I t W as O nly, 24 H ours @ L e M ans

Monday - the trip North

Eddie had become increasingly worried about the water pump pulley that was becoming noisy. On removal it could be seen that it had cracked. The previous evening Bruce Morgan, a fellow TF owner of long standing advised that a similar problem with his car had been temporally solved by the judicial use of epoxy resin.

Monday saw Eddie and me driving to the local hardware store for "quick set French alternative to Araldite". As most of the tents on the camp site were being struck, Eddie decided to keep the resin in store and to ensure the fan blades didn’t make contact with the radiator core if things suddenly got worse, they were removed. He turned the engine off during the next two days on the few occasions we were stuck in traffic but otherwise reported only a small increase in engine temperature.

The last we saw of the Peters Stag & occupants was when they were left on the long trailer journey to home in England. The Spitfire made it under its own power amidst loud noisy gear changing (MGs rule!).

Unbeknown to me, Mick couldn’t find a stowage place for a melon we had bought, for the return journey, so looking around the car he placed it between the base of the spare wheel and the rear number plate. Despite the hardish MG suspension, this an excellent place to transport a melon and caused many a comment on the way home.

With lots of horn & Klaxon sounding the TF & TC left the campsite and headed north, leaving Le Mans on the actual roads we had intended to use!

After about 30 miles Eddie was concerned about the increasing noise from the water pump pulley so we stopped by an antique shop. Dave looked at the goods on sale while the TF pulley had liberal amounts of resin applied before refitting. Streams of UK cars passed us whilst the resin was curing, including the Westfields from the camp site (lots of waving) and a long line of Catereham 7s that included one of my customers who I had been keeping an eye open for all weekend.

We were leaving from Cherbourg at midnight, so turning left at Caen we headed to Bayeux and mistakenly stopped in the bus car park as the TC driver (I) wasn’t concentrating. This turned out to be a happy mistake as the sight of a red double decker bus greeted us.

"The Big Red Bus" as it was called was returning from the race. Its owner has two of these, the first arrives at Le Mans earlier in the week with provisions etc. etc. and establishes camp. "Our" bus arrives full of race-goers and returns home on the Monday. I wonder how much it cost to take a double decker bus and trailer on the ferry?

Eddie had run out of petrol as we stopped on the car park, so, having noticed a fuel station just up the road, I went & filled the gallon can I had in the TC. This allowed Eddie to drive up & fill the TF. Unfortunately, as we will see later, I didn’t think to refill the gallon can.

Bayeux is beautiful, but at nearly 5.00 p.m. on a June day, full of tourists, it was closed. The beautiful new toilets were locked, the museum not accepting any more visitors.

A short drive north found us at Arromanches and the huge remains of the Mulberry harbours towed from England to provide at beachhead for unloading D Day equipment. On the side of one of the large pre-cast concrete pontoons, someone had written the words "Made in England". Most appropriate.

Of course the museum was closed, but it allowed us to have a good walk round and a nice meal. Reaching the ferry port at 10:30, we parked next to the Westfield 7 group from our camp site! Nice little cars and seemingly bigger in the cockpit than the Caterhams. After a meal on the ferry, we retired to our pre booked reclining seats for the night.

Monday - back in Blighty

Arriving at the picturesque harbour in Poole the next morning as the sun rose was a beautiful sight. The journey back to the Midlands was to be over "old" roads Eddie was leading in the TF so he could enjoy the open road rather than the sight of the back of the TC. The directions were to keep on the A350 past Shaftsbury, Warminster, Melksham and Chipenham. Rather a nice route.

All was well until passing Blandford Forum, the TC lost power suddenly, and as the sound of the engine died, the quiet of an English early summer morning was only broken by the songs of the birds and fast ticking of the SU fuel pump. Yep, we were out of petrol! In all the excitement of yesterday, when Eddie ran out of fuel, not only had we not filled the TC, but we (I) hadn’t refilled the gallon can. I put it down to old age, the driver that is, not the car.

Mick stayed with the car and I took the can and walked towards the town. A milkman was delivering to a new housing estate and kindly gave me a lift to a petrol station and back to the TC. On route I explained that in my opinion we all should support milk deliveries and not use the supermarket cut-price milk.

Mick suggested we stop at Lacock, a National Trust village, used by many film companies as a "period" location. We stayed for some hours, had a coffee, joked with some American tourists in the "All this needs is a McDonalds lazy M sign to compete the sight" vein. Chattered to an antique restorer and generally had a good time.

Stopping at a lay-by near Malmsbury for rather good bacon sandwiches we spent an idle while watching one of our wonderful policemen erecting a mobile radar speed trap. The owner of the "greasy spoon" told everyone what he thought about the whole affair and how he would use the police man power in the unlikely event of him being in charge of the police force. Quite entertaining in all. Then north to Cirencester and onto the Fosse Way to Warwick and home. About 775 miles all told.

The melon had travelled for some 275 miles between the spare wheel and the rear number plate. It didn’t ripen for about a week, but was quite delicious when eventually eaten!

Next year's Le Mans will be a big one, the first of the millennium. The date has been already announced as being the weekend of 17-18th June and the organisers have suggested early booking.

I’ve booked my tickets and e-mailed the MG Car Club, pleading that Silverstone doesn't clash with Le Mans 2,000.

Having got to know the ropes a bit more, I really enjoyed this year, so next will be even better, especially if travelling in an MG!

Copyright
Steve Taylor, August 99