VW MK3 Golf Convertible Archives

One More Wave

One more wave…

After the last post, what have I been up too?

Recovery was slow and it wasn’t until about mid-October that my back was good enough to consider being almost back to normal. The other scars will take far longer and for the second time, my younger brother and I are no longer speaking.

My knee… As I write it should have been operated on the 3rd of this month, (December 2019.) Sadly, the op was canceled and will hopefully get rescheduled for mid-January 2020. Some nights the pain is constant, on others I can cope. Work is a struggle, likewise doing anything to the fleet is difficult. I changed the front brake pads on Tug, my little Vitara just before my op was meant to happen. A job that normally takes 30 minutes max was over an hour with much swearing and cursing.

In August whilst taking clean washing from my machine my right leg locked. Stuck, I had to pop my knee and after seeing the specialist it seems I’d torn and possibly detached my right meniscus…

If my life was not so physical this would not be an issue. Yet walking on uneven ground, carrying off-balance weights, steps, kneeling are. All of which are a major part of my daily routine. At the moment, workwise I can do about 50% of what is normally possible, and then only for 3 to 4 hours before it becomes too painful.

Thankfully there is one thing that I can do.

After ringing my good clients in the morning, I’d told them I’d be there for 12… I arrived at 12.30…

“One more wave?” was their greeting, we have a mutual friend who got into paddleboarding very early. My clients understand, during the winter, on the south coast of Cornwall we often get rideable surf, not large, but to longboarders and paddleboarders, we can surf it.

At Swanpool there are now a group of regulars. We have come to trust and respect each other. My weapon of choice, an old 14ft downwind board that turns as fast as supertanker, yet will catch ripples.

Last year I wouldn’t surf in the pack, now I can. Maneuvering this 14ft board through the group is possible and a lot of fun.

More than one regular has commented that Swanpool is among the most chilled outbreaks that they have encountered. Mostly free from ego, wave sharing is common, and mutual respect even more so. For a little while, on every wave I’m free, walking the board and reaching back to those early Hawaiian beach boys who reintroduced surfing to the world at the start of the 20th century.

Growing up in Perranporth, on the north coast of Cornwall, surfing culture was a part of everyday life. Summer fashions being a mix of both Hawaiian and Californian. Admittedly I tried surfing and really struggled. Then went back to bodyboarding. Yet, there in the racks of Perranporth Surf Club stood some of those original boards. Tall and elegant they were echoes of times past.

Modern longboard type surf sups share similar lines, rightly so. Both those early Hawaiian beach boys like Duke Kahanamoku and the later watermen like Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama used essentially longboards with a paddle when they chose to SUP, (stand up paddle.)

Some aspects of car culture and surf go hand in hand. Hot Rodding originated in Southern California in the late 1930s and exploded into popularity after the Second World War. For instance, The Beach Boys were essentially a group of car guys and not surf ones.

When I load the board up and head towards the beach the cultures combine. Instead of the woodies of old, now converted vans, for more affluent, VW ones, of course, gather.

Out in the line-up, the mantra is one more wave and who I’m too argue. Even with my buggered knee…

Thank you Toni for the pic of me paddling.

Carry Essential Spares…

A couple of day’s earlier my friend rang me up with an issue with his 1957 Morris Minor. My gut instinct told me that it was either the points or the condenser. I heard my voice saying the best thing to do was to carry spares…Now those words had come back to haunt me…

One of the reasons I’d come up to the North East was for the MX5 owners club record attempt Elvington on the 28^th of April… In the past, I have been too car club meetings and I will admit that they are generally not my thing. Yet… Once again MX5 owners are different. As I made my way down the A19 the number of MX5’s started to increase. Oddly a lot of owners seem happy to sit at exactly 70 mph. I remember a friend who had driven rally cars in the 60s and 70s saying that all cars have a natural cruising speed. Another dear friend who has had both 1.6 and 1.8 MX5’s saying that they like 80 mph… 85 and they get twitchy, 75 to 80 and they will run all day. I agree, when both you and your vehicle like a similar pace, driving becomes much more relaxing.

So there I was, going along at 80, roof down, overtaking the odd other MX5 until I joined the back of a long line of them. I only found when I and a few other fellow MX5 drivers followed them into a service station a few miles from the meet. They were from the Tyne Tees group… And a very nice gent in a red NB that had been following came up and said hello. I will admit leaving the service station and arriving a little earlier at Elvington. After following a car from Scotland in were lined up initially 3 across but due to the number of cars that turned up that became 4 across.

After registering, Bel receiving number 255… I met Sid GoPeform and his custodians. I then had an hour and a half to wait before the record attempt. One way to do this was to queue for the toilets. More than one person was heard to comment that this was another record they had decided to attempt to break. It was then a question of going back to where Bel was… Not as easy it would be normally when far as the eye could see there where was MX5’s.

I did wander about looking at the whole range of cars on the track. From scruffy NA’s and NB’s to the restored, immaculate early ones, daily drivers and pristine later cars. Oh and a few customised cars. Each car special to its owner. Oddly, Bel did stand out a little, her mismatched bonnet, gaffer tape on her rear quarter panels, rack and wearing her patches with pride. I chatted with Brett from Total MX5 about the joy of owning a scruffy everyday car. One that is reliable…Oh how that came back to bite me… Yet one that we can jump in and drive a few hundred miles.

It was then time for the record attempt. I’m not going to say much about with this post as I think it deserves a separate one with video.

I left after the record attempt and decided to drive across the North York Moors. Putting Saltburn into the satnav I set off. Soon the little number of MX5’s decreased until it was I was alone in following the instructions. I have a rough idea of the geography, but it is certainly not extensive. I pulled over at a couple of spots to take photographs and enjoy the scenery. As I pulled away the second time, her alternator belt started to slip…

This was then my words a few days ago came back to haunt me. A few seconds later her belt snapped. Now I was stuck, on the moors with no real idea of where I was.

If this was at home, I know enough people where I could leave Bel and get her fixed later. This is not the case. Sadly, if the alternator belt goes, the water pump stops working. You can limp a car home a few miles if you know how to drive gently. First thing I did was to switch off all unnecessary electrical equipment. I then switched the engine off going downhill and bumped started her at the bottom. With my heart racing and driving very carefully I made it back to Redcar. I pulled into a well-known tyre supplier a mile from my mother’s house and she refused to start after. Two passing boys helped me push Bel across the road and I rang my mother who came out with some jump leads. Half an hour later Bel and I were back safe. I started to strip her down hoping that her power steering belt would be the same size at her alternator one…With a choice words… It turned out that it wasn’t. Close, but not close enough… About 3 cm too small.

If I had a spare belt it would have been easy, yes, my words had come back to haunt me.

I’ll cover the belt change in another post, but there was a chance I had cooked Bel’s engine. I’m pleased to say that I didn’t. As for MX5 meetings, this was my first, it won’t be my last. But there will be a spare belt in Bel’s boot just in case.

Classicaraddict on Tour…

Classicaraddict on tour?…

I’m sitting surrounded by tech I barely understand. At the suggestion of a friend, soon Classicaraddict will have a YouTube channel. Well, that is already there, as yet it has no content.

What does this mean to the Classicaraddict blog?

This will mean that Classicaraddict will become smoother and easier to negotiate. There will be more content as I intend to extend the range of what I’ll be covering. For instance, now when I’m working on something, I’ll make sure I set the camera up first, and try to capture some of the essence of the experience. I’m no mechanic, but hopefully, people will find it interesting.

First and foremost, I’m a writer, admittedly a dyslexic one, but that is what I do. The blog site is going to get tweaked later this week by my friend Esther Nagle. This remarkable lady has written on how yoga has turned her life around. She can be found at Space to Breathe Academy

Having read my English with Creative Degree with Falmouth University a few years ago there will be some automotive fiction and poetic prose. Not just mine but also others. Which nicely leads into reviewing books, films, some television. At first, I’ll be covering the ones that I like. Later, and I might come to regret this… The ones I don’t… Like any of the Fast and Furious franchise.

The Vlog… Oh, I already have about 6 cars lined up to review, the first will be Andy’s Toyota Rav’4. Luckily, living in Cornwall we are surrounded by beautiful scenery. This will provide a style to the content that will help showcase both the cars and county. I’ll also be doing vlogs as I drive, this more informal style will allow me to talk about ideas in a relaxed manner. To an extent, much like the Classicaraddict, I’ll do a few. See what works… And then take it from there.

Now for the Tour part… Classicaraddict is going to the MX5 Owners Club meet at Elvington on the 28^th of April. On the way up, as already mentioned, Esther will work her magic touch on the blog site when I stop in South Wales. On the way back I’m meeting another friend at Exeter and having a look at the new Suzuki Jimny … Bel and I are on tour…

See you at Elvington.

Classicaraddict, AKA Alex Small.

Link to the MX-Owners Club.

www.mx5oc.co.uk

Finding a Unicorn Car for a Friend.

I’d put it off for far too long. Early January and my friend wanted to replace his very high mileage Toyota Yaris with something a little better. To be fair, we found him the Yaris about 5 years before and it had provided amazing service yet now at almost 200000 miles, the end was nigh. That amazing little engine had developed a death rattle…

Over the last year or so my friend had mentioned how he would like a 4×4. Now I’ve had Tug, my little Suzuki Vitara at that point for 18 months. So, I do feel that I can comment. The trade off for 4×4’s is the extra weight of the internals, extra driveshafts etc… That some have separate chassis, the fuel consumption is bad. They handle worse on road. Now if you have a use for one, like I do, they are amazing… But.

I’d already talked him out of a Jeep Cherokee… Too big, expensive to run, and Jeep reliability.So not ideal.

At this point. I thought I’d put him off the idea… Yet, once again here he was asking me to help. We are good friends, what could I do? The gardening doesn’t really start until the first full week in the new year. So first it was research time. The only choice that really covered the bases was another Toyota, this time the Rav4. Oh, and just to make life a little more interesting, my friend wanted an automatic.

Why a Rav4? Simply because Toyota made its best cars from the 1990s to the middle of the first decade of this century and they were the most reliable in the world.

We both live in Cornwall, which means that once you find a car, the chances are that it will be at least 2 to 3 hours away… I found a couple of auto MK2 Rav4’s listed, one near Taunton, the other near Bristol. The closer one had just been sold, the seller in Bristol didn’t get back to me… Facing a dilemma… Then I found an MK1 Auto Rav4 at a dealer in Honiton, in the pics it looked really clean… My friend now was in a meeting for a couple of hours… So I rang the garage, explained the situation. They said they would hold it until 1 pm.

We left at 1.30 in Bel, my little MX5, roof down, of course.

The garage was a Rav4 specialist with mostly MK2 models. There in the furthest corner, she sat. Clearly had not been moved since before Christmas. Her body looked clean, and underneath, for her age, she was amazingly tidy. The salesman came out and was about to start her, but I got him to open the bonnet. First, I placed my had on her engine, it was stone cold. Then a quick check of her fluids, all looked good… As I was doing this, I explained what I was looking for and why. The salesman made a joke about dodgy second-hand car dealers. Then he turned her key and she burst into life. No smoke, no hassles.

I jumped in and we set off on a quick test drive that included a blast down the nearby A30. She ran like a dream, at first the brakes ground a little, but that was just the surface rust coming off. We then swapped seat and my friend had a little drive.

Thumbs up…

We left with the car an hour later. I fear my I might have inflicted my friend with the classic car bug. We drove home in convoy, Bel in front and the Rav4 that now had been named Phoebe following. Inside I felt a sense of relief. I’d pulled another out of the bag.

DIY BARBECUE

Barbecue

With the camper van I realized that I need a reusable barbecue. So what does someone with a little welding experience and some scrap metal do?

Simply make one…

I had the remains of a metal case from an old printing press…

With an hour of bodging, welding and generally mucking about it was finished.

More by luck than judgment it was the same width as the wheel ramps. This is important as everything has to have a place.

Disposable barbecue…Pff…

Faceless Drone

Two weeks ago I attended a speed awareness course. An option offered instead of receiving 3 points on my driver’s license. In the UK we can only have 12 points before it is taken away for a compulsory ban. Points can be accrued for being a little over the speed limit, using a handheld mobile phone, etc, etc.

In my case, it was for doing 35 mph in a 30 limit. I will say that this was not in a town, but between two villages on the Northeast coast of Britain. Also, I did not know the area, had my mother and her dogs in the car. Thankfully I could attend the course here in Cornwall.

The little room was full of a mix of people and diverse ages apart from the very young. All levels of experience and knowledge, from the commercial driver to the little old lady who only pops down to the shops. Those taking the course were driving instructors. Their aim, to partake a little knowledge to those who were there simply to avoid the points. Both were good people and very articulate. Like a group of naughty school children, we sat at the start and shared how we got caught. The recent changes in the highway code, refreshed areas we had forgotten…It also informed us how car design has changed, for instance how stopping distances have been reduced with antilock brakes. Why more people survive accidents thanks to airbags, how cars now deform when others impact them, etc.

All which is very good, but and this is major but, cars are now not only filled with distractions but also they have major blind spots. With ever increasing levels of safety, car pillars are becoming far wider. If you compare a car from the 60’s, 70’s or early 80’s they seem so light and airy. The blind spots are far less. Now yes, it does make them less safe in the event of an accident, but arguably it makes some accidents far less likely.

Within recent years there is more and more electronic interference in the driving experience. Electric power steering can rob all tyre feel. For example, I drove a modern automatic supermini to near London and back again in April. It was far more like a simulator than it should have been. The car gave no feedback to what was going on beyond the windscreen. Many messages of the changing conditions bypassed. Often it was only my experience that helped to fill the gaps. At low speed the car is amazing, but it was not a driver’s car in any shape or form. The auto-box is not the traditional torque converter, but a more modern electronic clutch,taking away feel and choice. There are tricks an experienced driver can do with a torque converter that can help in difficult conditions. Those options are taken from the driver and therefore reduces control.

The designer of the original Mini, Sir Alec Issigonis, gave it the most amazing handling. Anyone has ever driven one fell in love it almost immediately. When asked why, Sir Alec replied, “it made the car safer for the district nurse, the young mother.” Instead of making a car that was soul destroying to drive, he went the other way. He saw safety in the ability of the driver to react. Of course, he accidently created one the greatest rally cars of all time…

I drive a MK 3 Golf convertible, she is old, tired and battered. She really should not be used the way I do, often overloaded and pulling a trailer. Yet, of all the cars I’ve owned and driven, she is my second favourite. A simple car with amazing visibility and such fun to drive. Every journey is an adventure not because I wonder when or if she will break down.

Driving can be a joy… Well when not caught in an endless traffic jam, and even then the odd roundabout calls.

Sadly, we are heading towards driverless cars as they become metal boxes of convenience. Each new technology takes us a little further away from the joy of driving. As a result, the level of awareness on British road is becoming truly awful. In many ways, the change to complete driverless cars cannot happen fast enough. Then we can all become the faceless drones that many would like us to be.

I will still remember the call of the open road. My fear is that soon all I will have are those memories.

Footnote

Since this blog was originally posted I’ve bought a Suzuki Vitara(Tugg) so accidental speeding is much less of a problem.