Nice day out at the Ace Cafe

Today was the annual Triumph car Day at the Ace Cafe on the Norf Sirk....

I love this venue, steeped in modern history and so cool, the atmosphere is stright out of the 50s & 60s and it's absolutely perfect for a classic car meet.

The food isgreat as well, I had the fish & chips and the batter and the homemade tartar sauce was well scrummy!

Nice to meet up with Mark Smith in his immaculate wedgewood blue GT6 and his friend Bex. Good company, good venue, good food and a nice selection of cars, plus the sun was shining, a good day out in the GT6!

A Nice Day after a Soggy Night

Saturday Night at SEM was a rather soggy affair as it absolutely bucketed it down with rain. I'm glad James brought along a gazebo so that we had somewhere to try and shelter from the downpour. Sunday came though and it was a lovely day which brought out shiny Triumphs in their droves. My GT6 started making a whistling noise as I drove into the site on the Saturday afternoon so I investigated under the bonnet and found a 2 inch long split in the hose connecting the emission valve to the manifold. A few minutes work with some plastic insulating tape gave a good old fashioned bodge repair to get me home. The TSSC club shop had some double walled silicon hose versions of the hose for sale which should be a bit more durable than the rubber ones which only seem to last 2 or 3 years nowadays, so I now have a set and will be fitting them this week.

Another weekend another Triumph camping Do...

Not quite such a salubrious location as last week's Isle of Wight camping weekend but I'm at it again, camping with the GT6 at a Triumph event. This time it's the TSSC South of England Meet (AKA SEM) at Leatherhead. The main event starts tomorrow but there are a few camping over tonight so it's Barbeques and Beers at the campsite for the rest of the evening for me!

End of another great weekend in the Isle of Wight

Sunday was an eventful day at the Isle of Wight Camping weekend.

A run out to Calborne Water Mill, again the weather was kind and it was a good run around the Island to get there including a part of the run along the sea front at Ventnor and a climb up the infamous zig zag hill.

Then back at the campsite was a demonstration of lead loading followed by an excellent hog roast.

Then in the evening the TSSC Hants & Berks area (+ friends) teamed up for the quiz and duly won, From memory, this is the 4th time in 5 years we've won the quiz! Not bad as we don't take it that seriously and have a good laugh while taking part.

Then came the results from the treasure hunt, the raffle and the announcement of the winner of the Appuldurcombe choice trophy presented by the owners of the Campsite for their favourite car of the event. Well as a group we did well in all of these, Jason, Poppy and Kelly came 3rd in the treasure Hunt, Anne Marie and Glynn got 2nd place, Jason won the star prize in the raffle a tablet PC. But the most unexpected result was that I won the Appuldurcombe trophy for my GT6!

On Monday it was the usual run out to the Wight Mouse Pub for some lunch and then [pack up camp and off home having had an excellent weekend. Thanks Go to Angela and Graham and their team for putting on yet another great weekend.

2nd Day on the Isle of Wight

Another good day today, run out from the campsite to Carisbrooke Castle. A nice run even if we did get lost on the way when James acting as navigator missed a turning, we had about a dozen other Triumphs following us who obviously  weren't following the directions properly.

The castle was very interesting and there was a treasure hunt with clues to find around the castle to add to the entertainment.

Afterwards it was back ton the site for more beers, a barbecue and an 80's disco.

Over on The Isle of Wight

Cookie is currently over on the Isle of Wight at the Triumph Camping Weekend, meeting up with lots of old Triumphing friends. A good way to avoid the Royal Wedding as I'm well away from any TV!

Started off the weekend by taking my boy James for a curry, which was good until he ate what he thought was a runner bean but was actually a green chilli. Poor little chap suffered somewhat.

The event proper starts this evening so today I let James decide what he wanted to do and took him to the military museum, he didn't want a tank ride but did enjoy playing with the Bofors Anti Aircraft Gun.

Got Back to the campsite, had a barbecue and then a few more started to turn up so started on the cider and beer!

Nice day out in the Sunshine

What a difference a year makes, today I went along to the Wyke Down Spring classics meet and autojumble in glorious hot sunshine. This nice little show and autojumble takes place in a filed behind the Wyke Down pub near Andover on Easter Monday each year and last year it got cancelled as the weather was so atrocious and the field was totally waterlogged. I like to get along to this as it's one of the first local shows of the season and has a good variety of vehicles and a interesting autojumble. Always a few unusual or desirable cars that carch my eye and this year was no different.

The traditional picnic by the GT6...

Not for the feint hearted, a chopper bicycle fitted with a Honda 125 Engine, even has the original bicycle front brake!

If I had a few bob to blow on a car collection this Atom would be one of the cars in my garage

Believe it or not, this is a car not a boat, Reliant Robin based

The Old and the New Jags, XK8 definitely has some styling cues from the E-type

Apologies if this is your car, but that wooden hard top thingy on the back is sooo ugly, why oh why???

A  Brace of Meschersmits