Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - Saying goodbye to a fleet member!

[mat_the_cat]

20 hours ago, Talbot said:

Nothing to do with you doing 40 at full lock with huge understeer.  ?

I remember around 20 years ago, I was on a gap year from Uni and during the summer one of the other students had hired a field to organise a kind of mini festival. I went along with my girlfriend and a mate, who had borrowed his mum's J reg Clio for the trip, and who kindly offered to run me into town after I had exhausted my supplies of alcohol for the weekend (probably around 1900 on the Friday evening ) Being the chivalrous kind of gent I am, I let my girlfriend sit in the passenger seat while I squeezed in the back seat.

Upon return to the camping field, my mate was weaving in and out of the tents at a slightly too fast 'show-off' kind of speed, and then swung round in a U ready to reverse in between his tent and mine. In a moment of drunken stupidity I leant forwards and applied the handbrake at the crucial moment, and his car somehow neatly slid backwards into the gap. I remember the onlookers breaking out into spontaneous applause, and my mate swiftly taking the acclaim for it!

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

The big news is Mrs6C's Invacar AC Model 70 has driven itself around the FoD along with Lightbulbfun Invacar. 

Wouldn't they go faster if the doors were closed?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

The big news is Mrs6C's Invacar AC Model 70 has driven itself around the FoD along with Lightbulbfun Invacar. 

All that's needed now is an Eggstinktion Rebellion march to smoke past.....

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

All that's needed now is an Eggstinktion Rebellion march to smoke past.....

REV was smoking a lot less today, and Dolly doesn't seem to smoke at all.

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I've heard a lot of people say that driving a 2CV is like riding a bike in terms of you remembering things quickly, and once the one inevitable "Is that 2nd?...No, that's 4th..." Moment had passed

Yup, I did exactly the same thing the first time I drove it.  The lever is canted further over than "normal" I think so it's easily done.

[wuvvum]

(That jackhammer noise in the background is the dumper ticking over.  The Invacars don't sound quite that rough...)

[Ghosty]

I got home around 9:15, which is fantastic going considering I left at 6pm, stopped in Buckingham for snacks, and spent a while eating them in a services on the M40. 
I don't think I took (m)any pictures, but an excellent weekend was had, in great company. The Astra van is a surprisingly good steer - considering it's on 217k and an MOT fail, it's actually a really nice drive. Would! 

I probably won't be back at the field this year, so thanks again for the open weekends, and I hope to return in the spring. 

[Zelandeth]

12 hours ago, hairnet said:

lol

no the nice cars are niiiiiiiice

the project really are projects but as with the gs - once they get a start look what happens

 

I think the collection are pretty much spot on.  They're interesting cars, most of which have a story to tell.  Being a bit frayed around the edges makes it feel far less worrying to use in the real world.  Even the ones which are the most cosmetically challenged are generally sound enough under the skin.  For one, once the Trevi has that sodding carb sorted it will be an absolute cracker to drive.

I've never sat in any car in that fleet that I didn't like.  I'd far rather find one of the FoD Fleet at a show with battle scars and all, than an identical model in concourse condition which has had hundred of thousands spent on a restoration of a car that really didn't need it.

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Gutted to miss another super weekend. Lucky with the weather again! Looks absolutely blissful. I guess that's the end of such antics (in such numbers) for a while. Kids are still pestering me for another visit!

Hopefully we'll see things sort out a bit next year.  If I have it around and they want they'd be welcome under your supervision to take the van for a spin round the field.  I know when I was their age that I'd have thought that all my Christmases had come at run at a chance to drive something like that...so always want to offer as making other people smile is always high on my priority list.  It's pretty safe as well given top speed in 1st is about 7mph while they're getting used to it, it'll idle at a slow walking pace, and even once you're going the handbrake is more than sufficient to stop it.

Heck... it's my being utterly captivated by the Merc T1 Luton we hired from Budget back in 1993 to move house that's responsible I reckon for a huge chunk of my car - and definitely commercial vehicle - interests to this day.

One of the things I enjoy about the FoD gatherings is being able to share things like that which would just be nigh on impossible at a formal event.

[wuvvum]

7 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

the Merc T1 Luton we hired from Budget back in 1993 to move house

And in what year did you arrive at the new house? 

[/Cavcraft] 

[Zelandeth]

1 minute ago, wuvvum said:

And in what year did you arrive at the new house? 

[/Cavcraft] 

Judging from the surroundings, about 1870.

Better than the Renault Traffic from the next house move...which we eventually figured out on the third or fourth trip out simply didn't *have* a second gear any more...we just didn't repeatedly fail to find it!  Using back street van hire places is always a gamble...That was a C plate van...Still being hired out in 1999.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

7 hours ago, wuvvum said:

REV was smoking a lot less today, and Dolly doesn't seem to smoke at all.

I'm sure that can be "rectified"....

[Six-cylinder]

8 hours ago, wuvvum said:

REV was smoking a lot less today, and Dolly doesn't seem to smoke at all.

Rev only smoked because we used up the recovered fuel from the leaking Peugeot 50cc and it must have added two stroke oil from its tank before petrol fell out of the carb. 

[LightBulbFun]

another awesome weekend had  

many thanks to @Mrs6C and @Six-cylinder for hosting us, and it was awesome to meet with other shitters once more  

and many thanks to Mrs6c for fitting the new fuel line and temporary fuel tank to REV one more thing checked off the list, slowly but surely getting there  

it was very awesome to be able to pootle about in REV once more  

and then on the 2nd day we got finally Dolly to idle! and so we where able to put here into drive and take her for a spin around the field for the first time since Mrs6c got her  

and on Saturday night/Sunday morning we spotted this Bond equip  

it was also good to have REV going as it meant other shitters could experience an invacar  which is almost half the fun of owning one LOL

and by the end of the weekend she had clocked up a good few more miles! so she has done over 25 miles just ambling around the FoD since I got her  

[Six-cylinder]

14 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

The Astravan proved popular especially after the PAS self cured!

Over the weekend how many miles do you think it drove around our 10 acre field with different people trying it.

If you had asked me I would have guessed at 10 miles but alerted by somebody driving the van I checked the mileage at the end of the day. 57.9 miles seems a lot to me going round a field!

[beko1987]

4 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

If you had asked me I would have guessed at 10 miles but alerted by somebody driving the van I checked the mileage at the end of the day. 57.9 miles seems a lot to me going round a field!

You'll have to test it by counting how many laps it takes you to do 57.9 in another vehicle, then do the same on the van to confirm... 

[Talbot]

A very quick google earth measure would seem to indicate that a lap of the field is approx. 0.4 miles, with a "sunday" lap being about 0.3.

That would mean it did 144 full laps.  Or an awful lot of wheelspin.  Doesn't sound right...  If you'd asked me how many laps it had done I would have guessed at 50-60 perhaps.

[quicksilver]

3 minutes ago, Talbot said:

A very quick google earth measure would seem to indicate that a lap of the field is approx. 0.4 miles, with a "sunday" lap being about 0.3.

That would mean it did 144 full laps.  Or an awful lot of wheelspin.  Doesn't sound right...  If you'd asked me how many laps it had done I would have guessed at 50-60 perhaps.

144 laps seems plausible when you consider how many hours we were there and how much of that time it spent on the move. If you said 8 hours of action each day, that's fewer than ten laps an hour on average. It's a decent van really and ideal for ragging round the field.

Another fantastic and very successful weekend and it was great to see the new faces joining in and enjoying it so much. The highlight had to be when Dolly moved under her own power for the first time and we had multiple Invacars buzzing around together. I had a proper 'Double-take Brothers' moment, looking out of the windscreen and seeing an Invacar, then looking down and remembering I was also driving an Invacar! It was really weird experiencing one with a steering wheel after getting used to handlebars. Also good to prove that I can physically fit in and drive an MX5 (cheers @hairnet) even though I can't see where I'm going

[beko1987]

I was in the van for maybe 20/30 laps just on Saturday either driving or as a passenger. Wheels pin is a good shout though, that would skew the figures. Don't think there was that much wheelslip though?... 

@Ghostywas in the back of the van for some of them too

[Inspector Morose]

Random photos in no particular order.

Good weekend out. Will do again. 13.7/10

 

[LightBulbFun]

4 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Random photos in no particular order.

Good weekend out. Will do again. 13.7/10

 

some awesome well taken photographs there  

"(C) mundanefoto" gave me a good chuckle  (as did @Talbot IIRC?'s "Triumph slag I mean stag"  )

[paulplom]

Great photos. The next fod is my next aim with the mx5.

[Slowsilver]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

I was in the van for maybe 20/30 laps just on Saturday either driving or as a passenger. Wheels pin is a good shout though, that would skew the figures. Don't think there was that much wheelslip though?... 

@Ghostywas in the back of the van for some of them too

The van would certainly spin its front wheels fairly easily, particularly on the long grass in the field, and judging by the amount of enthusiastic* driving it suffered it wouldn't surprise me if a fair percentage of that mileage didn't equate to forward motion.
 

[chaseracer]

Fairly typical for an Ashtray commercial, then ?

[Dick Longbridge]

Looks like lots of fun and great to see six wheels rolling together finally. Rev is rocking the increasing rat look - get the old girl scrubbed LBF!

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Slowsilver said:

The van would certainly spin its front wheels fairly easily, particularly on the long grass in the field, and judging by the amount of enthusiastic* driving it suffered it wouldn't surprise me if a fair percentage of that mileage didn't equate to forward motion.
 

I did it a fair bit just pulling away! On my car the bite point is right at the top of the pedal! On le van it's about halfway out of the pile of the carpet

[LightBulbFun]

38 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Looks like lots of fun and great to see six wheels rolling together finally. Rev is rocking the increasing rat look - get the old girl scrubbed LBF!

yeah I dont like how dirty she has gotten, If I had known she would be standing for a year, I would have not parked her horizontally to the hedgerow! (which is why I think she got so grubby, as Dolly was parked perpendicular to the hedge row and has clearly not got anywhere near as grubby!) 

thankfully fibreglass does not rust!

there was a plan hatched late Saturday night to on sunday throw some not so sad looking head lights on her, give her a good scrub and then someone with any car insurance to take her for a quick spin on some actual tarmac, for a better assessment of things, but it never came to fruition sadly (but understandably so since REV got all the attention on Saturday, it took a surprisingly long time to fit what is a simple fuel line! and Sunday was Dolly's time to shine   )

 

who is it here that really likes to clean cars?  

 

but speaking of when REV was clean, did have an amusing moment when seeing what photos I took at the FoD, and how my phone automatically categorised them and other photos on my phone

 

"Sports car"

[Ghosty]

I'll vouch it was rather easy to spin the wheels in first in the van before you got used to the clutch. You'd barely be moving and the speedo would be reading 20. 

[richardmorris]

The Gaffer.

[richardmorris]

Wacky races .