racer2_uk

Evenin everybody, Today was Eccleshall show, I have not been to this show in year's, it was a lovely day and the Chalmers got me there in no time at all, it was a really good show, I met lot's of people I hadn't seen in year's, unfortunately I did a lot of talking and didn't take many photo's, very sorry. One of the largest steam ploughing engines I have ever seen was in attendance and was ticking over beautifully, this "Fowler 16hp" from 1920, I think this cute little car is a Morris Ten from around the mid 30,s The Chalmers with a 1927 Humber 14/40, the radiator cap or mascot was missing, I hope the owner took it off for safekeeping, A great day was had with a lot of chatting and plenty of tea and cake, a fun drive home and over 2700 miles so far. Andy

Evenin Grimy and all, Grimy, thank you for your kind words and interest in the travel's of the Chalmers, it is a lot of fun to do, I am rapidly running out of local event's to see, I will have to get the Chalmers a bit further afield to drive some new road's. I had a great run out today and a big milestone for the Chalmers, driving out of Eccleshall after a very nice lunch I noticed an old crane jib over the hedge, I pulled into the next entrance that was a scrapyard, I chatted to the owner who wanted to see the car, we walked round to look at the Ruston crane which I think is an early 1970's 22RB, he say's it still works ! a little further down the lane I found an old village garage and petrol station, no longer in business this and other old fuel stop's have virtually disappeared, the retired owner was really nice, when I got home and logged my mileage for the trip I realised that since getting it back on the road in 2013 the Chalmers had motored an incredible 10,000 miles ! no wonder I spend time in the garage ! I am really pleased with how it is going and how much fun getting out and enjoying these vehicles can be, please, everybody out there with an old car go out for drive ! Andy

Evenin everybody, The Chalmers has been out a lot over the last week or so, we have now enjoyed over 2500 miles this year, that must add up to about 2500 waves, thumb's up, headlight flash's or horn blow's ! Last week I drove through a village close to where I grew up, the village still has a set of "stocks", an old punishment device, while I was out I called in at an old favourite place, Rudyard railway, last weekend's great weather brought lot's of people out to another show at Market Drayton, there were some great vintage truck's on display, and a few mad "Bubble cars", steam is a big favourite of mine, the Chalmers looked well and drew a constant crowd, this weekend is the final outing for the Ford RS500 race car for this year at Donington Park. Andy

Evenin everybody, We have had more trips out over the last few day's and have seen some great thing's, I went to the 1000 engines rally at Astle park on Saturday, it is so big you can't see everything but I did have a good try, they have group's of tractors, motorcycles, steam traction engines and cars, I found this wonderful early Morris commercial, a fantastic 1919 Thornycroft truck, a wonderful selection of steam engines and truck's, these engines have such presence, on the motorcycle display I found this beautiful heavily modified Yamaha RD250 twin that had been converted to 4 cylinder 500cc, it was very well engineered, the Chalmers went down very well even though I only turned up to see the show and not really be in it ! a great show for anybody interested in engines, vehicles and anything old. On the way home I stopped for a photo of Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the distance, Today we took the Chalmers down the road to our local Mill Meece open day, we always try and call in to our nearest show place, the volounteer's work so hard to keep the place looking so well, while at Mill Meece I got talking to a lady who trained guide dogs for the blind, she had her vision impaired son with her and I took him out for a drive, he really enjoyed it and we had a great chat while driving. Later that afternoon, I called round to see a friend and his son, we then had a quick drive out to the Hinds Head pub with them in their Riley 9 special and myself on the Chalmers, with nearly 2300 miles so far it is a great driving year. Andy

Evenin everybody, We have had a bit of dodgy weather that has kept the Chalmers in for a few day's and along with effort's going towards the Ford RS500 for the Silverstone circuit's Ford Fair day we haven't had much to report on, until today, At the weekend the RS500 was part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the marque, we had 7 of the road cars on the display with 3 racer's, it looked and sounded great on track, Now to today, the weather looked good and I decided a big trip was in order, a trip to Wales was in order, I headed West towards Llangollen and the River Dee, just before Llangollen is the very impressive 100 feet tall Cefn Mawr railway viaduct, a couple of miles down the road is the world famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct built in 1805 by Thomas Telford, it is a tank of water 126 feet up in the air ! I tried to get closer but the River Dee and the deep cutting stopped that idea, on to Llangollen town, I stopped by the only Taxidermist shop I have ever seen, on the return route I went through the little village of Hanmer, in the centre of the village a new oak framed cottage with a thatch roof was under construction, an unusual thing to see, they also have a very grand looking church, the trip went very well, the Chalmers ran happily all day, this evening I called round for one of my neighbours and we went to the White Lion, a nice Harley chop turned up, along with some Ducati's, BMW's and Triumph's, then the star of the evening arrived with his chauffeur, we have now covered over 2100 miles and things are good. Andy

Evenin everybody, Since the last update we have been out a lot ! the Chalmers has been on the road most day's and we have done some more long runs, the local ice cream specialist has a giant straw built mascot each year, Sandbach Old Hall is a wonderful building, on the road out to Crewe is a fine tree lined drive to a farm, we drove out for lunch at the Shroppie Fly, a lot of canal boats were arriving for a festival, Norbury Junction for a cuppa, I still end up at the canal for some reason ? today I went west and ended up in Oswestry and Shrewsbury, this is Whittington Castle from the 12th century, while negotiating Shrewsbury I stopped outside the gates of the former Sentinel steam lorry factory, spotted in a village near Hodnet an original "pound" for stray animals, I have really enjoyed the long runs out, we now stand at over 1900 miles this year. Andy

Evenin everybody, A great few days out on the road on the Chalmers, we drove to 2 different shows on Sunday, a field of old friends with old tractors, beautiful line of vintage saloons, on to Mill Meece motorcycle show, this Vincent was very eye catching, on Wednesday I drove out to Ellesmere via this unusual canal bridge showing the level of the water compared to the road, we had just waited on the other side as a barge came through, there are some lovely looking cottage's in this area, a nice lunch stop in the sunshine, after leaving Ellesmere the Chalmers popped and banged, I made a stop luckily in a layby, I found an ignition wire almost snapped off the points circuit, I found this as the engine would run if you moved the ignition lever back and forth to move the wire back together, a quick fix and off we went. Yesterday I decided to make a bigger journey, I drove through Stoke on Trent and on to Leek, then up the very steep climb to over 1500 feet above sea level and onto Buxton, from there I head out towards Ashbourne, on the way I found this really tall railway arch, this used to serve the many quarries in the area, a stop in Ashbourne for lunch then out to Bradley before turning back towards Rocester, after Rocester and heading back there is a small sign for Croxden Abbey, these are remains of an 1170's abbey and you can drive through it ! the long runs have been a lot of fun, yesterday's run was over 100 miles, the Chalmers feels good, looking forward to a good weather weekend. Andy

Evenin everybody, The Chalmers looks to be in good shape after Shelsley Walsh, we drove out to the local VSCC pub meet on a very warm night, a very nice 1929 Sunbeam 16.9 was in the car park, a very rare Gordon-Keeble, the Chalmers and a superb Riley special, it is always a great night, the run home is always fun, the headlights are better than they look, Over 1300 miles now and hopefully a good day tomorrow. Andy

Evenin everybody, The weekend's Vintage Sports Car Club's Shelsley Walsh hillclimb turned out to be one of the best event's we have had with the Chalmers, the car ran very well all weekend and we were able to do 3 practice and 3 competitive runs that gave us a best time of 74.42 seconds, an improvement of nearly 15 seconds on last years time ! the flywheel work has really been worth doing. As usual there was a great selection of car's competing, a wonderful pairing of 1937 Delahaye and 1926 Sunbean twin cam, a Vauxhall A/D type driven by Rebecca Smith, the 1911 Sunbeam 16/20 of Hicky Hickling, this car has been competing for over 100 years ! the Napier Bentley was on form as usual, seeing and hearing an ERA is always an event in itself, this is R4D, I have not seen this SS100 Jaguar before, the Chalmers really put on a good show, I have a few day's to do a checkover and then we should be off to a local show next weekend. Andy

Evenin everybody, The weather has been wonderful and the Chalmers has been out and about a lot, I called into our local Mill Meece pumping station car show and had lovely tea and cakes, on Sunday I was invited by a great guy who owns The Bulls Head pub in the village of Alton in Staffordshire for the Alton festival, this used to be a bikers pub that I was a regular at back in the '80's, I parked the Chalmers in the same spot I used all those years ago, after I parked David Leigh rolled up on "Spider" one of Basil Davenport's famous Shelsley special's, the High street was closed off and a superb display of vehicles arrived through the day, a strong looking Dodge Bros saloon, a beautifully presented Armstrong Siddeley 14hp tourer, more modern but so iconic, this Porsche 60, the view along the High street was magical and so English, with over 1200 miles now I will give the Chalmers another oil change and a check over ready for Shelsley Walsh in a couple of weeks. Andy

Afternoon everybody, A last minute change in the weather got lot's of car enthusiast's out at The Wharf classic car night, the amazing range of car's and bikes is always a treat, an absolutely beautiful BSA Rocket 3, a lovely early Citroen, a great pair of British sporting car's, a Riley 9 special and a Bristol 403, by the time I got home the Chalmers had travelled over a 1000 miles this year so far. Andy

Afternoon everybody, Thanks to a nice week the Chalmers has been out regularly with some very enjoyable drives, a lunch stop in Eccleshall, another wonderful piece of canal architecture, I spotted this on my run home, Today I drove out to the Klondyke steam party for my heavy engineering fix, there was a wonderfully restored 1946 Foden winch tractor, the final assembly of a huge restoration of a traction engine, this will be running by the end of the month, I left the steam party and travelled south to a small engine rally for Gardner diesel engines, these are known for their reliability and high mileages achieved, these 2 engines are marine types, this huge 3 cylinder from a motor yacht, and this highly polished canal boat engine, today's trip out notched up another 93 miles giving us nearly 1000 miles this year so far. Next Thursday is "The Wharf" classic car night, hopefully it will be a decent night, I will give the Chalmers a check over tomorrow. Andy

Evenin everybody, What a great weekend we have had at Loton Park hillclimb, a slightly damp practice day went well and a warm dry final day gave us loads of fun, the Chalmers was trouble free and went extremely well and we ended up nearly 5 seconds faster than last year, the flywheel machining has made a huge difference in the cars performance on track, a wonderful Mitchell racer was out and it was very quick, it was a slim car in comparison with the Hudson super six, Annie Walker was driving at Loton for the first time in her Peugeot Bebe, arguably the cutest racing car ever ! we ended up 1/100th of a second quicker on handicap than the 1917 Buick of my friend Ron, I hope he speaks to us at Shelsley Walsh, next time out ! I need a rest after that weekend. Andy

Evenin everybody, The weather has been wonderfully sunny and several trips out on the Chalmers have been enjoyed since the weekend, I checked the car out but couldn't resist getting back out on the road, I had a great run out to Sleap airfield near Wem, luckily there museum was open, the museum has some wonderful and some haunting display's from WW2, over a dozen beautifully conserved crash recovered engines are on display, along with the engines are aircraft component's and pilot's history items, after leaving Sleap I called at Moreton Corbet castle, significant houses have been on this site since 1086 and the last house, now ruined, was last inhabited in the 1800's, a warm evening so a quick run down to the Shroppie Fly for a half, just over 800 miles now, fingers crossed for a sunny Loton. Andy

Evenin everybody, The sun has been out and the Chalmers has been going well, I have examined the distributor pick up's to check for wear and they look great, the oil has been changed and I have fitted a 5 litre coolant catch tank ready for Loton Park next weekend. My father has decided to sell his 1914 Daimler TW20, so I gave it a checkover and the car was photographed for the auction catalogue, it is the only TW20 we know of, it is a sleeve valve engine with a transaxle type rear axle, it has an electric starter that operates by a rubber and leather wheel that drives on the outside of the flywheel, Today we had a really nice drive out to the Foxfield railway military weekend and met up with old friends, the Chalmers became part of a photoshoot, Netty found one of her favourite vehicles, a Kettenkrad, at Foxfield railway they are involved with all the heavy aspect's of steam locomotive restoration, as could be seen on the siding's awaiting work, with other project's nearing completion, on the way home we called in to Mill Meece pumping station, another local show we like to go to, these small group's of volunteer's that preserve our history deserve some recognition, they work so hard, I found this wonderful old Case with a Perkins engine ! I will give the car a check over ready for the weekend's sport. Andy

Evenin everybody, We have had a beautifully sunny week and the Chalmers has been out and about nearly every day, today we first of all went to our local biker café for a brew, all the biker's wanted to see the engine, on the way to the café I bumped into my mate Peter on his Kawasaki Gpz900r, he had his helmet cam running and this what it recorded and he just sent it over to me, After the cafe I called at my favourite pub for a swift half, while looking through the internet this week I found 2 great shot's of the Harley twin engined special that was at Curborough last Sunday, it was wonderfully mad, The Chalmers has now clocked up 500 miles this year, it will have a short rest as I am travelling down to the Beaulieu spring autojumble next weekend to hopefully find some old car treasure. Andy

Evenin everybody, The Chalmers has been out on many trips over the last few week's and is doing well, today we competed at the Vintage Sports Car Club twisty sprint at Curborough, the weather was ideal and the course was perfect, parked next to the Chalmers was the cutest car I have seen in year's, it was a Peugeot Bebe with sport's bodywork, it was driven by the daughter of the Darracq V8's driver Mark Walker, it was her first sprint event, it was tiny ! several special's were in attendance, including this Anzani V-twin engined cyclecar, and JD's twin engined Ariel square four special, the only car I know with 4 crankshaft's, We ended the day with a best time of 53.66 seconds, 3.4 seconds faster than last year ! the work on the flywheel was really worth it. 350 miles and Curborough sprint so far and looking forward to a lot more. Andy

Evenin everybody, A great weekend out and about on the Chalmers, a nice pub lunch at the White Lion on Saturday, and we had a great time again at the Raven café Bikers breakfast on Sunday, the Chalmers was the oldest vehicle we could find at the breakfast, the star bike of the morning was a Vincent Black Shadow, on the way home I called in for fuel and found a mate of mine in his Jensen CV8, a wonderful mix of American and British-ness, The Chalmers feels good, I am looking forward to Curborough sprint in 3 weeks time. Andy

Evenin everybody, We had the chance to drive out on the Chalmers to Hack Green secret bunker, a place I have been before but didn't get the chance to take a tour, the place is very unusual, quite claustrophobic and with constant reminder's that nuclear war is basically THE END, this place was still in use in the 1980's. On a lighter note they make a good cup of tea and have nice biscuit's ! Andy

Afternoon Barry and everyone, Barry, the mill is Audlem mill, a fairly recent canalside mill from the WW1 period. I gave the Chalmers a bit of a wash ready for the sunshine and warmer weather. Andy

Evenin everybody, The temperature has risen a little so I have been out for a few drives on the Chalmers, the flywheel machining and valve lapping has made a positive difference to the performance, the engine feels much sharper, I may have to add a little more engine oil to the clutch, I have used a greater amount of kerosene than previously which allows the clutch to clear easily but gives a judder on release, hopefully that will get the right balance. The "Cheese barge" was at the Shroppie Fly in Audlem, the next narrow boat along made and sold jewellery crafted from silver spoons, there is always something going on by the canal. Thanks for the interest in the Chalmers and the places we visit. Andy

Evenin everybody, More time has been spent getting the "modern" Sierra touring car checked out as we were invited to the Goodwood 75th Members Meeting to take part in some "high speed demonstration laps" of Group "A" race car's from the late '80's, the event was exceptional in every respect, from the range of cars to the incredible entertainment for the driver's and spectator's alike, The Sierra looked good on the Goodwood grid, There was a great selection of Edwardian car's out in the S.F. Edge Trophy race, the famous Blitzen Benz, The Curtiss V8 Monarch, the mad Mors, another Curtiss engined car, the GN, the Fiat S76 is jaw dropping ! I was lucky to be close by when it was started, it went around the circuit very well for a land speed record car, the Edwardian version of a paddock bike, Last week I did see a quick ray of sunshine and went around the village on the Chalmers to make the most of it, Andy

Evenin everybody, Well we got a warmer day so a short trip was in order, the Chalmers felt good and went very well, the lighter flywheel was noticeably better which made the machining job worthwhile and the valve clean up made for another good bit of winter work, I drove a few miles down the road and stopped at the Maer Great War memorial for a couple of photo's of the year's first trip out. The temperature is now back to it's usual February chill ! Andy

Evenin Barry and everybody, Barry, I looked at "O-rings" but the actual lifter doesn't have a good enough surface finish in that area to give a good seal with the rubber, maybe a little mod on the lifter's would help with that idea, I will have some more thought's and let you all know the outcome. I think an upper cylinder lubricant of some sort would help, I am looking into this. The Louwman museum is definitely a must see, not far into Holland from the Belgian border. http://www.louwmanmuseum.nl/?sc_lang=en This silver Napier Bluebird was given to Malcolm Campbell by D.Napier and son for his land speed records The weather looks like being warm for a few day's so hopefully a short run out on the Chalmers to start the year. Andy

Evenin Barry, Grimy and everybody, A bit of a busy week but very productive, Grimy, I started fitting the felt seals and checking the clearance for the lifter movement, the seal fitted the lifter block well and was easy to fit using a small tool I made up, The thickness of the seal wouldn't allow the lifter full movement, I cut down the seal until clearance was restored, the problem now was the seal was too thin to give any sealing ability, I don't really want to unsolder and lift the lifter cap, a bit more thought and I will have another attempt. The other thing I found was the exhaust valves had gummed up in the valve bore and it had slowed the valve movement enough to blacken and burn the seat's, I got the valve head's ground and I cleaned up the seat's, I will have to keep an eye on the stem lubrication in future. We had short trip to Holland to collect some items for another project and got the chance to visit the Louwman museum, a privately owned museum with the most incredible cars and memorabilia, The 1903 Napier racer is wonderful and still used, The 1903 Spyker 60hp 6 cylinder, 4 wheel drive racer, A beautiful Yale, The last thing I ever expected to see would be a genuine Bluebird tyre with silver Bluebird replica, The Louwman is definitely worth a visit, it can be found in Den Haag. I have now reassembled the valve 's and run the engine, between the flywheel weight reduction and the exhaust valve re-facing the engine feels sharp and strong, a few more little job's then I will want some warm weather. Andy