On to the July SOCC Autotest and a return to a venue local to me, just 20mins up the road on the A41 for the next evening grass autotest.

The field was known to be bumpy, and it was smoother than last time but the challenge this time would be length of tests, and dust which just hung in the air.

I started the event in Red Shed II, which really didn’t want to start the night before and this would come back to haunt me…

I went into the event with a good entry not expecting to do that well as the tests were long and flowing giving those with power an advantage, but at the end of the first test we had a slender lead of less than a second.

Then as the tests progressed on the lead got larger with each run, I did get a bit lucky when I hit one of the truck tyre markers that this event used as cones. The venue was rough though, and one part I hit ruined the relatively new rose joint track rod ends I was testing on the car. Seemingly these last no better than standard/OEM parts, so they will be replaced with these as there was no improvement in steering feel or feedback with them.

Then just over half-way through what was to become an epically long event, the car started mis-firing and running rough. I thought at first this was hot fuel as the weather was very hot, however cooling the fuel didn’t solve it. I managed to get it running a bit better and went out for a run, but this didn’t last long….. So I parked her up before any real damage was done.

I then swapped to the SOCC Club car, a even more standard Mk6 Fiesta (scrap head special) with the 1.25 engine in. However this was a runner, and by this time I had a sizable lead, so all I needed to do was complete the test correctly at a decent speed to keep the win.

Thankfully the Fiesta withstood the abuse of me and others using it, and we took the win by over 13 seconds.

Turns out the engine Red Shed II needs a bit of work (it was sold to me as head gasket may be going, so I always knew this was a risk). So its off to head the engine refreshed, before some more work to get the car ready for the Witney AutoX at the end of August.

This video shows how late it was getting at the end of the event, but also how the dust stayed in the air making it feel like driving in fog!

It was a return to a now familiar venue, but a new part of it for a all grass evening autotest.

I used the rally ZR for this one, the tests were quite long and flowing. During the evening I had good fun, but also managed to get one wrong test and with all runs counting this ruled out the win. However I still finished up 2nd overall and 2nd in class which is still pleasing.

Then just a few days later it was back out in the rally car and off to Abingdon for an Autosolo there. I hadn’t done one at this venue for a very long time, and with it being relatively local it was good to return. With this being part of the national and regional championships, I was never in for a top result but I had good fun despite the rain and the competitors who didn’t marshal due to the rain…

 I had decided some time ago that my time with Triumph's was done and I was going to concentrate on my Mk1 Cortina's instead. I've had some great times with Triumph's over the years, but had got to the stage where I felt that I had done all I can do. I've met some brilliant people too and I'm hoping that they will stay good friends. 

So, word of mouth about my Triumph being for sale was passed around and pretty soon I had some interest. A viewing was arranged, which wasn't an easy task as the car was in Frating North Essex and the buyer was in Walsall, near Birmingham in the West Midlands. 
A deal was done and included in the purchase price was delivery to Walsall to be arranged by Colin Wake (The car was stored at his place) and myself. 
After discussing various options, we decided just to drive the Triumph up there with me following and then come home. It wasn't quite as straight forward as it sounded though as we were both working on the  required delivery day. So, Friday 27th June, Colin took the Triumph to Bury St Edmunds where he was working for the day and left from there when he was finished. I finished my work in Hockley, Essex around 3.30pm and then, like Colin, set out for Walsall in my everyday car, my Peugeot 308 estate. 

I caught some traffic around Cambridge (which is normal!) but other than that, I had a fairly clear run. Colin did good as well and unbelievably, we pulled up outside the buyers house within a few minutes of each other. We then enjoyed a cup of coffee and a quick chat before making tracks. We still had a lot of mileage to cover. 

The traffic on the roads was starting to thin out a bit and we made a good time. Neither of us had eaten since the morning, so a much deserved KFC bargain bucket was taken on at Cambridge services. We didn't hang around too long though and at around 10.45pm we arrived back at Colin's. I then still had to get back to my home in Leigh On Sea and arrived there at 11.45pm. (and I had to get up at 5am Saturday morning to go to work!)
We worked out that it had cost around £80 to deliver the car including Petrol for the Triumph, Diesel for the Peugeot, and KFC for us, so quite  cheap option. 
I had already covered 241 miles in my work day, so with the trip up to Birmingham, across to North Essex and then back to my house, I reckon I'd driven around 600 miles! 

As usual though, the Triumph never missed a beat and hopefully the new owner will be very pleased with it. This is the first time that I haven't owned a Triumph since 2008, but I do feel that I'm doing the right thing. So, goodbye Gertie2 and all the best. 😊

 I'd rang Herts & Beds Transmission on Friday to see if my Zetec Cortina was finished and ready for collection and Ian confirmed that it was. So, I persuaded a guy from work (Adam) to run me up there to collect it. 

Adam picked me up from my house at 5.45am and we got on the road straightaway. We decided to leave early as the predicted heatwave would have lots and lots of traffic heading to the seaside at Southend and we wanted to get back before the traffic got too stupid. 

We arrived at Baldock at around 7.15 after a quick coffee in the services and after a quick chat with Ian, we collected the car and headed home. The Cortina drove well and I had great fun in the tunnels. It makes a fantastic noise! 😊

We arrived at mine just after 9am and then decided to go for breakfast in the Oakwood pub. It had been a good morning and we had avoided the traffic. 

Adam left shortly after breakfast and I decided to wash the car as it was covered in dust from being in the workshop all week. It really is a great car and a pleasure to drive. My only remaining job on it now is to get the oil pressure gauge working and then it's pretty much finished. 

 Despite the heatwave, I headed into the garage after work today to continue with the seat fitting on the project car. I had already removed the race seat from the car, so it was now just a case of making up a frame for the Audi TT seat that was going in there. 
The race seat had just been bolted through the floor any old how, (I suspect I'm going to find a lot of bodges on this car!) so I found a more reinforced part of flooring that I could bolt my framework to.
It took some time to line it all up and then drill the one inch box section that I was using through both sides, but luckily I have a pillar drill bolted to my work bench, so that made things a lot easier. 
By about 7pm the passenger seat was fitted to match the driver's seat and I was very pleased with the final result. It had been very hot in the garage and I was absolutely saturated!

Black leather Audi TT seats. A bargain at £30, and local collection! 
The race seats that were in the car will now go up for sale and I should do alright on these as the company that sells them now have them listed as out of stock. (Listed at £349 the pair including runners and frames). Hopefully, I'll be able to move them on as they are now taking up space. 
(BB Race seats. Not very comfortable for long distance stuff!) 

 It was another beautiful day today and so it was a good day for a nice chilled out morning. This would also be the Green Cortina's proper maiden voyage with its freshly rebuilt engine. 
I left early so that I would have a completely trouble and traffic free drive to Battlesbridge and as result, I got there early enough to be parked on the front row. 

The car behaved itself, other than the temperature gauge reading high, but it's always done that, so it wasn't a concern. (I've replaced the temperature sender, so it's probably the voltage regulator that needs replacing) Plus When I put the cylinder head back on I took the 88 degree thermostat out and fitted an 82 degree one, so I knew the thermostat was ok.
Good friend Gavin arrived in Triumph 2.5 Pi and other good friend Andy arrived shortly after in his Rover P6 2200. There were lots of beautiful cars there and the Ford Anglia was out in force. The Anglia was  another of my favourite cars when I was a kid, but boy, they are a small car. I think if I was to buy one I'd end up moving the driver's seat so far back, I'd be in the back of the car! (Like I used to be with my Mini's)

My Mk1 Cortina was the only one there, but only because my other friend Keith's Lotus Cortina was stuck in his garage due to the electric door packing up. 
After spending a couple of hours looking round the cars, we then decided to go for breakfast, which was a big mistake. We were told it was a 20 minute wait when we arrived, but then after 35 minutes noticed that people that had come in after us were getting their food while we were still waiting. When Gavin enquired where our order was we were told that they had lost our ticket and we would have to wait another 20 minutes! No additional free tea or drinks were offered by way of compensation or good customer relations and when the food eventually arrived it was poor. Needless to say, we wont be returning! 
By the time we returned to the show field most people had left because we'd been in the cafe for so long, so we decided to do the same. 
I got caught in quite a bit of traffic on the way home, but the Cortina handled it well and didn't cause any issues. I did notice a slight water leak when I arrived home, but this was rectified by tightening up the bottom radiator hose a bit more. 
I was pleased with how it ran. It did seem a bit slow when I first started driving it, but I need to take into account that I'd been driving the Zetec Cortina the day before, so it will seem sluggish compared to that. So I was pleased with how it droves and enjoyed my day out. 😊

 I had spoken to the chap that did my differential rebuild about my continuing oil leak during the week and he suggested I bring the car over to him so he can sort it out for good.
The only issue with that is that he is in Baldock in Hertfordshire and I was going to have to leave it with him for 4 or 5 days. Luckily, good friend Gavin agreed to follow me over there and bring me back, so we arranged a meeting in a lay-by on the A127 at 7am. Actually, Gavin rang me at 5.40am and asked if I was ready to go now as he was already awake. I was already up and about, so we re-arranged to meet at 6.30 instead.
Being this early, we didn't encounter any traffic and was at Herts & Beds transmissions just after 7.30. 

This Zetec Cortina really is a pleasure to drive now and if I can get the new project to drive the same as the Zetec, I will be more than happy. We then went for a coffee in Baldock services before setting off and again, because it was fairly early, we had a trouble free drive home. 

With the afternoon to myself I decided to finish off the job I had started during the week which was fitting Audi TT seats into the new Cortina.
Two seconds after starting welding I promptly ran out of welding wire! Luckily my local motor factors had a couple of reels in stock, so I shot down there and bought them. By about 4pm, my job was complete and I had a quick tidy up and put all my tools away.
I was pleased with how the seat looked on the drivers side, so I just have the passenger side to do now, which hopefully I may be able to get done after Battlesbridge tomorrow. The seats are not perfect, but they only cost me £30 and I only had to go to Hockley (Which is where I work) to collect them. My theory was that at £30, they were worth a punt and if I couldn't make them fit, or they were unsuitable, I haven't lost loads of money. Luckily, it looks like my £30 was well spent. 😊

The end of May was a return to the usual SOCC Banbury Skip Hire venue for another autotest. For this I teamed up with Tim Sawyer to nav for me in Red Shed II.

The tests were run over two sites, giving a real mix of tight and twisty and more open and flowing. However no matter the test, the venue was very dusty and we both got covered in the dust during the day.

The day started well and we were leading from the off…. however a wrong route (my fault not Tim’s) put me back by 30’s…. Luckily there was still lots more tests so I had the chance to make back the time lost.

The rest of the tests were challenging and got longer as the day went on. Thankfully I stayed cone free all day and stayed on the right route and ended up taking the win by quite some margin.

 I had to get the cars out of the driveway this morning as I had finally sold my 2.6 Triumph engine on facebook market place and needed to bring out of the garage and up the driveway ready to load. I was quite glad it was going as I was getting tired of some of the dumb questions I had been asked. I.e. 'Is this a genuine Triumph engine, or did you make it yourself?'. I can do a lot of things in my garage, but casting brand new engine blocks isn't one of them! 😕

Anyway, the buyer arrived around 10.30 and I lifted the engine into the back of his Volkswagen Polo with my engine crane. (Which I had only folded down and put away in the shed the week before-Typical!) He was a nice guy and wanted the engine for his Triumph GT6. I gave him a few other Triumph bits that I had laying around and other than the Triumph Mk1 saloon I have in storage (which will be going up for sale very soon) I am more or less Triumph free now. 

Once he had gone, I fired up the Green Cortina and took it for a test drive. I only went local as its just had an engine rebuild and I didn't want to be too far away if anything went wrong. Luckily , nothing did go wrong and I had no nasty oil leaks either, so it looks like the recent work was worth the effort. 

Once back home I got the bucket and sponge out and gave it a good wash. It had got quite dusty and dirty from all that time sitting in the garage, so it was good to see it looking nice and clean again. Roll on Battlesbridge on Sunday! 😊

 My friend Andy was coming round after work today for a long overdue beer and curry. I had some time to kill before he arrived, so I fitted a new set of spark plugs and altered the timing and set the firing order again on the Green Cortina. 

I also wanted to set the ignition timing with a strobe light, but I can't hold the strobe light and turn the distributor at the same time, so luckily, once Andy had arrived we were able to get that done. With the engine running smoothly we cleared everything up and quickly put the tools away as it had now started raining and the car was outside the garage. 

I was pleased how things had gone, but ideally I need to get the car out for a test drive. Hopefully, I'll have time on Sunday. With our work complete, Andy and I went for our much deserved beer and curry. And very nice it was too. 😊

I could write about the Reivers Rally and our plans, how our recce went etc… but ultimately none of it matters, because during the running of the Jim Clark Rally on the Saturday, Dai Roberts (co-driving for James Williams) died in a tragic accident.

Dirtfish remember Dai in their article, and a fundraiser has been set up for his family.

If you are able, please donate to support his family.

Our thoughts are with Dai’s friends and family, and we wish James Williams a full recovery.

 The weather was predicted as being very hot and very sunny today which was just as well as Gavin, Andy & Sharon, and I had booked up to visit the breakfast meet at Little Easton Manor near Great Dunmow. 

I met Gavin at our usual spot and we had a slow drive over there. It was very slow actually due to getting stuck behind an artic, who then got stuck behind some cyclists for ages! Eventually we got to the show and were parked on the lake area. 

We then headed for breakfast in the form of a coffee and a sausage bap and started looking at the other cars. Good friends Andy and Sharon then arrived with another addition to their dog family and we found a table and had a good old catch up. It was a beautiful day and it was really nice to sit in the sun and just chill out and not be working on cars for a change. I should do this more often!

It was a nice atmosphere and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but come 1pm I had to make a move. I had taken the Zetec Cortina, but it still has the problem of leaking oil from the diff. (Only slightly though)

I had spoken to the man who built it on Friday and he told me to disconnect the propshaft at the diff end and see if the flange nut is wet. If it is it means the flange seal has failed, but if it's leaking from inside the casing, then the casing seal has failed. 
So, once home I jacked the car up at the rear and disconnected the propshaft as instructed. I found that the flange nut was completely dry and all the leakage was from around the casing. After talking to my differential man he's told me that it can be done in the car so I don't have to remove the diff again, but he will need the car for about 4 to 5 days. So somehow I've got to find a way of taking it over to Baldock in Hertforshire, leaving it there and getting home again. What a pita! (Pain in the arse!)

This was the first time that I had taken the Zetec on a Motorway run (ok, fast A road) since having the differential ratio changed to 3:31. I have to say what an amazing difference! At 70 mph the revs per minute (RPM) is only 3,200 rather than the previous 4000. The car no longer seems like it's revving its nuts off and cruises quite nicely. I now no longer feel the need to fit a 5 speed gearbox in this car, which would have been a major job. So once the diff is sorted, I've got to be where I want to be with this car, so it should be relatively low maintenance. 

Photos by M&H Photography

After a long drive down to Kent from Liverpool via Aylesbury due to a work commitment I arrived at the very edge of Kent for my first visit to Manston Airfield. I travelled down the night before, and choose the rally driver diet of a double cheeseburger and chips for my dinner followed by a number of Wagon Wheels for dessert – maybe not healthy but it was good

I was set to double drive with David Lobb in his Turbo Charged Vauxhall Adam, we have done a number of events together and work well as a team. I was driving my usual ZR with David navving for me.

David was first to drive as he knew the venue having been there last year, and said how good the event was. For me it was all very new and very busy. The tests were hard work and very busy for both sides of the car.

Getting to the start was a bit of a worry for David when the car wouldn’t start on the trailer, we checked a number of basic things but in the end I found one of the main relays was suspect. After hitting it a few times it fired up into the life, and thankfully didn’t cause us any more issues during the day. Though I did carry a by-pass wire with me all day just incase!

After David’s first set of tests there was no time to rest as I was due back out just minutes later, this was the theme for the day with little rest for us double driving crews.

On to the first test and after a bit of a moment on the grass where I locked up and took out an arrow (luckily not a cone!) the tests all flowed ok. As is the nature of such events you don’t really know how well you are doing but it felt ok and I was generally a little quicker than David which given I had seen the tests was to be expected early in the event.

However in the queue for the second set of tests with David driving I could see I was leading with David second. Clearly things were going well and we needed to keep this going! At this point I thought the second driver advantage would drop off and the relative lack of power in the 1400 ZR (standard engine save for some slightly better cams) would see me drop down the order.

Lunch time (and another burger!) and it was back out for more tests, it really was a long and busy day. The rest of the day continued as per the morning staying clean (apart from one cone all day) and pushing on where we could we were still leading going into the last two tests.

The last two tests were long, as they were joined up versions of the various tests during the day. Going into these although I knew we had a healthy lead, this could all still get away from us. So I threw everything at it, quite literally nothing was left on those last two tests and the poor ZR took one hell of a thrashing…

In the end we kept our lead and won the event overall by 1m 14s on just over 30 competitive miles, so a winning margin of just over 2secs per mile against some much more powerful and arguably faster crews from the main BTRDA national championship it was very pleasing to take the win.

 During the week, a new toy had arrived for me to play with. It was at a good price and I thought it might be a good bit of fun. It's a 1964 2 door Mk1 Cortina, but with a Nissan CA18DET engine. Which is a 1.8 litre, twin cam, 16 Valve, Turbo engine. Allegedly pushing 250bhp, but that's yet to be verified. It's also in Alan Mann racing colours which I've always liked.

I'd been to look at it the previous Saturday and when out on a test drive, it was the first time in a long, long time that I've sat in a car while the driver has put his foot down and I've thought to myself 'Holy Shit!' 

It has a digital speedo and when the seller put his foot down the numbers couldn't keep up with the speed. The scenery from my view from the passenger seat came towards me with an alarming acceleration that I'd not witnessed before. I thought my Zetec Cortina was quick, but this is something else. So, a deal was done and collection and delivery arranged. 
It's not completely to my liking, so for now it will go into the garage until it is. 

Anyway, back to the Green Cortina. I wanted to get this running today as I needed to get the new Cortina into the garage. So, I started on it as soon as I got home from shopping which was around 8am. Gavin arrived to help around 9am by which time I'd fitted the starter motor, connected the clutch cable and fitted the dust shield between the back of the engine and the bellhousing. 
We were soon ready to start the engine, but for some reason we couldn't get fuel through the electric fuel pump. Filling the fuel pump up manually seemed to bleed it and get it operating, but I then noticed that my throttle pedal was rock solid. Investigation of this revealed that the excess of the cable had found its way under the rocker box cover when I had tightened it down and was stopping it from moving! So with this corrected, we tried again. 
After various attempts, we had to alter the timing and swap some plug leads around. I'd said to the engine builder 'If you remove the distributor, can you mark it so it goes back in exactly the same place please, because it's spot on'. But he didn't. 

Eventually, we got it running good enough to drive, but it's still not 100%. By now I was running out of time as I had somewhere to be by lunch time, so we moved the cars around and called it a day. At least it's running though and more importantly, its not pissing oil out anywhere. it was good to see it out on the road as well as it's been in the garage far too long. I'm looking forward to taking it on a run with its newly rebuilt engine.

 It was supposed to rain today, but I woke up this morning to glorious sunshine. As a result, I put some of my outstanding work to one side and decided to go for a drive in my Zetec Cortina instead. 
Since changing the diff ratio to 3:31, this car drives a lot better. However, I'd suspected for some time that the front seal in the diff is slightly leaking and after jacking up the car on my return, it turned out that this is indeed the case. So I shall be speaking to the man who built it for me and see what he's got to say. It does annoy me when you pay a lot of money for someone to do a job and it isn't up to standard. The trouble is, it seems to be happening more and more these days. 

 Good friend Dave Harvey was down this weekend and we made arrangements to meet our other friend, Gavin at the breakfast meet. Luckily the rain that had been coming down since 5am had stopped so the meet was dry. I still think that put a lot of people off though as there wasn't many people there. 

One car that did catch my eye was a nice 2 door Ford Corsair GT. These are a very rare car now and I can't remember the last time I saw one. 

Dave and I left after a couple of hours as we had a prior arrangement on the Isle of Sheppey. (Well, I was going to look at another car!) The traffic on the Dartford Bridge was awful and it took far longer to get there than it should have. We spent an hour or so looking over the car and then went for a bag of chips on the seafront while we let the traffic die down a bit. 
Luckily, the drive home was traffic free and we made good time. Time for a nice cup of tea, then a visit to the pub! 

 I finished work on time again today, so it was time to get a few more garage hours in, especially as I'm busy for the rest of the week and this would be the only chance this week.

I had to finish off fitting the steering column shroud and parcel shelf that had been extracted when I removed the steering box, but once this was done I turned my attention to the engine. I fitted the engine mounts as they had been removed by the engine builder and also re-fitted the clutch, making sure the bolts were tightened to the correct torque setting. 

The engine didn't want to go back in first of all, but with a bit of jiggery pokery it was soon in place. However, while the bell housing bolts lined up fine, the engine mounts didn't want to line up with the crossmember. After a bit of head scratching and thwarted efforts, I decided to remove the engine mounts from the block and swap them over. I mean, they looked exactly the same shape, so I didn't think they were handed, but I reckon they must be as things then became a lot easier and I was able to get the securing bolts in. 

As it was now 7.15pm, I called halt and went indoors for some dinner. I'm not sure when I will get a chance to get this finished off now as the rest of my week and the coming bank holiday weekend is looking quite busy, but any progress is still progress, so I was pleased with what I'd got done. To be continued! 😊

 As luck would have it, one of my jobs today at work was to deliver a car back to Barking in Essex. This would take me down the A13 and past Lakeside which is where the company that did my steering box are situated. So, a quick diversion saw me calling into their workshop and the chap that runs it corrected my steering box while I waited. 

I also managed to finish work a tad early as well, so I went straight out into the garage when I got home home so I could get the steering box fitted. It's a fiddly job, so I took my time with it and about an hour later, it was in place and all bolted up. Another job off the list. engine next! 

 Today was another classic car breakfast meet at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre. I set out at about 8.30am and when I turned off of the A127 and onto the A1245 dual carriageway I found myself sitting behind a 4.2 litre E type Jaguar. As soon as he saw my little Cortina Mk1 in his mirror, he pushed the loud pedal down and tried to put some distance between us. However, he didn't know what my little Cortina has under the bonnet. (A fuel injected twin cam Zetec engine) Needless to say, at 80mph he gave up the chase as he knew he couldn't get away from me. I do like being able to surprise people with this car. 😊

It was a good meet and made all the better by my friends Russell and Jan who I hadn't seen for over a year attending. Gavin and Peter were there too and we all had breakfast together. There was some unusual cars in attendance as well and one of the things I like about this meet is that there always seems to be different cars turning up. It's never just the same old cars. (The E type that thought he could get away from me!) 



Around 12pm I left as I wanted to get some work done on the Green Cortina. The steering box had been refurbished and I had collected it on Thursday. I had spent time on Saturday de-rusting the toe board and making it look better. (Even though it can't be seen when it's in position.)

So, I got the car up on axle stands and started re-installing the steering box. It did seem a bit awkward, but eventually I managed to get it in position, but it still felt that something wasn't quite right. 
After a short investigation, I was dismayed to find that during its refurbishment, it hadn't been put back together properly. There are some mounting brackets on the column and these should sit vertically. The problem was that my brackets were all sitting horizontally, so they wouldn't line up with the fitting brackets that they were supposed to. How bloody annoying! I was hoping to fit the steering box and then refit the engine as well, but now the engine will have to wait until the steering box is corrected. 

 I had a phone call from the engine builder on Sunday telling me my Engine was ready. He was busy for the next few days, so arrangements were made to collect it today. Luckily for me I managed to finish work early, so I made the trip to Wickford to collect it. 
Apparently the engine was in pretty good condition. The pistons were new, as were the big end bearings and the main bearings. However, it looked like whoever had put the engine together originally hadn't honed the bores in the cylinder block which would apparently lead to 'blow back' and cause excessive pressure inside the crank case. The cylinder head gasket was suspect as well. 

So, each cylinder had been given a good hone and the engine was reassembled with new piston rings and a new timing chain. It had also been given a real good clean and a nice paint up as well, so it looked really smart. The engine was then loaded into my car and taken home ready to install into my Green Cortina. This wont be for a while yet though as I want to get the steering box refurbished and it will be lot easier to refit the steering box while the car has no engine in place.