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On meeting at Ashbourne, the car park view was pretty good, with 2 x MR2's, a Pontiac and a Porsche, dressed up as Ferraris (not the Porsche), the Dino was my favourite. Ian and Jordan arrived and the view improved Dave, Ian, Jordan, Martyn and Sue, Chris, Andy and Becky and us all went for a brew, oh and Bagpuss came too We drove through the Autumn sunshine, over the high ground of the Peak District, on the twisty back roads. We even found a great big splat of cow poo, we want for nothing here you know! Martyn has the cow poo photo's, I was busy emptying my hot water bottle contents onto it, to try and clean it off the car, to no avail. We arrived at the Tin Hut Coffee Tavern, with not quite enough room for the car at the back to park with us, sorry Chris, but you do get your own individual photograph Martyn got his new banner out to show us, now available to all AO's Glen photographed us in the Tin Hut Coffee Tavern, as we waited for our lunch to arrive. Outside, Dave was photographing something technical on Ian's car, while I was busy photographing Bagpuss, says it all really, doesn't it? Allan I and Jill surprised us by turning up, to share the second half of our journey. He is a clever man, that Allan, he misses the cow poo bit and gets the cake bit. After lunch we sampled some more of those twisty roads and cracking views, in this gorgeous sunshine. We waved at the 2 x Morgan, 3 wheelers, as we made our way to the Crowdecote road, ending up at the Tagg Lane Dairy Cafe, I spelt it right this time Andy. Diary, dairy, CAKE, that's the important bit!!! Some people had cake AND ice cream though didn't they? mentioning no names Andy and Becky's car in the line up, oops did I mention a name No animals were harmed in today's fun, Bagpuss was fetched in the car during the journey, but he kept sunbathing on that hot bonnet Guilty, of pooing on the roads of the Peak District, Crimewatch, if you know this cow, call 101 If the weather is good next weekend, we will continue making our way through the variety of ice cream on offer, there are 8 weekends until Christmas, I reckon we could get through them by then. Thanks for coming everyone, it's been such a laugh, the driving has been amazing, you are all amazing, thank you.

Thank you all for making another enjoyable day in the company of like minded friends, and just to point out someone’s partner had cake AND ice cream (obviously underfed at home) not just usthanks for organising today Julie I know you need a push every now and again to put things in your dairy!! ( you must have a big handbag) take care luv us

Nice to meet up again. It had been a while. Lovely weather, extremely good cake. Journey home in the rays of the setting sun with enough time to wash off the road dirt thankfully no cow poo. Allan

Ah, no technical photos from me, I’m afraid. Just capturing a day in the life of Bagpus, caught in the act! And a Bagpus eye view; it’s like being a movie star, facing all the paparazzi!

I'm awaiting a boot cover price from Soft bits for Sevens ( great kit, but their customer contact is shocking, still awaiting delivery of my storm cover too ) so thought I'd knock up a temporary boot cover. Got a sheet of ABS form Plays Kool ( It took ages to arrive, which for £10 delivery charge, is also a little lacking, but blamed squarely on the carrier, DPD, I'd have demanded a refund from my carrier and passed that to the customer in my business, but everyone is different ) Anyway, I digress, got the boot box, dremel, hand tools, and bit of trim out today, and knocked this up. Bit of cosmetic trim I had knocking about later Then back on with the half hood bag ( the real reason for doing this, so the bag doesn't disappear into the boot void ) ! Still need to look into making an opening to get into it for use, and some fasteners, but for the couple of hours I had spare, I'm OK with progress.

From you photo it looks like your brakes are HiSpec 114's (the WSC race brake upgrades). I have the same calipers also with vented grooved disks. I run Ferodo DS3000 / DS 2500 pads in mine (currently on the 2500's but the 3000's will be going back in soon) Just for comparison, one of my disks is warped ever so slightly, I think it's always been like that since I bought the car from the factory but I just put up with it. However, I've recently bought a replacement pair of discs direct from HiSpec and will fit them over the winter. I did consider getting the discs skimmed (there's a guy near me will do them in situ with a computerised machine) but he was wettin himself about putting my Westfield up on his 2 post ramp so I lost patience with him and decided to go for replacements and sort the problem myself. As @IanK (Bagpuss)mentioned, a dial gauge will tell you if your discs are bad. I'd certainly try the cheaper / easier fixes as discussed first but if all else fails the discs can be swapped out easily enough. Have a look here for skimmers near you. https://skimmydiscs.co.uk/

Run to the Ponderosa for the compulsory bacon butty, and then the Rhewla road to Bala, then the great Isbty Ifan road to Cerig. Through Clocaenog and over Moel Famau. Superb.

I suppose if it’s not leaking then it will be getting burned. My point was that it’s not a standard engine that is expected to last over 100k miles without a rebuild. It’s a race tuned motor that is built to have higher compression and more fuel & air burned to give it more power. The added power will add strain and perhaps force oil past the rings (which may be designed differently from std and thus could be normal?). As it is a tuned engine, it will need a rebuild a lot more regularly than std and maybe burning some oil is a consequence of this?

If you are using excessive oil , then a compression test /leak down test is your next port of call.

Another thing that can cause oil usage is if the engine is running too rich,the petrol washes the oil off the bores and so it gets burnt/used. Bore wash they call it. A good indication of bore wash is if the oil smells slightly of petrol.

In the diary!

Ok. Is comming in black as the black roll is loaded in the machine now if its ok... Ad as im wasting the same ammount to cut one than two... there is another black available for those who were left out of this one.

Will try!

Not that I know of, the Dorset Area have a inside space for 6-7 cars and these have been allocated to a good mix of cars: Zetec SEIWs on Twin Webbers, Standard TB and Jenvey TBs , Jaguar V6, Ecoboost 250 and a part built Eleven; will be there for Saturday and Sunday. The classic and kit car parking area was next door to the kit car hall for the last couple of years. Jon

I think you would find a visit to the factory very informative. Personally I wouldn't call it scruffy, but it is a small operation by the standards of car manufacture, so don't expect to see anything remotely like a production line, more like a very large garage/repair shop. If you are serious about exploring the possibility of buying a new car, either factory built or as a kit, then you really must go and visit the factory, preferably by prior appointment. If you think you might be interested in a second hand car, but don't know what sort of spec to look for, then a trip to see one or two cars at a local area meet is essential. For factory visits, you need to contact the sales manager who is Simon Westwood. Either he or Judy Dyson would be happy to show you round, and explain the different specs currently offered, and the different kit options.

Yes, it sounds strange to me as well, most Kit Cars will have a high number of owners throughout the years and not much mileage. Lots are bought on a Wim and used sparingly on a summer weekend only. Younger owners do also have young families and mortgages to fund so find it hard to use the car often. The hardcore members on this forum are always out and about and on a track somewhere winter and summer. Don't let yours slowly fall to the back of the garage under dust sheets with flat tyres.

Just realised they are throttlebodies