9th October 2016, Ludlow Classic Tour

My old rally navigator has been keen to get a run out with in the TR7 and suggested the Ludlow Classic Tour. This is of the classic tour series that runs all over the country like the Corinium Run earlier in the year but covers the lovely scenery all around Ludlow, much of which we had used back in our road-rallying days many years ago. It was also sponsored by Ludlow Brewing so that seemed like a good omen.

Ludlow is not much more than an hour drive from home so we didn't need overnight accommodation, and as we needed to be there for 8:30am signing on we left home at 6:00am in full darkness. It was a very cold clear morning so we drove up under twinkling stars with the top down and it felt fantastic.  My previous work to improve the lighting with halogen headlights and driving lamps proved to be a great success and with no traffic we really enjoyed the journey.

The route took us over Clee Hill, the Long Mynd and the Stiperstones with beautiful views and some quite tricky lanes. Apparently we had used many of those same lanes on road rallies back in the 1970's but they seemed a lot different on a nice Sunday in daylight.

Typical scenery.    (Photo by Chris Huish)

 There were also some very nice stops along the way with catering laid on by the organisers like the morning halt at Downton Hall with and superb home made cakes served by the staff.

Back at the finish in Ludlow they laid on a meal for us and we were presented with our finishers award - two bottles of special Ludlow Brewing beer. Nice end to a great day out.

4th September 2016, Tetbury Car Show

Tetbury Classic Car Show has grown quickly since it started only a couple of years ago and this year it was bigger than ever. Looking at the organisers information and just looking round the site we reckoned there must have been over 400 cars on show.  What fascinates me is where do they all come from and then disappear back to in between shows? They must all be hiding in garages all over the area.

Anyway, back to the show.  We went as part of the Glavon TR Register group and we had a really good turn out of our cars. In addition quite a few other independent TRs turned up and the organisers directed them to park with us as well so it produced a really impressive double row of  more than 20 TRs of various types.

Glavon TR Register stand

My TR7 in the line up

There were lots of great looking cars to see but not all were what they appeared to be, see the example below.

Looks great doesn't it?

But look closer, telescopic dampers and vented disc brakes!

Now this is more like it, a real car with cable brakes and friction dampers.

There was also other exhibits like this Dursley Pedersen bicycle.

And one of my all time favourite cars, a lovely Alfa Spider