:: Diary - April 2022 ::
:: Saturday, 9 April, 2022 ::
It's the opening TVR event of the season! We're heading off to Burghley today for a 300-odd miles rip each wy, just to look at other
TVRs, most of which we have seen before. When you put it like that, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's the sense of adventure,
the camaraderie, the feel of the open road, setting off into the unknown with a 100% reliable car and a box of tools and bits just
in case... all of that.
We have a new member in our midst - Eric lives in the same wee place as Dave, (not in the same house, obviously!) and has recently
acquired a bright yellow Chimaera. This is his first trip to a TVR event.
Sadly, Hugh won't be joining us this time as he hasn't been very well, and has been advised not to drive for a wee while.
Our other erstwhile member, Adrian, isn't going to be able to make it either, because he has a bit of a sniffle, totally unconnected
with standing around in the freezing cold last weekend getting his wedding photos taken.
So we assemble at Newbridge for fuel and a blether before setting off.
Dave leads the first leg, round Edinburgh and down the A1 to Purdy Lodge, south ouf Berwick. It's freezing cold but I think it will
warm up soon. I'm wrong. By the tie we reach Purdy Lodge, 2 hours later, I'm frozen. We meet up with Ian who isn't going to Burghley
but has driven up from Morpeth just to see us.
The first disaster of the weekend - they are out of sausages... they off extra hash brown but it's not the same, is it?
We decide to fill up with Fuel in Morpeth itself, before heading further south. All is going well until I go to pay... There are two
"assistants" behind the counter, chatting to another girl in front of the counter. In the (obviously mistaken) belief that her main
purpose in standing there is to collect payments from customers, walk up to the vacant till and say "pump 7 please".
Nothing. Not a flicker of recognition or any noticeable interruption in the flow of gossip. Thinking she maybe hasn't heard me, or
seen me at a 45 degree angle to the direction her eyes are pointing, is say again "Pump 7 please".
She turns and says "Excuse me, but I'm finishing a conversation" and turns back to her pals. I say "Yes. Pump 7 please".
She lets out one of those exasperated sighs that you'll recognise if you've ever had a teenage daughter, and says "There's no need to
be so rude"
"No but there's a big queue waiting at the pumps."
"You're very rude."
"OK do you want me to pay or not?"
As I walk out she's still shouting "You're the rudest man".
"Just serve customers instead of gabbing, and then nobody is rude".
All very entertaining.
So onwards we go, to our next stop at Wetherby services, which is another 2 hours down the road. No reportable incidents!
On to leg 3, another 2-hour stint, with me in the lead because (a) it's my turn and (b) I have a shiny new satnav that will take us
to the hotel in Peterborough.
About 10 minutes from the end of the journey (according to the satnav) we enter road works. There are no delays, just narrow lanes
and the verge is coned off. Just at that point, I look in the mirror and see no TVRs. 10 seconds ago there were 3. Naturally, you start
to wonder what has happened, has somebody broken down? I can't stop for ages until I find a wee slip road. I phone Jim, who reports
that Dave, who was right behind me, decided that he knew a short cut, so turned off. The other 2 followed him.
I'm not going back. I'm now only 5 minutes from the hotel, so that's where I'm going! When I get there, there's no sign of the other 3.
I get parked, unpack the boot, put the roof on, walk to the desk and check in, buy some cola from the vending machine, and go up to my
room. Ages later, I hear the unmistakeable sound of 3 TVRs arriving..
It turns out that Dave did know a short cut - but to a different hotel that we last stayed in 4 years ago...
A frank discussion then covers the basic rules of convoy club:
1. If you're the leader you don't blast off into the distance in case nobody else knows the way; and
2. if you're further back, you follow the leader, even if he goes the wrong way.
At least then, you're all lost together. We discuss previous occasions, where we have ended up rounding up TVRs from all over the
countryside, when somebody has made their own decision about their preferred route and then you can't find them because they don't
even know where they are.
I'm irrationally annoyed, not just because of the decision, but because Dave has previously laughed at people making these random
route decisions, and moaned about how stupid they are.
Anyway, with that cleared up, I go back to the car and clean off all the road salt and grime from the journey, ready for tomorrow.
Then it's dinner time then bed time.
:: Sunday, 10 April, 2022 ::
Up bright and early to clean the cars, especially Dave because his is on the timeline. He has to leave earlier for that, but we have
all decided that we'll all just go earlier anyway.
When we arrive, Dave drives up to the big house to the timeline. Eric mistakenly follows Dave. I follow Eric but Jim slips off the back
to the main TVR parking area. When we get to the gate, Dave gets out and tells Eric that he needs to go down the slope to the main area.
I just sit there, realising that I might have forgotten to tell Dave that my car is booked on to the timeline too...
We all get parked in our respective slots, in model order. There are only another couple of S-Series there, who have only blagged their
way in because mine is the only booked-in S that has turned up. I think it's ridiculous that soe owners have booked slots in the timeline
and then not bothered to turn up. There is no S2 and no V8S on this model timeline.
It's quite a setting though!
and the old motor is looking not too bad!
We think that there are over 300 TVRs over in the general display area. It's impossible to photograph them all, so here are a few highlights.
Here's Jim's V8S
An M-Series
I liked this 280 Tasmin.
For a minute I thought that this was my old V8 Cerb, because they only made a handful in this colour, but it isn't - not unless he has
replaced the whole grey interior with a tan one.
A camouflage Sagaris...
I like these though - they remind me of the first TVRs that I saw when I was a boy, thinking I might get one some day!
This is nice too!
It's still a bit cold, but the sun is out and it's a lovely day. I spend a lot of time talking to people about my car, or theirs, or
giving advice as you do. I also have a wander around the stalls and meet the guy who sorted my chassis 2 years ago. He's talking to
another Scots guy who lives in Ripon. Or Sharow, more precisely - right across the rod fro the church where Adrian got married last
weekend! He has an S3 with a newly-sorted chassis, which he has up for sale in the display area.
Before we leave, we line up in front of the big house for a family photo.
Then it's back to the hotel, but not before Jim takes a wrong turning and leads us off in the wrong direction. I follow him, because
that's what you do, eh? Fortunately, he leads us to a petrol station where we are able to fill up for the first part of our journey home.
Then it's back to the hotel for a wee rest and another light dinner.
:: Monday, 11 April, 2022 ::
Time to go home... dropping off after 2 hours at Steve's place near Wetherby so that Steve can have a look at his chassis, then at Purdy
Lodge again after another 2 hours, before the final leg home.
At least that's the plan...
The plan goes adrift after around an hour, when we are diverted off the A1 because of an accident that has closed the road. We are diverted
along the M66 to the next junction, then back to the A1 on he other side of the accident. That wee diversion, at crawling pace, adds an hour...
We arrive at Steve's where we have a wee wander into the next door unit while we are waiting. He has a Vauxhall Firenza and an Australian
Ford Capri convertible, that looks like it has been designed by a committee who weren't speaking to each other. It's nice but also horrible.
He also has a 1912 Austin with artillery wheels, a Volvo P1800, and a 3-wheeler that looks like a cross between a Morgan and a lotus 7, but
with an Alfa engine, all hand-built by its late owner.
With Eric's car inspected and a quote pocketed, we set off again for Pudry Lodge, but knowing that there are delays through Newcastle while
they widen the motorway past the Metrocentre. I'm leading, and ok for fuel, but aware that Dave's car uses more fuel than mie, so I try to
stop before the roadworks but they don't sell E5 fuel, so we carry on. The roadworks are horrendous, so we crawl along for ages and then
find a petrol station near Morpeth.
We also decide just to stop here for a wee bite to eat, and miss out Purdy Lodge.
We set off for the final leg, with Dave in the lead. We drive past Purdy Lodge and onwards to Berwick, where we are forced to stop in a queue
that stretches over the horizon... A couple of ambulances come past in the opposite direction, and then two police traffic cars come past us
too. My satnav says that the A1 is closed because of an accident, and while we are standing discussing our options, a coupe of guys in a
van coming the other way say that there has seen a fatal accident and the road could be closed for ages.
The satnav says that there is a wee track just behind us that takes us to a wee parallel route through Belford, that goes around the accident
site. We perform a 4-car formation 3-point turn and set off along that route - it works!
Towards we go, now ages behind schedule (if there aver was a schedule), up through the borders and into East Lothian, and just as I am
thinking "that's another TVR trip where the reliability myth hasn't reared its head", as we pass Dunbar, I realise that Jim is behind me,
but not the other 2. We turn around and go back. Rule no 3 - don't abandon other members!
It turns out that Dave's throttle cable has snapped. He disconnects it then rigs up a piece of cord from the throttle mechanism out the side
of the bonnet and into the drivers side window. Pull string = go faster, simples.
That lets us all toddle home at last, after another eventful TVR weekend!
So we assemble at Newbridge for fuel and a blether before setting off.
