Well the Eastern Region of the Club did a 900 mile round trip in four 40’s and survived
Whilst we did have a few teething problems, with Nick & Phil’s black Mk3 having ignition and fuelling problems after a winter engine rebuild & upgrade and Neil’s white Mk1 had a sweaky rear suspension and the recently fitted central locking kit locking him out of the car on the first night. Fortunately a few (well lots!) of screws removed it was easily by-passed
We travelled down via the Portsmouth to Caen ferry on the Thursday. After a push-rod change on Tony’s freshly finished red Mk3 (there seems to be a quality issue with soft push-rods from Comp-Cams as we changed one just before we left; fortunately took spares) we got all the car’s to the Pistonsheads gathering at Chateau Le Sarthe on the Friday morning and to the circuit in the afternoon.
However as Nick Brough previously alluded to, getting into the circuit on the Saturday was chaos, over an hour to do the last 400m was not a joke, especially with the heat (and tempers!) building. Tony car struggled the most with overheating and the clutch slipping. After getting it all sorted, the police told him it take another couple of hours to get in, so he gave up and went back to our residence for the duration. Grandstand Motorsport who were providing parking for all club ‘40s said that many of their clients had given up trying to get in on the Saturday and gone for a drive instead
The racing, the cars and the general ambience takes some beating, and on the Sunday after visiting the museum, which was very impressive, especially with special Gulf exhibition on, we joined the club gathering at Hotel le France for an excellent meal and a talk by one of the original 60’s team members
All the cars made it home and a great time was had by all. We’re off to the Silverstone Classic on Saturday, which hopefully should be a little cooler…:thumbsup:
Regards,
Andy