As our final workout, with most of the Peking to Paris work completed, we entered the Flying Scotsman rally. A three day vintage rally for pre-war cars was to take us from Borrklands (Weybridge) to Edinburgh.
The first hiccup happened on the way down when I ran out of petrol about a mile from the hotel. Luckily I cruised to a stop outside a pub and there was a petrol station 150 meters away. What I had forgotten was that there is a back up tank of 15 ltrs which one can switch over to! What an arse! Anyway back up and running, dinner with James and then off to the start at Brooklands.
We did the famous Brooklands hill climb which we cruised up. Some didn’t make it! Then slowly round the famous Brooklands bank and onto the Mercedes test track. We didn’t even know that we were supposed to do it in a certain time so we cruised round it and were late! Then off to Edinburgh with all sorts of tests and challenges along the way. The circuit in the car park at Qainton sidings railway museum we made a complete hash of and max’d out on penalties and that was one of the easy tests. Then it was on to time trials at Weston by Welland, Launde Abbey and Ponton all in my back yard. We drove through Burrough-on-the-Hill and waved at Alice and Coco! I think we began to get the hang of those trials. Then to Belton Woods, Grantham for the night.
We learnt a lot today, not least that we could spend the day in a confined space together. We learnt a lot about the trials and the car seems to be running really well.
Supper with Alice and coco which was a joy and then day 2 to come.
RHC
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