Back to Devon to pick up a car

The pi (FRanK) was bought unseen off ebay and picked up by Amanda and I with the aid of Mr.Chatterton who drove us down to Crediton to pick him up.

That was two and a half years ago, he drove home fine and we all lived happily ever after.

So what was I doing at 5am this morning in Doncaster?

I was (with another mate Ian) getting into Pete Johnson's Vectra estate and setting the satnav for an address just outside Axminster. With car trailer behind we drove through the rain showers and arrived just after 10am.

What we were picking up was a mk1 2000 estate that Pete had bought (unseen off ebay)

The car was pulled out of the cattle shed with a 4x4, luckily the brakes were free, so after a rear wheel was swapped for a spare TR6 one that would hold air the car was loaded on the trailer ready for the 250+ mile trip home.

Also at the yard were a few imps, a 2500TC estate, Lotus Elan, Citroen DS, SAAB 96 jubilee and a couple of Davrian kitcars. Nearly six hours later we were in Pete's house drinking tea, 500 miles of very variable weather during the day, including very heavy rain while we loaded and secured the car on the trailer (obviously) had netted Pete a 'big saloon' from Devon......Everyone should have one.



So far in April.......

1st of April saw Amanda and I with Amanda's parents, in HOE, meeting up with a few other YTCC members at Horbury working man's club ready for the April fools day run.

The weather was superb and we did an interesting run through West Yorkshire ending up in a pub for lunch.

A diverse set of cars took part, from a 1928 Ford model A tourer originally from Canada (central throttle pedal too!) to a 2003 Merc C class coupe (Malcolm's 2500s estate was receiving some MOT work)

The pub seemed a mecca for classic cars with a bright orange e-type and touring car replica RS500 Cosworth Sierra to mention a couple, already in the car park before our lot turned up.

The PI hasn't been left out this month either, with a quite extreme Recaro seat from an '80s Fiat Strada Abarth being added to the driver's side for a (Practical Classics) classic car trackday at Blyton Park, Lincolnshire. A combination of very hard old tyres, no ARB and a complete lack of talent in that Recaro (bucket loads of enthusiasm though) resulted in dramatic understeer/oversteer, lots of tyre and exhaust smoke and a realistic tribute to The Sweeney. So much fun and 70 hard track miles resulted  in FRanK needing a half litre of oil and quite a few litres of petrol!

Drive it day today saw us at a small car show at Morley, near Leeds. Another YTCC event we went with friends in their Bond Equipe and MGB and met up with malcolm in his newly MOT'd 2500S estate.

Lots to do and see at this event, but sadly overshadowed by appalling wearher which gradually made the field resemble the Somme. Six guys now know how heavy a PI is to push out of a waterlogged field.

Three pre war Packards, all at one small show must be a rare sight indeed, at least two of them are owned by the same lucky guy, the green straight six from '38 was on the April fool's day run. The cream straight eight is just huge, with the engine block being a good 4ft long.

I bet the guys who pushed the PI off the field were glad that the 62 Cadillac Sedan DeVille and 65 Zodiac had left before the field got really wet.

Not many cars sit a good 3ft longer than a mk3 Zodiac and make it look almost squat.

Not to be left out and because it was drive it day, I took my son Callum back to his Mum's in HOE this evening, so thats's Two mk2s used today.