What a Dicker

 Fancied a bit of a longer drive today and I saw a meet advertised on FB at the intriguingly named Little Dicker, near Eastbourne. It was described as a 'modern classics' meet but, sadly, the rain kept anything decent at home. I know I always say Barry was the best car there but in this case, it was true:

Well, not counting my sons M4...

However, the drive there and back wasn't too bad; lots of rain, traffic and potholes but a few glimpses of lovely, twisty roads that reminded me why I love driving and Barry in particular. Just the right amount of power for our roads, a glorious soundtrack - special.

Sadly, Chris has pulled out of my Euro tour as his daughter has an event he needs to take her too on both weekends, so down to 4 of us, me and 3 yoofs - ah well...

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...