we now believe was a blocked breather pipe. This increased crankcase pressure and forced oil up into the cylinders to be burned off. A specialist assured my son it wasn't going to do any harm but he did get a crack in his oil cap, possibly due to the higher pressure. Another large bill for him - and he has to buy a new under tray after it broke on the autobahn speed trials.

But his C63 also did 200mph (!!!) on the autobahn, did an 8.20 around the Ring AND overtook a Ring taxi in the process - amazing achievements for an almost stock car.

Barry did actually have a CEL twice on the trip. We checked it with a scanner and it showed a 'warm catalyst efficiency' issue, whatever the heck that means, Possibly a new leak in the front section of my exhaust? Whatever, it seemed to have no ill-effects, went away by itself and Barry was faultless otherwise.

The Myths

Whenever you tell anyone that you're going on a trip like this, you ALWAYS get the same comments;

"watch out for trucks pulling out on you on the autobahn"
"you will die"
"watch out for Ring taxis, they're crazy"
"you will die"
"watch out for crazy Poles in knackered out Golfs on the Ring"
"you will die"
"watch out for the police - they're everywhere"
"you will die"
"when you crash on the Ring, you'll need to sell a kidney to pay for it",
"you will die" etc, etc.

I can only assume that very few people have actually been on a Euro trip - we saw maybe 5 police cars on the entire trip, even in supposedly car-hating Switzerland. One drove past me as I was parked illegally (in a bus lane) trying to get a photo of the Nurburgring sign - didn't bat an eyelid. I got a £65 fine for stopping for 30 seconds in a bus lane in London once!

The Ring was scary just because of the speed of other cars but if you've done a track day before and have done your research (YT, simulators) on the track layout, it was just great fun. The majority of the people you see crashing in all those YT videos are numpties who don't have the first clue of what a racing line is.

While I'm on the subject, to go on the Ring, you pay 35 euros and drive on; no booking, no safety briefing, no signing forms, no helmet needed. Despite this casual attitude, there are only 2 or 3 deaths a year on the Ring and no-one complains because we all know the risks and accept that responsibility. Compare that to H&S-mad UK, where you have to do all of those things just to go on a frigging go-kart track!

Finally...

This was my 3rd Euro trip and arguably the best because of something I hadn't expected to be that good - the Nurburgring. Like many urban legends, I was always worried that it would be a disappointment but nothing could be further from the truth; it was awesome. Not just the track itself but the whole aura around the area. Everyone you  see there is a dedicated petrol-head, loud rumbling cars patrol endlessly, the shops and cafe's are all car-themed - it is just a car lovers heaven.

Overall, it was yet another sublime road trip and just makes me want to emigrate to France or Switzerland - it's such a great driving experience out there.

Barry performed swimmingly and my son's car was a monster in every area. Best of all, he absolutely loved the trip, loved the thrill of the autobahn and especially the Ring and is already thinking about next year. To me, that is priceless.

Until next time...au revoir!

Alps to the Ring tour - Day 8

 Day 8 - Ring to Home, 400 miles

The last day is always a little sad, but I'd somehow managed to plan a superb route, if I say so myself. As with most of Europe, it was scorching - 28 degC expected later.

A day of 4 countries, the first section in Germany was brilliant as I had replanned it last night to remove all the yellow main roads. Our twisty route was smooth, fast and empty. Being a Sunday, nothing was open so no breakfast or even coffee - sad times.

But the roads made up for it - huge fun.

Crossing into country 2, Luxembourg, it continued to be amazing. With only 600,000 inhabitants, Luxembourg feels empty and the roads are meticulously maintained. We flew through it and soon crossed into country 3, Belgium. 

Belgian roads are much more like home, lots of bumps and potholes but my route was still giving, as we had empty roads and I somehow fluked the route through the Ardennes, so it was beautiful as well:

It was very hot now - lucky I put suntan lotion on this morning. With the windows down and the aircon blowing at my feet, it was lovely, the stunning landscape flowing by.

We entered country 4, France - more of the same. I must keep this route,  it was really superb.

The last 100 miles was the autoroute, to make sure we got to the tunnel on time. The kids were OK but because Le Tunnel had decided to put me in the large carriage (I didn't ask for it) and that seemed to be over-subscribed, I was put on the train after them, so had to wait an extra 30 mins. Must remember not to do that in future...

The last 60 mile slog home was uneventful and I arrived at 8pm.

Map of the route: