[Mick O'Malley]

It was the spring Beaulieu Autojumble at the weekend, and, as usual, I drove down to Yate to crash at my friend's house. As the forecast was so good I went in the A352 and it was a fabulous drive through the Gloucestershire countryside. We left at 0530 Saturday in his Mercedes and had a really good day as other events had doubtless severely thinned the crowds.

On return to Yate, and a quick coffee, I began retracing my route, noticing that the level of transmission noise through my ally tunnel was higher than usual. As the trip is only some 30 miles I pressed on regardless enjoying the surges of acceleration out of the corners on the twisty first section of my route. A loud bang, followed by hideous graunching noises and a total loss of drive brought my reveries to an abrupt end. A puddle of hypoy under the diff. told its own story .

I 'phoned my friend and he nobly came out and towed me the 20 odd miles home - I was carrying my Machine Mart towing bar so this was a doddle behind his Mercedes. We pushed the A352 onto my front and I decided to not even look until the morning.

I had other tasks to perform so it wasn't until late morning that I got the beast up on axle stands with the back wheels off and investigated. The nose bearing has completely vanished so I'm guessing that the shaft which passes through it has sheared inside. I 'phoned my ever helpful Spitfire parts guy who not only has a good condition diff. but is coming up the M5 mid week! Result.

It's a fair bit of work as access to the transverse spring mounting bolts is severely hampered by my cockpit panelling. I hope that recourse to neither rivet drilling nor tin snipping will be necessary.

Regards, Mick