Still Here!


Adventures with a 1969 Bristol 410


Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
07:11
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Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
12:13
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Vulcan XH558 will be grounded forever, unless further funding of £1million is identified by early March. This funding will allow the project to pay its monthly expenses, clear debt and provide a stable financial footing for the future.
But why is your Vulcan so important?
In a word - EDUCATION!
In line with our motto "Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future", we returned XH558 to display status for two educational reasons:
To teach Britain's youth about the pivotal role that Britain played in the Western World's defence at a time of political uncertainty and instability.
To inspire our children and grandchildren to choose a career in Britain's design, engineering and scientific industries.
Vulcan XH558 is not privately owned, but operated as a National Heritage Asset. She belongs to every man, woman and child in Britain and is an iconic and emotive example of Britain's pivotal position in World technology and foreign affairs.
The 'Vulcan Effect' is a unique and powerful tool - without your immediate help it will be gone forever.
The Vulcan '09 Pledge Campaign will raise those funds so please sign up now and play your part in securing the future of the world's only flying Vulcan. Your pledge will only be called upon when we are confident of reaching the target.
Please help us weather this economic Perfect Storm; we are working on a new business model aimed at avoiding this situation arising again next year.
Please remember that even a relatively small monthly pledge is a significant help – supporters have already pledged in excess of £900,000, with a significant proportion coming from the intensive efforts of members of the Vulcan to the Sky Club.
Thanks to all who are intent on keeping XH558 flying and thrilling through 2009.
To Make A Pledge Click Here.
Robert Pleming
Director of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust
24th February 2009
Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
00:51
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Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
19:34
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Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
21:22
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Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
16:10
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No apologies for the above photo. I know it's not a Bristol but it is one of my favourite cars, in terms of looks, ever built - the De Tomaso Mangusta, so called of course because the mongoose eats cobras... Another trip to France in the 410 last weekend, this time for the Le Mans Classic. The Mangusta was parked in the paddock area, and I expect was the most orange car on site by some margin. We had a smooth drive down in torrential rain from the Eurotunnel to Le Mans, in convoy with friends in a lovely 1970 Porsche 911 2.2. Tim in the Porsche was slightly startled to discover quite how fast a laden Bristol could go, and rapidly had to change his expectation that having to dawdle down with a lumbering saloon would delay his trip!
I resisted the temptation to put pins in the tyres and wished him every luck instead. I don't think he needed it though - the pre-war class was pretty well sown up by the Talbots, which are clearly even more competitive today than 74 years ago. As an aside, the Lancia still exists also. I tracked it down a few years ago after finding its purchase receipt and early service documents when clearing out an old box full of my grandfather's papers. It is currently residing in Belgium and the owner was over the moon to find out its early history. He had had no idea it had been successfully rallied in period, although this has no doubt increased his insurance premium somewhat.
Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
19:25
3
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Another busy couple of weeks here. Yet another wedding to attend, and this time in France, mean another good run for the Bristol. An early morning departure put us safely aboard the Normandie Express for a very rough crossing to Cherbourg. I don't mind rough seas, but the foul smell and sound of people being sick that permeated the whole vessel was not an inspiring start to a holiday! The car was completely unscathed obviously, thanks to the sturdy chocks the crew had used in preparation for the heavy seas. We were heading for just south of Tours, and had a very nice, trouble-free drive down, via Le Mont St Michel and a nice picnic in the middle of nowhere.
The last day there, we headed off to Chambord, one of the enormous châteaux strung along the Loire valley. With a car full of people, one of the other little quirks the car has developed recently reared it's head... For a while now, the car would, very occasionally, completely die, while driving along. All electrics, ignition, just off without warning. All it took was to switch off an on again, sometimes without even stopping, and it was fine again. When serviced last month, SLJ's team replaced the starter inhibitor relay as this was extremely corroded and a possible suspect for the cause. However, this was a red herring it turned out. On the drive down, it happened a few times more, and was clearly getting worse. But there was a clue - sometimes the car would die and burst back into life before I could do anything about it, but once it burst back into life as soon as I touched the key, but before I turned it. Ignition switch itself maybe? En route to Chambord however, it died and flatly refused to restart. No ignition circuit at all, but other electrics fine. I put in a call to SLJ, and even during his lunch break, Nick Cooper agreed with the likely fault and swung into action to retrieve the circuit diagram and issued instructions on hotwiring a 410. Put to the test, and we burst into life, to general applause from the assembled passengers. As it turned out, we needed the key also to connect up the remaining charging circuits, but by hotwiring at every stop we made it on to Chambord, back to Richelieu for the night, and home to England the next day. And in fact it stayed like that for another week or two until I had the time to fit a new switch. I hope it doesn't need to put into practice again, but I think knowing how to hotwire might be a useful piece of knowledge to have acquired...
Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
12:08
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So you though I'd forgotten about this? Well, here we are again! Sorry it's been so long since the last update, but having got out of the habit of regular updates I got kind of sidetracked. But here we are, and it's been a pretty busy few months since the car came back. First up was the BOC AGM in Nottingham, a lively affair this year with some new rules proposed and then withdrawn at the last minute. The proposal was to introduce a time-limit on the length of time that club officials may serve on the committee of the club, and although withdrawn for now there are a lot of discussions still going on. There are good arguments both for and against this idea, and the proposals are being discussed now and some revised rule changes will be probably be put to the vote next year. Also at the AGM, it seems I became both a committee member myself, and editor of the club Newsletter. This is an exciting thing and quite an honour, but hopefully it will give me an excuse to drive the 410 more and go to more events!
Well after that, I had a very wet trip to Somerset for a wedding and then a couple of weeks ago another wedding in the Lake District. This was a very small, informal affair, with only about a dozen guests. However the 410 was seized upon and it was asked if I'd mind running the girls to the wedding and then taking the happy couple back afterwards, to which I could only say, but of course!
And so it was that I found myself tying white ribbon to the car, not quite as clean as it might have been if it hadn't faced the M6 the night before, and heading into Kendal Register Office with three beautiful ladies in the car, my red leather perfectly complementing the red leather soles of the bride's very flash shoes, about which I will get into trouble if I do not mention! Dinner was at L'Enclume, near Grange over Sands. This Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms did indeed serve us a superb dinner, with lots of intricate little dishes, deconstructed tequila slammers, frogs' legs, pigs' cheeks and a wonderful piece of lamb, all cooked to perfection. I understand completely though that some people do think these fancy menus are designed to show more how clever the chef is than to provide a hearty meal, but if we were in any doubt that the chef could only cook show-off food, breakfast was one of the best fry-ups I've ever had. Dinner, although complicated, was a masterclass in making people think about flavours and textures and how they relate to each other - it is more than food, it's art as well.
Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
23:37
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Well, we're back! Running on all cylinders, so to speak, and ready for action. I picked up the 410 from Andrew Mitchell's last week, in the torrential rain, and it really is good to back behind the wheel. Andrew and his team have done a fantastic job, especially Steve who did virtually all the major work. The fit and finish on the panels is superb, the paint match is excellent, and overall I am very happy. I certainly did not envisage this moment last July, while standing at the roadside in the middle of the night looking at the very twisted wreck of a Bristol.
Posted by
The Happy Bristoleer
at
19:45
1 comments