LEGAL AT LAST

TUESDAY 14TH JULY, was not a Red Letter Day, more a brown envelope one, that the postman pushed through the letter box. Very welcome it was though, as the envelope contained my new Registration Document upon which was the all important new, age related, N prefixed, registration number.

Without any delay I was down to the local car spares shop,excitedly waving my new pink document, at everyone I knew on the way. I soon returned with the newly made plates which just as quickly were attached to the front and rear of the car, The Marjorie plate, being placed on one side, just to be used at car shows and the like. There is much discussion as to whether vehicles registered as tricycles actually need to carry a front registration plate, but as my car has a panel that covers the steering rack, that is exactly the same size as a number plate, it looks a bit bare without a plate upon it and although I might get away with not displaying a plate, I think that the MARJORIE one would definitely cause a problem.

Whilst impatiently waiting for this all important document I had the front wheels properly tracked to the recommended 1.5 deg toe in on each wheel. I also made up, four 2in risers, in 1 x 1/4in mild steel strip, to fit between the top of the two rear shock absorbers and their brackets, thereby increasing the ground clearance at the rear to that at the front. Having fitted then and carried out a short illegal road test I was very happy with the outcome and was about to remove them for painting when I became legal. I decided to forget the painting, that could wait to the long winter months, instead lets do some proper, wind in the hair road testing and I headed out to my nearest stretch of de-restricted road, this was better, but the engine was still struggling once I got over 50MPH.

The next day I decided to pull the remainder of the fibre glass wadding from both exhaust cans and as before I wore mask and gloves whilst doing this. To be expected the resulting noise from the Brooklands cans was a real blat, but what a difference. The next time I did the same run, she blatted up through the gears and the only thing that stopped me from heading towards 70MPH was the lightness of the steering. I think in part, this is something that I will get used to, but I have been advised that maybe adjusting the tracking to a slight toe out will address this issue, we shall see, but what fun!!!!.

To my surprise, I was told on Friday last that there was to be a Classic Car and Bike show at the local Warlingham Rugby Club on Sunday. I didn't expect to be able to get there as we had chums coming for lunch, sadly for them, they were hideously delayed by an accident on the M23 and they only arrived in time for dinner. Happily this gave me a window to drive up in Marjorie and certainly if people didn't see me arriving they certainly heard me. This was the first show organised here and it was superb, so many cars, trucks and bike and such a variety.

Two of my photos shows a Cobra and an old Chrysler, they were parked side by side, what a contrast. There was always a crowd around Marjorie taking her photo and my day was made when a young lad said that 'my car was the coolest thing there'.