Sunday 13th October - The Green Cortina finally leaves the garage.

 With yesterdays work being very successful, it was now time to evict the Green Cortina from the garage so that I could get the Triumph in there. 

Although the Triumph completed the recent 10CR successfully, a couple of little niggles became apparent on the run that need to be addressed. (Especially if I'm going to sell it) I've had a great time with Triumphs over the past fifteen years, but I've got to say, it's got to the stage where I feel I've done all I can events wise and I'm now looking for a new direction. 

Up to now, I've taken part in 7 RBRR's, 5 10cr's, 10 HCR's, 3 C2C's and countless other events, including numerous rallies in Scotland, Wales and Holland. I've also won the Club Triumph national points championship twice as well, so I've done my fair share of supporting the club. (Which is also why I don't expect to be spoken to like a piece of shit by the main 10CR organiser at the end of the last 10CR)

My exit from Triumphs isn't set in stone though and I'm currently looking for somewhere to store the car for six months or so in case I change my mind, but for now, my interest in the car or the events just isn't there and I'm having more fun with the two Cortina's. (They're certainly a lot easier to work on!)

So, this morning's task was just to move all the cars around so that they were all where I wanted them. I also took the Green Cortina for a test drive round the block and it ran perfect, so that's a relief. 

The Zetec Cortina needs a run out next as I can't remember the last time I went anywhere in it. I think there's a show on Canvey Island in a  few weeks time, so I may well take it to that. 

Saturday 12th October - Success!

 Gavin came round this morning to help with getting this bloody Cortina running properly again. Some (very expensive) Magnecor spark plug leads had arrived during the week and also a (very expensive) 'Flame thrower' ignition coil. 

With all this top quality equipment fitted, we were severely disappointed to find that we had the same problems as the Saturday before. For some reason, no matter what we did, we just couldn't get a spark at number one spark plug. This was even after changing the distributor cap, rotor arm, plug lead, spark plug and adjusting the timing. 

I then decided to remove the distributor completely (Which had been fitted 180 degrees out) and set the engine up again from scratch. So with the engine set to the compression stroke on number one cylinder, another distributor was fitted and this time set in the correct position. We also swapped the Pertronix electronic ignition module out of the old distributor onto the replacement distributor. (These cost about £180, so I wasn't going to discard it.)

With everything in place and set up as per workshop manual, we also replaced the spade terminals on the electrical connections just to be doubly sure. 

We then started the car up to find it running a lot better and almost as it should. The next move was to fine tune the ignition timing with a strobe timing light which then had it running perfect. 

This car has been a pain in the arse for the past couple of weeks, but it now seems to be running as it should again. All in all, a very good mornings work. 

Saturday 5th October - Rough running

 After putting the engine back in the Cortina I was subjected to it not wanting to run right for some reason. While it was out of the car and sitting on the garage floor, It had fallen over and smashed the distributor cap and bent the oil pressure switch as well. 

I bought a replacement distributor cap, but fitting this made little difference. Good friends Gavin and Peter were both visiting this morning, so they both chipped in with ideas as to why this damn car wouldn't run right. 

Whilst investigating we quickly decided that ignition problems were the cause here, which was strange as this engine was running fine when it was removed and I hadn't disturbed any of the ignition system while it was out. 

What we did discover was that whoever had fitted the distributor before I owned the car, had fitted it wrongly and had set the timing 180 degrees out. After a couple of hours messing about and trying different things, I decided to call it a day and order some new spark plug leads and a new ignition coil as well. For some reason it didn't want to spark properly and just didn't want to run properly either. 

While I had some help present I decided to refit the bonnet as its a lot easier with two people doing it than my trying to do it alone. So at least the car was looking complete again. Investigation continues!

Saturday 28th September - Cortina engine back in.

 With the new sump gasket in place, I decided to put the engine back into the Green Cortina. Whilst it was out I decided to replace the clutch as well as this didn't look in the best of health. 

I also replaced the inlet manifold gasket and the exhaust gaskets as well. I had no help today, so I cracked on as best as possible and by late afternoon all I had left to do was re-fit the radiator and the starter motor. (I refitted these on Sunday morning)

It's now more or less the end of the car show season and there will be plenty of free weekends coming up with not much to do, so I decided not to rush it and take my time. 

Sunday 15th September - Breakfast meet, then work!

 It was the Battlesbridge breakfast meet again today and with it possibly being the last one of the year (Weather pending) I decided to go along. 

I took the Triumph as this was at the front of the queue on the driveway and I couldn't be bothered to play musical cars getting the Blue Cortina out. 

It was a good turnout, but the car of the day for me was a very early and very rare 2 door Ford Consul Corsair. Apparently, it had only covered 33,000 miles from new and was unbelievably original. Corsairs are quite a rare car anyway, but the 2 door versions even more so. 

After having a good laugh with some mates, I left around lunch time as I still had things I wanted to get done in the garage. 

Once home I set up my engine stand and managed to lift the engine on to it with the engine crane. This needs to be done as when I fit the new sump gasket, it will make sense to have the engine completely upside down. The sump gasket on these engines is in four pieces, so it goes together like a big jigsaw puzzle. I soon had this done, so all in all, it had been a successful weekend. 

Saturday 14th September - A busy day!

 Before I went off galavanting round Europe in the Triumph, I had parked the Green Cortina in the garage ready to start work on my return. My first priority was to replace both ball joints, so that I didn't have a repeat performance of what happened with the Blue Cortina a couple of years ago. (See below)

With the original ball joints now being nearly 60 years old and very probably never replaced, I made the decision to replace them before they sheared through wear and tear. It can be an awkward job, but on this occasion, it wasn't too terrible and I had them both done by 10.30am. You can see the difference between old and new below. 

With this job completed and it still being fairly early, I decided to crack on with the second phase of my plan which was to remove the engine. My sump gasket has been leaking for some time, so it needed to be addressed. The sump gasket can't replaced with the engine in the car, well not properly anyway, so it had to come out. Unfortunately, I had a mishap when removing the engine and one of the engine studs I had the lifting strop on then snapped which caused the engine to tilt and drop to the floor, which then damaged the clutch pressure plate. Bloody annoying! 

Anyhow, the main objective had to remove the engine, which I had now achieved, so I now called it a day and went inside for some well deserved lunch. 

Monday 2nd September - Sunday 8th September - The ClubTriumph 10CR

 Monday: The long awaited Club Triumph 'Ten countries in five days' was finally upon us. The ten countries being England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Lichtenstein, Germany and the Netherlands.

Mike Bishop was my co-driver for the trip, so once he arrived we set out for a snack bar not far from Dover to meet up with Richard and Roger who would be piloting Roger's Triumph Stag and running with us all trip. After a quick coffee and bacon Sarnie just off the A2, we completed the journey to Dover to catch our Ferry. 

Our sailing was delayed by an hour, but once we were underway we had a smooth crossing. We had purchased club class tickets, so this gave us unlimited free access to food and drink, so that was our lunch sorted out.

Once off the ferry, we made our way to our apartment in Rouen, but made sure we avoided the 'Ulez zone' that they have around the city. There were no restaurants near our beautiful apartment, so Mike and Roger went and found a Lidl and bought some beer and Pizza. Perfect! 😉

Tuesday: This morning, we went to the official start location to book in and were moaned at for being late. (Even though we weren't!-Chief organiser Ellis likes to moan at people!) We said hello to a few others that we knew and then got started. 

We did start off by sticking to the official route, but after two hours of encountering tiny villages on D roads (Our equivalent of B roads) with 30kph (18mph) speed limits and severe speed bumps, we diverted onto N roads (Our equivalent of A roads) and did some proper driving. Today was a long day with 645 kms and 10 hours 15 minutes to cover, so why we had been plotted onto D roads, god only knows!

Our stay tonight was on a farm just north west of St Etienne. Again, it was out in the sticks, so we found a Turkish restaurant in the town and had dinner before we checked in. We also bought some beers to take with us, although they had some local brews on the farm that we also sampled. The farm was beautiful and also pitch black and very quiet. All we could hear when sitting outside was the sound of the crickets. Lovely! 

Wednesday: We set off this morning after a breakfast of bread, cheese and ham as today was another long drive down to the Mediterranean. We encountered some torrential rain and storms on our journey, and again because of the distance we had to cover we diverted onto to the motorway to make up some ground. By the afternoon, the storms had disappeared and we had made it to the south of France. 

We didn't stay long in the Med, as our overnight stop was some 124 Kms away and by now, it was late afternoon. We arrived at our hotel at Saint Julien Du Verdon around 8pm and settled in for dinner. Mike decided on Tripe and pigs trotters which the rest of us thought was disgusting! 

Thursday: The following morning was raining again, so after a couple of hours we stopped for coffee. We were all feeling quite tired at this point due to the mileage we were being expected to cover. Only one day for the whole week was under 300 miles and that was today at 290 miles!

With Coffee consumed we carried on and eventually crossed the border and into Italy. We made a group decision at lunch time to actually stop for a sit down lunch for once instead of eating on the go and stopped in a town called Demonte, just east of Cuneo. Being in Italy, it had to be Pizza for lunch and very nice it was too. 

The sun had made an appearance by now and the day was looking good. We still had quite a few miles to cover, so this was our last stop before heading for our rented house in Dormeletto in the province of Novara. We arrived around 7.30pm and after parking the cars, headed off for dinner. We found an Indian restaurant this time and so enjoyed a nice curry with a few beers. 

The name of the house was called 'Lake View' as it's not far from Lake Maggiore. However, the 'Lake view' was somewhat deceiving! You can just see it in between the buildings in the pic below!

Friday: We left Dormeletto quite late and therefore had to push on to meet our targets today, hence not too much time to take any decent pics. I did get a couple of the lake though. 

Our next bit of driving was over the Simplon pass and up to the Furka Pass in Switzerland. These are great driving roads, but unfortunately, the Simplon pass wasn't as good as it should have been due to the amount of road works going on. We must have a lost a good hour on the Simplon. 

The Furka pass was beautiful though and we couldn't resist stopping for a 'brew with a view' half way up. Also, as two years before at Timmelsjoch, we found that our crisps had inflated due to the altitude! 

With the Furka pass completed, we drove on and by 7pm that night we had reached our German destination in Singen. There were quite a lot of 'Triumphist's' in town, so we were able to catch up with a few well known faces. 

We also managed to find a really weird bar that was playing some brilliant music and stayed in there far longer than we should have! (You've got to have a least one night to let your hair down!) 😉

Saturday: Today was the last day and by now everyone was feeling quite knackered. It was another long day though, so it was a case of 'heads down, lets get it done. We didn't stop for lunch, or a brew with a view, but we were rewarded with a decent finish time at the final location at Rolduc in the Netherlands. We filled up with fuel in the town, so that we wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning. 

After chilling out a bit and having a shower, I went down for dinner and joined the others. I didn't drink much as I was just so tired, plus I wanted to get away early in the morning to make sure we didn't miss our ferry. It was a good night, but we did hear a lot of people saying that the days were too long and the mileage was too high. Will the organisers listen though? Who knows. 

Before the night was through, we finished as we started by getting moaned at again for not signing out of the event, (I didn't even know we had to!) so at least there was some consistency there. 

For the record the mileage for each day was:

Day 1-404 miles

Day 2-355 miles

Day 3-290 miles

Day 4-327 miles

Day 5-340 miles

Sunday: Just a three and a half hour drive up to Calais today, so quite a rest from the other days. We made sure we got clear of the Brussels ring road in Belgium before stopping for coffee. We were ahead of time, so we carried on up to motorway at a leisurely pace and arrived at Calais 90 minutes before our boat sailed. (although customs checks reduced that to about 45 minutes!) At least it still gave us time to get some duty free's! 

The crossing was a slow 90 minutes, but luckily we were the first car off the boat and made a quick getaway out of Dover. Richard and Roger were stopping for fuel, but we had no need to, so we said our goodbyes and separated just outside Dover. We had a clear run home and arrived back at mine at 3.30pm. We then emptied the car while having a good old fashioned cup of English Tea! 

It had been a brilliant trip, but would I do it again? Probably not. I've done it several times now, and I feel it's gone as far as it can. 

As others had said, the mileage was too high and the days were too long on this one, and if I had known how much mileage was involved from the start, I wouldn't have booked the event. (The organisers seem to like to keep the route a secret until the last minute for some reason!)

The scenery was fantastic, the company was excellent and the car performed exceptionally, so I did have a brilliant time, but I've also never felt to so knackered as I did when I got home on Sunday night. I think, for the future, I'll start looking at planning my own run with less countries and less mileage.