It was another beautiful day today, so attending the Battlesbridge breakfast meet seemed like a good idea. I had had to work the day before and then had to do some work on my front driveway, so chilling out and doing very little seemed like a plan.
It was a very good turn out and I met up with good friends, Gavin, Peter, Keith, John and Rachel and even Dave Maton and his wife Kerry joined us as well. Karen and I went in the Zetec Cortina just to give it a run out. 

As usual there were some great cars there and we even found a Nissan SX200. (See below)

This has the same engine as I have in my race car, 1964 two door pre-aeroflow. (The CA18DET 16 valve, twin cam, turbo engine)
I was hoping to catch the owner so I could see if he had any dump valve, or blow off valve fitted, as I think that's what mine will need, (My car still makes the 'Turkey Gobble' noise from the turbo.) but unfortunately I didn't get to see him. 

Around lunch time, we called called it a day as we all had other things to do. It had been a great morning out though and thoroughly enjoyable. 

Dave Maton was free again this Saturday, so he paid me a visit with a view to finishing off the last little jobs on the race car. (I really should stop calling it that!) 
I spent time re-fitting and lining up the headlights, while Dave fitted the new seat belt to the passenger side B pillar. (Somebody had cut out the captive nut for some reason, so I had to weld in a new section to be able to bolt the seat belt in.)
Trying to line up the bonnet was the next job so that we could open it without it catching the scuttle panel, but we had no success with this. It appears that the bonnet hinge on the driver side is knackered and has a lot of play in it which creates excessive movement. 

 We had to give up on the bonnet hinge and instead gave the car a few runs around the block to test all was working. Unfortunately the electric fan wasn't cutting in when it should have done and the engine ended up getting a tad warm which then deposited rusty water all over my block paving through the over flow. The fan can be switched on manually though, so I will have to do this for the time being until I get time to find out why it isn't cutting in automatically. (I also need to find out why the temperature gauge isn't working!)

It does drive well though and is scarily quick! I think it's the only car I've ever owned That I'm frightened of! Despite these small issues, I've booked the MOT for Saturday 23rd August at 07.40am. I know that's early, but I don't want to get caught in the traffic with the auto electric fan not working. I also couldn't do Saturday the 16th as I'm working, so........ fingers crossed! 

 This weekend was the Cortina Mk1 Owners club national weekend in the beautiful town on Stratford Upon Avon. Rather than get up at stupid O'clock on Sunday morning, rush up there for the day, then rush straight back, Karen and I decided to make a weekend of it and booked a hotel for the Friday and Saturday night.
I finished work on time on the Friday and we left around 16.45 to make the 150 mile journey. To our surprise, traffic was very light and the only hold up we had was a half mile queue from the M25 onto to the M40.
We had a lovely day walking around the town on Saturday, followed a by a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant in the evening. 
Sunday morning, we were up early and arrived at the show ground (Stratford Race Course) at 9am. The Mk1 Cortina club always invite other clubs to attend and this year was no different with the Ford Anglia and Mk2 Cortina club in attendance. 

There were some lovely cars there and lots of my favourite model , the MK1 Lotus Cortina. (I still dream of owning one) It was great day and I even managed to buy some parts I was after from the auto jumble as well.
However, by about 12pm, the rain clouds were gathering and Karen and I decided to head home as we still had a long way to go and both had to go to work on Monday. It was a great weekend though and one we will probably look at repeating next year. 

 Today was the Breakfast meet at the cosy cup cafe and a good chance to meet up with some like minded classic car enthusiasts. It's a good meet, but dear God! They need to get organised in that cafe. It took close on 30 minutes in the queue just to get to the counter to put an order in!

Anyway, good friends Gavin, Keith, Martin, John and Rachel were all there and one of my old work mates, Russell was there as well. I didn't get a chance to take many photos as I was too busy talking to people! There were some nice cars there though. 

I had taken the Green Cortina with me today for only its second run since its engine rebuild. I thought it was all going well until I pulled up on the drive and spotted some oil on the floor. Opening the bonnet revealed that oil was once again leaking from the dipstick tube, so the problem I thought had been cured.....hasn't. Very disapointing. 😑

 Today was the Maylandsea classic car show. Good friends Andy and Sharon were also going, so it would be a good chance to catch up. 

We got there about 10am and the rain held off for long enough around to look around the other cars. (Only once though!) There was another Mk1 Cortina there which I hadn't seen before and also another favourite car of mine. 😉

                                        

Unfortunately , just after 12pm the heavens opened and it looked like the rain was here for the day. We suffered it for about half hour, but then decided to call it a day and followed Andy and Sharon back to their place for a barbeque. You've got to make the best of a bad job haven't you? 😏

 Dave Maton returned today to hopefully finish the wiring on the race car. I had bought loads more wiring and also a gas powered soldering iron, so we were looking forward to getting everything working. A lot of the original wiring loom was missing, so we started from fresh which was challenging at times. 

We also had to fit a rotary switch with four positions on the dashboard because the original headlight switch layout was totally missing. (These are the moments when I wonder why I bought this car!)

Anyway, while Dave worked away at the wiring, I got on with fitting the seat belts. (It didn't have any of those either!) I managed fitting the driver side seat belt, but for some reason there is just a hole where the captive nut used to be in the B pillar, so I will have to make up a plate and captive nut for that another time. 

By late afternoon we had side lights, dipped beam, full beam, windscreen washers, and a hooter, so I was very pleased with the days work. 😊

 When I bought the race car I had been warned about the road legal ''slick' tyres on it. The seller said to me ' They're ok in the dry, but you'll soon find yourself facing the wrong way in the wet.'. 
Not being a fan of facing on coming traffic, I decided to look for something with more grip. The problem is, with the wheels being 13 inch diameter, there's not a lot of choice out there. 

Eventually, I found a reasonably prices set of 185/70 x 13 tyres from Oponeo and ordered them. I also ordered a 'Minilite'  style wheel from JBW, so that I had a spare. (Although it was silver, so I would have to paint it. 

The new tyres arrived and I took them to my local tyre man to have them fitted. He wanted to keep the slicks, but I brought them home as I plan to sell them. 

With this done, I made a trip to Halfords to seek out some matching Gold paint for the spare. I managed to get it close enough as makes no difference and so spent the afternoon painting and lacquering. With the new tyre fitted, it looked pretty good. Another job off of the list.😉

 Good friend Dave Maton came up today and brought his wiring and soldering iron kits with him so we could get started on the electrics on the race car. Being a previous race/track car, it had no rear number plate lights, windscreen washers, hooter, side lights or full beam! I'm eventually looking at putting this car back on the road with a full MOT, so all of these things need to be present and working. 

The first job on the agenda was the rear number plate lights. I didn't want a big bulky number plate holder, so I opted for some LED lights, which also serve as number plate bolts. I thought these looked quite good, so I was happy with them. A good start! 

Next on the agenda was sorting out the indicators. They did work, but diagonally! I.e. if you indicated right , you got the offside front and nearside rear working, and if you indicated left, you got the nearside front and offside rear working! Now I should also explain that this car has very little of it's original switches and dashboard left and just had a bank of switches for: Left indicator, right indicator, windscreen wipers, electric fan, and a blank. So, the two switches for the indicators were removed and merged onto an indicator stalk bought from car builder solutions. It's not ideal, bit it is a lot better than what we had. 
We then moved onto the headlights which were a bodged LED conversion. Luckily I had a pair of original Lucas headlights in stock, so these were going to be the replacements for the LEDs. Unfortunately while trying to convert back the original headlight set up, we found that somebody had cut most of the original wiring loom out and there was no wiring there for side lights or full beam either.Time had now caught up with us and Dave had to start heading home, so we called it a day. I would have to buy lots more wiring and Dave would have to return at another point to help get the job done. Not a great start, but at least it's a start. 😏

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.