FoTU 2024 - Completed it, M9

[blackboilersuit]

Not much to add to the Scotoshite (Triumph Division) story but as the sole survivor I wanted to wait until everyone else told their stories before replying. 

I went down a day early to visit friends near London on the Thursday before. Seven hours in the car then wine, food great chat and building Lego with a five year old! It was a great day and a half and a fantastic way to start the trip. The next 48hrs are well documented above so no need to cover the details again but it was still a great couple of days. Great friends, the comradery of shared adversary, good humour and great company. It's times like these that we'll remember forever and dine out on the stories for years to come. Car shows can be easily forgotten over time but remembering the laughter echoing around the truck stop at 11pm as we all stood around waiting for cars to cool down are memories that will last forever.

My trip was around 820 miles, travelling roughly Glasgow-Letchworth-Peterborough-Falkirk-Glasgow in 3 days.  I don't have a magic formula for reliability. I'm just lucky that my Toledo still has most of its original parts because it only just rolled around 46,000 miles. I already carry a full set of ignition parts in the boot but I'll be adding a water pump, fuel pump and gasket set to the mix too. I also carry a gallon of 20w/50 and a gallon of water too.  

Big thank you to everyone who made the weekend what it was, legends every one of you.

[Jack D]

On 27/07/2024 at 19:59, egg said:

Any MK1 Mondy's this year pls?

 

This beauty, it was a 2.0 Si. 

[JakeT]

14 hours ago, R Lutz said:

Did he turn up to entertain the masses or did he not get further than adding contents to custard? And how much trifle does £17.5k tax free get you?

I don’t think so, no. Like others have said the YouTuber contingent was very low, bet a couple of folks mumbling into GoPros dotted about.

[fatharris]

Probably got sidetracked when he walked past a Greggs.

[cort16]

23 hours ago, juular said:

Our FOTU. A 48 hour real life story of anxiety, camaraderie and British Leyland reliability.

For a few years @captain_70s @MrsJuular and @blackboilersuit had planned to get all three Scotoshite Triumphs to FOTU together, but something always happened, and inevitably one of the cars broke before or on the way.

It all started so well this time. @blackboilersuit was already there, and we had every confidence.

Midweek we had been driving the Toledo around trying to iron out all the problems, but it just ran and ran without issue. We took it to a midweek meet. It was going like clockwork.

It had been polished up and looking lovely.

Ready to set off in convoy with @captain_70son Friday morning. We had dinner booked at half 7 in Bourne with a group of fellow shiters and it was going to be a great day.

M74. Happy memories, seems a long time ago.

Southwaite services and no problems. A slight rise in temperature but we just loosened the fill cap to try and bleed any air pockets out of the system.

Then suddenly, it all went a bit horribly wrong at the side of the A66

The Toledo just rolled to a stop. There was no fuel in the float bowl and it didn't look like the filter was filling up when cranking. 

Eventually the Toledo battery was on its last legs and this was a good time to find out that we didn't have jump leads.

We suspected the fuel pump, and at this point we thought that was the end.

I had my phone in my hand ready to dial recovery. We'd just have to forfeit the FOTU entry and two nights hotels.

At this point ,incredibly, @captain_70s walked up to our window with a spare pump.  Speechless.

Meanwhile the Dolomite which had been idling away to provide hazard light duty began overheating.

Pump was swapped. Fuel was stolen from the Dolomite to fill up the Toledo float bowl so we wouldn't have to keep cranking, and thankfully we began to see fuel coming up the line with the engine running. Success.

Onwards! 

But not for long. About 5 miles from Scotch corner the Toledo cut out again.

This time it had fuel in the float bowl, so we suspected shit in the carb.

There was shit in the carb.

That was jammed inside the jet. Looked like a bit of silicone sealant, which we think might have somehow found it's way into the second fuel pump while in storage.

Dinner in Bourne was looking unlikely at this point.

Onwards again, and Scotch corner achieved, very late at this point.

From then, things were largely uneventful until we stopped for fuel somewhere near Wetherby.

We fuelled up then parked to check coolant and oil.

I went to loosen the coolant cap on the Toledo slightly, but this time after a couple of turns it shot into the air and I got absolutely soaked in rusty boiling coolant. Dripping like a wet dog, I had to go and give myself a bath in the petrol station sink.

Then we checked the oil. Nothing on the dipstick! Shit. At this point there was nothing we could do but refill it and carry on, checking the level.

Things seemed good until we got to around Ferrybridge and this time it was the Dolomite's turn. @captain_70s reported hearing pinging from the engine, so we backed off to around 50mph and pulled over into a park in Pontefract.

Much fettling was done with ignition timing and enriching the mix, but it only improved slightly.

We stopped again an hour further down the road as the pinging got worse, but this time we suspected the noise was actually the timing chain losing tension and rattling around. It may also have been causing pinging if loose as it would affect the valve and ignition timing.

Pushing on, we got one street further and the Toledo died again!

This time we suspected vapour lock, so we filled the float bowl again and ran it with a fuel line off. Fine. On we go.

Steph from idriveaclassic passed us in a Proton and got a cracking photo of the Toledo.

And we got so close. Around 10 miles from Bourne the Toledo started to overheat quite dramatically. I was lucky to roll into a layby at the side of the A1 just as the coolant began to boil.  Breaking down at night on the A1 with no hard shoulder is one of my biggest fears.

We had to leave the Toledo to cool down for around an hour before we could do anything. Thankfully we were close to the rest of the Scotoshite contingent who were at this point formulating plans for support and rescue.

Eventually we got the coolant cap off the Toledo, removed the thermostat completely and filled with water. This allowed us to limp to a truck stop 3 miles away where @davidfowler2000 brought us pakora and chips and @blackboilersuit came along in his Toledo to assist and convoy with us.

On the road to the hotel our headlights stopped working, so I had to hold the full beam stalk the whole way back. Naturally, this is when a deer jumped out into the road and I had to perform an emergency stop, knowing well that the older Toledo behind had unservoed drum brakes.

Bag of fucking nerves. Both of us.

Eventually we all made it to our beds that night, a journey that took us thirteen hours to cover 332 miles, or an average speed of 25 miles an hour.

@mat_the_cat handed me a beer and @blackboilersuit gave me a hug. @MrsJuular and I had a little cry.

Day 2

A lovely morning was spent with @Sunny Jim, @mat_the_cat, @Puglet and @blackboilersuit

Then off to the show! Only 20 more miles to go.

We stopped to gather up the remaining convoy from a different hotel.

One mile from the FOTU gate, the Toledo broke down again with fuel starvation. This time I just planted my foot to the floor and cranked it, and it eventually spluttered back to life. We WERE going to make it.

And we did.

But that was it for the Toledo.

As we rolled up the driveway to the castle, it started to overheat terminally. As I rolled into our parking space on the grass, it was boiling and spitting out white smoke. Head gasket had finally given up. It would go no further.

But all three made it.

I don't really have any pictures of FOTU, I was too fried by that point. We took a somewhat apathetic wander round and had some noodles. But it was nice just to gather with friends round the cars and chill out for a while.

The story is not over.

At 1pm I made the decision to call in the big bus. But as you may know Grimsthorpe is a dead zone of no signal and it took me until after 2pm just to get online, find the number and ring them. I was on the phone for 40 minutes having a broken conversation with the operator who in credit was amazing and kept calling me back and piecing together our location.

Recovery was booked for 5pm. That was totally fine.

Then it got pushed back to 7pm. I started to get nervous as the field slowly emptied and the kick out time approached.

At 7:20 we were the last cars in the field.

Then it arrived at last.

Relieved, we made the decision to get a lift home and not travel with the car as it was going to involve a number of relays, and we were absolutely done.

The heroic @blackboilersuit rescued us up the road in his Toledo. Crisps were opened. Relax.

And then I got a phone call.

The recovery truck had broken down! He was offloading the car at the castle grounds.

FUUUUUUUUUUU!

At this point none of us were giving a shit. We told him to dump the car at the north gate before closing and pass the location on to the next truck. He agreed.

We relaxed. The journey up the road in this Toledo at 55mph on an empty road was absolutely serene, the conversation was great and the miles just flew by.

Then at midnight I got another call. The second truck had just arrived, the castle gates were shut and there was no sign of the car whatsoever.

Internal screaming.

The driver said he'd call back. He drove round the entire perimeter of the castle ground and checked all the gates. No Toledo! He eventually buzzed the intercom and got through to the supervisor, who then allowed him in. The car was finally found in the estates office, loaded up, and was enroute.

I think @MrsJuulars car now has the honour of not only being the last car out, but probably the only one to be present at FOTU on the Sunday..

We finally got home at 2am.

We are so lucky have such good friends from this forum. We're absolutely humbled by the support we've had over the weekend. I really mean it when I say @blackboilersuit, @captain_70s, @davidfowler2000, @Sunny Jim, @mat_the_cat, @Puglet, you are all legendary.

Have an 11pm Friday truck stop photo.

Scotoshite greatest hits:

 

Epilogue.

The recovery driver got stopped by the DVSA on the Sunday as they believed the Toledo to be stolen. Apparently the car and truck were gone over in detail and was held for over an hour.

The Toledo finally made it home at 1pm on the Sunday. 

When it arrived we noticed it had been damaged. At first we thought it had been mishandled, but looking back at photos taken before it went on the first truck, the damage was there. It looks very much like a mobility scooter has been driven down the side of it as there's a number of dents in a line, and both hubcaps are dented at the same place.

I guess that's a hazard when FOTU organisers decided they'd squeeze another few cars in on each row. But there's nothing we can do about it now.

Bloody hell just reading that has me hyperventilating into a paper bag. Glad you all made it back and so did the car even if it's got some battle scars.

[ProgRocker]

Really must make an effort to go to FOTU. Live around 70/75 miles away from this venue. Will try and buy a ticket if the next one's at the same place.

[wesacosa]

16 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Really must make an effort to go to FOTU. Live around 70/75 miles away from this venue. Will try and buy a ticket if the next one's at the same place.

I would imagine it is, they seem to have settled on this venue having changed it a lot before. Its definitely worth going if you haven't been before 

[junkyarddog]

£40.00 To display a car at a show is insane.

[captain_70s]

A few photos, now I have liberated them from the camera.

 

[alcyonecorporation]

did not fall off ladders into a hedge this time 

[SEATMad]

On 27/07/2024 at 20:56, wesacosa said:

I didn't get a picture of them but were the mk1 Ibiza and /or the Mitsubishi Colt yours, @SEATMad

Yeah they were my friend!

[Ghosty]

On 29/07/2024 at 13:52, juular said:

I guess that's a hazard when FOTU organisers decided they'd squeeze another few cars in on each row. But there's nothing we can do about it now.

At a show organised by a car insurance company?

I'd be kicking up a fuss.

[wesacosa]

7 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Yeah they were my friend!

Cool. I guessed they must be.  Both very nice 

[juular]

So we decided to go away for a few days in the campervan to get the hell away from cars and breakdowns.

[SEATMad]

4 hours ago, wesacosa said:

Cool. I guessed they must be.  Both very nice 

Thank you mate! When my life settles down a bit I can go back to concentrating on getting them both to where i want them to be so hopefully next year they'll be better. 

[Talbot]

5 hours ago, juular said:

So we decided to go away for a few days in the campervan to get the hell away from cars and breakdowns.

[warren t claim]

On 24/07/2024 at 21:48, fatharris said:

 

Not sure how much I can share without straying into libel (despite being true), but fuck it, I've had a drink, seen the evidence and I'll give it broad brushstrokes.

Not content with creating fuck all content for the patrons of his patreon page and very publicly burning every bridge available to a freelance automotive journalist, he then started DMing a lesbian automotive YouTuber, prepositioning her and generally being a creature. He steps it up a notch in the messages, stating he'd like to 'gunge' her (The fuck does he think he is, Dave Benson Phillips?), and went full nuclear by sending her a photo of his garage floor covered in the shattered remains of a trifle that he had wanked with/into, which gives a whole new meaning to 'pulling your pud'.

We need an update on this.

It makes the posts over on our Single And Sad thread seem, for want of a better term, vanilla.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 24/07/2024 at 21:48, fatharris said:

 

Not sure how much I can share without straying into libel (despite being true), but fuck it, I've had a drink, seen the evidence and I'll give it broad brushstrokes.

Not content with creating fuck all content for the patrons of his patreon page and very publicly burning every bridge available to a freelance automotive journalist, he then started DMing a lesbian automotive YouTuber, prepositioning her and generally being a creature. He steps it up a notch in the messages, stating he'd like to 'gunge' her (The fuck does he think he is, Dave Benson Phillips?), and went full nuclear by sending her a photo of his garage floor covered in the shattered remains of a trifle that he had wanked with/into, which gives a whole new meaning to 'pulling your pud'.

His ex has just posted this on Twunter:

I'd imagine those who blindly handed over their £££ may raise their eyebrows. 

Horrific for the woman. 

[dollywobbler]

We sadly have some insight into the situation, having got dragged into things at one point, and it became very clear he was using mental health as a cover for being an alcoholic, partner-abusing arsehole. There is more that I'm sure will come out at some point.

[brownnova]

Awful for the lady involved. 
 

No excuse for violence in a relationship. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

13 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

We sadly have some insight into the situation, having got dragged into things at one point, and it became very clear he was using mental health as a cover for being an alcoholic, partner-abusing arsehole. There is more that I'm sure will come out at some point.

I was pretty surprised at the whole pudding/preying on women thing.

The DV is another level of scumbag though. 

Kudos to his ex for holding her head high and spilling the beans. Horrible, horrible situation. 

[JJ0063]

Fucking hell, never expected that. Speechless.

[dollywobbler]

There is a discussion on the open forum if people would rather. 

[Purfleet]

Bit late to the FOTU party but i was there in my N reg Vectra and took loads of photos