brianthesnail96

Hi Tim, offer from a while ago to do Raglan (or another South West- ish one) still stands. Not sure if I can do '21 yet.    Matt 

Knebworth does add a (possibly misplaced) sense of grandeur to proceedings and I agree the line up at the start is ace- for both the experience and the ease of organising a large field of cars I think the ability to park the cars up like that is probably pretty important. As for Scotland, I really enjoyed the slightly longer enforced detour via Tongue which must have added a couple of miles on at least. The usual road is brilliant but we must really upset the (admittedly very small) number of locals we meet and it is a bit dodgy with lots of blind bends and crests- the detour was a little more sane while not short changing us too much on the scenery or experience. Possibly a better bet with 130+ cars, some potentially not driving completely to the road conditions, although I'm sure not everyone would agree. Rob's comments on timings are almost the opposite of us- we lost time up to JOG although we did have the tools out a couple of times, made it up with the long window at JOG but took the opportunity to get the tools out again at Skiach 2 (planned fluids top up mostly) meaning a sensible arrival time at Stirling, from there we made good time until LE after which the usual Sunday traffic and my insistence on an ice cream at Badgers Holt gradually put us further and further back in to the hour leading to a "just in" arrival at Knebworth.  

Personally I don't think it's broken (as kinda proven by the huge entry this year and last) and I don't think it needs overcomplicating or subtly nudging more competitiveness into it to "fix" it.   I will agree that the timings might need revising in a few spots- the SW leg does seem to have no breathing space at all although it does level the playing field between us 2500 types and the brave folks in Heralds and the like, we all get stuck behind the same grockles! Some of the Northern timings seem a bit erratic too and obviously the 2 hour window at JOG caused a bit of fun at Skiach heading south but no doubt that has already been noted and a Cunning Plan will be in place.   It is supposed to be a bit of a challenge though, let's not forget that. We went from three in one car to six in two cars this year as I entered my own, all three newcomers decided they were doing it again before we'd even got back to our Sunday night hotel so you are obviously doing something right!

We were pleased to see you in the hotel car park although saddened to hear that you hadn't quite made it all the way under your own power- nonetheless, it was a cracking effort and the car looked great. Can confirm that you weren't hanging around either! Good to hear that your fuse issue seems to have been a one off as well :)

Thanks for the tip Clive, I'll dose everything in ACF-50 before it goes in. Pete's gearbox pictures are making me wish I'd changed the pin in mine though while it was out as opposed to looking at it, deciding it was all still where it should be and going with the theory of "if it ain't broke"...

I've got one ready to go in actually- looked a neat way of doing it and as bonus cheap too. I bought one with 4 H4 connectors, I'll probably put H4s in the centre as well so I have quad dips and quad mains- a bit naughty but hey. Not going to put silly bright bulbs in though- I'm used to crap headlights so even halfway reasonable ones will seem great! PAS pump in, will fill it up and see if it still leaks tomorrow...

Sounds like yours is about as good as mine Colin, although at least I had a few months headstart. It's now running again after a new clutch, reground crank with new mains and big ends, new oil pump, new timing chain and new seals and gaskets. And since dropping the suspension to get the engine out revealed how bad pretty much every bush and ball joint was it now has new wheel bearings, springs and struts, strut top bushes and thrusts, polybushes throughout, a recon steering rack, new seals in the PAS pump and new ball joints, braided hoses, Stag calipers and discs and mintex pads. Plus a coat of paint over everything... Just in the process of fitting up the PAS pump (now I've worked out that I've not made a hash of things and the radiator hose really does run directly in front of the adjuster) and I might be able to drive the thing again  "Just" UJs, rear brakes and a diff swap to go. Plus relay the lights (and replace the sealed beam main beam units) and wire in a couple of extra fused cigarette lighter sockets.   Please don't look at the bodywork. If it still has the N/S wing when we get out of Scotland I'll be amazed.

I wondered what happened to Le Bucket- we followed you for miles up through Scotland then again through the bottom end of Wales. Sounds like you are a man I need to keep up with as we're in a 2500 estate this year (assuming I get it back together in time), although I was planning a similar spares list myself it probably won't be quite that extensive...

Best bet is probably to email Jason and the team at rbrr[at]club.triumph.org.uk detailing the changes you need to make. That's what I did- he added our extra crew member, set our team to reserve with the payment outstanding so we could go in and "Edit Entry" to make the payment.

Same plan here actually (as last time around). Although I do need to pull my finger out and put a fundraising page together sooner rather than later I won't be making any attempt to publicise it until about a month before- in my experience people aren't interested until the event is nearly on top of you. Plus most of my colleagues have seen the car and are understandably dubious about it's chances of making the start, not to mention the finish... But the page will be sorted, and funds will be raised before we (attempt to) line up at the start, of that there is no doubt :) 

I look forward to being overtaken by said Log in October (again!).   To do list here on the notaPIanymore estate is something along the lines of: - finish taking engine out, & give it a once over - work out why the clutch is rubbish, sometimes - do engine & gearbox gaskets/ seals to try and stop it self- rustproofing so enthusiastically - replace the VERY LOUD rear diff - new brakes and lines all round - new wheelbearings all round - give the electrics a once over, fit halogens & relay (and/ or LED lights) - fit the fluffy faux tiger seat covers - replace suspension bushes etc as required.   The theory is if we can get the above sorted it won't be stopped long enough for people to notice that the wings are more frilly than a maiden aunt's doily collection.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74807157@N06/27127501507/in/album-72157694885238341/ No idea if that'll work- all being well this is our (newly acquired) steed for the run. Needs a bit of work- little things, like a clutch, diff, rear wheel bearings, brakes... plus the usual uprated lighting, relayed headlights and whatnot. Potentially a bit of bodywork too although the bits that matter seem halfway reasonable having had a bit of a poke around underneath, wings have seen better days though.

Westonzoyland was weird, but in a good way. Doubt we'll be anywhere quite as surreal this year! Be a shame to lose the traditional stop at Morrisons (and the pies) but with the changes at the garage understandable. The car park does get a tad busy too.  

Don't worry about it too much. The recommendation once you get the roadbook is to draw the route into a large scale road atlas. This did us just fine when we were newbies, we took it in turns to draw it in over tea and biccies and generally putting the world to rights so it's not a major chore. Obviously one's preference may be to do so in a suitable drinking establishment but this may be less helpful when it comes to route familiarisation... We have a sat nav running and aiming for the postcode of the next destination but this is only to act as a) a speedo b) advance warning of twisty bits (especially in Wales) c) give us a vague idea as to how we are doing for time. It's only a navigational aid as a back up to the book & marked up map combination if we get completely stumped which so far we haven't been.  Admittedly I've only run it as a 3 so we've always had an at least semi conscious navigator though!

Yes, apologies, I should have worded that better... I'm sure the issue is with hotmail but the net result is the same! Once that was sorted my entry went in no bother at all.

I believe the new site doesn't send emails to Hotmail accounts... you go to login, for both myself and my former team (split forces and entered two cars this year) it asked us to enter a new password, we then got a screen with "an authentification email has been sent" or similar. Until you click the link in that email you'll get the "bad username or password" error. However if you have a Hotmail account it may never arrive, in both of our cases a PM to Keith got us manually authentificated instead. Thanks due to Keith for sorting us out, and I suspect many many others. Glad I'd at least found the issue with mine earlier in the week and put in a trial entry so like McJim my real one was straightforward!

I thought Wzl (Westonzoidberg as it became known in our car, for no wholly adequate reason) was great, a bit surreal but felt much more of an adventure than blummin' Gordano.

Decide if we are going to do it again (probably...). Remove the custom stainless exhaust, make sure there's no chance of it ever finding it's way near a car ever again, and fit one that actually fits and won't fall off 12 hours in and end up chained to the axle to stop it ending up in the road should it do it again. Might replace the clutch hydraulics as they behave a bit oddly (but reliably), and go through the brakes as well- the exhaust bashed the soild brake line across the axle when we ran with the back half missing so that needs replacing and the pads will probably need doing by now! Driver's seat would benefit from a new foam base but it's not too bad, and the indicator stalk needs looking at since it now sounds the horn when you indicate left... That said we might do it in something different next time.

I reckon a lot of people just went straight over the new bridge and didn't even realise that was shut! I don't think there was a proper diversion in place, if there was we didn't see it either. We managed to find a way out of Tintern that dropped us into the back of Chepstow- only added 10 mins but it wasn't somewhere you'd have wanted to send 130 cars through!

You weren't the only one! We ended up heading entirely the wrong direction.

A number of people diverted off the A1 in 2014 to avoid the heavy traffic resulting from (I think) an accident. The majority of us didn't realise there was an issue until we joined the queue... we've got half a week to consider our options for this, luxury!

The next services down the M5 from Gordano is Sedgemoor, which is both slightly quicker (being directly on the motorway) and in my opinion slightly more welcoming. It's about 20 miles South of Gordano. The nearest motorway services to WZL control is Bridgewater but that's a faff to get to being some way from the motorway and not very well laid out. If you can safely get there from Gledrid Sedgemoor would be my recommendation. Might well be a non motorway 24hr en route to the Airfield of course.

Blue Sprint, red TR? (4a from memory), and a GT6 were ones that I saw- each more than once, but never more than one at a time so presumably the same owner!  

We work pretty much next door to Schlumberger! Except for the guy who actually lives in Stonehouse. He works in Bristol... Someone who worked in Schlumberger had a fleet of Triumphs, there was often one in the car park.

No worries, we're a team of 3 but will be plenty of room in the Dolly. One of our team is in Stonehouse (and the rest of us work there) so it'll be no bother to go a bit further up to get you! Keep us posted!