Saturday 27th April - Day trip to Derby!

 Good friend of mine Dave Maton rang me Thursday night and said that he had a chance of buying a 1298cc engine for his Morris Minor from Derby, so did I fancy going up with him and collect my engine at the same time and thus share the fuel costs? (My newly built engine was ready for collection at HarveyTune in Derby, so it made sense to collect the pair at the same time.) So, a plan came together and we opted to take my Peugeot 308 estate as opposed to Dave's Land Rover Discovery as it would be cheaper on fuel, but also because if we used Dave's Discovery we would have to transfer my engine from his car to mine when we got back to his place and he hasn't got an engine crane. 

I set my alarm for 06.30 Saturday morning, but I was awake at 05.50, so left for Dave's at 06.15 and text him to tell him to get his arse ready! We had a trouble free run up and was up at the first collection point at 09.10. Luckily the guy we were collecting Dave's engine from was up already, so we collected it and then tried to find a cafe so we could have some breakfast. Unfortunately, cafe's seem to be few and far between on the outskirts of Derby, so we had to settle for a Greggs on a retail park. We had a bit of time to kill until Dave Harvey would be around to collect the second engine, so a Bacon and Sausage baguette and a large coffee were the order of the day. (Dave had a large hot chocolate- he doesn't do grown up drinks like tea and coffee)  

Suitably refreshed, we arrived at HarveyTune and Dave Harvey arrived around 10 minutes later. While we were waiting, Dave Maton and I had the chance to sort out the petrol costs and who owes who what etc from the Round Britain Reliability Run last October! Because we had broken down before the finish, we hadn't had a chance at the end of the event and although I've seen Dave since then, today was the first time we'd remembered to sort it out! 

With my engine loaded and strapped down I sat down for a lovely cup of coffee and a good chat with Dave Harvey and made arrangements for him coming to my house in a few weekends time. I'll get the engine fitted in the mean time and he can come down for the first start up. (Only fair seeing as he built it)

We made tracks after our cuppa and other than a 30 minute delay at Northampton for an idiot driver that had managed to land his car on its roof on a completely straight road, (the M1) we had a another trouble free run back to Dave's. We quickly unloaded his engine and then I got away sharpish. I wanted to get my engine unloaded as well when I got home, but that would mean moving two Cortina's off the drive and out of the way to do it. I had a free run home as well and within 30 minutes of arriving home, I had the engine safely in the garage and the two Cortina's back in place and covered up again. 

Before I got home though, I had filled the Peugeot back up with diesel as I wanted to see how much fuel we had used. The gauge was still reading half, and after re-filling it I found that our total cost to go from mine (Leigh on Sea) to Dave's at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, to two collection points in Derby, back to Cheshunt, and then back to mine was £34.70. I had set my speed limiter for 70mph on the motorways and had been rewarded with 66.12 miles per gallon! Fantastic mpg for a fairly big car, especially with the weight of two engines in the back for half the journey. Ever wondered the real reason the government doesn't want us driving diesel cars????