HCVS Brighton run

Sunday 12^th- Monday 13^th May

We’re on a roll with these weekends away and using our British Airways points to stay at Jury’s Inn we drove in the Astra down to Brighton where it was sunny and a little bit chilly. The reason for our visit was to watch the HCVS Brighton Run. We found a comfortable spot outside a café in Madeira Terrace to watch the arrival of all the historic commercial vans and were lucky to see a fantastic array of vehicles ranging from fire trucks to buses and lots in between.

Later we walked along the sea front to the Marina and back, starting our pub crawl at The West Quay (Wetherspoon’s) where they were woefully understaffed, another drink at the main beach at the Ohso Social Bar where they had enough staff but they were inattentive so we moved on to the Buccaneer which was everything the others weren’t. Great service and clean tables, so we sat there for a couple more, enjoying the Sunday afternoon sunshine before crossing the road to check in at our hotel, only to discover I had booked us into the wrong Jury’s Inn. As we had been drinking we had to leave the car there and trundle up to the station with our suitcase to the other one! We ate at Brown’s in the Lanes but didn’t get a discount for sharing our name with them.

The sun was still kind to us on Monday so we returned to Buccaneers for a very nice breakfast. The British Airways i360 glass viewing pod took us on a 25 minute “flight” 450 feet up into the air to give us a superb view over Brighton, a quick visit to the Fishermen’s museum then we walked along the pier before having our traditional lunch of fish and chips at the Grand Junction Beach Café. Moving on we found a nice sheltered spot in Rottingdean for an afternoon kip, a cup of tea at Molly’s and a stroll below the famous white cliffs of the South Downs. Our final stop was at the Hope “the first and last pub in England” (I think Cornwall might have something to say about that) at the ferry port of Newhaven before taking the scenic route across the Downs until we reached the motorway route to get us home.

 

What’s been happening with the Beetle?

After it was running like a pig for most of last summer, Homan’s looked at it and found a problem with the distributer – the only thing Dave hadn’t checked as it had supposed to have been replaced with an electric one by the restorer but hadn’t, even though it was charged for! After that the car was running like a dream so I decided it was worth spending money on the bodywork. Jay Bradley had it for a couple of weeks in April and after fitting new wings, sorting out the rust and giving it a respray, it came back all shiny and lovely. It is difficult to know how far to take it but I want the car to be a 1970 car in good condition not a show car so have decided not to go any further with new bumpers etc. but to continue to spend a time polishing it to the best it can be. Although I do not legally have to get an MOT on the car, I’m glad I did as it was discovered that the inner track rod was broken and the car could have collapsed at any minute! All is well now and I intend to use it as my daily driver. 

Tuesday 14th May  

It was the second monthly meeting of the Bedfordshire Classic Car Club at Oakley Sports and Social Club. A healthy 119 cars turned up including the Phaeton and the Beetle.

 

 

NSRA Pre-49 Event

Image by Classicline insurance

 Friday 3^rd - Sunday 5^th May

I will revisit this event once the Street Gasser is published and hopefully my article on the subject will have been printed.

Meanwhile Paul was with Zoe at Santa Pod competing in the Springspeed Nationals where he qualified in a respectable 5th position and went out in round two in a closely fought race against Will Clark putting him in third place, 120 points behind the leader. At the same meeting our friend Andy Harrison got his first event win in Super Gas.