Heh! Heh! On Monday I went along to the Porsche Owners Club meeting at The Saddle boozer nr Jn 19 of the M6. It was the North West Chapter (Hell’s Angels have Chapters don’t they? I reckon that means that the POC do too…). These are the guys who I am travelling in convoy with down to Le Mans, so as I have tagged along on their organised trip, I thought I’d better meet ‘n’ greet, just as basic manners. Of course, the chance to show off my Mantis never crossed my mind, and it was the clutch that made me rev it up in the car park as I was leaving, honest! Er…
I like my Mantis, I really do, but there are some scarey blokes out there (all in Porsches it would seem) who take this car malarky VERY SERIOUSLY INDEED. I have come to the conclusion that I like talking about my car, not cars in general, so I guess I’m not a full-on petrolhead. Some of these chaps are going to Le Mans but so long as I don’t have to share a tent with them or try & pretend I know what a sub-quarter rear axle floating base sprocket adjuster is, then we’ll all get along fine. (Mental note: Must get the car serviced before Le Mans trip or I may actually have to borrow a floating base thingy and ask which way up it goes; embarassing.). The whole meeting thing brightens up considerably when someone produces an anniversary cake. Cake is good…

Arse! And double arse! The battery has assumed Pythonesque parrot status once again. All lights, fans etc definitely off in the car, but again I have not driven it for 3 weeks & it has been sub zero temps for a few days around the New year. Time to ring Marcos Heritage & ask for clues! Some suggestions from Rory, finishing off with the very kind offer to sell me an Optima battery for about six million pounds. I have checked these out & am debating whether I want to pay for something that can apparently launch the Space Shuttle. (And they come in different colours too, kids!) Also discover that Joe Cubitt has left MH to work with Jem’s son Chris Marsh on his new sportscar project. This is a major bummer from my point of view as Joe was generally a very nice chap & knew everything about the later cars. Anyway, he’s probably having more fun now, so good luck to him.