Tim Hunt

Martin, please put Sue and I down for this one in the 4A. It will be a good shake down before the same team tackles the 10CR! You mention a cost at the OST for the Saturday night but won't we be somewhere further north that night as usual?

Kind regards,

Tim

You have PM Malcolm.

Tim

I Booked Sue and I in the Premiere Classe, Lille Ouest-Lomme for the night of Tuesday 5th September some time ago. It's only 5 minutes from the A25 so should allow a bit of a lie in before the start. If anybody else fancies it then it would be good to have some company.

Tim

Great videos Edwin - lovely cars, wonderful roads and what a sound track. Just about perfect I'd say.

Tim

I look forward to seeing the TR2 Edwin, all being well, we don't have too many concours cars in Club Triumph. It's good to have excellent headlights of course but you shouldn't need them on this 10CR, which will involve a hotel every night and no night driving - at least that's the basis on which I sold it to the wife!  Incidentally it's good to see that you are not a slave to originallty but prepared to modify the TR2 for safety.

This puts me in mind of the 1974 RBRR when the late Paul Howell - later to be owner(custodian) of OVC 276 for a time - followed me through the night from Inverness to John o' Groats in his lovely early long door TR2. It wasn't a problem since he kept a safe distance at all times and over breakfast he told me he had chosen to follow since his original 'tripod' headlights were pretty useless. I asked why he had not fitted a pair of decent halogen conversions just for the event but he told me that would not have been original! I reckon one's neck is more important.  

Tim

Looks like the problem isn't the rad Dion. I assume you run something like a 50/50 Ethylene Glycol/water mix year round and that you flushed the block when the coolant mix was last changed. Do you have a radiator duct fitted? This item is meant to help cooling by directing more of the air stream through the radiator matrix. However, I have never had one on my 4A in 46 years and despite this have never had an overheating problem.

Tim

No choice, the TR4A is my only Triumph. Other than an oil and filter change sometime before September I just plan to fit a Velleman wiper delay kit, now I have the wiring diagram sussed thanks to Hogie's help! I hope not to need it however, a dry Run would be nice.

Tim

Enjoyed watching all the cars leave. Xan't believe that my exhaust sounded louder than Tom Key's. Have to speak to Mike about using unnecessary revs!

Tim

I note that in the last few hours our team total on the JustGiving website has reached the nominal £50K target. It's not clear if this includes the Gift Aid element or if that is additional. This is great but remember that we did quite a bit better two years ago for Macmillan so let's keep beating bushes and pestering people to maximise the outcome for Guide Dogs. I recall that £50K = one guide dog so let's go for another four legs at least.

Tim

Unusually for me I stickered up the car today a week ahead of the event. I have a good reason since on Tuesday I had a call from Bob Wilkinson, Course Director of tomorrow's Classic Virgins Day at The British Motor Museum asking if I could help out again as one of their volunteer classic owner/drivers had pulled out. I was happy to agree since I see this as a good chance to secure some extra sponsors in support of Guide Dogs. so this will be my second trip in the TR to Gaydon in seven days.

Tim

Let's hope that's right Andy. Torrential rain I can do without as I have a small pesky leak in bottom RH corner of screen surround that I haven't yet been able  completely to cure. Shouldn't complain as it's the only fault on the car --oops, that's tempting Providence I fancy!

Tim

Tim

Horrified to find when checking car round today that both brake lights were inoperative. I was pretty surprised as last checked only a few days ago. Problem soon identified as stuck brake light switch. I removed it and with some penetrating lube got the plunger working smoothly. Can't complaln, switch is the 50-year-old original!

Incidentally, while on the topic of the brake light switch it is possible to adjust it so that a light touch on the pedal will illuminate the brake lights without bringing pads and linings into play and causing any retardation. This affords a safe way of alerting a tailgater that they are too close and should drop back or overtake.  As we all know "Only a fool breaks the two second rule".

Tim

If anyone happened to take a picture of the RBRR cars gathered together at Gaydon could you possibly email a copy to  tim@timothyhunt.co.uk

Many thanks,

Tim

What he said!

Tim

I think you are being very "charitable" Tim to suggest an honest mistake. After all the 2016 event has been associated with Guide Dogs ever since your announcement in the November 2015 Club Torque when in the first paragraph you stated "For 2016 we will support Guide Dogs". Maybe there is an argument that in future, if the charitable nature of the event continues, the designated charity should be mentioned on the Entry Form.

Tim

Remember Graham that there are some people who just don't get on with the Internet and will be using the old style paper pledge form that Tim B. did circulate a while ago.

Tim

Well spotted Andy. It takes a lot to get me hot under the collar but when I read your post I almost fell of my chair. What a nerve, totally unacceptable. If Team 125 is allowed to get away with this it will be carte blanche for any one else to choose their own favourite charity on a future event. It's clearly Tim B's call but for my money the members of Team 125 should be refunded the entry fee as a gesture (let them give it to Ocean Stars if they like) and told their action was completely against the spirit if the event of which they are no longer a part.

Tim

Did you notice Mike that in your link the height of Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio was give at 13,000 feet! It is of course 1,300. I thought it was the Yanks who were given to exaggeration.

Tim

Finally got around to replacing all the 2.2W screw fitting panel light bulbs with appropriate LED alternatives. The six that are permanently lit at night will save me 1 amp, useful when you are still running with a dynamo. Another motivation was to render the instruments easier to read in the hours of darkness. I prefer the whiter light of the LEDS. Whilst the lights are brighter they are not intrusive or distracting. However, there is one downside, the brighter bulbs produce images in the windscreen from the speedo, tacho and ammeter. these are a bit like an unwanted heads-up display and definitely distracting. I solved this with a piece of fabric- backed grained PVC leather cloth held in place by insulating tape on the demister outlet. Looks a bit odd but does the job and is easily removed when not required. I didn't want untidy insulating tape on the chromed instrument bezels
LED bulbs were amazingly cheap (from PRC of course) and perhaps unsurprisingly not well made. Fitting one I found that the glass envelope came detached from the body when I screwed it in place so I used Araldite on the others to avoid this problem.
Have adjusted headlights to give maximum possible reach along the near side, must be fine since no oncoming driver has flashed me at night since the adjustment. All set now for two comfortable long night drives.

Tim  

Thanks Andy, done. isn't it easy when  you know how? I was initially frightened off by the facebook prompt then realised I could log in with email address and pre-established password.

Tim

Thanks Howard, I clicked on the link you gave and can see all the teams listed for the 2016 event. My page is http://www.justgiving.com/tim-hunt2 and has £320 of donations to date. I would like to add it to the team list, as Andy has done but can't see how to do this. Can someone tell an electronic klutz like me how to do it please.  

Prompted by Howard's comment I did a search for Round Britain Reliability Run on the justgiving website and was surprised to see several entries still coming up for the 2014 event, all mixed up with Guide Dogs pages. The Macmillan references can cause confusion, cannot they be removed?

Tim

I struggled to input my list, is there a limitation on number of characters? Anyway I gave up and will email the full list of what I will be carrying to the other entrants in TR3-TR4A vehicles, currently seven by my count.

Tim

I am so sorry to hear your news Chris and wish you all the very best. Please try to take things easy. I am sure I speak for all when I say that the next RBRR won't be the same without you, I can quite understand why Jayson and Steve didn't accept your typically kind offer of the car. I don't know if 1986 was your first Round Britain but I certainly recall picking your brains that year in Morrison's workshop in Stirling where we had my dynamo stripped on the bench and were trying unsuccessfully to breathe new life into it. That was the year that I got round thanks to Andy Roberts who kindly shadowed me round the rest of the route exchanging his battery for mine when the latter had almost run down.

I can also recall your taking one look under my hood and suggesting it was time for a rewire. I hope I am not tempting Providence to point out that nearly 30 years later and following the addition of several more after market electrical goodies my original loom is still in place and functioning fine!

Chin up,

Tim