Still Here!

Well sorry it's been a bit quiet here for a while. This is due to spending April furiously preparing for my wedding, and then spending most of May on honeymoon. Hooray! The 410 obviously played a part in proceedings, transporting me and my wife from the ceremony venue to the reception. The photo above is the best man and his girlfriend fitting the ribbons to the bonnet. Honeymoon was in California, where we went on a bit of a road-trip, covering 2500 miles all around the state, from snow-clad mountains in Yosemite, to the 47ºC heat of Death Valley, elephant seals on the Pacific, the emptiness of the Mojave Desert, and the bustle of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For this we had an enormous hire car, of the sort I didn't realise America still made – 18 feet of brand new Lincoln Town Car. We didn't book this, but were upgraded by the nice man at Alamo in San Francisco, who described in as a honeymoon car. He was part right - it was also the funniest car I've ever driven. The 4.6-litre V8 was not nearly man enough to avoid running out of puff up hills on freeways, but then if did have over two tons to haul about. The air suspension gave a wonderful ride, but when people describe some cars as driving like a boat, I now see what they mean. The steering was alarmingly light, and gave absolutely no information or feedback about what the wheels or road was doing. Hit a ridge on a corner at freeway speeds and the whole car lurched and wallowed worryingly. However, it was big, comfy, spacious, and great for wafting gently about on honeymoon. Being rear wheel drive, and with switchable traction control, I guess it might also have been handy for doing donuts in the middle of the desert, if I wasn't a responsible married man of course...

Now that we're home, the 410 is currently sidelined with a serious axle oil leak. It's been leaking gently for a while really (about as long as I've had the car in fact), but over the last year it has been getting steadily worse, to the point that it now needs to be topped up every couple of hundred miles. I'm wary of damaging the axle itself, but the fix is going to be quite involved so it is going to have to wait a bit until the credit card has recovered from its Californian exertions. The axle is leaking not from a easy-to-replace seal, but from the bushes where the main suspension pins support it, so news pins and brass bushes will need to be made up, and this involved dropping the axle. There a bit of rust that should probably be sorted at the same time, so it will all add up. I shall report back in due course.

Behind the Arras

We've been off to France again this month.  I'd been given a flyer for a classic car show in Arras, and since I needed to go to France anyway to stock up on cheaper booze (only slightly these days sadly!) I thought the two things could be combined easily.  Arras is only a little over 100km from Calais, so it would make a nice weekend trip with a cheap hotel in town easy to find.  The weather on Saturday was fantastic.  We stopped first at Majestic to pre-order our supplies (if you order in advance of collection you get a discount to cover your ferry fare) before a gentle potter down the coast, stopping for a picnic lunch in the sunshine.

Arras itself is a nice place, with two stunning old squares, that would be much prettier if they weren't both car parks.  However, the fact that they are car parks is very handy if you wish to park right outside the hotel!  We'd been told to get to the show in good time on Sunday morning, as the free display area for cars over 30 years old fills up by half past ten or so.  As the hotel was only about two minutes drive from the exhibition centre we thought we'd be fine leaving at about 9.30 - and the first half of the distance went fine.  Then we hit the bouchon.  About an hour later as we were nearing the front of the queue, a smart Frenchman appeared and started turning the traffic about, as they were now full.  However as he told us this he spotted we were English and came over, saying that there was apparently a place inside reserved for us!  I think he may have thought we were someone else, as when we eventually made it inside (with the temperature gauge now nudging 110ºC after over an hour of inching along) we were placed with the Kent TR Register, but there seemed to be plenty of space and I don't think we pinched anyone's place!  We had a good wander about the show for a few hours - lots of Citroens, Renaults and Peugeots obviously, but plenty of Simcas, Panhards, Matras and other French machinery, and some foreign rarities too like a lovely Bitter CD, and several classic Americans.  We also found ourselves next to a Mini, with its bonnet open showing off a very clean and tidy engine bay.  It was therefore a slight surprise to find another very clean and tidy engine bay in the boot of said Mini, or Twini to be more accurate!

Coming home, we again took the slow route, a gentle run along some tiny rural roads through sleepy villages.  We stopped for some photos beside a few of the many wind turbines in the area.  The presence of these, alongside many traditional windmills shows that the idea of harnessing the wind in this part of France  is not new.  While not thought of as being the most beautiful part of France, the Pas de Calais is an area full of little nice little valleys and it was nice to explore it a bit, instead of whizzing past on the autoroute while rushing to catch a ferry or train.  We got back in time to pick up our pre-ordered booze, which was all neatly piled up on a trolley awaiting our arrival.  All very civilised.  (Majestic is unusual in being open on a Sunday.)

All in all another successful trip.  The car was going well (although there are a few issues with the back axle that I am trying to avoid facing up to) and the weather was fine.  The Bristol is very rare in France, although they were and are sold there new, so few people had heard of it and even fewer had seen one before.  Maybe a Club trip next year?

Urgent request!

The Vulcan bomber is a true Bristol. Four Bristol Olympus jet engines means it is more Bristol powered than my own car. Through a combination of extraordinary dedication, thousands of small donors, corporate will, and the National Lottery, one Vulcan XH558 is now airworthy after a 12 year restoration, the largest return to flight operation ever undertaken. However, the current financial situation with the Vulcan to Sky Trust is parlous to say the least. Notice has been given to their staff, and if they do not have £1,000,000 in pledges or donations by Friday night the end will have come and the Trust will be wound up. The Vulcan itself would be sold and in all likelihood never fly again - the bureaucratic hurdles in operating a 60-year-old Complex-rated aircraft would mean that it could not simply be passed to another organisation to operate.

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

I can't say it better than Robert - to lose the Vulcan now, after so much effort, would be a tragedy. I remember seeing, hearing and most of all feeling the Vulcan fly at airshows as I was growing up. The unmistakable howl of the engines spooling up, and the sheer majesty of such an enormous aircraft being thrown around the sky like it was a tiny fighter, performing seemingly impossible manoeuvres, will always stick in my mind. Go and pledge your support now.

Memory Lane

I've had this video for a while, and have finally put it onto YouTube for your general delight. The occasion was the BOC trip to Bordeaux in 2004. I went on on this trip and had a great time. It was more or less the first thing I did with the Club, and after getting to Bordeaux went on to Spain for a couple of weeks, racking up about 3,000 miles by the time we got home. I'm afraid HTV edited the 410 out of the broadcast clip, but there's some good archive film of a row of 410s in production in Filton.

Very little to report on the car front since last time I'm afraid.  Currently it's down at SLJ for some love, normal service will resume soon.

Happy New Year

So where were we?  Once again, sorry for the absence.  At least I've managed (just) to get a post up before it becomes three months since the last one.  I put this down to the power of me not wanting to do my tax return, meaning I am finally doing lots of things I've been meaning to do for ages.  Anyway, the car continues to go nicely.  We were down in Somerset yesterday, to photograph the area where the proposed Severn barrage may be built.  A long motorway run followed by some very small little back lanes, leading eventually to a lot of empty caravans and mobile homes.  I stopped for a chat with the owner of one caravan park, who told me all his clients would be delighted with a barrage – smaller tides and clearer water on the beach.  He wasn't expecting them to actually build anything though, as he can remember being shown a model of the scheme when he was at school down the road 35 years ago.

The 410 has seen plenty of use over the winter, even in the worst cold snap we had a few weeks ago.  The screenwash jets on my everyday Saab decided to pack up in the coldest weather, and before I had time to fix them (it was only a frozen one-way valve that had forced the pipe off the joint) I needed to go to Kent to see family for a few days, so the 40-year-old had to come to the rescue of the 10-year-old.  And the day before yesterday the Saab was plucked from the M4 by the RAC after it overheated and boiled over for no apparent reason, so the 410 is back on daily duties again now.  In its defence, the Saab, a 1998 9000, has been wonderful.  I got it as a temporary hack about 18 months ago, for £1600 out of AutoTrader, and have put 35,000 almost fault free miles on it in that time, while servicing (including a complete new exhaust) has come to only about £1200, which I think is not too bad for a car that had over 130,000 miles on when I got it.  The overheating is the first time anything has gone unexpectedly wrong with it.

The only thing wrong (I hope!) with the 410 at the moment however is the axle oils seals.  It was serviced by SLJ last year, and was noted then that they were leaking slightly, but the axle is definitely leaking at a rate now.  So much so that when I parked on a heavily cambered road a few weeks ago, I found that it leaked out of the end of the axle, but parked on the level it's fine.  It's going down to Warminster next week for a spring dose of TLC, and I hope they don't find any other horrors.

The other thing that is wrong with it is that it is filthy.  And I don't just mean dirty.  It is crying out for a proper polish, with some serious cleaning beforehand.  It is going to have to be absolutely spotless in May for an event, so I shall have to crack out the wax long before then.  Let's hope the weather improves soon, so I have more inspiration to get on with it.

Catching Up

Well, sorry it's been so long since the last post.  Things have been pretty busy over the summer, and having got a little behind with updating this, I then kept putting it off.  The 410, you'll be glad to hear, has been behaving itself over the last few months.  There's still a few little things to do after the rebuild, like sorting the draught around the passenger door that makes a huge amount of wind noise, and working out how to get all the dust out of the instruments.  But to help avoid such an accident again however, I have a cunning plan that I shall reveal in more detail next time...

There's been no more big trips, but we've been off to various club events around the country, including the new monthly Oxford Section meeting, pictured above.  The Concours up in Leicestershire also went off well, though was a little colder and windier at times than you might have expected for August.  As always, the car's also been used for all manner of daily chores and trips, but work has kept me so busy over the last few months that sadly it seems I can go a thousand or more miles in the Saab in between trips in the 410.  But petrol costs are falling now, so maybe it will come out for work trips more often again.

Finally, if you liked the beautiful orange Mangusta that I mentioned last time, check out the comments to that post, as its owner has been in touch and it turns out he has his own blog about the car too.  Maybe a 411 in that colour would be exciting!

I won't let it be too long before the next update I promise!

French leave, part 2

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!

Once in Le Mans and installed in the gîte in Mulsanne, an excellent dinner was procured from L'Auberge des 7 Plats in the beautiful old town of Mans. €19 for three courses of excellent Sartois cooking - it's not just the roads that we go to France for. The next day, Friday, was practice and qualifying, so we made it to the circuit in time to see BOC members Michael Parr and Andrew Mitchell on track in Michael's BMW 328 in the pre-war class. They looked good and I think qualified as the highest placed 328. Also in that group were two of three Talbots that won the three-litre class in the 1934 Alpine Trial. These cars were very interesting for me, as my own grandfather had competed in that Trial, in a Lancia Augusta, winning a Glacier Cup, and it was nice to have a personal connection with something there. I spoke to one of the owners of them now, who seemed interested that his car had beaten my grandfather all those years ago. 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.

The rest of the weekend was much of the same, the racing was gripping to watch, with lots of great cars being properly exercised. As well as the racing, the car park and paddock was so full with wonderful and rare cars that one became almost blasé about it. For a group of petrolheads who revel in the rarities we didn't know which way to turn most of the time! The comedy was provided by modern cars doing some laps inbetween the races. They were mainly BMWs on some sort of corporate sponsorship thing, which just looked even uglier than usual given that we were all looking at proper cars moments before they appeared. The crowning glory however, was a modern Ford GT spinning and stalling at low speed, on a track that just minutes before had been filled with genuine GT40s lapping at enormous speed and showing just why the new GT was so unnecessary. As for other Bristols, I saw several familiar cars but never managed to catch up with any of their owners. As well as a 400, a Beaufighter, a 401 Special and a 603 that we saw in the paddocks or carpark, we also saw a 407 heading out onto the circuit for one of the parade laps.

The trip back was pretty smooth. After helping to hotwire a friend's MGB (I said last time that it would be a useful thing to know!), we left Sunday lunchtime to miss the rush, this time in convoy with two 911s, ours having found a friend over the weekend. In the dry, it has to be said, they were faster than us. The second 911 was an orange RSR replica, which sounded like God's own chariot, and every tunnel was an opportunity for him to drop a couple of gears and deafen us all! Back in Calais though, it seemed the 410 had won over both my passengers with its ride, comfort and pace, and certainly impressed the Porsche owners no end. We'd kept up a pretty steady 90mph cruise for about 5 hours on the autoroute all the way back from Le Mans, three up with luggage, and shown a decent 911 a pretty clean pair of heels on twisting roads in the torrential rain on the way down. And we managed to fit five in when taxi services were called for over the weekend. So there you have it, the Bristol 410 - who needs anything else?

French leave

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 next two days the car was left in the market square in Richelieu, attracting quiet attention as usual, but quite happy until a monumental, apocalyptic storm in the middle of one night. I woke up and spent 20 excited minutes watching the light show before heading back to bed. In my dozy state, I was vaguely aware of a warning siren sounding somewhere, but thought nothing of it until the next lunchtime, when another wedding guest said they had heard my car horn sounding all night, until it eventually stopped with a presumed flat battery! I went to investigate, and all seemed in order, the car started fine and everything seemed as normal and I began to think the he must have been mistaken, until I tried the horn and it resulted in a stony silence. I couldn't find anything obviously wrong, but presume the rain must have caused a short somewhere and burnt out the horns? I haven't actually looked into any more yet, but I disconnected the horns under the bonnet just in case.

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...

Mint cake

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!

The first of which after the AGM was a committee meeting in Sussex, giving a nice Sunday morning drive along the A272 on the FBHVC's Drive It Day, so there plenty of other old 'uns out for a run too. I was then away for the first three weeks of May, so the car got a little rest. I took the opportunity of removing the front seats and delivering them to Richard James, an upholstery specialist near Stroud. This was not for new leather, but so he could strip them down to attend to the collapsing foam in the squab and back. The driver's side back has had, for as long as I've had the car, a bar across it that you do not notice for the first couple of hours driving, but after that it rapidly becomes all that you notice! Richard has done a pretty good job of fixing this - you still become aware it after a long drive, but it is not intrusive and painful like before. The passenger's seat had a different problem - the squab was far too hard, and tended to tip the passenger off on fast corners. He discovered a couple of straps that were clearly not original and later additions so removed them and all is much better. Maybe a previous owner had found the seat too soft? All in all a good job done, and at very reasonable cost. His dad is Ashley James, who has a lovely Bristol 400 (now beautifully trimmed of course!) which you can read about over at JEL450.com.

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.

The next day, we took the opportunity to have a quick drive around Windermere, and up the Kirkstone Pass. Coming to it up a very steep minor side road, pacing a MGB GT out for a blast and who clearly knew the road better than I, the car was pretty hot by the top, and sat in the pub car park, engine running and gently steaming as it cooled. This was probably due to the fact that the coolant is currently weaker than spec, as at some point during the rebuild the rad cap was accidentally swapped for a 7psi cap in place of the 14psi cap required to keep the cooling system pressurised. Unfortunately this meant that the first time the car got properly hot after the rebuild it promptly boiled over at not much more than 100ºC - it should be fine to at least 140º (although I'd be getting concerned by that point!). I'd topped it up again with the little anti-freeze I had in the car and a lot more water, so the concentration would have been down a bit. In any case, the car is currently at SL-J's having a quick service and check-over before heading off to France next week for a few days, and fresh coolant is on the list...

So there you have it, a quick update on what the 410's been up to since being fixed. I hope it's not too long and boring. Not mentioned obviously are plenty of other local trips, runs up to London and so on. I was away for almost a month since getting it back in mid-March, and even so managed to add another 2500 miles. I have already forgotten about the long, dark winter sans Bristol, and really can't imagine being without this car at all.

On the Road Again!

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.

The car is certainly better now than it was, as any rust and alloy bubbling that that was in evidence has been completely excised and the front of the vehicle is now pretty much perfect. Unfortunately my budget did not allow for the whole body to be resprayed at the same time, and although it could have had a blow-over to make it look superficially shiny, that would have been a complete waste of money as any little bubbles would have just come back in a matter of months. Better to wait and do it properly in due course. While it was a little lumpy to start with, and the gearbox seemed to hunt a bit more, it has now settled down and got used to being driven again. I'm sure it will continue to loosen up further after 8 months off the road.

Inevitably after such a big rebuild there's a couple of tiny little snagging points still to be sorted (and there's still a lot of filler dust to come out of the vents I'm sure!), but basically all I have to do now is drive it, hopefully avoiding big lorries this time. No doubt some other usual bits will fall off or stop working in some respect, and I shall continue to gabble on about them here, but I'm over the moon to have it back and looking so good, and I'm looking forward to getting out and about again, and showing it off to friends old and new over the coming summer. See you out there!