Having picked Richard up from his hotel, we made our way down to Brooklands for scrutiny & documentation. When we got there I was gobsmacked at the crowds & the amazing displays of vintage cars. It seemed like we were but a small part of a much bigger meeting.
Amongst the many visitors, we bumped into Nick Starkey, who had co driven John Leppard in the 504 Coupe on both London Sydney & London Mexico.When he saw that we had opted to run with the injection he thought we were mad, words which would very soon come back to haunt us. That however was some way in the future.
With our road books & time cards on board it was time for the journey into London for our start from the House of Lords. What a feeling to be driving into the car park at the Houses of Parliament. The organisers had laid on a meal at the near by Red Lion, so another chance to socialise with the other crews & to say last farewells to loved ones. I've just read some reviews of the pub which are rather scathing but we were welcomed, the food was reasonable & they had had some commemorative mugs made as well so a thumbs up from me.
With full tums it was time to head off to Kent for 3 forest stages before the dreaded night road rally & the trip to Dover for the 3am ferry. We had decided that I would drive the 3 stages & the road rally [Richard volunteered to navigate]
The first 2 stages were in Mereworth & a bit of confusion on the tape at the first bend had me doing a quick bit of reversing, silly mistake but only hurt pride unlike a couple of others. I managed Stage 2 without any dramas, feeling that the car was as responsive as I had hoped it would be. Stage 3 was in Kings Wood & we got well & truly blasted by the No 45 Porsche [it turned out to be an all singing all dancing Tuthill car, probably the fastest car on the event]
We finished the stage and were making our way to the road when we lost power. There was a short muddy uphill section onto the main road & we couldn't get up it. Eventually we were pushed back out of the way. I could not believe it, all that effort & we were stranded. With the help of a spectator/mechanic we quickly found the problem to be in the fuel system. After cracking off the pipes to the injectors, fuel once again flowed & the engine fired up & we were on our way again. Very puzzled as to why it had happened but on our way.
