Ordered new boots for the car today, to be fitted while the car is down at Redline. Having seriously considered the Continental Sport Contact 5s (which have trumped the other tyres in group tests last three years), I couldn’t get them in 265s for the rear so decided to go for latest generation of my current tyres; Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3s. Hoping the wet driving & braking has improved. 😉.

Also talked to Joe at Redline who’s working on the car (good chap!), who told me that Protech couldn’t supply new shocks for at least two months 😕, which is obviously no good for me as I need the car back. Shocks are pitted, but he’s agreed they will recon the existing piston rods & seals at no charge, & we’ll get the shocks done properly when the car is there next. The list has started already!

Did anyone get the D&G reference in the title? I suspect not… 😉

I finally got the car down to Jeremy & Joe at Redline Sportscars today, with a long list of things to be done, top of the list being the two oil leaks. I was delighted to have my son along for company & having left Home about 0830 we made good time all the way down to Wilts, the only delays being motorway roadworks rather than traffic. The car behaved impeccably & I was glad to have a working stereo with 3.5 hours driving (not much scope for chatting with the top down & exhaust growling away!). We drove through the odd rain shower without complaint from his highness, even though there was enough water to fill up the door handle recesses… 😂

When we got to Redline it was a pleasant surprise to find many of the Essex group there as one of them was considering buying a car off Jeremy & had arrived mob handed with Marcos experts. The car looked lovely to me but the eagle eye of Mr Partridge spotted a few things of course. A sale was agreed however & nice to have another Marcos off to a new owner rather than languishing in a garage somewhere. My son liked the look of it too but tragically doesn’t get sufficient pocket money to afford a classic sports car aged 11 years.

Having fully briefed Joe we jumped on  train back to Wilmslow & were home just over 11 hours after leaving. Fingers crossed Joe doesn’t find anything major (or expensive!) & I can collect the car in a couple of weeks.

Excited! Just booked tickets for the UK’s fifth International Concourse in early September at… Windsor Castle, & part of the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations! How cool is that! Organised by the MOC (Well done again John B) with a dinner on the Saturday evening beforehand. Should be great fun & looking forward to doing it all with my son accompanying me. An adventure all round then.

On a less cheery note the oil leak has got worse & I’ve had to top up almost from scratch again. A trip to Redline for Joe Cubitt to look at it (and many other things) is planned for next Friday & can’t come soon enough.

In a moment of madness I decided that I can’t live with the new Alpine head unit with a slot for CDs that I am never going to use but will inevitably attract dust & rain with the top down. So… I acquired the equivalent model without the CD function & swapped the new one out for an even newer one.

Everything seems fine so I just need to get MCA to fit working DAB & FM aerials (& resecure the new amp which has fallen off the transmission tunnel wall in the passenger footwell! 😔). And I  am getting used to the new buttons. 😛