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Just quite the most amazing day today, thank you to @IanK (Bagpuss) for inviting us to Alton Towers and going on my cars namesake 'Rita the Queen of Speed'. No oranges 🧡 were found in the making of this 'smiler' photo though. Smiler 4.5G and 13 up side downs, now where did I leave my stomach?

I like those 😁 everyone needs some pink in their life.

@Paul Hurdsfield has ordered a britvic with his name on !

Having had the great company of @Julie Hall - Peak District AO and Tango man Glen today at Alton Towers, I can see the resemblance. Though he was more 'white as a sheet' after Smiler.

Somebody is playing silly b*******s and I now have 4 pink dust caps 😐

Spurn as viewed from the boat

One of our well loved members, has a mild mannered passenger (who never drives their Westie). He had a previous life in advertising and world wide adventures. I've been sworn to stay silent for too long and can no longer keep his exploits secret any longer. I suspect I'll be stonned to death by cakes shortly........ After many years of secret filming I will now share the adventures of Tango Man: More to follow over future weeks, including Tango Man's other worldwide travels, and more recent adventures closer to home............

Today https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48934781 "Major: I will seek a judicial review to stop Parliament shutdown" "Sir John said such a move would be "utterly and totally unacceptable". and yet https://order-order.com/2019/07/10/john-major-prorogued-parliament-1997-avoid-cash-questions-scrutiny/ " Major didn’t have such a problem with proroguing Parliament when he abused his power to do so in 1997 in order to delay the publication of a highly embarrassing report into the “cash for questions”sleaze scandal involving his Government. Flagrant hypocrisy even by his standards, he must be glad no-one sued him then…" You couldn't make it up.

A long read but bear with me...... For ages I've been thinking about why the ASBO was running a bit lean, along with that it was running a bit rough on tick-over, sometimes it would almost stall, then it would bounce to 1500 rpm and repeat until I intervened with some throttle. Add to that the pops and bangs on gear change and over-run that were just a tad too much even for the ASBO. To top that off it's been running hot, and a couple of times it's refused to start for a while after parking up. A bit of background on the ASBO, it's a Factory built SEiGHT with a fuel injected 3950 Rover V8, the only mods I've done to the engine are a baffled trapdoor sump and a wind-age tray. The stages of running the problems to ground were as follows. One of the tech guys at the factory stuffed a small bolt into the open end of a bit of hose that was connected near to the 'Flapper Valve'(not sure if it's called that but I reckon it's a good name for it..... and whatever it does), that smoothed the tick-over out a bit. I removed, cleaned and replaced the K & N Air filter, another slight improvement. I removed and cleaned the M A F Sensor with carb. cleaner, again another improvement. I dived into a box of shiny new bits I purchased from John Eales a few years ago, I changed all 8 plugs, the rotor arm and distributor cap and all of the HT leads. One of the distributor outputs was corroded in a way that reminded me of an old battery....... Again an improvement in the general running and a lot less lumpy-ness in the tick-over but it still lacked something, and managing the engine temp. was still challenging. A Radtech radiator with 50mm cores and a new expansion tank & Cap, (the last one in the country apparently) filled with proper blue Glycol and not that pink carp (Radtech's words not mine) plus a newer version of the same fan that was fitted have sorted the effective cooling, the fan now defeats the engine heat (if that makes sense) but it takes a while! Yesterday I visited a local Land Rover specialist, I pointed my non technical finger at the M A F Sensor and said "got one of those?"..... "Nope.... but if you want to wait a lifetime or two we can get you one, it'll be £1050 plus the vat..... or you can have a Tradefit one for £118 inclusive of VAT " No brainer..... "how soon?" says I.... "12:00 o'bells say the man"..... and true to his word whilst having my old gits health MOT at the quacks the phone rang to say come get it. Well I waited until today to fit it...... and I really wish I hadn't, what an amazing difference, the ASBO is back to full nutter, and no more pops and bangs, it's just smooth uninterrupted lunacy from tick-over to O-Dear how do I survive this...... I shall be ordering a spare one of these Anti-Depressant devices on Monday..... no longer will I ponder the troubles of the ailing V8...... It just goes to show how the abundance of cylinders can overcome such a mix of problems and still function...... So on to the word "Brain".... if the ASBO was equipped with more brain power , and i had been born brighter could we have fixed it sooner??? Answers on a small postcard please...... A very happy Nem.......

I think the 1.8 Zetec is a different beast to a 2.0 as it is more willing to rev - and then the sigma is even more rev happy and lighter thus an altogether different (and potentially enjoyable) experience. Still think the old Chapman adage of “adding lightness” beats adding power any day.

😕 But at least you'll be there and that's the main thing! You'll have definitely tried your best in the Westy!

And you expect this to change after leaving the EU 😂😂😂 No. Short term by leaving the EU with no deal we are losing, well disrupting, our biggest trading partner (over 45% of our exports go to the EU). Theres no way that amount will be sustained once tariffs are in place. We are already losing many manufacturing plants to eastern europe or Asia. This will just be accelerated further. Plus we buy more from the EU than we sell. So things are going to naturally be more expensive. So your poor rich divide is only going to go one way.

I think I’ve worked out how to upgrade the membership type, so if @Grumus can let us know which type he requires, one of us will be able to sort it out for him!

Membership queries should normally be addressed to the Membership Secretary, @Mark Redpath - WSCC Membership Secretary straight renewals that just need the renewal invoice re-sending are easy enough for any of the committee to reissue. However, I note that we only seem to have 60 day memberships on record, so if I just reissue the last invoice, it will be another 60 day type, I’m not sure how to change that to a full membership, if indeed, that’s what’s wanted?

190 bhp /560kg felt right on the road. 214bhp / 560kg wasn’t enough on track.

We got ours from trident racing supplies at Silverstone... but there are lots of other suppliers... trident have a downloadable catalogue.... https://tridentracing.co.uk/

I quick scanned that sign and thought it said Time For You... At Peiss Off 😄

Arrived at the first hotel and it’s been quite hot today about 30 o’c all cars are ok, Lee has booked this hotel which is not serving food so we’re off into town tonight for some food. Here is the view from the hotel 😎

Update for all those going to Bo'ness: - Please be sharp at the meeting point (fire station) as we want to get onsite before the site entrance gets too gnarled up with traffic! - Weather has been poor today but is due to dry up for tomorrow! Site is a little muddy at the entrance but fields are holding up. - Gary has had to turn around due to horrendous rain! Fear not though, our intrepid AO is simply swapping cars (and drying off) before coming down again. He'll see us at the fire station at 08:00 or a little after.

Just off the boat this morning and a 200 mile run to first hotel just on the border of luxenbourg, Lee has adjusted his ride height and damper settings as the car was set up for its last outing which was a speed series event at Anglesey 4 years ago !

There's always a lot of rattle in the gear train.. Not much you can do tbh, just listen and learn what's normal

Thanks all - really helpful! I've always enjoyed getting the most out of a car (I should say trying to get the most - I'm not the best diver!) and in many ways my most enjoyable car to drive was my first car, a very slow metro. But that metro was driven to an inch of its life every day!

It's fugley too: We can see were you are now 😎

That’s just coz you’re tight with the loctite Terry 🤣

Everybody is ready, well sort of! Testing the live location option on watsapp on route to meeting point

Where are you based. There may be a area meetings near you you can join You can look a car options, talk to other members ..who will be more than happy to give you a passenger ride so you can gauge performance

Well done! You'll not regret it. You will be fixing the reverse box of course if fitted... It will more likely leak from the input/output drive shaft seals or breather.. Don't let it run dry as it will very fast. Top it to the fill hole on the side. EP90 gear oil works fine. Grease the 4 propshaft UJ's at least once a year till you see grease squeeze out gaps, wipe excess off. Change the oil twice a year if your using it often. I bought an oil extraction pump to get at the oil tanks oil. Drain the rest via the drain plug. Fit a magnetic plug (M12x1.5). If the sump is silver it'll probably be a Westfield sump. People say its crap but tbh I've not had a single issue despite a certain Andy bates saying it was porous but hasn't leaked yet. Make sure the oil hoses on the bottom of the sump are very tight. Use 2 high quality jubilee clips as there's no lip on the metal hose to stop the pipe coming off. Westfield Parts are obsolete now (I've just bought the last sump and all the other bits which wasn't much tbh) The scavenge pump is defo no longer available so look after it. The nuts holding the propshaft on (the big one in the centre) is also obsolete anywhere - you'll have to get one made if you Break it. Gaskets, buy anywhere for the engine. Best upgrade I made, get it corner weighed and suspension set up... Feels great again now. Bodywork takes about 6 weeks if you need replacements. Check nearly all the bolts regularly, stuff falls off mine all the time... Lost the horn and flared engine side panel bolts last run to scotland.. And enjoy it!

What a fantastic day I have had today. Felt so unbelievably relaxed and enjoyed every minute of my day. Up at stupid "o" clock and went for breakfast at a little cafe on Bridlington Harbour. The harbour was so quiet and it was a lovely place to sit and eat. [shame about the smokers so I eventually moved inside the cafe. Lovely clean food, well priced and super coffee and it made a great start to the day. I stopped at Hornsea Mere to feed the birds and then made my way to the bunker. WOW is an understatement. The bunker is absolutely huge and so interesting. It even has 3 floor levels. All areas apart from a small section are available for viewing. They encourage you to touch items and they even removed chains in areas to grant us better access. Inside is a recreation area and the juke box, space invaders, pool table and pinball all have permanent credits on them for you to play as long as you like. I had a great time playing Galaxian, Scramble and darts. Pinball also took a hammering. The guides who take you round are really informative and friendly and I was in the place nearly 3.5 hours. Lots of top secret stuff on show and various films been played giving the history and role the bunker played throughout the Cold War. One room I found very moving and left with a tear in my eye. From here I ventured to Cherry Cobb Sands to find the decoys that they built in the war to move the port of Hull. Lamps would be hung from wooden poles, with the light shining down onto artificial pools of water underneath. The pattern of lights would hopefully resemble Hull docks when viewed from a passing Luftwaffe aircraft, and so trick the bomber crews into attacking empty mud flats and farmland safely away from the city. I was over the moon when I found the place and will be going back for drone footage. I also found the location of a heavy gun battery nearby which is well hidden but I have been told that there is quite a lot left to see, so that is a return visit. Even saw a huge field just full of sunflowers. Here are a few pictures of my day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/49537761 Rip Anthoine

Made it to Hull, although @John Williams - Blyton Organiser Cycle wing is holding on for dear life 😲