No TVR Car Club today - I'm taking the Chevy with the Sporting Bears to the Bo'ness Hillclimb Revival.
I checked the car over yesterday, and found that the plug in No 7 cylinder is oily again already. It's only done the wedding, nothing else. Ok it's not
so bad that it's misfiring yet, but it's clearly getting too oily. I need to figure out why, one of these days...
Anyway, with clean plug installed, I set off, for the half-hour journey over to Bo'ness. When I get there, a couple of others have arrived and have
started putting up the tent.
Organised chaos, I think they call it...
Eventually we get set up...
and the teddy bears set up their picnic!
I meet quite a few people I know, and a lot more that I don't. I don't get much of a chance to look round the show but I do spot a very nice black Ford
Galaxie 500.
After a great wee day, I drive home and put the car back under its cover.
I have one more event, in a couple of weeks, and then 4 weeks till my daughter's wedding (and she wants to use the car for that). After that, I'll have to
get into the engine and find out where this oil is coming from - it's either past the piston rings (not good) or past the valve seals (also not good, but
not as bad as the first one). A compression test and a leak down test should suss that out, and should be easy, but I don't want to risk breaking the car
before the wedding!
I've booked the car into the Wings and Wheels show at East Fortune air museum. Preparation has consisted of: putting it on a battery charger since
Wednesday, when the wind was so bad that it blew the cover round sideways (so that it was half under the car). Fortunately I managed to get it off and
packed away without accidentally paragliding to Norway.
So today... it doesn't start, I have to jump start it off the Range Rover. Those "recycling" battery chargers are great - except that they occasionally
drain the battery and charge it again, and if you arrive during that cycle - you're stuffed!
I stop to pick up my son, who is going with me, and we head off east. Into the sun, in a car with not the best windscreen demisting system, till it's
warmed up...
We get parked up, and then while he finds the US anthem on his phone, we hold the flag-raising ceremony...
There is plenty to see and do. Well, there are cars...
This thing arrives just after us - a Reliant Robin with the roof cut off, a half-windscreen, and a trailer.
This was rescued from a field in Kansas, complete with bullet holes in the door...
A 3-wheeler Morgan with a Moto-Guzzi engine.
If it shows, chrome it. This Mini had everything chrome, and a Superman dipstick.
Great Scott Marty!
There are also planes...
Avro Vulcan
GE Lightning - like putting a saddle on a huge jet engine.
Slightly more refined, and vertical take-off.
Hawk trainer, famous as the plane used by the Red Arrows.
Spitfire. Never was so much owed by so many...
Concorde - So far ahead of its time, that it's still ahead of its time.
There's also a very interesting Bird of Prey display - not your hawks and falcons, no - this is 8 foot wide vultures, sea eagles, bald eagles etc -
absolutely brilliant!
There's also a fantastic motorbike stunt display!
In among all of that, we find time to stand or sit beside the car and just talk to people. Oh, and eat - a bacon roll and a very tasty burrito are made
to disappear while we wait.
We are also asked to take part in the parade, behind a steam engine that breaks down and causes some congestion. I'm just glad that wasn't me!
Soon, it's time to head for home, after a short diversion for fuel.
I get home and parked up, everything seems fine. Confidence restored!
Organised chaos, I think they call it...
Eventually we get set up...
and the teddy bears set up their picnic!
