2022, July. Air Salvage International and Dursley Rotary Club Classic Tour

 

10th July:  Visit to Air Salvage International

Not strictly a car related event but it was organised by a fellow TR Register Glavon Group member and we all went along in our TRs.  Air Salvage International dismantle aircraft that are past their economic best and are based at Kemble - now called Cotswold Airport.  It was a fascinating visit to see how they take aircraft apart for all the useful spares which are then sold all over the world.

TRs lined up at Air Salvage International

 

Boeing 747 parts anyone?

Boeing 777 engine missing.

They were working on commercial aircraft of all sizes from a Boeing 777 and several 747s down to smaller ones like Airbus 320.  Apparently the engines are the most valuable parts being valued from one million to 25 million Dollars.  So worth selling then.

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17th July: Dursley Rotary Club Classic Tour

This tour starts about 400 yards from our house so is not to be missed.  It is organised by yet another old rally mate called Graham Peake who also owns Bear Street Garage in Wotton under Edge.  It used to be a Ford dealership which was very useful to me when I was building my Cosworth Sierra rally car in 1992. Graham was good enough to get me all the Ford Motorsport parts at cost price which saved me a small fortune.

The weather for last years' run was one of the hottest days of the year and this year it was even hotter with temperatures up to 30 degrees.  Obviously this meant the DHC was the car to use and a quick check over and wash was required. Everything was in order and good to go.

This year the route was about 100 miles and headed west over the old Severn Bridge into the Forest of Dean.  A few years ago I was lucky enough to have the chance to go up one of the bridge towers when I was there for my work as a BT planner.  Naturally I took the camera along and got to super pictures  from the top.

View into Wales from the east tower.

Coffee stop was at theWhite Hart Inn near Newnham on Severn where we sat right on the river bank and the only problem was finding the sunscreen to put some on our faces.  

The return took us round to the north of Gloucester and back to Rednock School in Dursley for a generous buffet.

Driving up Frocester Hill, almost at the finish

Another great day out in a TR7 and the DHC had behaved perfectly.
 

2019. September part 2. Driving the FHC with the Sprint motor.

First chance for a nice little run came a few days after the rolling road when two visiting TR Register groups arrived in our area.  Windsor Forest and Camb Followers were having a joint visit to the Cotswolds so we all met up at a convenient pub.  They had a lot of very nice cars, mostly TR3-6 but with a couple of TR7s as well.  There was quite a bit of interest in FHC and a few nice compliments.

The car drove smoothly with plenty of torque low down.  The afternoon only amounted to about 75 miles so I needed to do a lot more for a good test.

Luckily the following week our own Glavon group of the TR Register were having a Glavon Tulip Run.  This was a small version of the highly popular classic runs and as the title suggests the route was presented to us in the form of Tulip Diagrams.  There were 12 cars taking part and we would set off at minute intervals. Since we have done a lot of these runs in the past couple of years we were deemed to be "professionals" and sent off as car number one.

Glavon Tulip Run, coffee stop at Kemble airfield

There was a stop for coffee at Kemble airfield and a visit to the ford at Duntisbourne for a bit of fun.

Glavon Tulip Run, Duntisbourne ford

The weather was kind to us and the car ran perfectly so the day was a good 120 mile test.  Fuel consumption was pretty good as well working out at about 28 mpg.