Issue 6
Friday 17th May 2002
Hitting The Wall Contest, part 2
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Nicholas Prior and his dad Vivian
still on Gold in the Riley 1.5
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| John and Heather Dresser pushing their Triumph TR3A around the Glen Ord Distillery. |
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Two Minis, one comming and one going,
on the Auchroisk Distillery Test. |
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| Paul Wignall and Fred Bent going well in their Alfa at Cragganmore. |
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Cars waiting to start the Cragganmore Distillery test.
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Yesterday's stars performed miserably and recorded low penalties. Indeed miracles of miracles the E type phallic symbol no 150 of Bill and Roy actually managed a zero while Car 50, the Cabriolet Porsche of the ladies Else and Antonikye who had a zero yesterday, managed a hit and got top score of 30. Pride comes before a fall.
Other hitters were cars 3, 54 and 145 while top prize for furthest away this time goes jointly to the Jacoby’s Lagonda and the Cohen’s Bristol on 79 centimetres.
All That Glitters is Not Gold
5 more went on leg 4 leaving us with 10 at Little Ferry this morning. All three golds in Class CD 8 went within minutes of each other. It was not the day for the Swiss as the Jag XK 150 of Peter and Mari Fried and the cigar shaped version of George Donni and Simone. Peter spun the car spectacularly at the end The Little Ferry circuit accompanied by much applause and cheers from the watching crowd. The result for both was wrong test.
Michael O,Shea and Sarah Fitzgeraled lost their Gold by missing Willie at the sneaky secret check just after Cape Wrath. We thought it would be the experts who would fall for this as It was very easy to say “Just follow the main road to J O’G” which any sensible person would do. But that’s rallying. They were not alone as car numbers 3, 14, 22, 47, 59, 62, 78, 118, and 142 also failed to find the Willie at his secret place. Then to cap Swiss despair there is a rumour that Phillippe Burchardt and Joseph Lambert also lost gold on this mornings circuit.
The Antics of Car 34
Well, our skinny dippers are still enjoying themselves. Jon Goodwin was having a shower last night after sinking a few too many wee drams. (I think it’s Pauls turn to drive today). He slipped in the bath, fell over backwards and pulled down the shower curtain plus its rail. At the evening meal later after a few more drams, their landlord started reciting verse on request. Apparently he was very good, even to the point when he fell off his chair backwards without missing a beat.
The Disappering Marshal
A competitor at Cawdor Castle who was among a number who missed the final TP on the Inverness regularity and also their bronze, was overheard discussing the possibility that a marshal can disappear and return. He was asking other competitors if they saw the “Disappearing Marshal “
The Power of Advertising
Heard in a shop in Golspie.
“Have you got any self heating Nescafe tins in stock ?”
Answer “ No. But we’ve seen the advert “
Early news from Leg 5
The hot news from leg 5 is that your scribes in car 92 struck disaster after losing just a mere 21 points on leg 4. Day 5 started badly with a wrong test at Little Ferry (Colin had obviously not had enough coffee at breakfast), and gradually became worse. We managed two zeroes in the early regularities including the tricky gravel cut off, then “nastly noises” and the layshaft in the gearbox went. We are left with only top gear working correctly and all the others sounding like a thrashing machine. The PV is great downhill but 1, 2, 3 and reverse are problimatical. Four deliberate wrong tests followed, but on two we managed fastest times as we avoid the reverses and took a few short cuts.
Until our wrong tests are recorded we will be zero on those tests and poor Jan Kaars–Sijpesteijn and Pieter Dicker from Holland in car 91, (the very quick Volvo 123 GT), will wonder where their gold has gone. Fear not Hywel “Results Master” Thomas will restore it when he gets the check sheet, but it was a great wind up at the time. “How can you be 20 seconds faster ?‘ Our objective now is to hang onto that bronze by attempting the tests and finding regularity timing points for as long as our gearbox holds together.
Romania
The Little Ferry competition raised 300 pounds. Kevin posted 77 seconds, a time which was equalled by Kenneth and Graham McEwan in their Porsche 911. Both cars are still on gold.
Believe it or not!
Denis and Sadie Wilkins Jaguar E type broke a rotor arm yesterday and the spare was not good either. “Jingers” to the rescue. He made a replacement from a cork and a pin and it worked!! Further along the road they found an old garage near Inverewe Gardens and the owner found an old box full of jag rotor arms. They now have a good one plus the spare cork and pin one, just in case.
A new hub for the Bristol
David and Adele’s Bristol Pininfarina sheared a hub just before the Little Ferry Test yesterday. Fortunately a new hub was available in London and it was duly couriered up overnight. This was then fitted this morning with 15 minutes to spare before the Little Ferry Test today.
A new Fuel pump for the Ferrari
Also late yesterday the Ferrari 250 GTO of Dr Rainer Schlamp and Gerd Stegmaier stopped with what was diagnosed as a mechanical fuel pump failure. An electrical pump was couriered up over night and fitted this morning. However, no joy, still no fuel! A second look then found a blocked fuel filter.
