What a FAB day! Blue skys, warm weather and a perfect day for a run in the car!
My first job was to swap the E-types, so I took the S1 down to my other garage and bought the S3 back to my home garage. From there Georgie and I set off to Batemans, owned by the National Trust and the home of Rudyard Kipling. We have been several times but it always worth another visit.
You will see in the video that en-route we drove past our friends house in Cowbeech where I sounded my horn. Later we went past Georgie's old house and then finally to Batemans. Along the way there are some fabulous properties and we always like to take little country lanes where possible.
When we got to Batemans I took this photo of Georgie by the well... try and find the spot when you next visit!
Whilst at Batemans Georgie bought some garden ornaments from their shop but they were much too big to bring back in the E-type so we will have to go up tomorrow in a more suitable car to collect them.
We had a wonderful day out. The drive was fabulous, the weather glorious and our time at Batemans enjoyable.
End Mileage 85,563 (64 miles)
Georgie drove me over to AutoHistorics today to collected my car. Fortunately it wasn't a wet day, but neither was it a hot summer's day, but still good enough to enjoy the run home with the top down.
Boy oh boy, these brakes have been a difficult problem to solve, but finally I have found a man (Gregg) who just wouldn't give up! Apparently it was all about the design of the replacement master cylinder that I have had two of! When the engin gets hot the heat affects the different metals in the cylinder and they expand at a different rate. Gregg said that Jaguar would have know this when they were making the cars, and would have had very exact tolerances on the machining, but that that technical knowledge has not passed through to the manufacturers that now make these parts for old Jags. Consequently Gregg has had to do so very special machine work on the reaction valve piston inside, and is now confident that all the hard work he has put into machining the valve and test driving the car will have sorted out the problem. Certainly I didn't have any problems on the drive home and I can feel that the brakes are working as normal now.
Here is a picture of the offending part (I have enlarged only the part in question)...
I took a nice journey home but as you can see from the map, I ran into a problem! There was a sign saying "Road Closed" at Alfriston, but rather than turn back I decided to see if I could squeeze through, however after about 3 miles I came to where the road really was blocked and there was no way passed so I had to double back on myself... very annoying!
End Mileage 85,499 (27 miles)
NOTE: 59 unrecorded miles whilst the car was away being fixed. See Invoice 02/08/24
Took the car back to Autohistoric for more work!
I still have problems with the brakes sticking on so Gregg is going to have another look at them. It has been a long standing issue that has proved very difficult to identify but when the going gets tough, the tough get going!
End Mileage 85,413 (14 miles)
Just popped my car down to my Silverdale Road garage.
End Mileage 85,399 (1 miles)
The sun was out, and whilst a chilly nip remained in the air, the weather offered an ideal opportunity to take my car for the first run this year.
Having not started the car for over 5 months, I was expecting a bit of a tussle! I pulled the choke out to maximum, made sure that I didn't touch the throttle and twisted the key. Seven seconds later the engine caught and the beast roared into life and as usual, after a long lay off, fumes belched from the tail pipe in an effort to hasten 'global warming'. There was a moment when I thought that the Environmental Agency would come and arrest me, but as the engine warmed the air cleared and everything returned to normal.
Georgie donned her head scarf, gloves and coat and hopped into the car whilst I was already togged up in my flying jacket and baseball hat. Off we set towards Beachy head and Birling Gap. It wasn't long before we had our first wave from an appreciative passing car which is one of the pleasures of owning such an iconic car.
Whilst we only intended to drive around Beachy Head, we were enjoying ourselves so much that the route was extended to Seaford, then over to Beddingham and then back to Eastbourne via the A27. In most part the journey was not a scenic route but I wanted to avoid any wet puddles and dirty roads! Nevertheless, when we got home we still had a smile on our faces!
End Mileage 85,398 (36 miles)