38th time lucky: New boot (and panties)

[garethj]

I was driving home after work this evening and saw a blue, slightly shonky DS in the petrol station on the A1 by St Neots.  The bonnet was up, so hopefully it wasn’t you?

If it was somebody else, are you now officially an influencer? 😀

[EyesWeldedShut]

7 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

I was having a browse on Street View around that area when I noticed this interesting garage set-up:

Where the car is backed up to, is what looks to be a double garage, but with a single-car garage entrance on the side. Presumably because to the side of that, the house appears to carry on. So I assume it may be an L-shaped garage or the single garage entrance may just be an elaborate bin storage? The bricks look a little newer than on the garage itself.

Try the 'view different dates' option on the StreetSpy (maybe desktop/laptop only - not mobile) that may help.
Looks to me (by the way that the front door is blocked a bit by the 'new' up and over) that they've chucked in the new door to access a gym/suana/home office/storage area without having to shift the cars out of the way of the original up and over?

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, garethj said:

I was driving home after work this evening and saw a blue, slightly shonky DS in the petrol station on the A1 by St Neots.  The bonnet was up, so hopefully it wasn’t you?

If it was somebody else, are you now officially an influencer? 😀

You stopped to help, I hope?

[garethj]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

You stopped to help, I hope?

I only saw it as I passed and I was in the outside lane.  With the nose to tail traffic it would have meant at least half an hour to get back there.

I also expect that someone driving a 1970s car is fairly comfortable dealing with a breakdown.

[barrett]

It's summer and things have been happening! At the end of last month we went down to the French Festival of Slowth in my colleague's Peugeot Quadrilette. Here's a map showing the rough journey

Things didn't go well when I ws driving it home the night before setting off and the clutch fork snapped a few miles into my journey

fortunately it was just round the corner from a friendly local Vintage engineer who very kindly came out and rescued me. He then went out to dinner with his wife, got back at about 9pm, machined a new part, fitted it and delivered the car to me in Brighton at 11pm. Absolutely heroic service. The next morning everything was very wet, but Newhaven was teeming with interesting things in the ferry queue

There was a huge Alpine celebration in Dieppe, and the Lancia sliding pillar rally that same weekend. Anyway, things brightened up once we got to France. I think this is actually the second day of driving, which was EXTREMELY hot

Not much fun, actually, in 30+ degrees in an open car. We made it within three miles of our destination when the car conked out and wouldn't start. No spark, so probably the magneto. Luckily we had a spare, which I then spent most of the next morning trying to fit without really understanding timing or anything like that. It did produce a spark, so that was proof of concept, and luckily other people there are a bit more au fait with that sort of thing so we eventually managed to get it working. Lots of the (very hot) first day was spent like this, though

This was my favourite thing there, I think. Absolutely nuts.

At the end of the following day the car really wasn't running well, but with some (lots of) help I managed to set the timing up to be pretty much bob-on, and we eventually left at 5pm. I drove until it got dark, which was just over 100 miles almost nonstop. The next day the car was still going well, and we saw some good 'French things' on our way back. Managed to get to the ferry with minutes to spare, all home safe and sound. A very long weekend!

This weekend just gone I entered the VSCC Light Car summer Rally in Leicestershire. A much more managable journey

I had entered the Palladium, but after spending a day getting it prepped and going for a test drive, I wasn't convinced it was running 'right' and got really stressed about the idea of it breaking down somewhere on what was supposed to be the hottest day of the year with no breakdown cover, so I wimped out and took the ever-reliable Riley instead. I collected a passenger, then headed to Thame to meet up with a friend and my actual navigator for the rally, then convoyed up from there.

I've never been to Leicestershire before, but it was very... English

Here's what had turned up on Saturday night

The Model A has just been put together by a friend as a tow car as he's getting tired of driving his racing cars to events, and wouldn't tow them behind a modern. It has... this engine in. It's a hotted-up Vintage Cadillac V8 and it sounds amazing

elsewhere

A lovely weekend all-round. The journey back was good, too. I dropped my passenger off at Guildford station and the last 40-odd miles in the dwindling light as the temperature started to drop was fantastic. Car really flying, very few crunched gears (always when there's nobody there to verify it) and almost empty roads. I don't want to jinx things, but this car really does just step up and perform in any circumstances, and the more I drive ti the more I like it.

A few weeks ago somebody left a note on my windscreen asking very sweetly if I might drive their daughter and her friends to their end of school prom, as she walks past my hosue every day and apparently is in love with the DS. Today was the day – there were three in my car and another two in the Merc, owned by one of their dads. Everybody seemed happy and it was an hour out of my time to build up some karmic points and, hopefully, enthuse a youngster about old cars. The parents very kindly gave me a bottle of red and a nice selection of posh French cheese for my efforts, too. Bonus!

I might have some positive DS progress soon if I can get off my arse, so watch this space. Cheers!

 

[High Jetter]

6 minutes ago, barrett said:

This was my favourite thing there, I think. Absolutely nuts.

WTF?

[Spottedlaurel]

Wonderful stuff! What a way to drive through France.

Thought you were going to say that the actual journey in the UK was far worse, despite being shorter, but good to hear it went well for you and the Riley.

Some amazing/bonkers stuff seen at the destinations too.

[barrett]

5 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Thought you were going to say that the actual journey in the UK was far worse, despite being shorter, but good to hear it went well for you and the Riley.

Of course driving an old car in France is significantly nicer than it is over here – road surfaces are all great, no traffic jams, other road users all pleased to see you and, most importantly, happy to overtake a slow car, whereas in the UK people just sit behind you getting worked up. Overall the trip wasn't too bad apart from some horrible traffic in the usual places, though.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Never mind the ancient relics, that's a Mexican A108 you spotted there !!!

[chaseracer]

On 03/06/2025 at 21:13, barrett said:

France is good, innit?

Driving back after a very long weekend (which I'll write-up at some point) I was about 100 miles from Dieppe when I saw the unmistakable shape of a DS by the side of the road, followed by another and another and another... cue the screech of brakes as we pulled into a layby

Looks like an interesting place! I popped over the road and found the boss and asked if I could look round. There must've been a dozen out the front and another dozen inside in various stages of restoration, plus a huge field out the back...

Heaven! Anyway, seemed pretty likely he'd have some hubcaps and after a bit of searching he managed to pull out four Pallas trims for me, which he let me have for the grand total of €50. I had to carry two of them in my lap for the rest of the journey as there was no room anywhere else in the car, but I got them home safely.

Just offered that one up when I got home today – nice! Will get the rest on asap and I reckon that car's just finished now.

Happened across this amazing place when I did the 'run in the 720 with a blast over the Alps to the Med' trip in 2022 - is the race spec Jag still in the back?

[barrett]

hey, look!

Before:

After:

Definitely shows up the rest of it now, but that's progress, baby!

[vulgalour]

That Cyklon is astonishing, right down to its practically vestigial rear window.  There's so much good content in this update it's hard to know what else to say really.