puddlethumper

Not sure about that but still not supposed to do over 56mph I think.

Moved from Cardiff to Greenock last week. Took my rig up which took 9 hours. Bit of a trek. Five of us flown back to move more circus shite. I had the pleasure* of driving an Iveco, sorry @Cavcraft, with trailer which I thought would take the best part of ten hours but after setting off I was glad to find that the governor had been removed so it would easily do 65mph. Not that I did that of course, nor did I get it up to 70 a couple of times. Anyway it was the middle of the night and not much about. Found out the next day when I mentioned how well it went with the resident mechanic that the pump had been, erm, tweaked. Took eight and a half hours to get here which is pretty good going. Hopefully I'll get a go in it again. Have a couple of pics of the offending article. As you can see a fair weight to shovel along. Not bad for a 22 year old wagon.

Turns out it's done less than 150 thou. 130 thou and from 2007 so only about 8 thou a year. Hardly run in. I believe another may be coming soon that is in better condition, which I find hard to believe as this one is immaculate.

We have had an addition to the circus fleet. Sorry @Cavcraft it's an Iveco but it does have a redeeming feature in that it was a truck for the Ferrari race team, and only has about 150 thou on it. No idea what was paid for it but it's got to be a sizable chunk. No Ferrari's found down the back of the seat unfortunately.

It's got a V8 Detroit engine. Mmmm.

^^^ Is that a Cortina estate under the cat piss rag?

Nice. I do love a good van.

I had a Spit back in 73/4. A 1969 in a rather nice shade of blue. I got it by doing a swap with a 56 splitty Moggy that I got from Warwick auctions for £17. Me and my cousin had shoehorned a 3 litre straight six into it that sort of fitted. This was me and my cuz's first attempt at customisation. It wasn't good. Went like fuck but the rest of it had trouble keeping up and it was about 3 or 4 months later that the rest didn't keep up, but luckily the plate was worth a bit as a guy in a Bentley accosted me in Leamington and asked if I wanted to sell it. In those days personal plates weren't a big thing. You might see one on a Roller or the likes but that was about it. So I was a bit surprised that Bentley bloke would want a dropping to bits Mog but I was thinking about moving it on, probably to the scrap yard. He gives me a card and said to let him know when I would sell. Upshot was I rang, after consulting with cuz, and he asked if I would bring it to his crib, yo, which I did and it was then he asked if I would do a swap. He was buying his son a new car for his birthday and would I be interested in his sons old car. So I asked what it was. A 69 Spit. Can I have a look at it ? Into the garage and there it was in all its blueness and that is how I got it. Oh yea, the plate was RGT 2 . It's not around anymore which I find a bit odd although I'm probably thinking a bit , that would be worth half a gazillion now. A 4 year year old Spit was alright so I wazzed about in it for a few months and sold it fund me a rather nice Austin Champ and some cash for other stuff. Beer for instance.

Harlequin ?

Spotted these on an industrial estate in Cardiff.

First car I remember my dad had in the 1950's.

I go into Srewfix a lot for circus shite and I just tell them I don't have a post code or if I really want to screw them up I say which one? this weeks, last weeks or next weeks? 😁

One of the owners. He is overall site boss. It was made in Italy and took 3 years and is full of Italian marble, and remote controlled everything. I have no idea what it cost but obviously lots. There was a similar sized one in Paignton at the fairground last year that cost a million.

Classic car show at the Cardiff city stadium is on today. Shame I won't see any of it as I have to go back to Brighton to help move the circus. ☹️

Unfortunately not.

That's what we are all thinking.

Well, that went well*. When I rang for assistance they said, when I was some where safe for somebody to change the wheel to let them know. Blown tyre was the offside outer so they wouldn't do it on the hard shoulder. Going up the hard shoulder was interesting* as there was a couple of places where there wasn't one so I had to stop and wait for a gap in the traffic to be able to use lane 1 which, luckily, at that time there wasn't a lot. Assistance said I would have to wait 60 to 90 minutes, which I have heard before and don't believe, and someone would ring me from a breakdown company. While I was waiting, and having a cuppa, I thought I would help things along by getting the spare out which is difficult as it is in a side locker on a shelf at the back. Managed, with a lot of effort, to get it out and then decided to get the hubcap off, bolted on. Then the phone rang and it was, I don't know, whoever was going to be arriving sometime in the future who kindly informed me that there was no one in the area who could help. Great ! Looked like I was going to be there all night. Decided at that point I would have to struggle and do it myself. Take into account that I am 70 years old and not as supple or as strong as I used to be and certainly didn't relish the idea. At all. But means must. I have a jack strong enough but the means of getting the wheel nuts off is far from ideal as it is a very big spider with a couple of steel tubes for leverage and it wouldn't take much for things to slip and cause some injury. After a lot of jumping on the tubes I got the wheel off. Got the spare on by using a long crow bar that I had and quite a bit of sweat. Cracked it up and then had to get the fucked wheel back in the locker. Much sweat and struggle. Got to the Cardiff site at about 4.30 and went to bed. Couldn't sleep so got back up and put the kettle on and that is my tale of woe. What a bugger.

Luck is not with me as I have just had a blow out on the m4. Offside rear just to make things difficult. Managed to slowly drive up the hard shoulder to junction 24 and get off the road into a layby. Tyre will be fucked. Waiting for assistance. Bollox!!!!

The Travellers part 2. Everything was pulled on to the site on Monday night apart from a truck and trailer which was picked up on Tuesday morning arriving at the site about 1.30. The distance from the road to the edge of the field is no more than 50 metres. Ivor, who was driving, asked a traveller to keep the kids out of the way for a few minutes because the machine was coming to pull it on to the site. Unfortunately during those 50m a child decided to hang on to the trailer on the side that Ivor couldn't see as the truck was at a slight angle. Result was that an 8 year old boy sustained some serious injuries. There is a report in the Argus if you look for, Brighton: Boy, 8, hit by lorry in Preston Park. It doesn't tell the whole story. The police arrived in great numbers and even still Ivor had to stay in the truck with a Police Officer in the passenger seat for his safety as the travellers were going a bit ape shit and trying to get at him. Two or three traveller blokes turned up in the tent, which was being built up, with iron bars looking for Ivor but hurriedly left when confronted with a bigger number of workers with bigger pieces of metal. Eventually the police got them all to hitch up and fuck off although a police presence was kept at the park till the following evening. I had to go down the Police station, where Ivor was making a statement, with his passport and some other bits and take him to Gatwick for a flight to Norn Iron to get him away. The circus got two security guys in for Tuesday and Wednesday night but we were all a bit on edge as you can imagine.

I like the colour coded tyres.

Probably what will happen. Getting some hangers tomorrow, hopefully. Unfortunately the stud threads are a bit* fucked. Geoff reckons he can re-tap them a bit smaller and fit smaller nuts.

As I said, I'm not going to do a write up of every move as they all become a bit similar but the move from Southampton to Brighton is worth a scribble. As normal an advance party went to Brighton on Sunday to mark out for the tent. On arriving at Preston Park we encountered a number of our friends* the travellers, about 10/12 caravans and vehicles. A distinct lack of pickups was noted. More SUV's, small vans and a couple of campers all of which were no more than 3 years old. I don't know how to do links and stuff coz rubbish on computers but if you look at Preston Park you will see at the entrance there is a triangle of tarmac and this is where they were, mostly, parked. This will become relevant shortly. When the advance party arrived, consisting of Steve's Peterbilt and his brand new living trailer, me and my heap, and another RV, we were immediately surrounded by about 10/12 traveller kids. I was left by the vehicles to keep an eye on things while Steve, site boss, and Geoff, site mechanic, went to set out. I couldn't understand much of what these kids were saying, sounded foreign to me, and they were all yacking at once. Caught a couple of them trying to steal the chrome wheel nut covers off the Peterbilt. Eventually they fucked off to annoy someone else. Stayed the night and the next day back to Southampton. Bunk wagons arrived about 10am so there was always going to be someone to keep an eye on things. That next night, as usual, I started setting out the water supply at about 2 in the morning and finishing at about 6. There was, maybe obviously, a lot of interest in what I was doing. Small van driving around on the field shining headlights in my direction. Everything arrived during the day and into the night as usual. Well, the generator and workshop trailer didn't arrive in one piece. Jonny, Hungarian electrician, lost two wheels off one of the axles on the trailer about 30 miles from Brighton but carried on dragging the axle with sparks flying about that several people flashed him about. How he didn't notice the sparks and the trailer leaning to one side nobody knows. Maybe Hungarians don't look in their mirrors. So now Geoff, mechanic, has to sort this out before the move to Cardiff this weekend and sourcing parts is a major head ache because the original supplier doesn't have parts anymore. The hub is cracked all the way round and the hangers have been dragged on the road and are totally fucked and only one wheel was found. Pics below. I've got some stuff to do so tune in later for another enthralling* episode involving the travelling community.

Austin Champ anyone ? What about a Vauxhall Magnum ? or a Ventora ?

The LF has no dash either.

Some new, to us, circus truck shite. The LF is the Brazilian bikers beaver tail that has no tax or mot.