[Thad E Ginathom]

Sorry about the prang.

[Jeroen]

So at long last we finally managed to do The Goodwood Revival. It is one of the most talked about classic car events in the world.

Stirling Moss explains why this is such a special event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UJZeyOYOmY

I have been reading about this event for many years. I know some people who visited multiple times. A good friend of ours is a Goodwood member and she managed to get us tickets about 6 months ago. Us being my wife and me and our good friends Alex and Bianca. We have been friends for well over 20 years. We met through the Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Register. Between the four of us we held a host of different positions on the board and various committees over the years. We must have driven tens of thousands of kilometers all over Europe in our Spiders. Bianca has a gorgeous Coda Tronca and Alex used to have one of the early 916 with the big Alfa 6 Cylinder. Joinly we have organised dozens and dozens Spider events in the Netherlands and Europe.

Although none of us if active in the Spider Register we are still good friends and meet up frequently. And we still drive our Spiders to various events all over Europe.

One of my wife’s big hobbies and interests is all kinds of period dresses. So is Bianca's. In fact, Bianca is professional seamstress, making all sorts of costumes and special wear. So the two of them have been preparing for months. At the Goodwood Revival everybody comes in 1940-50s dress. The Revival was on Friday the 13th. Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th was the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. My wife is a huge fan and has been going to this festival for years. And it also involved dressing up in period (Georgian) dress! So Frances and Bianca decided we must do both Goodwood and Bath in only three days.

The logistics of getting everybody and huge amounts of luggages, hat boxes across the channel was a bit of a nightmare. My wife was already touring Europe for a week and a half. My daughter Ellen and her husband Brian were coming along to Bath, but not to the Goodwood revival.

So in the end Bianca, Alex, Ellen, Brian and me went across on the Stenaline ferry Hook of Holland - Harwich on the Wednesday night. Three cars, Bianca’s Alfa 147 GTA, my wife’s Ford Fiesta driven by Ellen and Brian and my Jaguar XJR.

On Thursday morning by 07.00am we were off the ferry. Ellen and Brian set off to meet up with some old friends of ours. Bianca, Alex and me headed for Brighton. We did motorway all across the Dartford crossing. From there we went cross country. We arrived in Brighton around noon. Parked the cars and made our way into town. Brighton is a lovely city. It has some very nice memories for me. It’s where my wife and I started living together, we bought our very first house here, our eldest son Luc was born here and we got married whilst living in Brighton.

Nice to be back.

When I got confirmation from our friend on the Goodwood tickets, I started looking for accommodation. It was a nightmare. Everything near Goodwood was sold out. That is why we ended up in an AirBnB in Brighton. One big room, two double beds, very cosy.

Frances made her way to Brighton in the late afternoon. All the way from Paris with the Eurostar to London and next to Brighton.

We had to get up real early on Friday morning. Not only did we have to drive all the way to Goodwood, but we all had to get dressed into our 1940s outfit too!

Made it in good time to Goodwood.

Bianca and Alex. It does not show so much here, Bianca is quite tall, but Alex is really tall. I am 6’5” and Alex has at least 3 inches over me!



And Mr and Mrs D.



From very early on, it got quite crowded. It was as if we had stepped into a time machine



An endless stream of smarty dressed folks making it to the paddocks.



Alex and Bianca drawing some attention



Mrs D very happy to have found a proper vintage car that matches well with her outfit





I will be honest, I hardly watched the cars. There was so much else to see and I love crowd watching. These two put up a great show!



This is 1940’s outfit and I am too young to remember this, but when I grew up we still had the milk man coming round every day! (Yes, I am that old)



Kids are welcome to this event, but just like the adults, they go period too!



So, yes there were cars, and some were jolly nice too. Have a look:





Various little bands playing, people watching life performance on stages across the venue. This is all very very British. So nobody gets overexcited, nobody shouts, it is all very civilised.

You could call these captive audiences, you would not give these images a title such as “The Goodwood crowd goes wild”.





Quite a number of some very interesting vintage planes here as well!

[Jeroen]

So we did look at some cars, but we never saw any of the races. There was just to much else to see and do. This venue is huge and there is so much to see and do. Endless little market stalls.

But as this is a car forum a few car piccies:





A bunch of Mini Mokes. A BMC invention and put out into the market under various brands such as Austin and Morris among others. You will find these very often at rental places in tropical destinations. At my wife’s home country, Barbados West Indies, the tourist love them. But I would caution anybody to rent these things, especially in tropical areas. They are not very safe or comfortable. Worse, you will get sunburned very quickly and when it rains, as it often does in the tropics you get drenched.



Some bikers joined in the fun too



No event in the UK without tea, proper tea of course. PG no less.



Some more crowd watching



Endless market stalls



We had brought a huge picnic basket. When we arrived we just put it on one of the many tables out on the lawn. With a cooler bag and a rug. Three and a half hour later everything was still there! We had a lovely lunch, with some unmentionable bubbly liquid. Because that is what you drink here at Goodwood. It’s tea of bubbles. That is the rule

Mrs D and Bianca very happy and content after a lovely lunch.



We had to leave by about 1600pm. We still had to drive all the way to Bath where we would hook up with Ellen and Brian again.

All in all a fantastic experience. We spend to little time here. Next year we need to think it through a bit more careful. Hopefully the Jane Austen festival and the Goodwood revival are not in the same weekend. Because we could easily spend 2-3 days at each event.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Forgot to add these; We visited the Toy and Model museum in Brighton.

https://www.google.com/search?client...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

They have a very large collection of various models, from cars, to trains, planes, collectables. Nice little museum shop too!

I picked up this very nice Corgi set: I had come across this set at other venues as well, but they always were priced too high for my liking. Picked this up for a real steal. UKP 15 for the full set. The box is still whole, but a bit worn. But the models are pristine!



I love these sort of vintage type of heavy hauler trucks!

[Thad E Ginathom]

This is all very very British. So nobody gets overexcited, nobody shouts, it is all very civilised.

What a generous summing up of my mother country!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

What a generous summing up of my mother country!

On a slightly more sobering note: It is all very fine dressing up as a milkman, mechanic, waitress etc. But when you look at these images you will also note that it really is like the 40s-50s. The audience, whilst diverse in age and gender is not very diverse in any other way!

The cheapest day ticket is UKP 59! Which is a bit more polite than just saying no riff raff allowed. But it does amount to the same thing. People attending can afford tickets, the dress, the cars, the food etc.

We are very fortunate being able to do these sort of things. We do enjoy them immensely, but it is simply beyond the reach of most people.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

This Sunday saw the Mini Clubday here in the Netherlands. I have always liked Mini’s. At one stage I owned one. When I was at naval college, my then girlfriend’s father had a driving school. His car was a Mini, with dual controls (pedals only). So I got to drive these little cars a lot.

My friend Bernd, who owns and runs the Minidrome Model car museum, http://www.minidome.nl is a huge fan of anything British and in particular Mini. He owns one which he and his wife Loes use as their daily run about.

So we set off this morning in Bernd’s Mini. About a 45 minute drive from where we live. 90% motorway.

Modern motoring in its most basic shape:



Lots of vans about, very popular



I had not realised, but the pick version is an original, the paint is not, but the car is.



endless variations on the same theme




Over the years this little car has been upgraded many times. Look how the interior developed





New Mini’s out in force too. I am not that keen on the new Mini to be perfectly honest. It’s a bit to fashionable for my liking. Also, compared to the original Mini, the new Mini is huge!



As usual lots of parts for sale. Bernd bought two brake hoses. We will install them in the weeks to come. Also, both of us bought some anti-rust treatment. Any British classic car show is a good place to buy anti rust stuff!







Here is Bernd little Mini. He has had for some 20 odd years or thereabouts. Still drives well, but it does need some TLC. Note the 1962 Rally shield behind the window. Bernd was 15 years at the time. He and his dad participated in this rally, which also happened to be the very first rally of the then newly started Austin Seven Club in the Netherlands. A very rare Rally shield.



The Mini chassis was used as the basis for some kit cars too. Here is one we made earlier



Another pickup



More Mini’s, all sizes and shapes



A somewhat unusual trailer, but it suits the Mini!

[Jeroen]

And another kit car version of the Mini; sort of a buggy. I had not seen one on the basis of a Mini. Most where made on the basis of a VW Beetle. We even had a quite famous Dutch firm /guy who used to do this Ruska, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruska_(car)



There were a few other cars at this event I could not place initially. But the MG Mini Midget uses the same engine as the Mini!



One thing is for sure. I do not think there was a single completely original Mini. They all had something done to them. Some, just very small modifications, some were no more than a Mini shell, like this one: Bernd is questioning the owner; what have you done man!





The engine and gearbox comes straight of a Yamaha motorbike! No reverse gear, so this one had a clever additional modification whereby it could reverse by using the starter motor!



Of course, Mini’s do not develop a lot of horse power, so you just bolt on a supercharger!



This was a bit of a special that Bernd and I could appreciate a bit better. It was Mini Cooper 1300 Innocenti. These were made in Italy, by, you guessed it, Innocenti.



A bit more flashy interior, with more dials



The owner had modified the engine somewhat. Slightly larger bore (1380), different piston and a few other bits.



The Innocenti and Coopers in general had brake boosters. All other Mini’s you just had to push on the brake pedal harder!

We saw a sign that said there would be valve cover car races?! Never heard about anything like that. Turns out, Mini valve covers make excellent racing cars!



The kids were having a wonderful time!





Another first for me: A Mini with a four speed auto-box! There were at least three Mini’s present with an auto box. No idea how they fit these. With a regular clutch there is hardly any room left



And some more, modified, Mini”





This Mini van had a superb paint scheme, really lovely



This guy made clocks out of Mini (old and modern versions) speedo’s!



All in all, we spend some 3,5 hours roaming around, talking to the owners and just enjoying ourselves. One thing both Bernd and I noticed; the Mini crowd is relatively young. Classic cars, I hate to say it, but is largely a (white) male hobby it seems. Here a lot of young folks, whole families enjoying their Mini.

I am a bit of old school, I prefer original car restoration. But it was good to see how everybody enjoyed their cars in the way they felt comfortable with.

I am genuinely thinking of buying a Mini in the years to come, when I retire. I would like to do a proper ground up restoration. The Mini ticks many boxes. It’s relatively cheap, parts availability is superb, it’s a relative easy car to work on, endless books, video’s and many clubs around to help. And it is small. I can still lift a Mini engine block by myself! Can not do that with for instance my Spider engine block.

So we will see. Stay tuned!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

I like the mini too. I was never happy with its transformation into a BMW. I especially disliked the interiors and dashboard design. It has become a much nicer car now, but still a shame that the original concept is dead and buried.

[Jeroen]

I returned from a business trip to the USA yesterday. I am still a bit naggered and jet lagged. Horrible weather, rain and wind. And my wife is still abroad. So spend a few happy hours fiddling with my cars and other stuff.

I wanted to do some work on my miniature Jaguar. I still had not dismantled it completely. But with this gloomy, dark weather, I noticed the light above my desk where I can work sitting down, rather than standing at the worktop, was very poor.

So, first thing I did is get another light above my other worktop. We have a DIY shop about 3-4 km down the road from us. Bought a very simple double LED light fitting. Hooked it up in a similar fashion as the other one I installed above my main worktop.



Very simple wiring and plug/switch. Very effective.



Works great!



Next I managed to take all the bits and pieces of the Jaguar. I need to give it a respray soon before the outside temperature drops too much.



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

My wife had been complaining about a droning noise in her Ford Fiesta. So I took it for a test drive last night. I could hear it too, actually I thought there were multiple sounds.

When you take a car on a testdrive checking it for sounds here a few tips:

Find some good straight stretches of road, no potholes. You need to be able to drive at varying speeds. You need to be able to let the car roll, with the clutch depressed and with the gear in neutral. Try with the windows rolled down on the driver side, then passenger side, both sides

You need to drive at a steady speed, and try different gears. Take a few corners as well. Try braking

All the time you need to listen for the noise and notice any changes, due to speed, gear etc.

After my little test drive I came to the following observations:
Two sounds, one a sort of droning/whining sound and a scraping sound
Noise always present, becomes noticeable over 50 km/h and increases with speed
Depressing clutch/gear in neutral has no influence on the noise at any speed.
Opening the windows did not give any hint as to which side might be the problem. In fact the noise was more noticeable with all windows up.
No changes in noise cornering or braking.

My initial conclusions:
Nothing to do with the engine/transmission/gear/differential.
Most likely a tire, brake or less likely a wheel bearing problem,

First thing back in my garage, check tires and rims for any sign of damage. Nothing obviously, other than especially the rear tires, do show sign of cupping.

The noise of cupped tires might sound very familiar to a bad bearing. But that is why it is important to do a proper test drive. Both change with speed, but the bearing sounds usually change upon cornering, but the cupping related sound does not.

Second, check for play and sounds on each wheel. Which means jacking up the car on each corner, turning the wheel, listening for any sounds and checking for play in the bearing. You do so by grabbing the wheel top/bottom and trying to wobble it, next front/left.

I did all four wheels, no play on any of the bearings. But I did notice a scrapping sound on the rear right wheel! Most likely a brake sticking. So back up on the jack and an axle stand.



Wheel comes off easily enough. Next the brake drum. These are always stuck! And they can be a Royal PITA to remove too. Not just on a Ford Fiesta, on any car.



There are numerous tricks to get them off. Luckily, Ford has given it some thought too. They have a threaded hole in the brake drum. Put a bolt into it and tighten the bolt. It will push the brake drum off. Why Ford decided on only one of these I do not know. Two would have been easier. With one I tighten the bolt and then whack the brake drum just above the bolt, tighten the bolt a few turns, whack the drum again. It came off without any problems.





Everything looked fine though. Tried everything for easy movement. Had my wife operate the brake pedal and the hand brake a few times. These Ford brake cilinders have little rubber boots on both sides. Peeled them away to check for leaks. Nothing. One thing to note, on these cilinders, there is always a bit of very thin grease in there. Some people mistake it for a leak. Trust me, if they leak it will show.

So all looked well. It had accumelated a lot of (brake) dust. So I carefully cleaned everything, took my pneumatic drill with a steel brush to various parts. Put everything back together and did another test drive.

Definitely better, the scrapping sound was gone. The droning sound was still there. This is just the tires. These tires have done well over 61.000km. They are still the original tires, still 3-4 mm thread left. I do not think there is any problem with the alignment or anything like that. I think it is just the tires getting old. So I need to get a new set of tires. I will probably do so in the next few weeks, before the winter season sets in.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

My garage this morning. It is getting very empty.



The Jaguar is still at the repair shop. I spoke to them last Friday and they managed to straighten out the door, w which is good, but it still needed spraying and finishing. I expect it will be ready tomorrow or day after.

Early this morning I took the Alfa Spider to my friendly Alfa specialist. They will be fixing the oil leaks in the gear box and the differential. (look at the puddles on the garage floor where the Spider stood, it was getting worse and worse).

I have asked them to give me a call when they have opened up the box. I would like to see what it looks like and take some photographs. We will also need to take a judgement call on the clutch and clutch bearing.

Hopefully by the end of the week both cars will be back, all fixed

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Late yesterday afternoon I got a call from Goof, my friendly Alfa Specialist. They had taken the gearbox out already and I had better come and see and discuss because there were some problems.

Here you see the rear of the engine with the gearbox removed. The gearbox did have some leaks and it still needs opening up. But there was a bigger problem.
It is a bit difficult to see, but there is engine oil seeping through at the bottom. This is a problem as it is likely to be some small tubes inside the engine that are causing this. Irrespective, the only way to get at it is by removing the engine from the car all together. Which is a big job.



I agreed with Goof he can go ahead. It also most likely will mean they will have to disconnect the AC lines, and that means I lose the charge I had put in only two years ago. So I will have to get that redone too.

My bigger worry is always, what else will we find and what might get damaged in the process of taking the engine out and back in. That is no reflection on Goof’s ability and skills. It is just that lots of bits on these old engines have become brittle and might brake, bend or whatever.

So it will be a big job, waiting for his quote. And it will take several weeks. Goof has already another Alfa taking up space on one of his lifts with the engine out. He needs to finish that one first, before tackling mine.

At least the differential looks pretty straightforward. Just replacing the gasket and the seal and it should be good for another 100K miles. Touch wood.



The repair shop called yesterday evening as well. The Jaguar is all ready. I will try and pick it up later today. I am sure it will look good. But I am worried on how well the door will shut. That’s why I had them replace the rubber door gaskets as well. These door are prone to “lifting” at speed which means a lot of noise. With this particular accident and subsequent repair I hope they have ben able to get the door properly aligned again.

I also ordered some new parts for the Mercedes W123 carburator. I am going to replace the needle and a few other bits. I am running out of ideas on what this very light stuttering I experience could be. So I figure this is worth a try.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Picked up my Jaguar during lunch. The repair work looked really well done, but I was concerned about the door not shutting properly which means wind noise. So I took it out on the motorway and sure enough. So back to the repair shop and they had another go at it and now it absolutely perfect. Even better than before.

I took it for a second testrun onto the motorway at, lets say sort of illegal speed, and all was well. This was on a legally 130km/h stretch of motorway.





I am very happy with it. These guys are very, very good and very pleasant to deal with. It looks easy enough, adjusting a door, but in fact it takes a lot of experience and know how on how to do it properly and quickly.

At my request they kept the various parts they replaced. For all I know these parts are actually pretty good. Just because you can buy them today, it is very likely in the near future it will become a problem.



These kind of repair shops provide a four year guarantee on all their work. You get a proper certificate and all. Many dealers, independent garages and these sort of repair shops are members of the BOVAG. A sort of umbrella organisation that looks after the interest of this industry, but also ensure consistency in workmanship, warranty etc across all its members.



On their parking lot I happen to see a battered Tesla.



A few weeks ago I saw an article about how Tesla owner seem to have more accidents than their peer group. And that Tesla repair work out substantially more expensive than on similar cars. So I asked them about it.

They confirmed: There are several reasons for this:
Tesla has very detailled repair instructions, as a BOVAG member they are oblige to adhere to any repair guidelines provided by the manufacturer. For instance, any paint damage to a bumper, according to Tesla instructions will require a 100% respray of the full bumper. These days with modern spray techniques that is simply not required anymore.

Also, a lot of the car is made of aluminium, which is always difficult to repair, so very often it is just replaced without second thoughts. Apparently, it takes quite some time to ensure the car is safe to work on, much more than just disconnecting the battery in a regular car, or even other hybrids.

Parts are expensive and come with long lead times. They said on average 3-4 weeks to get the parts. Which on any mainstream car in the Netherlands is unheard of. Any part of just about any other car, will be delivered to any repair shop anywhere in the Netherlands within 3-4 hours!

Part of the problem might stem from the fact that this is a US designed car. Car repair in the USA is pretty sloppy and rudimentary in many cases, if a repair shop is left to its own devices. So it appears they have gone overboard and made the instructions very detailled, but have not really kept up with modern repair methods this side of the pond.

Very happy to have my Jaguar back, with such a good result as well.

This Saturday I will be driving to the Opal cost in France for a photo workshop. It’s well over 320 km drive. I am really looking forward to the workshop, but also the driving. I will be setting of around 06.00am. I know this route pretty well, so I have already decided on my two coffee stops.



It will be early on a Saturday morning, so not much traffic. So other than a few stretches with known speed camera’s and average speed checks I can let the hammer down! I will put a new play list together for my iPod. Certainly coming home will be mostly driving at dark. Again, I do not mind at all.

I really enjoy these sort of long drives, all by myself, my car, my music, some coffee. This is the sort of driving my Jaguar excels at! Wafting along at blistering speeds.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

I finished spraying my little Jaguar XJR model earlier this evening. Better result than last time, but it is still not entirely correct.



It is remarkable as I had the can of spray paint made specifically based on an actual colour measurement of the car.

I did a few test sprays on plastic and aluminium and those colour ended up a very close match with the original.

But this model remains difficult. Really off last time. This was a new model, black. Quite a bit of surface prepping. Difficult to see in these photographs but especially the body is too light, too silvery compared to the real deal. The two plastic bumpers are pretty good.

Against the hood



Against the mirror



Anyway, I have decided this is close enough. I have spend an extraordinary amount on money and time on this model as it is. This is likely as good as it gets

I have tried lightly polishing it and that makes a bit of a positive difference, so that will be the final finish on the paint job.

Attachment 1921476

So now all I have to do is re-assemble and paint in some more details. I might get my son Thomas to help me. He is a master War Hammer painter. He has got all the kit and paint too.
So looks like a nice father and son fiddle job for a rainy Sunday afternoon

Jeroen