Aahhh… all is well in the land of Mantis! The engine cooling fan over the radiator has been rewired back to work off engine temperature rather than a manual switch (which, lets face it, I either forgot to turn on, or forgot to turn off). My temp gauge also reads about twenty degrees lower than it ever has, once the mighty Marcos Oracle Mr Chivers spotted that the voltage regulator wasn’t earthed & corrected it. Dave also drove the car for a bit & told me it felt OK, which is a real relief because I was getting a tiny bit paranoid about… everything(!), but of course had nothing to compare it to. (Rumour has it Dave has driven a few Mantis’s before!). Mind you, any chap who has had his skirtingbaord & windowframe colour coded to his Mantis gets my vote!

Plus I am now sporting some nice new aluminium radiator grill bars from MH (£ouch£) to replace my increasingly scruffy rusty steel one. Groovy! I kept the old one in case I can get them shotblasted & powdercoated black, but that can wait (’til my next lottery win. I’ll add it to the list!)

Next thing is the Tatton Show on the 18th which should see eight cars together, then the Callender run with Scottish section August Bank Holiday. Bring on the midges!!!