London to Brighton veteran car run
:D Last weekend we finished the London to Brighton veteran car run in record time. Three years ago was the first time we had entered the weather was awfull , rain bouncing off the road , us getting wet through with no roof and winshield and modern car drivers acting like idiots, cutting us up and pulling into our slowing down space in front of us . This type of driving caused us, on more than one occasion, to do some heavy braking, which unfortunately caused the exhaust to snap off at the barrell at Croydon and then when we had fixed that for the driveshaft to brake inside the rear axle at Crawley lunch stop. It took us nearly 7 hours to get the 38 miles to Crawley from Hyde park. The following year we set off full of optimism, the weather was gorgeous, blue sky with little wind and very warm. The car ran extremely well for the first 10 miles and then it started to mis-fire and choke up the plug. We kept changing the plug every 10 miles and checking the ignition thinking that, with the symptoms it was possessing, it was an ignition fault . After the lunch stop of 30 minutes we proceeded and got to the open countryside, this allowed us to move on a bit until 10 miles from the end the passenger side rear tyre burst and came off the rim. No problem we thought as we have a spare, we had no jack and so another hour passed until we found a jack and got going again. It took us 8 hours to finish that year . When we got home and checked the car out we found the main jet had fell out. This year the weather was the same as last year. We set off at our alloted time ,7.57am, not in good spirits as the car would not start and was running well down on power after getting very hot at the car park at the hotel. We were in an underground car park and the only way out was through the barrier and up the up ramp. The prat in front of me had other ideas and did not want to pay his £35.00 car park fee.He decided to go up the down ramp but in the process hooked his n/s/r mudguard around the armco barrier and nearly pulled it off. not content in making himself look like and idiot once he proceeded to park his car in front of the way out and refuse to move until someone let him out without paying. Built into the floor was one of those ramps which come up to block your way. I squeezed down the small gap next to him, the car now starting to overheat , i told John to put the ticket in the machine, the barrier went down and i went up the steep ramp as quick as i could before all the power went. While at the top i heard a bang and a clatter and the snobby prat had tried to rush the barrier which had come back up and nearly tipped his car over. Served him wright . By the time we got to Hyde park the power had just started to come back but when we parked up and turned it off to cool down, heat soak cased the temperature to rise and boil the fuel, this is why it was bad at starting. Anyway we got going and by the time we got to Buckingham palace the car was running very well. We stopped in Brixton to fill up the tank with fuel as we were only three quarters full. The year before we used one and a half tanks of fuel. Off we went again, we had brought our Sat Nav along so we could get some estimation of speed. We seemed to be going along at between 15-20mph without many hold ups. We touched 30mph a couple of times but thought this was a fluke, we reached Crawley and spent an hour for lunch, looking at other cars etc. We set off again for the afternoon run and soon found the car was running very well on the hills, just changing down to first and holding her steady until we reached the top. No pushing. Finally we got to the A23 dual carriageway into Brighton. We had to use the middle lane as instructed and so it was decided to open the car up on this good bit of road to see what it would do, to our amazement we just touched 38mph. unbeleivable, the car had never run so well. we got onto Brighton sea front at 1.05pm. This is a record for us and a great acheivement for the car carrying four adults and luggage. Jim
:D Last weekend we finished the London to Brighton veteran car run in record time. Three years ago was the first time we had entered the weather was awfull , rain bouncing off the road , us getting wet through with no roof and winshield and modern car drivers acting like idiots, cutting us up and pulling into our slowing down space in front of us . This type of driving caused us, on more than one occasion, to do some heavy braking, which unfortunately caused the exhaust to snap off at the barrell at Croydon and then when we had fixed that for the driveshaft to brake inside the rear axle at Crawley lunch stop. It took us nearly 7 hours to get the 38 miles to Crawley from Hyde park. The following year we set off full of optimism, the weather was gorgeous, blue sky with little wind and very warm. The car ran extremely well for the first 10 miles and then it started to mis-fire and choke up the plug. We kept changing the plug every 10 miles and checking the ignition thinking that, with the symptoms it was possessing, it was an ignition fault . After the lunch stop of 30 minutes we proceeded and got to the open countryside, this allowed us to move on a bit until 10 miles from the end the passenger side rear tyre burst and came off the rim. No problem we thought as we have a spare, we had no jack and so another hour passed until we found a jack and got going again. It took us 8 hours to finish that year . When we got home and checked the car out we found the main jet had fell out. This year the weather was the same as last year. We set off at our alloted time ,7.57am, not in good spirits as the car would not start and was running well down on power after getting very hot at the car park at the hotel. We were in an underground car park and the only way out was through the barrier and up the up ramp. The prat in front of me had other ideas and did not want to pay his £35.00 car park fee.He decided to go up the down ramp but in the process hooked his n/s/r mudguard around the armco barrier and nearly pulled it off. not content in making himself look like and idiot once he proceeded to park his car in front of the way out and refuse to move until someone let him out without paying. Built into the floor was one of those ramps which come up to block your way. I squeezed down the small gap next to him, the car now starting to overheat , i told John to put the ticket in the machine, the barrier went down and i went up the steep ramp as quick as i could before all the power went. While at the top i heard a bang and a clatter and the snobby prat had tried to rush the barrier which had come back up and nearly tipped his car over. Served him wright . By the time we got to Hyde park the power had just started to come back but when we parked up and turned it off to cool down, heat soak cased the temperature to rise and boil the fuel, this is why it was bad at starting. Anyway we got going and by the time we got to Buckingham palace the car was running very well. We stopped in Brixton to fill up the tank with fuel as we were only three quarters full. The year before we used one and a half tanks of fuel. Off we went again, we had brought our Sat Nav along so we could get some estimation of speed. We seemed to be going along at between 15-20mph without many hold ups. We touched 30mph a couple of times but thought this was a fluke, we reached Crawley and spent an hour for lunch, looking at other cars etc. We set off again for the afternoon run and soon found the car was running very well on the hills, just changing down to first and holding her steady until we reached the top. No pushing. Finally we got to the A23 dual carriageway into Brighton. We had to use the middle lane as instructed and so it was decided to open the car up on this good bit of road to see what it would do, to our amazement we just touched 38mph. unbeleivable, the car had never run so well. we got onto Brighton sea front at 1.05pm. This is a record for us and a great acheivement for the car carrying four adults and luggage. Jim