Stoneleigh 2010

Well, it was that Stoneleigh time of year again. However, rather than a simple day trip to the show, this was gonna be a three day trip taking in a mates 40th and another mates wedding as well. This explains the fitting of the soft top - so that my wife could travel in perfect warmth and dryness!! This was going to be the longest trip to date - 550 miles.

The hood did the job - just letting in a few dribbles where there is a gap between the hood bows (to allow folding) - easily solved by sticking a bit of rag above the centre of the screen between the bows - appears to be a common problem and fix. It was also surprising how effective the heater became now that the warm air couldn't escape from the cockpit.

Out of the 550 miles about 425 were cruising at 70 (1950 rpm), 75 were various speeds on local roads and 50 were hooning around taking mates for rides. If my calculations are correct then I appear to have got 19.1 mpg overall - better than I expected.

Due to a slight camera issue the only photo's I have are other peoples - so thanks to Andy, Steve & Tommy:

Becasue of the need to get to the wedding I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked, but still I got to meet up with some old friends and meet some new ones and I also had a resonable look around the show - nothing really caught my eye for a new build though!

The car looks a bit low to the ground, but that's due to the soft grass and a bootfull of tools - which wasn't really needed - apart from the fact that one of the bonnet hinge pins/bolts fell out on the way down. Easy enough to get a replacement cap head bolt at Stoneleigh, although I had to drop my the GD stand to ask Andy what size it was! (M10x45 just in case it happens to you)

So, quite a long trip in some pretty poor weather with no real problems to report, In fact my wife quite enjoyed it to my surprise. This possibly has paved the way for some European Touring???