once the decision had been made to compete on the sccon stages at Sculthorpe, Michelle and I departed for our anniversary holiday in New Zealand (yes i do have complete faith in the Canada Garage team)

one little upset was cosmetic, i ordered the new seats just before we left and completely forgot a previous conversation that had agreed on red, i bought blue seats. another was wheels, they had fitted my new posh alloy calipers on the front, clearing the wheels. unfortunately when i brought along the wheels i was to run on they needed a bigger spacer than i had, even stranger of a third type, one fitted and one didn't. suppose i will have to buy new wheels at some point.

arriving at Sculthorpe on Saturday, the car was sitting outside the Canada Garage 'camp' next to Neil Parson's and Ian Drummond's escorts and i have to say i felt she looked right at home. ok she did look like she was still on the axle stands and the knobblies were a bit out of place but she looked like a new car.

my first drive was down to the gate and back, the engine was definatley a wee bit cammy now, but when it was running it seemed to be quite willing. Next scrutineering and noise. next drive would be stage 1, at least i knew to keep the engine over 3000rpm.

come Sunday morning and the new (well 2 or 3 year old second hand rock hard) colway inters were fitted, she still looked like an altimeter would be a useful instrument, but then it's the suspension the previous car used which was i think a good bit heavier.

i'll point out now the only work Mark has done on the grubby bits of the car is to fit them; I decided against an engine rebuild on the basis of cost. so when the head gasket let go on stage 1 the only person to blame was myself.

anyway, in the brief drive we had, the car felt more stable than i remember, to the extent that i suspect i could have taken a gear higher everywhere. by the end of the stage the car felt down on power and was missing a bit.

the service crew did what they could and we set off for stage 2; about a mile in there was a bigger cloud of steam than usual and the engine stopped. she restarted after a bit and we drove back.

still the car is everything i'd hoped, i have an idea of what's needed, which is actually very little. then i'll have to look for another event to play on.

a big thanks must go to Canada Garage for building a very smart car and doing their utmost to keep us running.

i'll put on a piccie of the finished car when i download them.

update
not the head gasket, the head needed 25 thou (.625mm? think that was what he said) taking off it to make it flat, must stop buying dodgy second hand spares