Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[pigtin]

Tomorrow we set sail for La Belle France trying to ignore the harbingers of doom already hanging around out necks.
Yesterday, Nigel, the youngest member of the group, driving the Morris Traveller, was carted off to hospital with suspected heart problems. He’s ok, but the trip’s off for him. (Can’t load his car up with our baggage to make room for the duty free now)
Ran the engine of the Sprite while heating-up the headlights to fit the deflectors and found a large pool of oil underneath… near panic, but tightening up the filter housing seems to have cured it.
Worst of all: the rest of the group want to visit Citie Europe to kill time on the way to La Chocolaterie de Beussent. Citie Europe is the memsahib’s and my idea of hell, a vast conglomeration of concrete and retail outlets. We had visions of a nice leisurely lunch in a small restaurant, but still, the others aren’t ‘foodies’ like us.
We’re catching the 6 am boat from Dover, so that means leaving at 4 (is there such an hour)… the good news is: the weather forecast has changed from appalling to just uncomfortable. Will take photos and report on our adventures.

[buzzy bee]

Hi

I thought of your good fishing craft when I saw the title, and with your pst stories was affraid this could be the last straw . Look forward to the pictures!

[Rick]

Hope you have a good trip!!!
don't forget they drive on the wrong side

R
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[pigtin]

Do they? silly bu*****s, not having any of that malarky, I'll not have Brussels change my habits of a lifetime.

[Rick]

as your pal is unfortunately out of action, and the weather report a bit mixed, perhaps you could borrow his Traveller, to load up with essential 'supplies' (hic). Perhaps this is a sign that you should hunt down a classic estate car, to replace the special (and maybe one other) with???

R
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[pigtin]

Now that IS tempting

[Old-Nail]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190229282053&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009
Cheap as chips, load it up and drive it back!

[pigtin]

Wow, what a great bonnet mascot, the car's not bad either.

[pigtin]

I'm back... but reports may be slightly delayed. Not being used to sun I forgot to put blocker on the backs of my hands: two day's driving in an open car has left them fried. Who said the weather was going to be bad?

[pigtin]

Hands seem better now, so here we go: At check-in at Dover, hold-up three cars ahead turns out to be MGB. Does not like starting when hot.
Had to leave them behind and meet up later in France. A diligent RAC man got them started and they caught a later ferry. We made it to the chocolate factory at Beussent with no problems. We then discovered we were being navigated by a small 'idiot' sat-nav called Tom-Tom mounted in the TR2.
After the choc factory (embarrasingly infested with hundreds of teenage schoolgirls, on school trips) we pressed on to the hotel at Bruay La Buissiere where the MGB died of a flat battery (loose fan belt).


A good meal at the hotel and a well needed night's sleep.
Next morning... a sight that chilled my blood. Five people programming Tom-Tom with the location of the caves at Arras. I took no part in it, the spectre of a rutted cart track with grass up the centre and dead end loomed large in my mind.



Tom-Tom took us through Arras, past the caves, 3KM out of town turn right and where do you think we were? You've guessed...
Tom-Tom was roundly cursed and a discussion started as to how they had programmed him wrongly. I don't think they had... the device is an idiot!



We found the caves by reading the signs we passed earlier and parked near a nicely patinated 2cv.
The lady guide told us we would be (walking in obscurity?) in the dark caves, and also... the Germans had failed to find these caves in 1917
I wanted to tell her that the latest sat-nav had also failed to find them ninetyone years later, but thought better of it.
We visited Vimy Ridge then headed for the boat, a stain on the road told me that the Sprite had started to lose a little petrol from the tank(perhaps it was trying to escape to a less taxing environment) Just outside Calais I was flashed by a radar camera.
After a long wait to get past the immigration checks we made it to the boat and a slap-up meal in Langhans.



There was a disgracefully shiny Cobra waiting to board the boat at Calais.

I shall be looking nervously for the postman for a while now

[Rick]

Sounds like quite a trip! hope the Gendarmes forgot to put a film in that day

RJ
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[VWPowered]

you gotta be careful the cops are dead sneaky here, hope they didnt get you, sounds like you had a good weekend otherwise...

not a classic but a weird site here, today i saw a english reg hummer
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2 Mk2 Polos
3 Montegos
5 Mk2 Golfs

[peter scott]

Changed days indeed in France. The last time I travelled down the A6 autoroute (ok it was 20 years ago ) it was 70 mph in the inside lane 100 mph in the middle lane and 120+ mph in the outside. Oh, and not a gendarme to be seen.

Peter

[poodge]

The "deuche" is obviously a running restoration(odd left mudguard.Dutch registered,so a visitor too:).Nice condition though.

[pigtin]

As a postscript to the trip... The leaking fuel tank. I don't know whether to be relieved of embarrassed: Went out to the garage to remove the tank and discovered the leak was nowhere near it; further investigation found a plastic 1 Litre bottle of oil leaking into the back of the boot.