Saturday & Sunday 4th & 5th October - Club Triumph reliability rally 2025

 Although I no longer own any Triumph cars, I had, last year, already booked up to do the Club Triumph RBRR with a good friend of mine, Richard Warr. Due to me no longer owning a Triumph, it was agreed to enter in Richard's Mk1 saloon. 
In recent months our other friend, Colin Wake had joined us due to his co-driver letting him down and dropping out.
As a ritual, we all normally meet for a carvery in Knebworth before the 6pm start time. Unfortunately, our usual haunt was closed due to refurbishment, so we had to find somewhere else to eat. Fortunately for me, that was in Baldock where I'd also had to drop off my lotus Cortina gearbox and differential at Herts & Beds Transmissions. 

After a good meal in the pub, we set off for the start at Knebworth House. It had been raining since I'd got up that morning and warnings of 'Storm Amy' doing her best to wreck the northern part of Britain were being broadcast regularly. 

After a few hours of coffee drinking and catching up with old friends, our start time was upon us and we headed out onto the wet and windy A1 to head north. 
The rain was still coming down heavily but we made good time and before long we were at the first control at Wetherby Services in Yorkshire. A quick Latte and a top up of fuel and we were on our way again. 
Around half midnight we were at the English/Scottish border. The wind was now very strong and none of us were looking forward to going even further north to see what storm Amy was up to in the highlands. 

Our next stop was Kinross services and the wind and rain was still battering us mercilessly. Another quick coffee here and I jumped into the driver seat and completed the long and boring restricted 60 mph  drive up the pitch black A9 towards Inverness. 
There was lots of evidence that Storm Amy had travelled this route before us as told by the amount of trees that were no longer vertical. 
We took on more fuel at the next control at Skiach services and then pressed on for breakfast at John O Groats. 

After a very slow breakfast, we were on our way again and now heading south. We stuck to the proposed route, but then encountered the A82 (The road that runs alongside Loch Ness) being closed between Invergarry and Spean Bridge due to power cables being brought down by the storm. We found a diversion that took us underneath Loch Ness and brought us out at Spean Bridge and down towards Fort William. This diversion had lost us time, so we decided to head over Glencoe to grab some time back. This would have been ok if Glencoe was open, but that was closed as well. So, we had no other choice but to drive down towards Oban and then cut back across towards Glasgow. (Which is a long way round!)

By the time we got to the next control we were two hours behind and most of the other cars had left. There was also no food and coffee left, so we got going as soon as possible and hoped that we could make some time up. 
I took the driver's seat and did some 'spirited' driving and got us down to Tebay services (The next control) in under two hours. We were in for more disappointment here as the services were closing at 10.30pm and could only do us a cup of tea and a pie! Not impressed!
Richard and Colin shared the next stint of driving down to Wales while I caught up on some sleep in the back seat. 

Gledrid services was the next stop and they were also closed except for fuel. No toilets, or shop! We were suffering from lack of caffeine at this point, so we headed straight for the next stop at Monmouth Services. Fortunately, this was open and we were able to get some coffee inside us at last. 
I took the next stint down the pitch black M5 towards Exeter and then the A30 towards the next control at Oakhampton in Devon. 

We reached the control and found that it wasn't yet open, so we had done really well in catching up our lost time. With our roadbook signed and returned we set out for Lands End and I grabbed some more sleep in the back seat. 
Breakfast at Lands End was a nice un-rushed affair and provided us with a decent break away from the car. The next few stops would all be taking us in a homeward direction and after the torrential rain and gale force winds we had suffered all weekend, it wasn't a bad thing. 

By the time we were pulling into the next control at Bude castle, the rain had finally, finally stopped. A welcome cup of coffee was on the agenda and then we were off again to Gurston Down hill start which was the next control. 
The queue for coffee here was a tad excessive, so we brewed our own with Richards cooker. All too soon it was time to hit the road again and my turn to be in the driver seat. 
Popham airfield was our next and penultimate control and it was only 37 miles away, so only took just over an hour. We skipped coffee at this control as the satnav was predicting an arrival at Knebworth at 19.15, but we still had the M3 & M25 to battle with yet. 
Richard took the driver seat for the last leg so that he would be driving when we arrived at Knebworth. (It's an unwritten rule that if it's your car, then you leave the start in it and drive into the finish in it)

After a little bit of traffic we arrived at the finish at the predicted satnav time of 19.15. Richard and I were staying in a hotel, but Colin was going straight home, so we said our goodbyes and then Richard and I headed for the Premier Inn in Stevenage. 

Despite the awful conditions, (Hence the lack of photos!) we still managed to have a good weekend. The car never missed a beat and performed really well. Even the windscreen wipers coped with everything storm Amy threw at it. 

All in all, it really was a good weekend, but it would be really nice to have a dry one. I've been doing this event since 2010 and the only dry one we've had was in 2016! 

Saturday 27th September - Differential removal.

 Following on from removing the gearbox and propshaft the night before, I now had to remove the differential. 
This has to start with removing the drive shafts first which didn't take long, although upon removing the driver side one, the keeper plate fell out as it was in two pieces. (See below)

My first thoughts were that it had broken, but on closer inspection it appears to have been cut. I've no idea why someone would have done that, especially seeing as the passenger side one was intact. Very odd! 

Anyway, I carried on removing the diff as I need to take this and the gearbox to my transmission man in a few weeks. 
After removing the diff I counted the teeth on the crown wheel and pinion and found that the ratio was 3:9. The diff ratio in these cars should be 4:9, but that will be too 'screamy' for my purposes, so I'll probably have mine built to 3:54. 
The diff appears to be in good condition and the oil that I drained from it was a nice rich green colour. The oil that I removed from the gearbox was a very clean gold colour too, so hopefully they wont require too much work. 

Friday 26th September - Gearbox removal!

 In an attempt to get at more of the underneath of the car so I can clean and paint it, I decided to remove the gearbox. The gearbox will have to be inspected and checked over at some point anyway, so it made sense to take it out. 

It was all fairly straightforward with the only real awkward bit being the remote gear selector. This gearbox is the same that was fitted into the Lotus Elan so the gear stick would have come out in a different place in that car. 
I also removed the propshaft and centre bearing whilst I was at it and then called it a day. 

Tuesday 23rd September - Front axle removal

 My mission today was to remove the front axle along with the track control arms and anti-roll bar. This wasn't too bad a job although every single rubber bush was knackered and will need replacing. It wasn't really surprising as all of these bushes are 60 years old now and rubber perishes easily at that age. 

With the bushes removed I then turned my attention to the front axle and gave it a good scrubbing. It was painted in red oxide rather than black, so I wonder if it was replaced at some point in it's past. 

Friday 19th September - Top plates

 Another job that needs doing on the Lotus Cortina is the top plates. A previous owner, instead of doing them properly had just fitted protective plates over the top. 
I'd originally thought that they were riveted on, but closer inspection revealed that they were bolted on with Alan key bolts. 
after a bit of struggle, I managed to undo all of the bolts and remove the plates. The top plates underneath were not in great shape and look like they've already been replaced in the past previously. 
Another job out of the way, but I just need to find someone who can weld in the replacements now. 

Tuesday 16th September - Degreasing and cleaning

Restoring cars always has its horrible jobs and I started on one of these recently. With the car on its side, I made a start on cleaning up the underneath. This wont be a five minute job and I will be breaking off occasionally to do other jobs so things don't get too monotonous. 
I found a really good degreaser and gave the floor a good coating before attacking it with a hard brush to see what dirt and grease would come off and what wouldn't. 
I was very pleased with the results as a good cleaning showed that the floor pans were all original and no replacing or welding would be required. Some of the cross members are a bit battered and dented no doubt due to its rallying history, but nothing too severe. 

It was interesting to find that these cars were never rust proofed or protected when they were built and had to get by with just normal paint. With this in mind, I'm surprised so many of them have survived! 

Sunday 7th September - A new toy to make life easy!

After my recent exploits underneath the Cortina and getting covered in crap, I had decided to look into 'car tilters' or 'rotisseries'. The bottom side of the car is actually in very good order and still retains its original floor pans. 
However, it also has a lot of flakey paint and grease which will need a good wire brushing and de-greasing. I really don't fancy laying underneath the car and doing this job, so I decided to look for something to make life easier. 
Two days after making this decision, I found a rotisserie on ebay. Even better, it was already set up for a Mk1 Cortina. I contacted the seller and we came to an agreeable price and I collected it on my way home. 

So today, I had a bit of free time and decided to set it up. The  seller had made some printouts for me, so it was easy enough to follow and put together. It's absolutely ideal and my initial fears about space were unfounded. 

This really will make life easy and speed things up somewhat. Spinning the car on its side will allow me to get at all of the floor and also remove the front suspension and clean and re-bush that too. I was very lucky to find this marvellous piece of equipment and the beauty of it is, I can always sell it once I've finished with it. 😊

 

Sunday 31st August - Fuel tank removal (One of them anyway!)

I had a spare hour or so today, so I decided to quickly remove the fuel tank on the Lotus Cortina. It didn't actually take long as most of the 'lip' that connects it to the boot floor had rotted and was missing anyway! I think I undid a total of about four bolts and it came out! 
As you can see from the pics below, it was in very poor condition indeed and is only fit for scrap. 

Whilst underneath the car I noticed that the some kind of 'shield' was fitted to protect the tank. It's almost like a sump guard, only for a petrol tank. Bearing in mind that this used to be a rally car, I think years and years of wet mud had been getting stuck in between the shield and the tank causing it to rot out. (See tank shield below)

The other odd thing was that when I went to disconnect the fuel lines from the tank prior to removal, I found that there were no fuel lines attached any way! 

What my car does have though is an additional fuel tank in between the rear wheel arches. It's actually a Cortina Mk1 estate tank. 
Now, when Fords were having these cars 'homogolated', whatever extras were fitted to the 'works' rally and race cars, had to be offered for sale to Ford customers as well. So it looks like whoever owned this car from new, requested the additional fuel tank. (I'm not surprised, the standard Mk1 tank only holds 8 gallons!)
I have a picture of one of the tanks from a works car in a book and the tank and the mounting bracket are identical. (Although the filler neck is in a different place. (See below)

This is a fantastic period addition and I've already been offered good money for it. However, its part of the cars history and will be staying put. I wouldn't mind betting that there are very few cars left with this set up, if any at all! 

Saturday 30th August. Work begins!

 Pushing the Lotus Cortina off of the trailer and into the garage the previous Sunday hadn't been difficult, but hadn't exactly been easy either. It was evident that some of the brakes were partly stuck on and my visit to the garage this morning had revealed that two of the tyres had gone soft as well. 
So, I jacked the car up, got it on axle stands and removed the wheels. The wheels are all genuine Lotus '881A' steels, so that's good. Not so good is that they have fifty year old Dunlop 175x13 tyres on, so they will be removed at a later date when I have the wheels refurbished.

I then removed the front brake callipers and was happy to find that theses were the correct 'P16' and 'front facing' type as well. I also checked the struts while I was at it and was pleased to find that these are the correct 39cm struts as opposed to standard 41cm Cortina struts. (A lot of Lotus Cortina's were robbed of their 'sporty and upgraded bits' back in the day, so I wanted to check if anything was missing)

I then moved onto the rear brakes and found that these were a bit more challenging. None of the brake pipes to the wheel cylinders wanted to come undone, so it was a case of cutting the brake pipes to release the fluid and then using a hammer to knock the brake drums off. Once again, I found that the rear drums and shoes were the correct type for the car. 

While I was underneath the car and already very dirty, I decided to remove the exhaust. This needed a bit of brute force in the form of hammers and an angle grinder and promptly disintegrated while I was attacking it. In fact, it left so much rust on the floor, that when I picked up my spanners, their silhouette remained! 

Sunday 24th August. I finally take possession of my dream car!

 When I was a small boy, we had next door neighbours named John and Margaret. John loved his fast cars and one car in particular always had me rushing to look out of the front window when I heard it coming up the street. (Which also led me to being told off by my Mum for messing up her curtains!)
I loved the sound of it and I loved the look of it. I've loved them all my life, but never thought I'd ever be able to afford one.
They have always been way out of my price range and the only way that I would ever be able to own one was if a restoration project was to come up for sale. The trouble is, they are so desirable, that when they do come up for sale, they get snapped up straight away.
This time though, I'd had been lucky. I was told of a car in Harwich and made arrangements to go and look at it the same day that I heard about it. A deal was done and finally, finally, I had my dream car!

The object of my desire? A Lotus Cortina Mk1. A very special car indeed. The first 'Fast Ford' and one of only 3,306 Mk1's ever built. A famous car that was responsible the demise of the Mk2 Jaguar in saloon car racing (The Jags couldn't keep up with the Lotus!) and also becoming infamous as one was owned by master criminal Bruce Reynolds and used on reconnaissance prior to the Great Train Robbery. (In case he needed to make a quick getaway!)

So Sunday morning I drove up to good friend Colin Wake's place north of Colchester where we jumped into his Land Rover Discovery, hooked up his trailer and made the short journey to Harwich to collect the Lotus Cortina. 

We loaded the twin cam engine first as it was out of the car, and then loaded the car backwards onto the trailer as most of the weight was in the boot. (Cylinder head, radiator, starter motor etc.)

The car has been used for rallying in its past, hence the black bonnet, wing tops and doors. However, it's also been off the road since 1977 which will present me with quite a challenge in getting it mobile again. Being built in 1966, it's only actually spent 11 years on the road, although it's still close on 60 years old, so there's a lot that will need replacing. (Plus, I suspect those 11 years were quite gruelling!)

We had a good drive from Harwich to my place where upon arrival, we had to move my other cars out of the way, so that we could get this one in the garage. 

With this done and after some lunch and a cup of tea, we then loaded my four door Cortina onto the trailer as due to my lack of space, this is now going to live at Colin's for a little while. 

Now as much as I love Cortina's, four is just too many. Parts for a Lotus Cortina can also be ridiculously expensive, so I've made the decision to sell the Zetec Cortina and the Nissan powered Cortina to free up space and also provide some funds to restore the Lotus. 

It was a brilliant day though and I now finally have my dream car. I'm over the moon! 😊

Saturday 23rd August. An MOT pass.

 This morning saw a very early start as I had an MOT booked at 07.40. I booked it early as I wanted to get out and get back before the bank holiday weekend traffic built up. I had had also had a little bit of an over heating problem while test driving it previously, so that was another reason for not wanting to get caught in traffic. (The electric fan wasn't cutting in, so I'd used the manual override)
However, I'd given the radiator a real good flushing out since then and I had no such problems whilst driving to the MOT station. 

The MOT went well and a clean bill of health was pronounced with no advisories. I celebrated by taking the rest of the day off. 😉

Sunday 17th August - Battlesbridge Breakfast meet.

It was another beautiful day today, so attending the Battlesbridge breakfast meet seemed like a good idea. I had had to work the day before and then had to do some work on my front driveway, so chilling out and doing very little seemed like a plan.
It was a very good turn out and I met up with good friends, Gavin, Peter, Keith, John and Rachel and even Dave Maton and his wife Kerry joined us as well. Karen and I went in the Zetec Cortina just to give it a run out. 

As usual there were some great cars there and we even found a Nissan SX200. (See below)

This has the same engine as I have in my race car, 1964 two door pre-aeroflow. (The CA18DET 16 valve, twin cam, turbo engine)
I was hoping to catch the owner so I could see if he had any dump valve, or blow off valve fitted, as I think that's what mine will need, (My car still makes the 'Turkey Gobble' noise from the turbo.) but unfortunately I didn't get to see him. 

Around lunch time, we called called it a day as we all had other things to do. It had been a great morning out though and thoroughly enjoyable. 

Saturday August 9th - Finally ready for MOT!

Dave Maton was free again this Saturday, so he paid me a visit with a view to finishing off the last little jobs on the race car. (I really should stop calling it that!) 
I spent time re-fitting and lining up the headlights, while Dave fitted the new seat belt to the passenger side B pillar. (Somebody had cut out the captive nut for some reason, so I had to weld in a new section to be able to bolt the seat belt in.)
Trying to line up the bonnet was the next job so that we could open it without it catching the scuttle panel, but we had no success with this. It appears that the bonnet hinge on the driver side is knackered and has a lot of play in it which creates excessive movement. 

 We had to give up on the bonnet hinge and instead gave the car a few runs around the block to test all was working. Unfortunately the electric fan wasn't cutting in when it should have done and the engine ended up getting a tad warm which then deposited rusty water all over my block paving through the over flow. The fan can be switched on manually though, so I will have to do this for the time being until I get time to find out why it isn't cutting in automatically. (I also need to find out why the temperature gauge isn't working!)

It does drive well though and is scarily quick! I think it's the only car I've ever owned That I'm frightened of! Despite these small issues, I've booked the MOT for Saturday 23rd August at 07.40am. I know that's early, but I don't want to get caught in the traffic with the auto electric fan not working. I also couldn't do Saturday the 16th as I'm working, so........ fingers crossed! 

Sunday August 3rd - Cortina Mk1 Owners Club National Day.

 This weekend was the Cortina Mk1 Owners club national weekend in the beautiful town on Stratford Upon Avon. Rather than get up at stupid O'clock on Sunday morning, rush up there for the day, then rush straight back, Karen and I decided to make a weekend of it and booked a hotel for the Friday and Saturday night.
I finished work on time on the Friday and we left around 16.45 to make the 150 mile journey. To our surprise, traffic was very light and the only hold up we had was a half mile queue from the M25 onto to the M40.
We had a lovely day walking around the town on Saturday, followed a by a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant in the evening. 
Sunday morning, we were up early and arrived at the show ground (Stratford Race Course) at 9am. The Mk1 Cortina club always invite other clubs to attend and this year was no different with the Ford Anglia and Mk2 Cortina club in attendance. 

There were some lovely cars there and lots of my favourite model , the MK1 Lotus Cortina. (I still dream of owning one) It was great day and I even managed to buy some parts I was after from the auto jumble as well.
However, by about 12pm, the rain clouds were gathering and Karen and I decided to head home as we still had a long way to go and both had to go to work on Monday. It was a great weekend though and one we will probably look at repeating next year. 

Saturday 26th July. Billericay breakfast meet.

 Today was the Breakfast meet at the cosy cup cafe and a good chance to meet up with some like minded classic car enthusiasts. It's a good meet, but dear God! They need to get organised in that cafe. It took close on 30 minutes in the queue just to get to the counter to put an order in!

Anyway, good friends Gavin, Keith, Martin, John and Rachel were all there and one of my old work mates, Russell was there as well. I didn't get a chance to take many photos as I was too busy talking to people! There were some nice cars there though. 

I had taken the Green Cortina with me today for only its second run since its engine rebuild. I thought it was all going well until I pulled up on the drive and spotted some oil on the floor. Opening the bonnet revealed that oil was once again leaking from the dipstick tube, so the problem I thought had been cured.....hasn't. Very disapointing. 😑

Sunday 20th July. A bit of a washout!

 Today was the Maylandsea classic car show. Good friends Andy and Sharon were also going, so it would be a good chance to catch up. 

We got there about 10am and the rain held off for long enough around to look around the other cars. (Only once though!) There was another Mk1 Cortina there which I hadn't seen before and also another favourite car of mine. 😉

                                        

Unfortunately , just after 12pm the heavens opened and it looked like the rain was here for the day. We suffered it for about half hour, but then decided to call it a day and followed Andy and Sharon back to their place for a barbeque. You've got to make the best of a bad job haven't you? 😏

Saturday 19th July. Dave Maton returns!

 Dave Maton returned today to hopefully finish the wiring on the race car. I had bought loads more wiring and also a gas powered soldering iron, so we were looking forward to getting everything working. A lot of the original wiring loom was missing, so we started from fresh which was challenging at times. 

We also had to fit a rotary switch with four positions on the dashboard because the original headlight switch layout was totally missing. (These are the moments when I wonder why I bought this car!)

Anyway, while Dave worked away at the wiring, I got on with fitting the seat belts. (It didn't have any of those either!) I managed fitting the driver side seat belt, but for some reason there is just a hole where the captive nut used to be in the B pillar, so I will have to make up a plate and captive nut for that another time. 

By late afternoon we had side lights, dipped beam, full beam, windscreen washers, and a hooter, so I was very pleased with the days work. 😊

Friday 11th July. New shoes for the race car.

 When I bought the race car I had been warned about the road legal ''slick' tyres on it. The seller said to me ' They're ok in the dry, but you'll soon find yourself facing the wrong way in the wet.'. 
Not being a fan of facing on coming traffic, I decided to look for something with more grip. The problem is, with the wheels being 13 inch diameter, there's not a lot of choice out there. 

Eventually, I found a reasonably prices set of 185/70 x 13 tyres from Oponeo and ordered them. I also ordered a 'Minilite'  style wheel from JBW, so that I had a spare. (Although it was silver, so I would have to paint it. 

The new tyres arrived and I took them to my local tyre man to have them fitted. He wanted to keep the slicks, but I brought them home as I plan to sell them. 

With this done, I made a trip to Halfords to seek out some matching Gold paint for the spare. I managed to get it close enough as makes no difference and so spent the afternoon painting and lacquering. With the new tyre fitted, it looked pretty good. Another job off of the list.😉