[Mick O'Malley]

Saturday's sortie in the A352 was once again to Shelsley Walsh. The scenic early morning blat up the largely deserted A38 through Tewkesbury was enjoyable as ever, apart from a hint of a misfire under load at low revs. More of this anon.. I stopped for fuel and, on coming out after paying, I was buttonholed by a guy who positively raved about my machine. He said he'd turned back having seen it in passing, and was convinced it was genuine until I put him right. Very Flattering!

On arrival, I was directed, as ever, to 'Row A' where black number plated cars gather. The guy next to me had bought his Elan Plus Two with frontal damage and had rebuilt it to his own design, also installing a 1.8 MX5 mill and five speed 'box. A cracking job he'd made of it too.



I'm not a huge fan of US metal but there were two absolute pearlers there, both with history. The first was the winner of the 1948 Indy 500 which also took pole in '55. The four cylinder Offenhauser made the ground shake as it powered off the line in a cloud of oil smoke. Apparently it ran at The Brickyard with only a two speed 'box in period, and a 15:1 compression ratio. The hole in the grille was for the remote starter, basically an enormous electric drill with a female splined 'bit' which fitted over the protruding nose of the crankshaft.. What a glorious machine.







The second beauty, a Camaro, had a rather sadder history. Its first of only two owners was KIA in Vietnam in his F4 Phantom .



On the way back, between Worcester and Tewkesbury, a persistent and worsening backfire and loss of power at low revs manifested itself.. I pulled into a lay-by and investigated, imagining the points had closed. I opened them up a little but it wouldn't restart, so I was ignominiously towed back behind my ex-neighbour's Land Cruiser. Replacing the condenser with a known good one effected the repair - I'll carry a spare from now on!

Regards, Mick