We had travelled down to Barnstaple via Porlock, Lynton and Lynmouth on the Thursday rather than have a very early start on the Friday. Rain and spray all the way down the M5 rather spoiling all my hard work polishing Vee and refurbishing her wheels, but the sun came out in the afternoon making for a very pleasant trip along the north coast of Somerset and Devon.

Friday dawned sunny for an amble from Barnstaple to The Jamaica Inn on Exmoor, from where Gordon and Jennifer Hesketh-Jones had organised four days of tours and visits commencing at Friday lunchtime. We renewed our acquaintance with Chris and Mary Backlund from Guernsey who had organised the MG Rally there in 1999. Chris and Mary had literally just the previous day returned from a 12-day MG tour in South Africa, picked up their MG which had been left at a friends house in England, and travelled to Cornwall. From The Jamaica Inn we travelled to the very impressive Eden Project and then onto our hotel in Falmouth. A slight hiccough in the Tulip route (a T-junction with the arrow to the right but the place name from the left) meant we had a scenic detour via the King Harry Ferry rather than going via Truro. Gordon said they used to use the ferry until one of the cars lost its exhaust going on, Vee's just scraped slightly but I could imagine a lowered conversion would have real problems.

Saturday morning warm and sunny for a trip to Goonhilly Earth Station Lands End and the Levant Mine with its beam engine. The Goonhilly tour and displays are well done and impressive, and is somewhere I have always wanted to go having spent 32 years in BT. Lands End was touristy as usual and very 'end of season', we didn't stay long and a short sharp shower sent us on our way. Levant was very interesting, with tours of the (working) engine and the entrance tunnel to the workings. Along the way Gordon sent us via places such as Mevagissey and Gorran Haven where the very narrow streets, steep hills and tight turns have to be seen to be believed!

Sunday again warm and sunny after heavy overnight rain and more scenic lanes, coastal roads and beaches to the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek in a glorious location in a valley along one bank of a navigable creek. A large site with things to see and do other than watch the antics of the seals, especially at meat-time. Then on to Pendennis Castle in Falmouth itself, on a spectacular position on a headland. We parked inside the grounds in front of the main buildings making a good display, and there was a lot to see in many of the castle buildings, including some impressive animated displays triggered by motion sensors as you walked into the various rooms. From there to Heligan and the Lost Gardens. A bit disappointing as the gardens were past their best and rather small. What was billed as a woodland walk leading to the Lost Valley where we expected to see a lot of planting, was actually all just a woodland walk. The relatively new Horsemoor Hide with a lot of information on bats, foxes, owls and other local wildlife with film, nesting box cameras and the like partially made up for it, but we would have preferred the formal tour of the Northern Gardens which probably gave a lot of information about the discovery and restoration of the gardens.

Monday cooler, cloudy and quite blustery so the RV8s and roadster conversions mostly opted to keep the hoods up for the trip to the St Austell Brewery. A very informative and amusing tour from our guide, who was as nutty as a fruit cake and made me wonder if anyone had done any research into the long-terms effects of working in a brewery! From here we departed to our various corners of Britain, and a straightforward trip along the A30, M5 and M42 to Solihull in 3 1/2 hours. About 775 trouble-free miles, quite a few three-lane (two up, one down) single-carriageway sections on hills giving opportunities for a quick blast of a convoy of V8s and all relatively traffic-free being the end of the season. A big 'thank you' to Gordon and Jennifer for all their hard work in making the tour so successful.

A glorious day for the run starting from Petersfield with 350 cars. Almost 100 miles of stunning scenery and pretty villages along the South Downs, and a pleasant finish on the lawns at Eastbourne. Eastbourne much nicer than Bournemouth and especially Brighton clean and smart for the whole of the seafront and no tacky areas that we found. The route book was unique in our experience in that it was mainly narrative with few mileages. This meant lots of reading and re-reading for the Navigator and the occasional over-shoot of turn-offs, we prefer the more usual Tulip-style.

A real bonus on the journey back to Arundel - we got stuck in a traffic jam on the A27 by Shoreham. Why is that a bonus? Because it was the RAFA Air Show and we were about 100 yards from the edge of the airfield for the duration of the display of a Spitfire and two others, possibly a Corsair and a Kittyhawk, and all from the Old Flying Machine Company. This consisted of shallow formation dives right at us, swooping over our heads at little more than tree height, climbing up and rolling and other mild aerobatics. It was stunning, and the sound of the Merlin is one that makes the hair stand up on the backs of our necks.

Dull at Arundel on the Monday morning for the trip home but it was just coastal so within a few miles we were in full sunshine again, with some more patchy cloud for the second half of the journey. 513 delightful and trouble-free miles and the extended shackles (see 'Ride Height') fitted since the last trip seem to have done the trick.

Sunday morn found about half-a-dozen of us roaming the countryside looking for the start of the run - the joining instructions were completely inadequate, I have to say. The run visited Anderton Boat Lift. We were in time to see two boats enter the bottom and the tour boat enter the top ... but they just stayed there. Apparently yesterday two boats had been stuck half-way for over an hour, maybe a repeat of the same problem. Pretty impressive none the less. Then onto Mouldsworth Motoring Museum - privately owned and quite small but worth a stop, and finishing up at Little Moreton Hall. Not only a very attractive building and grounds, but an excellent guided tour with some humour to flesh out the facts. As for the run itself, we found the roads a bit more congested than on other runs, and due to the number of lanes and roads with high hedges we didn't get to see much of the countryside. One place where the route map said 'good views of the Mersey' was right enough, but spoilt somewhat by the acres of factories and chemical plants also in view! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the weekend and may return.

280 very warm but trouble-free miles. Even at 6pm it was still nearly 30C, it is usual for Bees temp gauge to rise when switched off but I have never seen it rise so much as when we arrived home - right into the 'hot' shaded area. I have also got fed up with grounding Bee when loaded so am investigating the possibility of obtaining longer shackles for the rear springs to raise the rear about an inch.

The first impression was one of sheer size, possibly four times the number of spectators as at the Bugatti Classic meetings at Prescott. The paddock was also very impressive, being hard standing and covered 'pits' for all entrants. The course itself is very different. Shelsley is a continuous hill with three of four kinks and one 'S'-bend, Prescott having more in the way of bends but the hill only starts about half-way along the course. Shelsley is fairly linear meaning each spectator location has only sight of a limited part of the course, where from Ettore's Field at Prescott one can see at least half and most of the interesting bends. Unlike Prescott Shelsley doesn't have a separate return route from the top of the hill to the paddock so competitors queue up in a compound at the top after their run, then periodically ascents are held while everyone comes back down the hill. This and the fact that Prescott seem to run the cars closer together means that Shelsley probably has less 'runs per hour' than Prescott. Another difference is one of organisation, at Shelsley cars run in any order without commentary in the morning, only getting one competing run in class order in the afternoon. At Prescott, until last year, cars had free practice on Saturday and two commentated, competing runs in class order on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Some superbly turned out cars including a magnificent K3 that set a new class record (the same car also set a new class record later in the year at Prescott), Bugatti, Frazer Nash, Alfa Romeo, Bentley and many other marques from the early 1900's to just post war. Many Vauxhalls in evidence it is the company's centenary this year and this was the official 'Vauxhall Centenary Weekend'. Bugatti is still my personal favourite but I was seriously impressed by the smooth lines, power and sound of three ERAs - the first time I had seen these in competition.

Warm enough for tee-shirts all day, and a mere gnat's gambol at 80 miles.

Whilst doing that the wipers were not quite parked so I lifted them off the screen and turned them on and off but they stopped halfway and wouldn't run again. Turned out to be a dirty accessories fuse under the main fusebox.

Then discovered that the fuel pump was intermittently not working. Couldn't complete the diagnosis as it started working, but there was no voltage reaching the back of the car, so it is either my new fuse, the immobiliser, or I have disturbed a bad connection in the POs wire feeding the pump (it had obviously shorted out and damaged the white in the rear loom in the past) when I was running in my purple for the clock.

Then one of the carbs started overflowing! Found out it was the right one, which had a new float valve when it was leaking some time ago. But neither a new filter nor emptying the carbs and refilling made any difference. Neither did another new float valve, then I found the float was full of petrol. Shaking it, squeezing it and warming it up showed no trace of seepage out of the float, so it could be a microscopic defect at the join of the two halves which has slowly been sucking in fuel during each heat/cool cycle. As I still needed to move the car from time to time I used the new overdrive and fuel pump fuses to cross-connect the pump to the overdrive switch so I could switch the pump on and off manually long enough to run the engine normally but not enough to flood! Until a carb actually emptied there seemed to be no difference in how the engine ran as the fuel level dropped, indicating that float level is not critical.

Finally managed to 'cash in' my MGOC Gift Vouchers from 2001 for a book and some change, to which I added 50p and got 3 oil filters for the roadster and V8. Also got a new bonnet release cable and spring and beat someone down from £40 to £25 for a tonneau cover with headrest pockets with a stuck zip otherwise perfect. I already had one and use it a lot but it has no headrest pockets so is a bit of a faff to fit.

Short shopping trip out in Vee, went to check the coolant level before our return and the bonnet latch return spring chose that moment to break! The Navigator was not amused. Partly my fault as the cable had been getting stiffer and I had been putting off doing anything about it, but the spring had rusted through at one end anyway. Turned the last loop into a hook as a temp fix and ran oil down the cable which freed it up. The nut at the handle end was a bit loose so I tightened it up - and sheared the threaded part from the end of the cable!

Rubbed shoulders at another stand with Quentin Wilson, who had the embarrassment of having his credit card rejected. "I've been on holiday". Yes, Quentin.