1994
October - Duxford, MGOC 'Sky's the Limit' Picnic
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An interesting location,
this old WWII USAF air base has aircraft displays,
a museum and a tank testing ground ('ground' is putting it delicately,
'bog' is more accurate). Very cold and windy,
though,
and torrential rain on the way home. Far too late in the year,
in Britain at any rate,
for a 'picnic'.
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June - MGOC 21st Anniversary Run
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Waved off from Mansfield by the Lady Mayor and travelled to Gaydon via Foxton Locks,
a very pleasant place to spend a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon.
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May - Arden Run to Abingdon
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As well as a trip round what remained of the factory and Kimber's office,
we were also issued with the factory 'test routes'. These were used by the factory in the days when every car was road tested. It was almost an eerie feeling to take 'Bee' back over the route she could well have followed when she was brand-new. Part of the route was originally chosen because of the broken edges to the road surface,
in order to test for any rattles over the bumps. Would you believe that the road still had signs warning of broken edges? It certainly did,
and 'Bee' still doesn't rattle! |
April - The Kimber Run
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Our first Kimber Run,
with daughter as navigator. There had always been a slight metal-on-metal rubbing sound if I pressed Bee's clutch all the way to the floor,
but during the run it seemed to be getting worse. When we started out for home I decided to only use the clutch if I really had to. Once into top I managed to stay there,
just switching overdrive in and out,
all the way home through towns,
roundabouts,
junctions and traffic lights,
some 60 miles right to my house. Still not using the clutch I started Bee in reverse to get her into the garage and stalled her to stop. Tentatively pushed the clutch down twice,
there was a 'bang',
and the pedal shot to the floor. Turns out the release bearing had worn completely through on one side and one of the pins that the release lever bears on had broken off.
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