Autoshite Holiday in south Devon.

[Andrew353w]

Hi all!

 

SHMBO and myself have just returned from a camping holiday in Dorset & Devon, in a VW bay window campervan! If you want to see what we hired, have a look at http://www.hippycampers.com It's a 1974 1600cc one, and drove in a "characteristic" way.... It returned 26 mpg on the way down and 27 mpg on the way back; my driving style seems to be consistent, at any rate! This was our home for a week:

 

 

And here's the quilt my wife made, hanging in the back window:

 

 

While down there I realised the fuel gauge was behaving erratically, as there was no way that the campervan would do over 200 miles on a quarter of a tank, so I set about re-filling. Sidmouth, on the south coast of Devon is a time warp of motoring history. This is the local garage:

 

 

This garage has a perfectly preserved "Rover" sign outside, sells "Regent" petrol and it's an "attended service" forecourt. I felt as if I had stepped back into the 1980's.

 

Not to be outdone in the "obsolete fuel brands" stakes, we stopped off in Ottery St. Mary, where I spotted this garage, selling "Flare" fuels.

 

 

I think there was a thread covering this topic before, but I couldn't find it!

 

By the way, if anyone's down in south Devon, there's a beautiful garage museum in Colyton, near Seaton, complete with old fashioned upright fuel pumps, with glass globes on the top. I didn't photograph it (pity!) but we spent an entertaining few hours there. The website of the museum is http://www.motoringmemories.com and I'd recommend all Autoshiters to visit it if they're in the area!