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| New | Forest | Rally | Animals | CheckPoint ! |
Wednesday 18th
Had again two events planned; the 2nd part of the Test'n'Time
rally, as well as a scheduled visit to the (new) John Cooper Mini
garages.
I woke up around 8:30am and did my getting up routine again; put on the sunglasses against the bright light (nope, not because I had a hangover :), walk around like a zombie for about an hour, wash-up and have some breakfast.
Being Team #1 Carl and I were supposed to have left at 9am
sharp, but as you might have gathered by now, I don't do mornings
well. Nor does Carl for that matter :) ('I didn't know there
_was_ a 5:30 in the am !') So by the time we were ready to set
off on the second part of the rally, we already had 2400 extra
penalty points on our hands. Hmmm, so winning might be a bit
harder, better relax and enjoy it even more then. The rally took
us through New Forest this time, sort of a natural park where the
animals (cows, horses, sheep etc) can roam freely; great setting
and even the weather was good.
A couple of miles into the rally we got a flat and thus again
lost some time. By then we were about last, with only MTB behind
us.
That's what we thought.... Till at the next point where we had to
answer a question Andy & Carmen drove up after us. They had
left about an hour before we had and apparently had gotten lost a
bit. We followed them and after (yet another ?) they'd made a
wrong turn they followed us for while.
As said; the weather was great, but it had been raining,
judging by some big pools of water on the roads. Driving through
them only added to the fun though.
As we passed a H*nd*-dealership we made a stop enabling Carl to
take some pictures of some other European/Japanse machinery. Andy
& Carmen passed us, never to been seen again... After the
visit to the H*nd* dealer, which didn't help our overall time, we
set off again, only to find that Andy & Carmen hadn't reached
the next checkpoint yet, which was only just down the road from
our stop.... Hmmmm.... AAMOF; nor had MTB passed that checkpoint.
Maybe they had taken the Bermuda-triangle with them on the way
and now all had disappeared in it ?
We made some good time on the next stretch and didn't arrive
but 1½ hour late at the finish back at camp. Maybe we would win
the DLF award ? :)
Lunch was awaiting us there and while we dug in we all waited for
a sign of life of Andy & Carmen and MTB; neither had been
seen by the last checkpoint.
Just before the prize-giving started Andy & Carmen arrived.
They'd had their own fun that day, with Carmen driving on the
right side of the road for a bit, straight towards a mobile-home,
parking 'Stimpy' on a slope without using the handbrake or
putting it in gear (see, I said Andy needed the better nerves,
and a good condition running after it downhill :) and
stopping for tea (yeah sure :) when Carl and I had stopped at the
dealer.
Because of the 2h40m they lost and Andy's driving-style the day
before (someone had complained about a Mini that in fact was
being overtaken by Andy :), he won the 'most irritating contender
and DFL' award; a gold-plated dip-stick. Trace turned out to be a
real pro and won !
And what about MTB ? They didn't arrive until the prize-giving was long over. I never did get to hear what they had done that day, but rallying was probably not one of them...
Not being very keen on driving on the spare, nor about driving
around without a spare, I set off looking for a tire-shop to get
my tire fixed.
The local shop told me they only had gear from back in the
DarkAges and directed me to a shop down in Romsey.
Carl joined me and after driving around town a bit and asking the
way (ok, so I'd made a wrong turn somewhere, sue me ! :), we
eventually found the shop.
The guy took the tire of the wheel and had a good look at it and
then decided that it shouldn't be repaired but replaced.
Now I know as much about tires as I do about dresses; they're
black, round and made of rubber. Other than that they can tell me
anything and depending on the person I'll believe it or not. Carl
though turned out to be sort of an expert on tires. He gave it a
good feel and concurred that it shouldn't be used anymore.
As a replacement the guy of the shop had a Kuomo (a what ?) tire
in stock. Again this meant nothing to me, but again it did to
Carl.
Turned out a mate of his worked for Kuomo, so he gave him a call
to ask whether the tire was any good for use on my Van.
The mate wasn't in, but Carl did get to talk to someone, who
turned out to be the guy who had designed the particular model in
question, so he was able to confirm that it would suit my needs
just fine. The guy of the shop didn't know what happened to him,
I'm sure :) So with one new tire and some less cash in the bank
we went back to camp again. (Found it no problem :)
When we got back it was time to leave for the visit of John
Cooper's garages.
On the off chance someone not all to familiar with the Mini's
history will be reading this; John Cooper is the man that gave
his name to the go-fast Mini's produced in the 60-ies (and also
to the 90-ies Mini's, but that's more a marketing thing). So you
could say that his garages as well as the man himself are sacred
for any Miniac.
I'd had the pleasure of visiting the Cooper garages (which
actually is a H*nd* dealership, but that's another story :) a
couple of times before, as well as to meet THE Man in person and
shake his hand. But a couple of months before they had opened a
new all-Mini garage, not far from the other in East Preston.
So down we drove to have a look at this new setup and possibly
meet The Man Himself.
Unfortunately for us they had cleaned up the garage rather well,
so there weren't as many Mini's on display. And getting there as
late as we did, Mr Cooper had already retired for the day. We did
have a good look around at all the Mini's, specially the newer
ones that were there, for example the famous HIS FUN.
We were informed that Mr Cooper would be at the Cooper stand on
Silverstone that weekend and that the best chance to meet him
there was between 10am and 12pm.
After the compulsarary pictures we set off again. John, being
sort of local suggested that we'd make a stop on the way at a
mall, to get something to eat, do some shopping, but primarily to
avoid the rush-hour traffic. On the way he did the 'Mini's rule
the roundabout' stunt (and we followed), which basically mean you
take the roundabout a couple more times than strictly needed :)
Great fun for us, but the other people waiting to get on didn't
seem very amused...
The parking lot of the mall just begged to be played around on
and after I did we parked the Mini's in a neat line next to
eachother.
While most of the others headed for the restaurant to get a bite
to eat, Carl and I set of for... a booze & pretzel hunt,
while of course enjoying the local scenery.
Some of which was so exquisite that Carl just had to take
pictures. The booze was no problem, finding Iced Tea in the UK
turned out to be close to impossible though. And of course they
didn't carry the exact pretzels we were looking for, although we
gave it our best shot.
After having stocked up again the restaurant had already closed,
so we headed off back to camp.
On the motorway back to camp Jan-Willem's Mini started to
throw out some bad looking fumes. We stopped on the hard-shoulder
and first diagnostics were not good; probably a burnt valve or
such. When John and Andy had turned around the first advised us
strongly to get off the hardshoulder because the plod don't take
kindly to people hanging around there. As Andy got a towing-cord
Bas towed JW of the motorway to safer surroundings.
Since we were not to far away from John's workshop it was decided
the Mini would be towed there for further inspection. So on it
went through Southampton (and a couple of red lights :) to the
workshop. On the way (being the considerate person that I am :) I
called the women who had stayed back at camp to tell them that we
might be a bit later. Turns out I still have a lot to learn about
women; they weren't at al worried... till I called and then
started having visions of wrecked cars, ambulances and alike.
Further inspection at the shop gave even worse news. The
engine had been running very lean and consequently had gotten way
to hot.
As a result the piston of one cylinder was missing a piece which
was welded to the side of the bore. This meant end of story for
JW's Mini...
Unless... we took the engine out and replaced it with another
one. That way there wouldn't be a problem with warranty on the
engine and he might still be able to make it to Silverstone
driving the Mini. With an overdose of expertise and all the right
tools there, it was decided to give it a go.
So a start was made dismantling the engine and prepping it for
removal. As I have no experience in this field (and the coats
didn't need holding either :), it was my job to give moral
support, ask silly questions and get the pizza, as some of us
hadn't had dinner yet. Work had progressed nicely by the time we
finally headed back to camp (again). John & I stopped over at
his place to send out a mayday-message to the
List, requesting a replacement engine.
Back at camp we hung out a bit more, had some drinks and then turned in as the next day promised to be a long one...
