Roger's blog

10CR 2011

2011-09-30T20:35:00.005+02:00

After missing out on the 2009 edition of 10CR I was quite happy to be invited as a co driver for this years event. A couple of weeks before the run Michael Charlton contacted me about co-driving in his Spitfire mk3. Sounded like fun, so I replied with a "yes please!" Arranged a couple of days off work and booked a silly cheap flight to London Stanstead. That's all I had to take care off. Michael had already sorted out the hotels etc for the run, so that was easy. On wednesday it was straight from work to Eindhoven Airport. Els took me up in the Mini, so I could already get used to British comfort. Some hours and a pleasant flight later Michael collected me from Stanstead in the Spitfire. The weather was typical british and not looking very promissing for the next couple of days. From Stanstead it was straight into the pub for a meal with some of the other usual CT suspects. Next morning was an early start as we had to be at the Plough around 08.00. Luckily for me it was 09.00, being still on contintal time. The car park was slowly filling with Triumphs and it was good to see all those people again that I hadn't seen for a long time.

Some pics from the start

After a brief briefing from Mr Stokes we were off to the ferry, top down as it was dry!

Dover, typical view of a CT car park, bonnets up!

Not much to say about the crossing to Calais, except for the food being rubbish and expensive. (what's new) Next stop would be Steenvoorde to collect the continental starters. It would also be my first drive in the Spitfire. I didn't take long to make me feel at home behind the Moto Lita wheel. Very much like my GT6, only a bit cooler! After a relaxing cruize down the French motorway we arrived at Steenvoorde services, the second control post.

After the control I continued on with driving through France. Next destination was Charleville were we had another controled stop in Kebaptown. Never seen so many Kebap shops in one street. Nearly one shop for every Triumph that night! Good for me as I do like Kebap. Our little Triumph was running very well so we continued our trip towards Belgium and Luxemburg, still top down. From Luxemburg it was all the way down to Switzerland. I tried to catch some sleep while Michael behind the wheel tried to catch up some time. We also catched up some serious fog at one of the first passes. You could only see a couple of meters in front of the car and it slowed us down quite a bit. Finally we made it to our 2hr stop at Bartenheim. Ellis again found a quiet parking space for 65 Triumphs, so all the teams could take a rest. Even better, he also arranged a wake-up service at 04:45. The parking space turned out to be exactly located behind the runway of Basel airport. Thank you Boeing 737 for waking me up!

Next on the list was Switzerland and not much later the first serious mountain pass, the Gotthard. A great road and still quiet as it was early in the morning. I very much enjoyed driving the Spitfire on that twisty road.

Italy would be the final country for the day, although we had to cross borders a couple of times. The weather was excellent by the time, blue sky and sunny. Couldn't be better. Soon we had to take off our jackets as temperatures were rising. Life can be hard sometimes.

Booooo

Finally we arrived at our hotel in Varena. We already had covered an amanzing amount of mountain passes like Gotthard, Splugen, Bernina, Umbrai and Stelvio. Time for a beer!

And the morning after...

Start of the second day, beautiful weather again!

On the road again.......

Last Mountain pass on the menu was Timmelsjoch. Unfortunately it was very busy on the road, not much to enjoy really. Things got all wrong when we had a puncture not far from the top. We managed to find a safe space for a wheel change within a couple of meters. As we changed the wheel we soon found out what caused the puncture. Excessive wear on the inside of the wheel had killed the tyre. The other side wasn't much better. Long story short, we arranged a second spare wheel from Math Helm and carried on with two spare wheels at the rear. Not ideal but it would bring us home. At 21.00 we arrived at the hotel in Germany. It was a long day. After sorting out our rooms we went to an Italian restaurant that was still open. The owner turned out to be a nice guy and the pizzas tasted good. The owner even provided us with two crates of beer. Back at the hotel Philip and Garry arrived in their 2000 V8. They had some fuel pump issues but managed to get home in true A-team style. They bodged up a secondary fuel supply from a jerrycan that was situated at the passenger footwell.

This was actually their upgraded version. First attempt was far more basic.

Anyway, the hotel garage turned out to be a good supply to build a new temporary fuel system.

I learned the British how to open a bottle of beer by using your Spitfire or GT6. Must say, the night was quite enjoyable in our little CT garage.

The next morning....... well............. I better quote Michael:

The story going something like this............ Arrived Leutkirch, went to pizzeria, had pizza and two large beers Pizzeria place supplied us with two crates ,40 1/2 ltr bottles of beer, one went with Burnerboy and one with our teams (4) and afterwards went to bed Told Roger ,previously to set alarm for 6.30am. That went off whilst I was shaving and was still going when Id finished. Turned off the alarm, and said "Roger ".........nothing His hand was flopped over his mouth, and again I shouted "Roger"........nothing Then I shook his wrist flopping around like a fan..........nothing Then I prodded his shoulder twice........nothing All the time he was still snoring.......... So I stuck his mobile phone in his hand and rung his number ................twice.............ringing with the TOP GEAR music on lound........nothing Whilst still snoring I then shook him and again shouted "ROGER !" at which point , he looked up and in a sedate voice said " Morning"

Let's say, I needed some time to recover but made it back to life just in time!

On the road again, last section, Ze German Autobahn.

Controlled stop in Germany. I remembered these people from the International Spitfire Weekends I used to go some years ago. It was nice meeting with them again. thanks for the coffee!

After Saarbruecken we hit some tremendous rain that continued all the way up to Belgium. The top was down and we deceided to keep it down as long as possible. As long as you keep on driving you'll stay dry. Kind of..... A quick stop at Spa-Francorchamps to take a photograph for evidence, then continued into the Netherlands. Just before Maastricht we catched some more rain and as a local I knew it would be wise to put the hood up. (trafic lights!) The last couple of miles towards Rolduc we had the hood up first time since the Plough. We nearly made it all the way top down.

At Rolduc we got welcomed by Els, who had collected a new windscreen for Team Roo. The windscreen was provided by René (Mr Nachtrit).

Spitfire was water-tight.......

After the meal at Rolduc it soon was time to go home. 10CR 2011 was top! I enjoyed every minute and every mile of it. A big thank you to Michael for trusting me behind the wheel of his car and looking after me during the run!

Finished!

2011-04-03T13:11:00.002+02:00

The project has finished. Well, of course that's not exactly true because a Triumph is never finished. Sooner or later it will brake down again. One of the benefits of driving a British classic! In the last couple of days I've been putting back the interior and fitting the entertainment section. I think some sort of car audio makes sense in a big Saloon as the car will be used for longer distance runs. Also the brakes have been bleeded. I job I still had to do after I overhauled the suspension. (some years ago) I haven't driven the car yet as I still need to find some adjusting rods to fit the throttle linkages. It's the last bit that stops me from driving the PI and getting a new MOT. Shouldn't take long now!

Things to do: Tidy up the bodywork, fit a nicer set of woodcappings, driving it!

Wishlist: Bigger wheels 14" or 15", possibly a Minilight design or maybe Revolutions
upgrade front brakes

PI is alive!!!!!

2011-03-14T20:23:00.002+01:00

Yes, it's alive, but it wasn't as easy as expected. It took me a long time to figure out why the car wouldn't run. First I took care all the injectors fired, which needed a lot of time and patience. Plus a good battery! As there was no result I thought it would be clever to check all timing marks including the timing of the camshaft. The engine has been rebuild by previous owner and hasn't run since. I needed to know if everything was spot on. Even with the engine on time there was no go. This was weird and to be honest, I was at the end of my inspiration. New input was soon found after posting my PI troubles on the CT forum. So after checking the timing again (and again and again) and feeding the beast with fresh fuel it still wouldn't fire up. The next day someone suggested to change the plugs as they could have suffered from overfueling. Eureka! That was it. After changing the "new" plugs for some old ones the engine finally came to live! Not to say I was pleased with the result. Engine is actually running very smooth with good oil pressure. Next job is rebuilding the throttle linkages as there is too much play. Then the car needs finishing off with all sorts of little jobs. Plenty to do but we're getting there slowly.

2011 Nacht van het Oosten

2011-03-12T09:19:00.002+01:00

One week later it was Chinese rally time! Again in the Mini for obvious reason. This year the event used the same chinese restaurant as last year which has a rather unusual buffet that includes chips, meatballs and Mc Nugget lookalikes. Tasted good though! Only two entrants from the UK this time. A bit disapointing but with Stoneleigh the day after we didn't expect many more. Luckily Team Wake and Bishop kept the CT tradition high and got in trouble on the way up to the rally. Why break a good tradition! Colins windscreen got smashed in Hoek v Holland. A quick phonecall to Bert Boevee sourced a new screen and seal. Bert lives not far from Hoek so that was a big advantage. They made it just in time for the start. We also had our troubles on the way up as the Mini bottomed out at the rear on a bumpy motorway section. We had to stop and remove the rear wheel arch extension as it came loose. The wheel clearance issue followed us during the rally. Many speedbumps (drempels) slowed us down a lot. The Mini has so little (none) suspension travel that I had to drive very carefully. Els did an excellent job on the navigation, giving perfect directions. Unfortunately she got sick again and we deceided to call it a day at the halfway point. So we went straight back to the hotel where we enjoyed some rather nice beers.

The day after..... Colins new windscreen

First time out

2011-03-11T19:26:00.002+01:00

Last saturday of February we had our first car event of the year. Unfortunately not in the PI as it's still a no go at that point. Our little Mini was used again and this time it was Els behind the wheel. Rob and I organised a 170km run for our local classic car enthusiasts. We started off with a healthy breakfast at Toms farmyard. It was the first time we used this rather unusual venue but it turned out to be one great experience. Imagine a farmyard full of cats and agricultural equipment that includes a pub that serves home made food from home grown animals. Fully self supporting! The run itself wasn't that exciting for us as I had designed the route myself. Luckily the route included some nice backroads. Els enjoyed driving the Mini in anger! Must say she gets better and better behind the wheel. Back at Toms place we got welcomed with home made soup which was again very tasty. Think all entrants enjoyed our first time out. And the Mini survived without loosing or breaking any important parts!

Nearly done

2011-01-31T20:31:00.005+01:00

Recently I've been fitting the reconditioned injection bits to the PI. Not much to report really, all a straight forward fit. Only issue was/is the fuel returnpipe connection at the MU. The old MU had the push on connection whilst the new one is the screw on type. An error made by myself when ordering from Neil. For now I've made a temporary connector which hopefully does the trick. An other issue is that I'm missing some bits of the choke cable connection at the accelerator linkage. Anyone got some going spare?? Anyway, in the next couple of days the PI engine should fire up hopefully. Fingers crossed! In the meantime I purchased a very nice 14" Moto Lita dished steering wheel from ebay. Suits the car really well, much better than the mk2 2500 wheel that was in it originally.

PI bits

2010-12-28T21:27:00.003+01:00

Today I found a box full of shiny PI gear in the post. A nice Christmas present I gave myself. A couple of weeks ago I have sent a spare MU, 11 injectors and my Throttle bodies to Neil Ferguson in the UK. He reconditioned the lot for me and it seems he has done a good job on it. All the bits came back nice and shiny. The MU is now converted for unleaded fuel. The TB's had a lot of play on the spindles which are replaced. So far I'm happy with the results and hopefully the PI should fire up soon!

Snow magic

2010-12-27T21:06:00.002+01:00

Spotted this when I came home from work today. Thought I would share it with you. Sticky snow!

Dreaming of a white Christmas too!

2010-12-24T17:14:00.006+01:00

Well, not dreaming.... it's actually happening this year, a white Christmas in the Netherlands. Wishing you all the best and of course a happy new year!

Soon there should be some PI progress. The reconditioned injection bits are on it's way back from the UK and should arrive soon. In the meantime I keep myself busy rebuilding the Mini front suspension. (After killing it during last nachtrit). Our friend and Mini specialist Freek told me there are some bumpstops missing and this has possible caused the damage. Got all the subframe mountings polybushed and also the bushes for the lower arm and tiebars are replaced. All a very straightforward job once you figured out how to support the body and subframe. We've got the Mini nearly for a year now and rebuilt the complete front and rear suspension and subframes on it. Also it became new tyres (Yokohama) as the Falkens were a complete waiste. No grip at all in the wet. The car was extremely dangerous to drive. Must say things have improved a lot after the tyre change and rear suspension rebuild. I recon it will become even better after the front is done. Our little Cooper is so much fun to drive, anyone should have one!

The End

2010-10-16T20:36:00.003+02:00

Well, this is it. Today I made the decision to take my GT6 off the road. After a better investigation of the chassis it turned out fixing the MOT failure wasn't that straight forward. Either it would become a bodge repair or the body had to be lifted from the chassis to do it properly. Not looking forward to both options means this will be the end of life for my beloved GT6. A life that started 10 years ago when I picked the car up in Abergavenny. It was meant to be a donor car for my red GT6 but it turned out to be to good to break. After returing home it has been brought back to life with little efford and had served me since. Although it had let me down on several occasions I did many miles in it. Enjoyed them all! Doing the 2006 RBRR must have been one of the highlights. Unfortunately we just missed out on RBRR 2010 because of the MOT failure. So far the story of KE509O...... but the story continues. One day it will be back, better than ever I hope. Finally it will get it's destination as a donor car. Building a new GT6 seems to be a good plan. I've got all the ingredients to make it to the car I have always wanted. But first I will concentrate on my other Triumph. The 2.5PI will get full attention and I promissed myself that it has to be finished before starting building the GT.

New nose cone badge

2010-02-28T13:29:00.003+01:00

Ow yes, I've been working on the PI again. Incidently I found a mk1 nose cone badge for sale in the Netherlands. Call that unique! It seemed a well preserved example for a fair price so I bought it as a replacement for the currently not so nice badge. Just swapped it over so that's another job done. The car is still not running though, hopefully I soon make some progress on that subject too. First the GT6 will be prepared and checked for the "nacht van het oosten" rally. The car hasn't run since November, so fingers crossed. Looking forward to the rally and driving the Triumph again after not being used for such a long time.

Old and new badge

Fitted!

First time out

2010-02-23T21:01:00.002+01:00

The Mini scene in the Netherlands must be one of the most active scenes outside the UK. Loads of action going on all year round so we decided to visit a local run and find out about the Mini hospitality! Just a couple of miles from home we arrived at the start of the Mini rally. 23 smart little cars found their way to the pub, which wasn't bad as the weather forecast wasn't really promising. The run turned out to be Mini indeed, as it was only 50km. Map reading this time!They gave us a map which showed 10 spots that all had to be visited. At these spots they had taken some photographs of unique objects in that area. We had to find the correct photos at the correct position. It turned out that our navigation skills were excellent, we found the 10 spots in no-time! Finding the photographed objects seemed to be a bit more complicated. Or maybe it was because we couldn't be bothered jumping out of the car and inspecting the area like a true Sherlock Holmes. The photos were too much in detail. In the end we managed to find at nearly all spots a suitable photo. Back at the pub we realised that some of the Mini folks took this photo searching very serious. In fact, it now seemed that there could have been found multiple photos at one spot, something we didn't know.... So you can imagine the results of our first Mini event. Well, we didn't come last! (but as close as you can get). Anyway, we had loads of fun in our little car. Els had her first wheelspin experience! She really enjoys driving the Mini. Which is great! The day ended in good atmosphere, being invited by some local Mini friends having a meal at the local chip-shop.

Another British Classic

2010-02-05T21:36:00.002+01:00

And no, it's not another Triumph (I wasn't allowed). The new car added to our fleet is a classic Mini. Els always wanted one and I thought it was about time to find one of these little cars. So we started our search on the web which lead us soon to the car we bought the other week. It's a 1991 Mini Cooper with factory "S pack". It has a modified head, single SU carb and no cat. It became a waxoil treatment when new. The results can been seen today as it's still a very solid car. A full history and being well equiped made this car to the one to have. Don't think we could have find a better one for a fair price. Anyway we're really happy about our new little power pack. Finally some pics.

Update no 9: Nachtrit 2009

2010-02-05T21:09:00.002+01:00

The final update is about the November nachtrit. It was the first time for Els being a co-driver in this sort of events. She was a bit nervous about it, but once started things went really well. The first couple of miles we took it easy to get used to the tulip diagrams. It didn't take long before we could speed up. She really got the hang of it and all was going well, both enjoying the event. Unfortunatelly Els became sick during the first section of the rally. At the halfway stop we deceided to return straight to the finish as she still wasn't feeling well. Which was a shame but also the only right thing to do. The way back was good fun! I enjoyed myself driving the GT6 back by following the "fastest" route designed by our TomTom. Some very fast roads through a forest brought us back to the motorway. Satnav can be fun sometimes! GT6 went really well. As a test I removed the rubber seal on top of the bulkhead. It made all cooling issues dissappear. Apperrantly there's a much better under bonnet flow with the seal removed. I'm happy with the results and didn't expect it to make such a difference. Hope it will cool things down in summer as well. Time will tell.

Update no 8: Car exchange

2010-02-05T20:39:00.002+01:00

Well, as our dog became bigger we realised that our little Saxo became to small. The Citroen had to go. As it was Els her first car it was quite an emotional goodbye. It was a good car, never let us down. We´ve taken it to Scotland and the Alps for holiday. In fact we drove it into a gletscher one day!

We found this as a replacement, Audi A4 1.8T Avant. A nice car which has plenty of space for our favourite pet. Drives really well, but is also a bit dull. (like all moderns?) Nothing exciting about it, it just brings us from A to B and back. Which can't be said from the car behind it.........

Update no 7: Nurburgring 2009

2010-02-05T19:58:00.002+01:00

Again we visited the Oldtimer Grand Prix weekend at the Nürburgring.

Friday was good! Nice weather, lots of entertainment at the Nordschleife during the 3 hour race for sports and GT cars from the 60's, good BBQ and many tasty beers.

Saturday was foggy, very foggy. In fact it was that foggy that all races had been cancelled until the weather would clear up. Eventually at the end of the day there were some cars on track, but still not racing due to the weather conditions. Luckily we found this log.......

Sunday it was time to go home. It wasn't the best Nürburg weekend we had so far, hardly seen any races. We spent most of our time at the campsite and made the best out of it. It was great, 2010 Here we come!

Update no 6: LCC 2009

2010-01-30T21:07:00.003+01:00

There was a plan! Entering the Carrera Caledonia Rally in the 2.5PI followed by a 2 week holiday in Scotland. The only issue was that the 2.5PI still wasn't running after converting it back from carbs to PI. Somewhere in April I started working on the car, building a new fusebox, wiring up the fuelpump and arranging the fuelsupply from tank to metering unit. Luckily as the car is an original PI all the original fuellines were still in place. I managed to get it all finished in time, only the car refused to run. (and still does....) As I ran out of time we decided to go for plan B, better known as the GT6. So we packed our stuff, filled the boot of the GT and off we went. On our way up to the ferry the engine started to play up. It wasn't running properly and temperatures were rising high. This wasn't feeling right.... As we had plenty of time we decided to return home and go for plan C, better known as Citroën Saxo. After repacking the car we went off again and managed to make it in time for the ferry. Here we met Theo and René who also entered in the LCC. After a rather rough crossing we arrived in Newcastle early friday morning. First day of our holiday we drove across the Yorkshire Dales heading for the P&P night in Kelbrook where we would meet other CT members who had entered LCC. We enjoyed a freezing BBQ and some rather funny tasting hamburgers (Martin you will taste proper burgers in August! ). It was a good night out! On saturday it was LCC time. Again a great route, amazing sceneries and loads of fun. Our humble Saxo was going really well, I was actually enjoying the handling of this little french car. If only it had some more power... Els was doing great on the navigating part and we both enjoyed our first CT event together. Dispite not being in a Triumph. On monday we continued our way up north headed for Tongue, in the very very north of Scotland. This would be the first stop on our tour. We had a top holiday discovering Scotland, been to Tongue, JoG, Ullapool, Lewis & Harris, Isle of Sky and finally back into the civilised world of Edinburgh. Unfortunately at the end of our money we had to return home....

Sunday at the Dreadnought, The Nottingham crew gets ready

Queens view, Scotland doesn't come better!

Yellow submarine! Els wants this Stag...

Our Little Saxo on it's way to Tongue

Arriving at Lewis and Harris

Standing Stones

Update no 5: Why the GT6 stopped running and NvhO 2009

2010-01-30T20:41:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks before the first event of 2009 I thought it would be about time to investigate the GT6 and find out why it stopped running during the November Nachtrit. As there was a problem with the fuel supply I had a suspicious feeling that there would be a blockage in the fueltank. I was right. After removing the sender unit I noticed what was wrong. When I bought the car in 2001 it had been stored in a garage for 14 years. Unfortunately it had a nearly empty tank which caused a very rusty tank. I then solved the problem by sealing the inside of the tank with "tank-cure", a 2-pack sealant. For some odd reason after 9 years this sealant had come loose and caused major blockages. I changed the tank for a fresh example and the GT was back in business again! Just in time to start in the Nacht van het Oosten rally, a.k.a. the Chinese rally. Well, what can I say, it was a top night of entertainment. Rutger found some very interesting roads and also we had to discover 2 new navigating skills. This time it was not only "tulips", the rally started with a section of mapreading. Just before the halfway stop there was a special stage on an empty industrial estate. Oh boy, did we have fun trashing the GT6 around the wide roads. We managed to do the exact route only we forgot there was a controlpost with a stamp. Well, actually we didn't bother about the stamp. It was too much fun trying to go sideways around the corners. The second half of the rally went really well, we arrived without any trouble back at the chinese restaurant.

Update no 4: Christmas present 2008

2010-01-07T21:48:00.003+01:00

This is our latest addition to our family. Some of you have already met him at the 2009 10CR Nürburgring stop, our friendly dog Tommie! It's quite a character, full of temparament and energy. His battery never goes flat! His specialty is ruining our garden and chasing rabbits ducks etc. Of course he likes Triumphs, we even took him out once in the GT6, although I'm sure he prefers the more spacious Saloon.

Tommie at 9 weeks, little and sweet

Not much later, discovering the world!

Sometimes he's self destructive!

The final product after one year of feeding!

Update no 3: Nachtrit 2008

2010-01-03T11:05:00.004+01:00

November 2008

Well, we didn't finish! All was going really well in the first section. We found a good pace and enjoyed trashing the GT6 around. Co-driver Paul did an excellent job on the tulips, no mistakes at all. Soon we were behind Rob in the Escort and both cars were flying on the twisty roads in the Belgium Ardennes. One of the highlights of the route was a ford which had to be crossed. A bit too enthusiastic maybe and after a couple of 100 metres the engine stalled. We pulled over and inspected the dizzy etc. After wiping out the wet parts the car was running ok for a while then stalled again. The Escort crew didn't see us stop and continued their run. After changing cap, rotor and plugleads the car still wasn't running ok. In the meantime Rob in the TR7 V8 pulled over. He suggested to check the fuel supply. Well, he was right, there was no juice coming at all. After cleaning out the filter inside of the facetpump the engine went again. Eureka! So we continued the rally. After some 10km the engine stalled again in an uphill section. We pulled over again to check on the fuelpump. Cleaned it out and off we went. Followed by Rob in the TR7 and Mark in the Volvo 480 we carried on. Not much later when we had to pull onto a main road the car stopped again. This time I was really fed up and decided to stop. It was just too dangerous with a car that constantly cuts out. We parked the car up at a farmhouse and continued the rally on the backseat of a Volvo 480. Up to the halfway stop to have some delicious spagetti (or was it tomatosoup?). After that we went straight back to the finish. A bit dissapointed about the results we went home. The day after we left home early to collect the GT6. Luckily (not) the car was parked up at the most far point on the route,actually not far from Namur. When we arrived the car was still there and fired up immediately. It could be driven onto the trailer. Of course Theo had to do his photographing but soon enough we were heading home. After a gentle drive in the Land Rover we arrived home around noon. The end of another interesting weekend!

Update no 2: Real Estate

2009-12-30T15:56:00.002+01:00

August 2008

No not another Triumph, this is about our new house. After an extending search on the web and many viewings we finally found a house we both felt happy about. From the first time we walked in it gave us the feeling of being at home. Very odd, as the house needed a fair amount of work. Large white tiles in the livingroom, pink doorposts and a very outdated kitchen are not exactly what you expect from your new home. It must have been the location and size of the house that gave us that magic feeling. And of course the garage including loft did it's part! Well, you can imagine rebuilding the house has cost a huge amount of time and money. This being the main reason why it has been quiet with the cars. As most of the work is done now I hope to find more time to work on my Triumphs again! Certainly something I missed out on.

Update no 1: Nurburgring 2008

2009-12-30T09:38:00.005+01:00

Our annual visit to the Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring found place in August. The usual suspects plus some new entrees found their way to the famous campsite, including my girlfriend Els. She really liked the atmosphere although she isn't a big fan of camping. I think we all had a good time watching the races, drinking beer and making some decent fire! Can't rememeber much from the stories therefore some photos instead.

VW Club has nothing to do with German aircooled cars. It means "Vette Worst" which can be translated to fat sausage. We do like our BBQ!

Our VIP shuttle for the weekend. Mario's Plymouth Van, what a great car.

Proper camping gear

Chef Herbert cooking a healthy breakfast

Our friends from Berlin came in this rare Fiat.

I took Els out for her first lap on the Nordschleife in the GT6 which she really enjoyed!

The big update!

2009-12-29T16:06:00.002+01:00

It seems my blog needs a little TLC after beeing neglected for at least one and a half year. Due to other commitments it has been quiet at the Triumph front. It's all a matter of time and money, both have been spent mostly on our new house. Plenty of jobs to do on the cars though and I'm hoping to be back in business next year! Still struggling with the 2.5PI and the GT6 keeps (more or less) running. I will report on the cars later. In the next couple of blog updates I will report about other things that kept me busy since the summer of 2008. Does time fly when you're having fun!

PI gets PI Power

2008-06-10T22:34:00.005+02:00

Yes! Finally we've started to convert the PI back from Webers to PI. Actually we are swapping engines as I have a fully reconditioned PI engine lying around. Wasn't completely pleased with the Webers as they only performed (sort of) at higher revs. Doesn't really suit the character of the car me thinks. Of course you can make Webers work, but it would involve many engine modification. Coudn't be bothered either as I quite like the idea of mechanical injection. Italy - England 0-1

Taking the old engine out was an easy job. I'm very lucky to use Robs workshop facilities including ramp and electric pallet lifter. Once the engine was out I took the chance to waxoil most parts of the car (inside of nose cone etc) and of course clean the enginebay. We also painted the subframe and crossmember. Everything is fresh and clean now! Last weekend we've put the PI engine back in, another easy job. Plenty of space in a Saloon engine bay. Now it's a matter of connecting all bits together... Might be the most complicated part of the engine transplant. I'm sure we can work it out and get the PI going!

Meet and greet

2008-04-15T22:57:00.003+02:00

PI meets PI

PI meets GT6

Getting it MOT'ed...

2008-03-21T20:06:00.003+01:00

.... or APK as it's called in the Netherlands. The car came with a fresh Control Technique so I wasn't too worried about getting the car tested for APK. Obviously a French test is not the same as a Dutch test. It failed! Needed some new steeringrack gaitors and balljoint covers. Also the headlights needed replacing as the units in the car had a beam that pointed straight forward. Always good to blind oncoming trafic! Replaced the lights with Cibie H4 units and changed the gaitors and covers. Yes, there's another 2.5PI back on the road! Could be the only one in the Netherlands at the moment...

A trip to sunny France

2008-03-18T21:45:00.002+01:00

To collect the 2.5PI.... a 2300km trip round. We did it in 32 hrs!

We left home friday late afternoon. Packed the Golf with all sorts of tools and spare parts so we would be able to repair the PI in case of a breakdown. You can expect it all from a 39 year old car. A car I've never seen before in the flesh. Only received some pics and a rough discription from the seller. (who only speaks French!) Sometimes you have to take a risk in life.. The first leg of this trip was pretty much uneventful. The Golf diezzzeled us very reliable and quick towards the South of France. We made good progress and arrived 01.00 at Nimes. The plan was to find a F1 hotel and get some sleep. We used TomTom to find the nearest F1 hotel, this nearly succeeded as we never arrived exactly at the address. Still, it was close! Unfortunately (due to French holidays) all F1 hotels were fully booked in Nimes. So we continued our trip towards Montpellier. Here we found a F1 hotel which had a room available.

The next morning we wake up in sunny France. 16 degrees and palmtrees, crazy! From Montpellier it is only a 30min drive to St Andre de Sagonis. We arrive exactly 9.00 at the workshop from Serge. The lady of the house (and 2 friendly dogs) are already waiting for us. She also speaks French only. The PI is waiting for us on the ramp. Which is good because now we can inspect the car from underneath as well. A happy surprise as the car is really as solid as expected. No rust at all! First impression is good, although the paintwork is very flat. In the meantime Serge has arrived. He explains to me in French about all the work that is done to the car. Amazingly I can understand him very well. Oui oui, merci, tres bon! After a short testdrive on the industrial estate we decide that this car is actually very good. Well worth the trip!

After arranging the boring stuff (paperwork and money) we start for our second leg on this trip. Plan is to take the scenic route back. We have 2 days left. First we need to fill up with petrol, those webers need some juice! Luckily there is a Esso station down the road. Even better, there's a Lidl supermarket on the other side as well. Very odd to walk into a Lidl in France. You feel directly if you were in Germany. Grafwalder beer makes me think about Nurburgring weekends! Time for breakfast. Buying old cars makes hungry.
After breakfast we take the scenic route towards Valence. This turns out to be a rather interesting stretch of road. Very twisty and almost no trafic. Very good for testing the big Saloon. Have to say it goes really well for such a big car, Webers sound awesome. Especially above 4000rpm. After 1hr of enthusiastic motoring we stop to inspect the car. All seems ok! Feeling more and more confident about the car. Once we have reached Valence we stop a second time. After checking TomTom we realise it's only 880km back home and ETA will be around midnight. Very tempting! So we decide to take the motorway from here and try to drive it home. Change of plan! Saloon goes really well at motorway speeds (130-140km/h). It's quiet and really comfy. I don't feel the need of changing to the modern Golf. Only concern is the fuel consumption. It needs loads! From Lyon to Dijon trafic got worse due to the end of some French holiday. It slowed us down but luckily trafic never stopped completely. After Dijon towards Metz the roads got quiet again so we could speed up. A last petrol stop in Luxemburg. Good coffee as well! From here it was only 250km back home! 0.30 we arrived in vlaaiburg. Totally exhausted but we made it. Saloon made it too. Without any breakdown! Think it is a good buy.....

Whoops I bought another Triumph

2008-02-26T23:13:00.004+01:00

Triumphs, you can't have enough of them... so I bought myself another one. Haven't seen it yet as the car is still in Southern France. Will collect on the 8th of March, a 1100km trip (single). Will be an interesting trip, as we intend to drive the car home! Fingers crossed.

Anyway, this is it... a '69 2.5PI currently running on triple Webers. Some more modifications are done to the car (Mk2 rear axle, oilcooler, TR6 engine/box/od) It's should be in mechanical good condition and hopefully the sunny climate protected the bodyshell against rust. We'll find out in 2 weeks!

Hillclimb Belgium

2007-09-12T23:16:00.001+02:00

Just some random pictures from the Hillclimb we went to a couple of weeks ago.

10CR Preparations

2007-09-05T11:45:00.000+02:00

Well... I'm ready for it! Or nearly, only have to check the roadbook and draw the route in our maps. A job for tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning.. The car should be up for it, Beans has spend loads of time and money on the wegdy thing recently, so I guess it will be reliable transport for the next couple of days. The weather isn't looking to good at this side of the canal for the moment, but it should improve over the weekend. The south side of the Alps has very promising weather. Bright sun and 25+ degrees. Hope we can do most of the event top down as it's much for fun.

Really looking forward to this! See you al in France!

PS: The 10CR text message service is on again. Click to see the latest 10CR updates during the run.

Oldtimer GP

2007-09-04T22:59:00.000+02:00

See below for the full report!

Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nurburgring

2007-08-19T15:44:00.000+02:00

Sorry it took soo long for my report on the Oldtimer GP weekend. I first had to wait for all the photos to come in and then got really annoyed by the blogger program, so badly that I didn't touch it for 2 weeks. Now it seems all to work fine, so here we go!!!

Yes we did it again, another succesfull camping weekend at the Nurburgring Oldtimer GP. And it was just as much fun as the previous editions. Arriving on fridaymorning in the Eifel turned out to be a rather foggy welcome. In fact it was very foggy! At some places visability was really poor. Hopefully it would clear up later. First thing to do was setting up the campsite. Luckily this year our die hard camperman Hay was present again with his magic Citroen Jumpy van. This van is really amazing! It has all the facilities to make every camping weekend succesfull. In no time we had a big tent, BBQ, music (incl MP3's for at least 1 weekend), cooled beer and running water. The plan now was to go shopping first in Adenau and watch the race at the Nordschleife from Breidscheid afterwards. On our trip down to Adenau we realised the fog was getting worse. After the usual shopping (and Mario buying all sorts of high alcoholic drinks..) we deceided to go to Hannes (again) for pommes und currywurst. The races should have started at 15.00 but it was still very quiet at the track. Which made us worry a bit, it all sounded like they cancelled the whole event for the day. After some investigation this turned out to be the fact. No race, time for a BBQ! So we went back to the campsite for an early start with beer and fire!

The Dutch arrive in style

Pommes und currywurst at Hannes

Time to fire up the BBQ, Hay style!

Ofcourse pyro Rob couldn't resist to give it a go...

Da Mario! Next time he really should bring his Hotrod!!!!

BBQ nearly ready for food supply.

Mark da firestarter!

How cosy.........Hay equipment

Remember our Berliner friends from last year? Well, they came back. They even brought us Berliner Pilseren this year, which tasted very good! Danke jungs!

Mario shows the latest German hat fasion... is he asleep????

Yes he is! Time for another "Mario" wake up call.. :-)
Mark practises his German and chats about Simca's (or Volvo's?)

Saturday we had a very friendly wakeup call from our next door neighbours. They thought it would be funny to ignite some rather noisy fireworks. And we thought also that is was a good sense of German humour! But not our other German neighbours. It's an understatement to say they where not amused.. The day started just as foggy as the previous day ended. This wasn't looking to good for the races. Ofcourse we had to make our famous breakfast first before we could walk to the track to see the races. Luckily the sun came out and it turned out to be a great day. We watched several races at the GP track, did a pitwalk and returned to the campsite late afternoon to fire up the BBQ

Good Morning Nurburgring! All bright and fresh, time to do some cookie cookie!

Our own Swedish Chef, Herbert cooking the eggs! I'm supervising..

We have many of these pics, will not bother you with all of them..

Watching the races and Beans doing the professional photoshoot

Great Bentley! I want one...
In the paddock...Meet and greet with Rob and Monique

GT40, Don't we all want one??Rather nice car you can see during the pitwalk

Get wired! Trying to look important between the racing trucks...

Yes, we even saw some racing Triumphs!If you like Gullwings, this is your weekend. Many of them around. This Corvette has one of the best paintjobs ever seen.

More German humour! Yes it exists!!!Back at the campsite Rob takes a beauty sleep.......while I got lost in the forest!We also inspected the toolbox of the Germans. Proper quality stuff inside!Finally went back to the track to watch the last races of the day. We also spotted this German version of the beertender!
First we saw these pre-war cars
A little sideways! Then it was time for the best race of the day, GT and sportscars up to 1965

Time for the last race of the day... Expensive line up of cars!

Racing is boring..........No it's not! :-)

Back at the campsite we did some more cooking and drinking. The very expensive ( € 1,50 for 1.5liter??) Lidl Sangria tasted ok. Hay and Mario had most of it I think. We all had a great time!
The next morning it was all sunny again and after the usual breakfast it was time to pack up. Most of us went home and some of us went to the Nordschleife to see some action on track. Unfortunately it was very very busy on and besides the track that we deceided to go home early. It was the end of another succesful weekend. Next year we'll do it again!

Jumpy Puzzle... how not to fit a seat

This is looking way better. It needed some agression but in the end it all fitted!

Triumph event at Nurburgring

2007-06-26T22:27:00.000+02:00

It's already 2 weeks ago that we visited a (sort of) track day organised by a German Triumphclub. They hired the famous Nordschleife for 2hrs. Basicly it's Triumphs only but you will find the odd MG or Jaguar as well on track. Who cares , it's good fun!

First I drove down to a petrol station at the German autobahn to meet up with Rob and Monique in their TR7 V8. Due to major roadworks we ended up in heavy trafic which slowed us down a bit. Luckily we made it in time for the infamous lunch at Hannes. Traditional pommes und currywurst always tastes good! Suddenly it started to rain, typical for the eifel region. But now the sky looked very dark and I had a feeling it wouldn't clear up anymore. Not good for driving the Nordschleife. The track becomes very slippery when wet. Just before the openening of the track it stopped raining. Time to go out and have some fun in the GT6. First lap was still wet so I took it easy. GT6 was going really well, I felt really confident about the car. Amazingly the track dried up very fast so the second lap was mainly dry. Still took it easy as you can hit a wet spot after every corner. Never trust the Nordschleife! Only once the backend came out as I was a bit to quick on the throttle. Luckily it happened at slow (ish) speed. Third lap was completely dry and I really started to enjoy myself. Amazingly I was one of the quicker cars on the track. Even more amazing as you see what cars the Germans bring. Their Triumphs are all very well build to high standards. (a big contrast compared to my rustbucket) They spend loads on go faster goodies (including racy outfit!) but for some reason there's not much go! They prefer to look fast instead of going fast... In the first lap I was behind a E-type in full race trim (including driver) but he could'n get away from me. At Adenauer Forst I think he got nervous from the white mini E-type in his mirrors that he spun his fancy racer. Finally I could get past him, as the E-type is the faster car in a straight line. (no surprise) Not sure how many laps I did in the end, must have been 10 or 11. I drove 2 hrs full time! Must have been the best 2 hrs in my GT6. Rob also had a great time in his Tr7 V8. He has done many laps on the Nordschleife but told me he never had so much fun as today. He only had to stop once for fuel. That V8 needs loads! Afterwards we stopped at "Pistenklaus" for dinner. which was excellent. Finally an uneventful drive home and again we enjoyed a great day of Triumping!

First official unofficial Triumph meet Limburg.

2007-04-09T20:15:00.000+02:00

Here we are, at the end of another smashing run through the German eifel. We had a great day out enjoying our cars and of course ourselves! It was also the first official unofficial Triumph meeting since our local area has separated from CTH. Amazingly we had a good turn out with 6 cars, 5 Triumphs and one Escort mk1. For today I volunteered to codrive with Rob in his Escort. We met at 9.00 in Sittard at Ron and Mary's place (our new clubhouse....) After the usual chat we left for Germany around 10.00. The first section was a bit boring with long straight roads and many villages to cross. It didn't take long for us to loose the cars behind us. Only Rob and Monique in the TR7 V8 stayed on our tail. Not much later I missed a lefthand turn (on my own designed route, Hooray!) and we got lost. Luckily rob had satnav which brought us back on track soon. The further we drove down south the more challenging the roads became. Robs RS2000 is going really well, only suffering some very bad vibrations at certain speeds. Doesn't really matter as long as there is go! I think Rob enjoyed the twisty roads very much. Then we got lost a second time in Bad Munstereifel, but luckily came back on track soon. Now we were up on the last section before the halfway stop. This section was used last year as one of the stages at the rally Koln-Ahrweiler. A fantastic road, big respect for the rallydrivers who do these sections at more serious speeds. Now we were close to our halfway point, restaurant Steinerberg which is situated on top of a hill. The road up there is amazing. Looks like the road to nowhere and seems to be climbing and climbing up the hill for ever. It's only one car wide and the hairpins are proper first gear stuff. Top entertainment! Once we've reached the top we notice it's very busy at the restaurant. 15 minutes later the other Triumphs arrive. It took us a while to order food but managed in the end. Unfortunately the second part of our group deceided to drive down and search for another restaurant as the food supply was slow. Shame as we haven't seen them since then. They drove straight home after lunch, due to illness of one of the codrivers. Once we got our food it turned out to be really nice. It was worth the climb and the long wait. After lunch we drove down the hill where I tried to make some pics of the wedgies in front of us.

Theo's new pride and joy, scraping the mirrors on the tarmac... :-)

Drive it like a hairdresser stole it!

Once out on the open road again we headed for the Nürburgring. The road from Kesseling to Adenau is a narrow but good visible road which can be driven in anger. This is how it looks like!

Cupholder RS2000 style!!!

We stopped at Bergwerk to see some track action. It's a great spot as you are very close to the track. Not sure if it's safe, so far I have never seen a car crash.

Our tool for today, Robs Escort mk1 RS2000

Some on track action pics

After the usual Porsche and BMW watching at the Ring we continued our trip towards Adenau. First a quick pitstop for fuel in Breidscheid, then we would be ready for the last section.

Robbie stays cool, V8 needs juice!

Wedgetastic....

Beans fills up the Beans way!!

With the cars filled up, we hit the road again. From Adenau we took a great road towards Reifferscheid. This was another section out of the Koln-Ahrweiler. Think this was the best stretch we drove today. Just amazing! And very quiet as well. Luckily the backroads in the Eifel are still undiscovered, gives us plenty of room to play. Especially the downhill section towards Fuchshofen is spectacular. Next time I want to drive uphill, must be even better! We continued our tour on more interesting roads and finally ended up in Aachen. Last section on the busy motorway and we were back home again. I really enjoyed being in Robs Escort as a codriver, it's a great car that can only become better once all the vibrations and rattles are sorted. It was a good day out in good company. Shame we got split up and some of us had to go home early. Next time we'll try again!

GT6, well fed up! 2.5PI, no progress

2007-04-09T20:05:00.000+02:00

No report on the GT6. Still struggling with the engine since it "went up in smoke" on our way up to the start of "De nacht van het Oosten" Hope to get it running again soon. For now I've lost motivation. It still won't run properly and also engine temperature is a bit on the high side.

Also no progress on the 2.5PI. Hopefully by the end of this week there is news about the missing bits and the available donor car. I'm a bit in a Triumph down at the moment. Not good! I'm sure things will change soon!! Just keep on smiling. It ain't broke, only not working at the moment! :-)

Finally

2007-02-17T21:13:00.000+01:00

It's back in and it runs! It's all smooth and quiet again and I was very excited this afternoon when I finally heard it running again. I'm talking about my GT6 engine, which came out of the car because it made some unhealthy bottom end noises. After a closer examination I found some pretty worn big end bearings. Luckily the crankshaft didn't suffer from it. We measured the crankpins and endfloat of the crank which was all within the limits. Oilpump was also OK, so only new big end bearings came in. I managed to find some OE quality replacements which isn't as easy as it sounds. My supplier in the Netherlands only has the cheap repro County bearings in his pricelist but can also do OE quality if you ask for it. I think this is a bit odd, but according to him his customers only want the cheapest. Not me though, esp not on bearings.

I was a bit worried about mating the engine back to the gearbox but surprisingly it slided in very easy. It's all about having both gearbox and engine in a correct angle! Well I first started the engine today and it sounds very sweet! Hmm I love the Triumph sixpot.

PI progress

2007-02-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

Not much really. I've been sorting out the bits that came with the car and found out there is a lot missing. Luckily the specific PI bits are all there, it's mostly trim and stuff that I need. I've spoken to the previous owner who still has a donor car somewhere in a lock-up. Hopefully I can get it off him and complete my car. I cleaned the leather seats, they are in reasonable condition, only the leather has completely dried out. Not sure what to do yet, I'm thinking of fitting modern (BMW?) seats which will give more support than the original ones. Still plenty of time left to think about these things. James made up this PItastic pizzledown that shows exactly how much time is left before it has to be finished. RBRR08 is my goal !!

Also had a quote for doing the bodywork and paintjob... Why is paint so expensive??

Triumph voting

2006-12-24T02:29:00.000+01:00

PI has landed

2006-12-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

Picked the PI up today. Of course we did it in style, by using a 73 Chevy Pick up as a towcar!

New car (part two)

2006-12-11T20:28:00.000+01:00

Well, it's not new and it's hardly a car at the moment. It's more like a box of meccano!

It's a '69 Saloon 2.5PI mk1. One of the few LHD ones that are still around and this one is even an original Dutch registered. The car has covered 70.000km and has been off the road for more then 10 years now. It's all original and very solid. It has been welded on 2 places (not done very well) but doesn't need any further welding. The engine has been rebuild and so has all the PI gear. It comes with a J-type overdrive and the wider mk2 rear axle.

The car looks very poor from the photos but it's much better irl. You can see some patches of filler on the front wings, but these are only some attempts from the previous owner to prepare the car for painting. Haven't got a clue why he was using fiberglass filler for it..... Luckily he stopped "working" on the car and didn't cause any serious damage to it. Hope to get the car back on the road in the next year. Still a lot to do, have to get my thoughts on what I want to do with it. What I do know for now that it's not having the original colour back. Emerald green is a bit yuck to me!

New car (part one)

2006-12-11T20:15:00.000+01:00

Due to a job change I had to sell my beloved BMW and get a sensible car instead...

Here it is... my pride and joy!

A 90hp Veedubb diezzzzzel

CTH Nachtrit 4th of November

2006-11-12T11:56:00.000+01:00

For the 18th time in succession we had our famous CTH nachtrit. As last year we had guests over from the UK to do the run. This time we had 6 cars entering which shows the popularity of such events. Thanks to Doug, Katie, Don, Sarah, Dave, Hayley, Colin, Michelle, Michael, Gillian, Tim and James for coming over! Special thanks to Andy and Jutta for joining us on sunday. Much appreciated!

Leaving early saturday afternoon together with my co driver Paul, followed by Rob and Rodi in their Escort mk1 RS2000. For them (or actually the car) this would be the big shake down. Exciting stuff! We arrived at the hotel around 14.00, ready to welcome our UK entries. Not much later Theo arrived at the hotel too. Then there was Michael and Gillian in their TR6. They had a different crossing and managed to be there in time. The other crews had some problems at the tunnel and had a huge delay. They arrived at exactly 16.00. We were very short in time now as the rally would start at 17.00. So a quick check in at the hotel followed by a slice of vlaai and off we went. We arrived at the start of the rally exactly at 17.00. Not good as we all had early starttimes. Nachtritmeister René decided to start 30mins later, which gave us some time to relax. As we had no. 1 we had to start first at 17.31. It's actually quite nice to start first, the empty roads and no slow cars in front makes it possible to drive your own speed etc. It was all going really well as Paul is an excellent co driver. But René is famous for finding the narrowest roads in Belgium and so it happened we missed a rh turn into one of these narrow roads. As we turned round we saw Doug and Katie passing by, also missing that road. The road was as wide as one Triumph, going up very steep and ofcourse very bumpy! We had to take it easy on this one. As we cathed up speed again it all went very well again. We managed to find a good pace, which is essential for driving such events. Then we missed another turn on a fast section as the distance wasn't always accurate. That road came a bit early and we missed it. Coming from the other side there where big road signs which made the road more visible now. Ahhh yes, we're in Belgium!! They must have the worst road layouts in the world.. Arriving at the half way stop we had not seen any other car. We were first to have spaghetti! After 5 minutes Rob and Rodi arrived as second at the stop. The Escort was going really well and they really enjoyed the event so far. It took another 5-10 minutes for other crews to drop in. Some of them didn't realise they would have to pass the restaurant twice on the run. There was a 20 minutes loop to do before you could stop for a rest. Always good to see those confused faces! After a 45 mins stop we left for the second section. This turned out te have longer stretches on faster roads, also a lot easier on the navigating side of things. We drove faultless through this last section. The only concern was the fuel gauge. It was pointing to the lower side of the scale which wasn't very promising. Getting fuel on a saturdaynight in Belgium is a real problem. There are loads of petrolstations but they are all closed. Only with a Belgium bankaccount you can get petrol by using a cashmachine. Not very usefull for us foreigners. Luckily we managed to find a Q8 petrolstation just outside of Chaudfontain that had a machine that accepted banknotes. Filled the car up for €20,- of RON 98 and off we went again! I felt much more happy now with the fuelgauge pointing halfway the scale. We arrived back at the finish at 22.35 ish. Still being the first, wich surprised me. I wasn't pushing it that hard and expected to be overtaken by several other cars. It was a very quiet Nachtrit for us, not seeing any other participants. At the finish we met up with Andy and Jutta, they couldn't make it in time for the start but came down to cheer us up at the finish! It took another 5-10 minutes for the RS2000 to arrive not much later followed by Herald, 2.5PI and TR7 16V. The other UK crews needed some more time but I think they all managed to get back before midnight. They all enjoyed it very much I guess! Time for a good sleep at the hotel.

The next day we all got up around 9.00 to have breakfast at the hotel. The TR6 crew left first as they had to catch the 14.00 ferry. The others joined us for the rest of the day. After the usual CT spannering session we were all ready to hit the road again. I thought it would be nice to drive down to the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack. I sort of planned an interesting route which turned out to have some unpleasant features in it. The first section of this route we had to cross a crowded area which I expected to be a pain to drive through with so many cars. It became even worse as we bumped into a fair, some WW memorial and a huge international mountainbike event. And one road was closed due to roadworks. It all slowed us down on our way to Stavelot. We had to wait several times to catch up with the other cars again. All very annoying, have to do better preparation on this next time. Once we hit the wide and open roads through the "high Ardens" we went on very well. Crossing the Baraque Michel (2nd highest top in Belgium) it welcomed us with it's typical weather, cold and foggy! From there a twisty downhill section leads into Malmedy. From there it's only a couple of minutes to Stavelot. The road between both towns used to be a part of the 60's GP track. Just before Stavelot a banked rh turn is still visible. In Stavelot we parked up at the old market where we enjoyed a decent lunch. Don and Sarah left us here as they had plans for visiting Brugge. After lunch we visited the small Circuit Museum which has some interesting cars on display. After that it was time to say goodbye to our UK guests as they had a train to catch, but a quick stop at the amazing Eau Rouge corner had to be done first. You can't imagine how steep it is if you've never seen it before! Luckily there were some guys trashing their E30 M3's, so we had some "on track" action as well. Well, that was it..... the end of another fantastic weekend. Unfortunately on the way back we ended up in a huge traffic jam on the motorway. It was caused by a nasty accident. Then another one caused by roadworks. As we lost the others in traffic we decided to take a diverted route avoiding the busy motorway. Luckily the CT crews managed to catch their train in time! I was a bit worried they would be in trouble because of all delays.

RBRR The ultimate madness

2006-10-20T22:23:00.000+02:00

The plan:

Leaving La Ollanda on Thursday the 5th taking the late afternoon crossing Hoek v Holland – Harwich. Arrive in Enfield around 20.30, visit the Plough, go to hotel for a good sleep. Do RBRR, leave Enfield on Monday morning, go to Oxford, find a hotel and do some tours/walks from there in the following week. Back home on the 14^th.

This is what happened:

On the way up:

We took the late afternoon crossing from Hoek to Harwich, arriving there just in time. Not even left the country we already had two problems with the car. First there was the new tyres fooling the wheelarches. For some reason my new tyres (same size) are wider as the old ones. Very annoying but not dramatic. The second problem occurred just after we left the motorway towards Hoek. Braking down for a roundabout the brakepressure slowly disappeared…. Interesting but also not dramatic. Still enough pressure left to stop the car. This would bring us to London without any trouble. On the ferry we went! England welcomed us with pouring rain. Hmmm, dark, rain, random brakes… this could become an interesting trip! Steadily we drove up on the A120/A12 towards London. All seemed fine, cruising along at 75mph in the fast lane as I see a vague black spot dooming up in front of me. In a blink I see a sidelight of a car in the middle of the road. I realise it’s a crashed car blocking the road and we are very close to crashing into it. Somehow I managed to avoid a collision by not braking and steering around it. That was really really close! I’m almost sure a car behind us must have crashed into it. The bad weather and heavy traffic wasn’t helping here. That crashed car was hardly visible. With the adrenaline pumped to a max we continued our way. Still on schedule we arrived at the Premier Travel Inn at 20.45. A quick phonecall to James was made so he could order some food for us at the Plough. CT service is one of the best you can get! Arriving at the Plough we met up with James, Amo, Ben, Nikki, Andy F, Paul D, and Tim B. Not much later Fred and Dave joined in too. It was great to see all the CT celebrities again and I guess they all enjoyed the vlaai I brought. James and Ben made special “Team Vlaai” stickers for us to put on the car. Was very pleased with that!

Friday morning started with the excellent (not) breakfast at the Travel Inn. After that we visited Dave Pictons workshop to have a look at the brakes. Amazingly the brakes where rock solid again. We took Daves advise leaving the brakes as they are. Everything seemed ok! After some more chatting and exchanging vlaai for brakefluid we left for the Plough. (again) Filled the car up on our way. RBRR ready….. or maybe not?! Just before entering the Plough the brakes fail again. Damn, there must be some air in the system. As we know Tim will bring a bleedingkit and a spare master cylinder we wait for him to arrive. We use the spare time to chat with Steve who is doing the RBRR in a Dolomite SE. He’s alone and waiting for his co-driver to arrive. A Swedish guy he never met before. Think that’s a challenge! Being in a car for 48 hours with someone you don’t know. Tim arrives a bit later and so does the pouring rain. Not the best moment for bleeding the brakes. After a while the weather clears up, time to start our bleeding session. There’s indeed air in the system and after the bleeding the pedal feels better than ever. Right, now we only have to sticker up the car and we are ready for 2000 miles of motoring pleasure!

The RBRR:

Friday 19.00 The Plough Enfield, 24942mls.

James has obviously spend all day at the hairdresser and shows up in last minute. Finally Team Vlaai is complete and ready for take off. The first leg is pretty much uneventful. We try to keep up with Ben and James in their mk1, but it looks like they are on high adrenaline levels. We decide to take it easy and drive our own speed.

Some pictures from the start.

22.24 Blythe Services, 25092mls:

We find out we missed the first control at the Plough. Officially we are out of the event! Luckily the marshal feels sorry for us foreigners and signs for both stops. From Blythe it’s Theo’s turn to drive the car. It’s the first time he drives the GT6, in the dark, on the wrong side of the road and sitting also at the wrong side of the car. This wasn’t going to be easy. Especially not as there were strong crosswinds and the car got very nervous by them. Theo was really struggling keeping it on track but managed to bring it to the next stop. I managed to catch some sleep which wasn’t a bad thing.

01.05 The Angel Inn, Corbridge:

Only a control, no actual stop. I’m back behind the wheel for the next session. The roads become more interesting the further we drive up North. I’ve driven the A68 a couple of times but never in the dark. An interesting challenge as it’s best compared to a rollercoaster ride! I’m following Barry and Caroline in the PI. In Jedburg we stop for petrol and fill up with 24.04 ltrs of Vpower. Odometer says 25272mls. The time is 02.11. We continue on the A68 towards Edinburgh. Just before Edinburgh I notice some funny noises from the gearbox. It turns out to be the start of a slowly disintegrating gearbox. Brakes are better than ever btw!

03.25 Edinburgh Airport:

Only a quick stop for team 28 here. Just signing the roadbook and back on the road again. From here it’s one way to JoG. We cross the Forth Bridge and continue on the A9 towards Inverness. Another fill up at 04.04 having 25351 on the meter. The roads are empty and my co driver is on standby modus, so I press the loudpedal and make some serious progress. The A9 is much better than expected. A worst nightmare in daytime turns out to be a great road at night! Soon we catch up with a big group of Triumphs. Very unusual to do in the GT6 is turning the heater on. Well, this time we had to. Scotland turned out to be a bit chilly that night. We pass Inverness and move up further north. As the night turns into day we do another fill up at Skiach Services near Alness. The A9 gets more and more interesting. Lots of twisty bits in it. Seeing the sun come up is one of those magic RBRR moments! The A99 is the road that leads through Wick and then straight on to JoG and the famous Seaview Hotel.

08.34 Seaview Hotel, John O Groats:

John O Groats turns out to be cold and windy and feels very much as the end of the world. Maybe because it is…. The hotel serves a full Scottish breakfast and it’s good to see other entrants again. Most have survived the first leg! After we have the roadbook signed it’s time to carry on. A quick oil check, some windy snapshots and we’re off again.

For the next 24hrs the direction will be south-west. In Castletown we fill up the car with 21 ltrs of petrol. As we move on we soon end up cueing for a traffic light in a town at the end of the world. All very frustrating! It turns out that some idiot on a mini digger is doing roadworks. Possibly not knowing he’s causing the biggest traffic jam in the history of Thurso. Once we’re out on the open roads again we can make up the lost time. Followed by Dave and Fred in their all standard 2000 mk1 we blast down the A836. It’s really funny to see the big saloon going round corners, scratching the door handles on the tarmac. We overtake The Acclaimers who made these great pictures of us. Can't link them direct to this site unfortunately.

Next road on the menu is B871. Very tasty I can tell! The road follows the river Naver, is single track and very twisty. We have some more fun with the Acclaimers who made even more photos. The scenery is awesome. This is what

Scotland

is all about.

I let the Acclaimers pass as we need to stop for a pee. Not much later I’m chasing the big Saloon again. This time it’s Dave behind the wheel, again top motoring entertainment!

13.10 Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge

What can I say, this stop must be the highlight of the RBRR, as the marshal at this stop is Mr McGuinness aka McJim. A true Scotsman and more than proud of it. We are very pleased to see the old chap again. He’s always good for a laugh. I brought some traditional “Limburgse Vlaai” which I think he liked a lot. Of course vlaaimaster James couldn’t resist to eat the last slice. To report on the car, brakes are still OK, gearbox is very noisy in 1^st and 3^rdgear but still going. We topped the engine oil up.

The next section would be wet. Very very wet! The typical Scottish weather showed it's best side. Pouring rain from Loch Ness all the way up to Stirling. Filled the car up again in Fort William and got soaking wet from the horizontal rain! This wasn’t fun anymore. The worst bit was driving the A82 through Rannoch Moor. Heavy rain and strong winds made this more like sailing. The road got flooded at several places.

18.11 Morrison Garage Stirling:

A classic stop on the RBRR. A former Triumph dealership that has been a control stop since the first RBRR in 1966. They are famous for their Scottish pies which were all gone by the time we arrived. What a shame. Now we have to come back in 2008! Next session it was Theo’s behind the wheel again. As he had some problems with driving the car we sort of agreed that he would drive the motorway sections. We did another fill up we hit the road again. After we passed Glasgow it was a straight line to the next stop. Time for me to catch some sleep. Theo did very well on this section, the car was much easier to drive due to less wind.

22.22 Lancaster Services, 26106mls

At Lancaster Services we met up with Steve. He came along with his dad to cheer up the RBRR teams. Good to see them again!

Now it was my turn again to drive the car. I felt amazingly fresh again after my 2hr nap. This section was mainly motorway.

23.53 Gledrid Services, 26201mls

Another controlled stop. Lot’s of CT members to cheer us up again. The CT club spirit must be one of the best in the world. Really amazing to see people waiting for you at a petrolstation in the middle of the night. From here the route becomes more interesting again. We continue on what must be one of the best roads I’ve ever driven. A483 is the magic number. It’s like a never ending rollercoaster. It’s a very fast and twisty road which has very smooth tarmac. Another plus is the total lack of traffic at this time of day. This is driving as it’s meant to be! Unfortunately the gearbox becomes more noisy which makes me decide to do most of the driving in 4^th gear. (the only quiet gear left) No problem as the sixpot has plenty of torque. I could easily keep up with the Spitfire in front of me. It is actually amazing how the engine pulls from 1000rpm. We drive further down south through Wales and finally end up at a service station near Bristol. This was another great section of the RBRR. These roads keep you going for ever!

03.51 Gordano Services, 26351mls

Huge mug of coffee here! I really need some sleep now so Theo will be doing the next section. Possibly the most boring one from the run. A long stretch of motorway driving towards Lands End. I wish him all the best and fall asleep.(ish) As I wake up again I see a blue GT6 mk1 in front of me. Ben and James have catched up again. The motorway changes into the A30 which will lead us straight to Lands End. Somewhere along this road we swap seats and I’m back behind the wheel. As the night turns into day we really trash it down towards Lands End. James is driving Bens car in anger! This is good fun! As the sun comes up again you notice the total different scenery compared to Scotland. Real odd that is.

07.32 Lands End

Time for another well deserved full English breakfast. After the obligatory photoshoot we leave Lands End for more pleasant motoring. Click here to see a short review on the run so far from Martin Randle. Well what can I say...

In convoy with Bens mk1 and Tims mk2 GT6 we blast down the road towards Penzance. After a quick fill up we continue our trip. This was also one of the best motoring moments of the event. Blasting through the morning traffic with 3 GT6’es. (one of each mark) That must have been a rather unusual sight I guess!

Dartmoor becomes an interesting challenge. Driving up and down 20% steep hills only using 4^th gear. We find out that 2^nd gear is also quiet on the downhill sections which is very useful. Going down in 4^th isn’t always the best option in Dartmoor! I can say the gearbox makes all kinds of unhealthy noises in the meantime, actually I doubt if we make it back to the Plough.

11.32 Dartmoor Lodge.

This is the end of my GPS tracking as my Garmin has run out of memory. RBRR is just to much for it! We are nearing the end of the event, only 3 stops to go!

Next one on the list is a small village called Pimperne. Some local CT members organised a superb stop at their village hall. I recon half of the village was somehow involved in this. The ladies made loads of delicious cakes for us. Awesome!

Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit, last stop before the Plough. Never been here before, but what a great atmosphere. I certainly have to come back one day. This must be one of the coolest places in the world to see classic car racing. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to wander around, The Plough was waiting for us!

On our way back to the motorway the brakes lost pressure again. Still, not to much to worry about. Plenty of pressure left to stop the car. Once back on the M25 we got stuck in traffic. Luckily it wasn’t for long and we managed to get back at the Plough just after 19.00.

We made it!! Can I now have a pint please!!

Once back at the hotel I got hit by the man with the hammer. All I can say is that I slept very well.

RBRR is a top event! Much better than expected. Although it’s complete madness I certainly will do it again!

The next day we met up with James and Amo for lunch.

Before we could leave for Oxford we had to do some minor adjustments to the bodywork.

Click here for the film

After finding a hotel in Oxford it was time to get in touch with the AA. The gearbox was on it’s last legs and I wasn’t sure if it would survive the way back home. The next morning the yellow guys turned up and soon we agreed my gearbox was on it’s way out. Luckily one of the AA guys knew a local gearbox specialist. Long story short, they found a very worn out inputshaft bearing and managed to get the car repaired in time. In the meantime we spend 4 days in Oxford recovering from the RBRR. (best medicine is Ale) The car was ready on Friday and the plan was to drive up to Cambridge, stay there for a night and visit the War Imperial Museum Duxford on the Saturday. If only the brakes…….. after we picked up the car and drove back to the hotel to collect our luggage the brakes got worse and worse. The bleeding session we did turned out in a full mastercylinder rebuild. Luckily I had a repairkit with me! The seals were almost completely gone.. ahum… better not think about what could have happened during the RBRR. We extended our stay at the hotel with another night and drove up to Duxford the next day. The trip back home was again uneventful.

In total we did 2642 miles (4251km). It only needed 1ltr of engine oil, one mastercylinder rebuild, one gearbox rebuild and lots and lots of fuel. It was all worth it!

Thanks to Amo, James Carruthers, Ben Hutchings, Kevin Rochfort, Jan Wunche, Stephen Cooper, Martin Randle and Theo Boonen for all photos and films.

CVless RBRR

2006-09-29T12:50:00.000+02:00

Started putting my CV joint conversion together today. All was going well untill I realised there wasn't enough space for the cvjoint in the hub. Obviously I had a little misunderstanding with my machining guy. (ie, I gave him the wrong info... ) Now the hubs have to go back and get machined out a bit more.... Not a major problem really. Will sort it out after the RBRR. Car is all ready now. Hope it survives the trip round!

Triumphmeet Chimay

2006-09-25T17:52:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we visited a Triumph show organised by a Belgium club. Actually we used the event as an excuse to do some decent driving through the beautifull ardennes. We used some old nightrally routes to get there. Saturday afternoon we left from Maastricht with 3 cars. Dolomite, oil burning TR6 and my GT6. For my car it was the big testdrive before the RBRR. Have to say, it still isn't perfect but quite sure it will survive the 2000 mile trip round. :-) The Ardennes do look much more friendly in daytime. It's totally different to driving the same stages in darkness. Also there's much more to see! After a 250km trip we arrived in Lompret, a very small village (2 streets, one church, 3 houses, a bridge, one bar/restaurant, and our hotel) situated close to Chimay. It had all facilities to spend a great evening out! We certainly had a good time.

Sundaymorning we left the hotel for visiting the show in Chimay. But not before we saw another hotel guest and Triumph owner struggeling getting his perfectly restored TR3 off a trailer. It was quite amusing to see the exhaust scraping the tarmac and touching the shiny bodywork! Why do people trailer cars to such events?? I don't get it....

The show in Chimay was rather busy. I saw cars from Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands and UK. The 2000 register came along with a lot of cars, one of them also being in CT. It was Andy Roberts who will be participating in the RBRR too. Unfortunaly I didn't find time to speak to him. After having a grande Spagetti we left the scene and drove home. The weather wasn't looking too good so we took the top quality (not) Belgium motorway from Charleroi to Liege. I really do hope the RBRR contains some better quality roads.

Finally some snapshots

How sad, this fellow was fitting his Rostyle covers at the scene!! I don't get it....

Touring @ the Ring

2006-09-08T22:06:00.000+02:00

How nice, finally a shot of my BMW in action at the Nurburgring last sunday. Looks alright, less bodyroll than Ellis red bus :-)

Getting there

2006-09-05T16:33:00.000+02:00

We're going well on the RBRR preparation. Gearbox is back in, this time with the laygear endfloat adjusted and fitted without the 3 tensioner springs. Hope it solves the problem. Propshaft is also done. Put new UJ's in, gave it a lick of fresh paint and got it all balanced. This week the diff will be checked by a specialist. The guy runs a professional business in overhauling gearboxes and diffs. He also owns a couple of Vitesse's! Should be alright I guess.. Got nearly all the bits sorted out to do the cv-joint conversion. Finally got the MGF bearings in and the uprights machined to fit them. It's only waiting for the adaptors to come in....

another test passed.

2006-08-18T19:58:00.000+02:00

After James testing my GT6 for sleepability today it passed another test. My GT6 became a new APK (dutch equivalent for MOT). Ofcourse everything was OK! Nothing less to expect from such a fine car.. Hurray for British engineering!! Now it's time to get it ready for the RBRR. Only a couple of things to do, mainly concerning the drivetrain. Checking the gearbox as gearchange from 2nd to 3rd and viseversa is poor on quick gearchange. Must have done something wrong on the rebuild earlier this year. Balancing the propshaft, fitting a reconditioned diff and sorting out the CV-joint conversion. Hope those adaptors come in soon. Plenty to do in the next couple of weeks!

Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nurburgring

2006-08-14T18:49:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we visited the Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. For the second time in succession we did a full weekend camping. This year was a bit special as we had visitors from the UK. Dave Powell and James Carruthers came over in Dave’s beasty Spitfire. We were all very pleased to see them and enjoyed their company. Think they enjoyed our company as well..

My report from day to day:

Friday:

The day started off early picking up James end Dave from the F1 hotel in Kerkrade. They where still asleep as we arrived. Dave was the first to show up and he told us about the hairy drive through Belgium they had the other night. Lots and lots of rain had slowed them down and resulted in a arrival time of 04.00 at the F1 hotel. So they had a very short night. Must have been rather unpleasant, driving a lightweight not 100% waterproof Spitfire without a heater on the Belgium motorways in pouring rain. After a while James also showed up. Time to hit the road. We took the scenic route through Germany driving down the B258. In Roetgen we stopped for a healthy breakfast at a supermarket. Got completely amazed by James who ordered two baguettes in fluent German. The 1/4^th bit really showed off. Back on track we enjoyed the twisty B258. Luckily there wasn’t too much traffic so we could keep the speed up. Only a couple of bikers really annoyed me. Bloody Goldwing drivers! Luckily the GT6 is a small car, I wedged it between the bikes and forced my way forward. And so did Dave in the Spitfire. Don't think the bikers appreciated our action. At exactly 13.00 we arrived at the campsite. Time to put up tents for Dave and James. Not much later Theo, Rene, Herbert and Mario arrived with all the camping gear for the weekend. Time to put up our stuff and make the site as comfy as possible. Think we succeeded in that pretty well. Although the weather wasn’t that good we all survived! After getting settled we went to Breidscheid to do some shopping and watch the 4hr race at the Nordschleife. Always good fun seeing the old GT’s and sportcars driving the Ring. GT40 is still a very impressive tool!! We also saw a Jaguar E-type crash backwards into the bridge at Breidscheid. Luckily it was only body damage and they managed to get it back on track. We also watched the cars at the Brünchen area. Especially the Eschbach section is good for photographing. Think Theo and James (20d team) where very pleased. Hope they made some good shots. The race finished at 6, time to go back to the campsite and prepare dinner! BBQ was excellent, especially the Tjernobil sausages are superb. (they make you glow in the dark) Think Dave and James went to bed around 9 as they where very exhausted from their trip. Not much later Rob and his girlfriend arrived at the scene in his TR8. They had to put up their tent in the dark which is always amusing. We had a couple more drinks and went to bed around 2 o’clock I think.

Saturday:

We started the day with a very healthy breakfast. A huge omelette made from 30 eggs, including bacon, paprika, unions, tomatoes, mushrooms and many many more ingredients. Yummie! Saturday is the day for watching races at the GP track. We all went down the track around 11 except for Dave who decided to drive the Nordschleife in his Spitfire. This turned out to be a wise decision as it was nearly dry all day. First race we saw was the 70’s revival of German touring cars. One of my favourite races involving my very favourite Capri RS, also CSL’s, Pantera’s, 911RSR, Corvettes and many more interesting cars. Unfortunately the Capri blew his engine after 3 laps being in the lead. In the end a green 911 RSR won. Next race was historic F1 cars. Not that exciting so we went for a walk through the paddock. Far more interesting to see so many great cars in one event. After the pitwalk we went back to the campsite to relax and get ready for the evening sessions at the track. James and I went out in the GT6 to see how Dave was doing at the Nordschleife. Just as we arrived the track got closed. Finally we met up with Dave who had a great day testing the beast. As the track was still closed we called it a day and went to Adenau to find a cash machine for James. It had started raining which wasn’t that good as the tyres on my GT6 have had their best days. Taking it very easy on the twisty backroads we drove back to the campsite. Time to watch the evening races at the GP track which is situated next to the campsite. Involving GT’s and sportscars up to 1965 both races promised some cool action. Especially the GT’s were great to see as they had a wet qualifying. All Mini’s in front of the big heavy US cars! It didn’t take long for the muscle cars to beat the Mini’s in the dry. It was a great race involving lots of action. Well worth watching! Think we all got hungry so we went back to the campsite for more BBQ-ing. In the meantime Ivo arrived at the scene is his M3. He joined in for doing some Nordschleife laps on Sunday. We had a pleasant time sitting round the fire and drinking beers. It became even more pleasant as a car stopped in front of the entrance to our site. Rob and I decided to go down and investigate what was going on. Loaded with an axe and a torch we walked to the entrance. It turned out to be a Berlin registered and very old Renault Espace that had a puncture. The guys were struggling to undo the nuts to unbolt the sparewheel. In the meantime Herbert, Mario, Theo and Ivo had joined us and instead of killing the Berlin boys with the axe we decided to help them. We are not that bad!! We offered them a beer and finally they managed to change the wheel. Then we invited them to have some more beers which resulted in them leaving the scene at 02.00!! Most of our group went to bed already. Only Herbert, Mario and I being the survivors. After the Berlin boys left the 3 of us went to our next door neighbours to say hello. Luckily the Germans remembered us from last year and we where more than welcome to join in. We had some more beer and Jägermeister and discussed all different kinds of subjects. (not being scared of mentioning 40-45) At 4.15 we went back to our tents for a short sleep. What a day!

Sunday:

Nordschleife day!! Woke up around 9 and felt quite alright. After some coffees and another healthy breakfast it was time to clear out the campsite. The Spitfire, TR8 and M3 already went off to the Nordschleife to do their laps. After we packed up our stuff Rob and I went to the Brünchen area to meet up with the others. When we arrived Dave and Rob (we’ve got 2) decided to do some more laps. Sounded as a good plan so we drove back to the start. Again the track got closed at the moment we arrived. Not good, especially not as it took over an hour to re-open. Also the weather was playing up. Typical for this region are the local showers. It looked like it wasn’t improving much and if we didn’t have Dave and James over from the UK I normally would have gone home. Then suddenly the weather cleared up and Rob decided to take me out for a lap in his TR8. Dave also went in the Spitfire. The first section up to Adenauer Forst was dry, still the V8 had enough power to go sideways in the corners. I was really surprised by the power it produces. So much different to the Sprint engine in Theo’s car. Have to admit I prefer the V8 power. Sounds better too! Anyway, coming out of Fuchsrohre the track changed from dry to soaking wet. All sliding through Adenauer Forst up to Metzgesfeld and Kallenhard. The track was very greasy and the torque produced by the V8 wasn’t helping either. Steady through Wehrseifen and easy going down towards Breidscheid, turning left onto the bridge as suddenly the back end kicked out. Sliding on 4 wheels and in a 90 degrees angle from the track we went over the bridge. Rob managed to get the car straight again and we continued our lap! I would love to see a photo of that… The track was still wet and greasy as we followed a silver BMW E34 that went sideways through Bergwerk. We passed it on the straight and finished our slidy lap without having too much trouble. Have to say I really enjoyed it. Rob enjoyed it too but also realised this wasn’t the way to go and went home. We went down to Breidscheid to watch some action on track as the weather still was pants. Dave and James went for a meal. Very unexpected the weather changed, the sun came out and dried up the track really quick. That made us to go back to the start and do some more laps. I did one lap in the GT6 which wasn’t that exciting. Still a bit wet at some spots and far too busy watching faster cars in the mirrors isn’t good for driving a decent lap. Still great fun trashing the car round. The engine just sounds too good! Still passed a Porsche Boxter btw.. Back at the start we met up with Dave and James again. Now it was time to do a lap with Dave in his beasty Spitfire. Have to say Dave is a superb driver. He drives really nice lines and also the Spitfire is a true beast!! Great handling and revs like mad. It looks the business too! Well done Dave. This was nearly the end of another superb weekend. After the lap with Dave it was time to say goodbye. The Brits had a fair amount of driving to do, catching a boat in France. Rob and I stopped for a meal in Adenau and took the scenic route back home which was interesting as usual.

Breakfast in Roetgen.

James is testing my GT6 for sleepabilty. Looks like it passed the test. RBRR proof!!

We have a new pope! Tent on fire...

How low can you go??

Saturdaymorning at the campsite. Zwaaibraai in front!

Sideways, Beans and James representing CT.

Ich bin ein Berliner and have a puncture. But why am I surrounded by a couple of mad Dutch folks?? And why is one carrying an axe ?!

The Dutch being helpfull as usual.

Some other people made photo's as well and put them online. I feel free to link their sites.

Cars in the paddock

Friday race at Nordschleife

Club Triumph Holland 30th anniversary

2006-08-06T21:31:00.000+02:00

Today we went to the 30th anniversary party of CTH. Joined by 3 dolomites (1850, 1850 auto and Sprint) we drove up to the ANWB testtrack in Lelystad. A joyfull drive from 200km on the motorway. I was driving behind the automatic Dollie as we noticed it was smoking very badly from underneath the car. After a couple of miles I also noticed my car was covered in engineoil!! Time to stop the Dolomite in front of us. After a quick investigation we found it was leaking oil from the rockercover. As the owner forgot to tighten it up properly... So the screwdriver came out, tightened it up and off we went again. We entered Lelystad round 11.00 without having any other failures on cars. At the scene it came clear this would be another typical CTH event. Static.... very static. Although we were on a proper testtrack they managed to make another dull event out of it. No atmosphere, nothing going on! Only a line up of Triumphs. Luckily there where some nice examples to look at. My favourite car of the day was a Herald Coupé. Not often seen on the continent and I think they look just great! Deceided I want one too.. :-) Also great to see a Triumph Italia and the Swallow Doretti (which shows up regularly). There where some nice GT6'es too. After a couple of hours we deceided to go home. Another joyfull (and hot) drive back on the motorway. Did nearly 400km in the GT6 today. A good practice for the RBRR

Whooops!

2006-08-05T12:10:00.000+02:00

Don't know what happened to me today. I feeled the need of washing my GT6!! Have to say it was a bit dusty from the run I did together with the local Mini club. The run contained a lot of gravelroads in it, which was great fun in the GT. Sideways action all over the place!! I guess the Miniboys and girls never saw a car going sideways before. Now the car is all shiny (ish) it should be ready for tomorrow. It's Club Triumph Holland 30th birthday! They rented the ANWB (Dutch AA) testtrack which might be interesting. Think there are several driving tests going on. We'll drive down in the GT tomorrow and see what happens! It will be the first static show ever in the GT6 since I have the car! Normally not my piece of cake, but this is kinda special. And hopefully worth the trip...

GT6 in action

2006-07-07T14:37:00.000+02:00

Finally found some pictures of my GT6 in action at the Nurburgring. Bugger they are watermarked by the maker, as he wants to sell the photo's to you at €7,50 each.... Bit odd, as I never gave him permission to shoot photo's of my car! Think I should charge him.... :-)

Road up to the restaurant

2006-06-27T19:55:00.000+02:00

This is the road we drove up to get to the restaurant according to Google earth. Looks very interesting. In real life it's even better!

Triumphs @ the Nürburgring

2006-06-25T17:44:00.000+02:00

Last week Andy Flexney tipped us about a Triumph meet at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. A german club ( TR IG SuedWest) had rented the famous Nordschleife for 2 hrs. Anyone in a Triumph could enter for peanuts and drive round the track. Sounds like good fun so off we went this morning! I started the GT6 at 5.45 (sorry dear neighbours) and headed for the German border where I met up with Theo in the TR7. We drove down the empty motorways and arrived at the Nordschleife carpark around 7.30. There where already loads of Triumphs (and other English cars) waiting to get started. After paying the entry fee, we set off for a couple of laps. I wasn't sure if it would be any fun driving the GT6 around. It's not that quick really and I already had the feeling when I drove the BMW round it felt a bit underpowered with 170BHP. I was more than surprised the GT6 managed to go round even better than the BMW. Obviously it isn't that quick, but the overall feeling was much better. Superb handling and the engine pulled really well. It just loves smooth surfaces! Although temperature was rising to a maximum in my GTSauna I hardly could stop driving. It was just too much fun going round the track. After 5 laps I stopped to shoot some pictures. Something you normally can't do, but this morning it was all possible. I parked my car next to the track at the exit of the steilstrecke!! I took position behind the armco and started shooting. When I turned round and watched my car I saw it was loosing coolant. For some reason the engine started boiling after I stopped it. Not much you can do about it as wait. So I carried on photographing. I was hoping to shoot some pictures of the CT cars in action, unfortunately they where having coffee at the very same moment.... (why socialise when you can drive such a great track??? Don't ask me!) After 30mins I deceided to continue on. See how the engine temperature would develop. Just as I took off I realised I left my sunglasses on the Armco. Right, now I had to do another lap.. hoping the engine wasn't cooking up again. Luckily back on the track the temperature was fine. On the next lap I stopped again at the steilstrecke to pick up my sunglasses (they where still there) and carried on driving. I took it easy on the last section, not overstressing the engine. Round 9.40 I came back at the carpark. Theo wasn't there and also no yellow missile. After some 10 minutes waiting the TR7 came in a couple of minutes later followed by the TR3. Finally I met up with Andy and Jutta. We joined them and their German friends for breakfast in a restaurant with a marvelous view. To get to the restaurant we had to drive up a narrow road including a couple of 1st gear hairpins. The road brought us on top of a hill and also the end of the world. How on earth can you start a restaurant in the middle of nowhere??? And how on earth have Andy and friends ever found it?? Driving up the hill was great fun, we went up really quick and had some wheels spinning in the tight hairpins. Not only the altitude climbed also the temperature needle of my GT6. Just in time we arrived at the top. Rest for the cars and healthy German breakfast for the drivers. And yes, the view from the restaurant was awesome. It was well worth the drive up. After breakfast we made some more pictures and almost it was time to head off. Although, no CT meet without working on cars. The yellow missile suffered from a clonky front wheel. It turned out to be a knackered wheelbearing. I think they tightened it up a bit, good enough for the drive back to one of the German friends. He has a wheelbearing "in stock" so hopefully they manage to get it fixed. After saying goodbye we went downhill back to the civilised world. We continued on driving some scenic roads back to the motorway. Back home round 14.30 and completely cooked. This time it was me, not the car!!!

Triumphs @ the Nürburgring the photo's

2006-06-25T16:46:00.000+02:00

Drrrrrrrrrrrrop it like it's hottttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!
There where vintagecars driving too, like this very loud MG.

Non Triumph, but what is it??
Another GT6. There was another mk3 as well.

Kreng, nameless and yellow missile...

CT Line up!

Nice shirt, wish I had one!
Sunbeam Tiger, what a great car!!

La Carrera Caledonia GPS log

2006-06-23T13:53:00.000+02:00

Total run was 407.7km (247mls) which we did with an average speed of 64,6km/h. Not bad, but more important in this was the funfactor. Which was 200%!!!! What a roads and what a scenery, it's just amazing driving these roads in our Triumphs. McJim and all others, well done!!!!!

new driveshaft

2006-06-19T18:00:00.001+02:00

This is the new driveshaft assembly. Shiny stuff!!!

CVjoint conversion

2006-06-19T14:31:00.000+02:00

The next step in upgrading the GT6 is the replacement of the rotoflex couplings by modern CV-joints. At the moment I nearly sorted out all the required bits to do the conversion. Only the special made adaptors and bearings have to come in. Also the uprights need to be machined to fit the bigger bearings. Whilst doing this conversion I also fit a new (recon) diff. I have a spare 3.89 lying around which will be recondishioned soon. The propshaft will be balanced too. After all this being done, the GT6 hopefully drives like new. At the moment it's very noisy at higher speeds due to lots of unbalanced bits in the drivetrain. RBRR here we come!

bit late... holiday report..

2006-06-19T14:10:00.000+02:00

No much to say about our UK trip. It was again the usual stuff, a mixture of sunny weather, pale ale, good food, flooding a TR7 and loosing some substantional bits off the car...

P&P show and shine photos can be found here

Click here for La Carrera Caledonia photos.

more fiddling and holiday

2006-05-31T21:47:00.000+02:00

After I fitted the Astrali Successor II I noticed my horn wasn't working. I never use a horn, so very possible it has been broke for a longer period. They normally test it on a MOT test (APK in NL) though I can remember from last year they forgot. Started checking on the horn itself first, which was ok. After that I checked all the wiring, checked again and again. I just could figure out why it wasn't working. I had power up to the relay, but it wasn't working. After some 3 hours of braincracking I found out two wires on the relay where connected the wrong way round!! After I changed it back my horn said beep! Also my hazard lights worked again and my interior light switched on... Fixed three bits at once, just amazing! Still haven't got a clue why it was wired up the wrong way round.

Tomorrow Theo and I leave for a short holiday in the UK. Theo's Sprint engined TR7 will be transport on this trip. First we're heading for the Old Stone Through in Kelbrook for the local Club Triumph meeting. As it's the night before the Carrera Caledonia lots of southern CT members will show up. This makes it almost to a national event. Last year was great fun, think this year will be even better. Won't be getting late I'm afraid. Next they we have breakfast at 6.30 as we have to leave early for the start of La Carrera Caledonia. A one day driving event through beautiful Scotland. Don't know what to expect from LCC, I recon it will be top! Saturday ends in Callander where we're having a LCC diner. From there we're going to drive further up north on sunday, not sure in what direction yet. We'll see!! Scotland can't be dissapointing. We're supposed to be back next saturday.

Astrali Successor II

2006-05-18T12:04:00.000+02:00

All the way from Greece came this NOS Astrali wheel to me. It's deffo a very cool 70's go-faster item, and it really suits the GT6 interiour. It's a dished wheel and fits straight onto the splines. Unfortunately I'm not achieving a better driving position as I was hoping. It's just as far away from me as the Mountney wheel. Still, the Astrali Successor II will stay on for now, as it's absolute subzero!!

new tools

2006-05-12T15:38:00.000+02:00

Tools, you can't have enough of them. Got myself some new must have items today. Both are tools you hardly use, but still very handy if you got them. Since I've been borrowing Theo's timinglight for so many times, I thought it was time to get my own. Better break my own than someone elses!
Also got a simple compressiontester. It was cheap and good enough for my use. Will investigate soon on my GT6 if it does the job. Then I also know how healthy the straight six is.

photo's

2006-05-09T23:47:00.000+02:00

working on the Beemer

2006-05-09T23:31:00.000+02:00

Sometimes the BMW askes for some attention too. It's actually a very reliable car. Although in last days I noticed the engine was running a bit lumpy on idle. As it happened before I was quite sure it would suffer from a knackered inlet manifold gasket. Compared to the GT6 the BMW doesn't look very accesable under the bonnet. Luckily it isn't as bad as it seems. I think the E30 is as simple as Lego. Working on it is a sheer pleasure! I recon BMW engineers must be the best in the world. The technical design is very clever. Removing the inletmanifold seems to be tricky. The bolts look very unaccesble, but if you take your time it's a easy job. I did the job in 2,5 hour, taking the manifold off, cleaning it up, putting it back on and having a coffee in between as well... Now the engine is running sweet again!!!

325i photos

2006-05-09T23:26:00.000+02:00

webers back on

2006-05-09T23:18:00.000+02:00

The GT6 is back on Webers again. The swap from strommies to Webers is very straightforward since I modified the car last year already. Click&Go!! Well not quite, fitting the SAH manifolds is still a struggle. Esp. the front one, it has very little space for bolting up. I had to make up some special tools to get it done. After final adjustments I went for a run. It's running much better comparing to last year. This must be the benefit of the new distributor. Only accelerating under full throttle isn't working as it should. Time to get things sorted on a rolling road methinks!

Nurburgring

2006-05-09T23:08:00.000+02:00

Last thursday I visited the Nürburgring for the second time this year. First time we only did the spectating bit. This time I did some laps in the BMW. Although it's good fun driving the track I realised it's total nonsense driving a normal roadcar on that track. It's okay as long as you take it easy. Which isn't working for long as I noticed. It's a natural thing you want to go faster every lap you do. I think you need a well prepared car for driving the ring regularly. One with a rollcage and uprated brakes. BMW started fading after the second lap. Not a pleasant feeling going down at breidscheid having no brakes!!

Poasjrit.... or Easter run??

2006-04-17T22:59:00.000+02:00

Easter monday, time for our annual run!! Not much to say about it, pictures instead this time..

There was some great driving involved on very interesting roads in both Netherlands and Belgium. (2CR) Weather wasn't as good as expected. Lots of rain during the whole day. Although I think we all had a great time out there!! At least I really enjoyed trashing my GT6...

Ron & Mary, many thanks for organising this superb event!! (oftewaal unne vette merci!)

Poasjrit... more photo's

2006-04-17T20:12:00.000+02:00

bit bored

2006-04-02T12:15:00.000+02:00

Not much I can do these days. I actually have to drive my GT6 on a daily base, but so far I haven't. Gearbox needs running in, but the weather is still playing up. Me being a lazy person isn't helping much either. It's too easy taking the Beemer... As my diff is a bit noisy on overrun I deceided to take an old 4.11 apart. As a test, never dismanteled one before. Taking it apart seems to be quite easy. Putting it back together was a bit tricky. You need lots of special tools to do a good job. It isn't that difficult, as long as you have the right equipment. Which I haven't. So I learned my lesson on the old diff. Don't take it fully apart, as you're not able to put it back together!!! The only jobs you can do yourself are changing the oilseals. I also have another 3.89 lying around which looks like it's overhauld. It doesn't have much play and it feels good when you turn the flange. I want to use this diff as a replacement for the current one. So I will take it apart to check for wear, and if it's okay I will put new oilseals on and fit it to the car.

What a weekend

2006-03-24T15:40:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was excellent!! First time out driving the GT6 this year. Quite a challenge as the first event was the "Nacht van het Oosten". A nightrally driven in the north-east of NL. Being on a double duty, doing the rally as a CTH member and also being one of the five Club Triumph entries! We arrived at the scene around 15.00. The overseas CT entries showed up another two hours later. Just in time for the chinese buffet!! We start the rally 18.08 just one minute before Theo and René in their magnificant 7. Off we are, using the hight-tech GPS unit as a tripmeter. Which seems to be very accurate. Only the resetting is a bit of a fiddle. It needs two buttons to reset, one of them being a tiny joystick. Not easy to press in a bumpy car. Have to say my co-driver Rob managed and did a great job on the navigating. Only went seriously wrong once. Another good thing about the garmin GPS is the tracking option. With this you can check the route you've driven afterwards on your computer. It's a great gadget!! The roads used in the rally were fantastic. We had so much fun trashing the GT6 around. It's amazing how quiet it is in that area. Back at the finish we met up with Theo and René. As usual they where in for ages. That wedge is a real rocket! (or Theo is total nuts) Not much longer for the UK entries to come in. First Tim Bancroft and James Carruthers in the mk1 2.5PI (aka the grey thing). Not much later followed by Doug Foreman and his Dutch co-driver Willem Wiersma. I heard they had a good time together, except for some language problems. Now we only had to wait for the works team to come in. That took quite a while, though finally they found their way back to "New Peking". After some more chatting we deceided to drive home. 02.00 I drove the GT6 into our street. It managed to do all of the trip without breaking down. It ran very well, only the gearbox wasn't too happy yet about quick down shifting. The UK crews had a hotel in Deventer, we would see them again the next day for part 2 of this excellent weekend.
On Sunday we met up again with the UK guys in Limburg. The most southern part of NL and to my opinion the most interesting for driving Triumphs. First we joined together at a petrolstation next to the motorway. From there we drove further south. It was foggy and cold, but it would clear up soon. After driving some interesting roads and (as usual) upsetting hikers we stopped in Noorbeek for lunch. The famous "D'r Pley " sorted us out with a perfect lunch, some of theme being local specialties. After that we did some more driving on what I think is the best strip of tarmac in the NL, Camerigger berg and vijlenerbos. with the sun out but still to cold for cyclists it's the perfect time for a quick run on this sweeping road. Another benefit is the good visibilty through the trees as they have no leaves yet. Think I did the fastes run ever in my life. The car was running so well. Theo took James out for a spin in the 16valve wedge. Think he was "impressed" by the performance of that car, according to the big smile on his face. After some more driving and photoshooting it was time to say goodbye to the UK guys. They had to catch a train and time was running out. For me, Willlem and Theo it wasn't the end of the weekend yet. We took some more backroads on or way home, had another stop in Stevensweert and finally enjoyed a great meal in Roermond. After that we said goodbye to Theo. Willem stayed at my house for the night, because he didn't have money for the trainticket back home. (being a student he can travel for free in weekdays). I really enjoyed myself all over the weekend. Good to drive my car again and even better to spend time with all of you!! Finally there are some photo's posted here

some more work done

2006-03-13T22:18:00.000+01:00

6 days before the start of our drivingseason. Still preparing the car to get it sorted for the nightrally. When I changed back from Webers to the Strommies I realised the shortened chokecable was a bit too short. Starting the car without choke in these cold days is not that handy. Flooding the carbs happens quite easy. So I nicked the chokecable from the red GT6 and fitted it to the white one. Now it fires up really well. Hmmmm what a great sound of that straight six!! Also replaced a seized wheelstud at the rear. Actually want to replace them all one day. Not in a mood for it now, I'll leave it for next time. Finally adjusted the spotlights. They are now on equal hight, tomorrow I will do final adjustments.

Tripmeter

2006-03-11T20:49:00.000+01:00

Got myself a Garmin GPS unit. I will use it as a tripmeter on rallies. Tried it out and it seems to work very well. There are several datafields which all can give different information. (like tripdistance, total dist, (average) speed, altitude etc etc). You can program maps to backtrace the trip you've done. It's also a compass and calendar! Think this is a very usefull gadget and worth every penny. It's even cheaper than the traditional tripmeter. We'll see how it works out on the next week rally.

Original seat back in

2006-03-11T20:33:00.000+01:00

My next week co-driver Rob is quite tall. As I suspected some problems I asked him to come over to see if he would fit the very tight Corbeau bucketseats. Well, he nearly fitted... No problems unless you have to be in that seat for about 8 houres. (like next week) So I deceided to swap the bucketseat for the original item. Again I got suprised by the difference in weight. These Corbeaus are very light! Think my co driver isn't to worried about that. Recon he's happy to sit on the weighty original seat.

Preparing for the Nightrally

2006-03-11T20:14:00.000+01:00

Got myself a set of new Hella FF50 Spotlights. Hope these H7 units give me a better view during next weeks nightrally. They are a very slim design and I've mounted them between the overriders in front of the grill. Think it looks good enough, although they will only go on for the nightrallies.

Gearbox back in

2006-03-11T19:56:00.000+01:00

Finally, after I got all the bits in to complete the gearbox rebuild It now is back in the car. As I was on my own it took a while before I got it mated to the engine. Quite a struggle I can tell. Jacking the engine up, back in the car juggling the box, out of the car adjusting the jack..... and so on. After playing around for about two hours it slided in. Now I only needed to put the rest of the car together! Putting the gearboxcover back on is one of my favourite jobs. NOT!! Anyway, when I took it out for a testdrive everything felt okay. Hope to do some more mileage before we enter the nightrally 18th of March.

bits 'n pieces back in!

2005-12-22T18:55:00.000+01:00

gearbox rebuilt

2005-12-02T15:55:00.000+01:00

During my last trip I noticed some rattling from underneath the car when driving over bumps and under hard cornering. It sounded like the propshaft hit the bodywork. After some investigation I found a seized gearboxmount. Time to take the gearbox out, a job that was on my wishlist for a long time (actually since I have the car). Gearchange is fine, it's only leaking oil like the Axxon Valdez. So this was my moment!

Took an hour to take the box out of the car. Gearboxtunnel was already removed (another hour of work) After dismantling I found the mainbearings had some serious play. Also the mainshaft has little damage. For the rest it's okay. Will spend the next days rebuilding the gearbox and OD with new bits. After that I hope it will be trouble and leak free!

bits 'n pieces

2005-12-02T15:54:00.000+01:00

Box and Overdrive

2005-12-02T15:52:00.000+01:00

Nachtrit photo's

2005-12-02T14:28:00.000+01:00

Some pictures of the 3 Club Triumph GT6'es at the start of the nightrally in Belgium. Very excited about the UK visitors, Hope to see more CT members next year!

Doug and Katie

2005-12-02T14:26:00.000+01:00

Don and James

2005-12-02T14:25:00.000+01:00

Me and Paul

2005-12-02T14:23:00.000+01:00

Nachtrit 2005

2005-11-17T19:20:00.000+01:00

It's already 3 weeks ago, finally a report from the Club Triumph Holland Nightrally. I've already made up a report for the Dutch clubmag. As I'm a very lazy person I trusted Microsoft Word do the translation for me. I think the results are a good laugh. Not such a good translation I'm afraid. Happy reading!! And never trust a Microsoft product again :-)

Peak on the Triumph agenda nevertheless always remains annual night ride. In or an other manner we it seem very nice find to take off thick 300km concerning Belgian quality ways, and thus still in dark. Year also this were the weeks preceding the night ride enormous stretching. To good use there charge had - minute are repaired for GT6 to the start to get. I zat already tijdje to bungle with the webers my GT6 and also lighting deserved attention. A week for the night ride nevertheless but a new dispenser expresses United Kingdom to come. These proved to be to overkant of the water considerably cheaper than on this side. Disadvantage is only that the transport what lasts longer. Fortunately have the parcel farmers well their best done because Thursday for the ride the dispenser on the pavement lay. Thursday evening the thing assembled and the complete game put on time. After this was done did not run the car, however most. Friday nevertheless but Webers to replace by the original Strombergs. Because the night ride missing is not done!Unfortunately was lacking fuel control a piece so that I early activities had strike. That Topgear on TV came also a good reason was. Zaterdagmorgen stood up on time for the missing piece control of my other GT6 to unscrew. This state in a hut a kilometre or 10 of house.But at home rapidly put, and starts the control. Stretching moment since I did not know how the Strombergs would react to busy of the electric petrol pump. And of course it did not go according to plan. first carburateur leak as a screen from the chamberchamber chamber. The complete little matter dismantled and then the cause was rapidly clear. Plastic dekseltje zat very loose and as a result, leak there petrol. To my idea it, however, once to o ring can lie. Of course I had of it no reserve. Therefore but the car stepped and to the hut for two donors carbs driven. At home come to appear these another have lidlid lid. Game concerning!! Nevertheless still looked at to the leaking lid, plastic dopje there pushed in and...... hey.... He clasps!! Rapidly the little matter assembled and jawel, he was as well as dense. Hoera!!! Unfortunately ran for the not yet real terribly. As if there but 5 boys participate. Therefore the cables and the bougies inspect. It is meanwhile 12.00 hours are. Hours still 3 and a beetje before we leave. As I withdraw the last cable of the verdeelkap and try rubber cap at I have to two cables push sudden. Very skilful. The wide timetable becomes suddenly less clear. For the last time to the hut for fresh bougiekabels at to obtain. After these and nestje fresh NGK's for assembling sound everything trusted. Still just as lighting finetunen and a short test ride. 1330 and GT6 is ready for the night ride!!

I had a week or six for the night ride on the forum of English club Triumph an invitation placed for the night ride. And crazily as At its has submitted an application two teams. Father and for the Foreman and Don Cook with James Carruthers. Both underway by GT6, mk3 and accidentally also still ex 10CR cars. The three men and young lady happened only even for the ride, therefore zaterdagmorgen very early left and Sunday to house. English adventures are read through in the report which James have sent us.

Just as for three hours I am rung René. He had phone call has of Doug but understood of it not already surplus. Something with link which they were lost and if I their just as want ring. Not much later my mobile goes. I see 0044..... number. Roger, this are Doug, tricks.... I've discharge my clutchplate, any chance we can get a new one??? That to call them nou British optimism!! Fortunately I have still flame-new link stock and that wants gladly take along I. Tevens still but what other spullen taken along that possibly of just could come. Such as what reparatiekitjes for link cylinders and halfshaft of an old acceleration barge for plate to centre. The boys go therefore even along the street the link to replace. Around three hours is them started with dismantle. I around five hours on site its with the link. Round halfly four rob with co driver Rodi came to. Unfortunately with 325 the Touring since the Escort mk1 still net were not ready. Just as later my co driver Paul arrived. Waiting was for Theo and Jos with TR7. Round four hours left we direction hotel Mosa. Small uurtje later we let us be on site. Just in time to hand over the link plate. In the meantime that Doug and Don were very busy with fixen of GT6 I am me to will busy keep with translating the route book for James and Katie. Fortunately the whole table participated with to translate, therefore that was skilful! Around 6 hours the first car should leave. The link zat and also at was zowat ready for the start. Katie could still just as the last parts on the car to scale back whereas Doug and Don itself in a something neater package props. Now was possible the real work to will start.

As a number 22 we went of start. The sun was already almost under and shortly it whole obscurity would be. The ride went in fact without considerable problems. Some a time we have had twinges for a missed junction, but never we have driven error. And GT6 it did also very well. The behaviour with the new framework is a piece improves. And what am I gladly with the wheel house of the Spitfire. Makes a difference really enormous with fast turning work. Now hoef I no longer hair-peeled the wheel to catch. Terrible skilfully! Plane for the tussenstop in Andenne starts it hard rain. This was not predicted. Arrived in Andenne we could park on the market square. stopper was at Le Figaro. Nice restaurantje with still leukere service. stokbroodje with ham and without cheese become a tosti without ham and tomato soup changed in pumpkin soup. Hmmm nicely! After the break it proves to be dry. Still even rapidly for 10 euro petrol thrown (7 litres, snik...) (And what there still in the tank zat) we it to at home must obtain. Second part of the route went also very well. The ways were still worse as in first part, but that could not the pret press. Eventually we came without problems at hotel Mosa. Alwaar at already lively to the beer sat! They proved have driven entirely missing on the Second part. Happy they had friend TOMs TOMs and those had their safely to the hotel geloodst. Them had anyway very well amused and it for had started there! We had that also, and after sociably with everyone to have discussed be we in convoy homeward gone. Master René followed in the Dolomite first, by TR6, GT6, TR7 and BMW.Last four of the row found it necessary for in Maastricht still just as stoplichtsprintje to do. No idea what the other road users there of found, but I found it goeie joke. Still just as a last tank top along A2 and vervolgens rapidly the direction bedje. Fortunately it became winter time therefore we let us can uurtje sleep longer. All in all it was too crazy night ride. I want thank René thus complete a lot for the each year turn off of this ride. Very nice if you consider that he everything practically only organises. Next year are we there certainly and possibly come then still more at this side.

Anyone who can tell me what this about?????????? Even I can't figure out!!

Anyway, it was a great event. We had so much fun in the GT6, although there were some rather unlpleasant rattles from underneath the car...... To be continued!

Triumph meet Han Sur Lesse

2005-09-27T19:53:00.000+02:00

Last sunday we visited a meeting organised by the Belgium Triumph Club. Eight cars from our local CTH group entered the event. One of them being non-Triumph. I feel very sorry about this as it was us who didn't show up in a proper car. We took my BMW as the GT6 still needs some work done and Theo's TR7 refused to start. (due to a faulty fuelpump). After a very pleasant drive through the Belgium ardennes we arrived at the meet in Han Sur Lesse. Although the apperience of some very interesting cars it was a bit of a dull event. Nothing really happened, so we ended up in towncentre, drinking Belgium beers (coffee for the drivers) . After a decent meal we decided to drive back home on some interesting B roads. Mr "nightrally" René told us some of these roads will be used in the next year version of this event. Hmmm!!! To give an impression on the Han Sur Lesse show I have put some photo's on the site.

2005-09-27T19:52:00.000+02:00

Club Triumph Holland arrives "at the scene"

2005-09-27T19:50:00.000+02:00

Peerles GT

2005-09-27T19:48:00.000+02:00

Very nice TR4

2005-09-27T19:47:00.000+02:00

mk1 Saloon

2005-09-27T19:46:00.000+02:00

Line up at Han Sur Lesse

2005-09-27T19:44:00.000+02:00

Gert Jan de Haan's mk1 GT6

2005-09-27T19:43:00.000+02:00

Triumphlux Sprint??

10CR back home

2005-09-17T18:38:00.000+02:00

Back home from Club Triumphs 10 Countries Run. A great event organised by great people. We had so much fun all weekend. Would like to thank all who have been there and made the 10CR possible. I could write a book about it, though these 10CR Photos show all the action!!!

2005-09-17T18:32:00.000+02:00

Back from the 10CR, and still some profile left on those tyres

2005-09-07T18:06:00.000+02:00

Entry number 21 on the 10CR

10CR HERE WE COME

2005-09-07T17:53:00.000+02:00

Ow yes, only one day before the start of the Club Triumph 10 countries run. Very excited about it, as we have to do over 2000 miles in 4 days. We'll be using Theo's TR7 Sprint for the event. Read all about it on http://club.triumph.org.uk/10CR/ There's also a online diary, all entrants can post SMS, MMS and also GPS locations. Very hitec!!! Watch it for the latest updates!

update

2005-08-23T20:48:00.000+02:00

It's again a long time since my last post. Been busy doing several things, most of them not triumph related. GT6 is sort of running on Webers now. Sort of means, It runs and I can drive it. That's all at the moment. It needs final adjustments on a rolling road to get it really going. It's fine up to 3000rpm, than it gets rough. Found a guy who has Weber knowledge (and a box of jets). Hope to get things sorted soon. In the meantime I ordered a loweringblock for the rearspring at Canleys. Fitted it last week, now the car looks as it should. (low all round...) There's not much elso to do on the car at the moment. It will be back on the road as soon as the Webers are well set up. Hopefully just in time for the international Spitfire Weekend. (in two weeks)

2005-07-03T14:12:00.000+02:00

Capri, best soundtrack of the day!!

2005-07-03T13:58:00.000+02:00

Porsche 911 on Zolder straight