OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 1, 2017 OSF Contributor Report Posted May 1, 2017 What a horrible day for a car run. Especially horrible for a Mk1 escort. So let me start from the beginning. It's Saturday afternoon. Just done all my pre flight checks, all fluids are topped up and all nuts and bolts are tight. Bring up the weather forecast for Sunday and it doesn't look good so don't bother washing. All locked away again ready for the following day. Dawn breaks and what the heck!!! Who ordered the monsoon??? It's not classic car weather at all. What am I thinking?! But I can hear it now " fair weather driver " and other such taunting. So Storm the husky heads off with the wife in the daily to my parents while I get the Escort out. First Job to fuel up. With the engine still cold I roll into the petrol station to fill up with premium fuel. 15 litres later and all paid for I turn the key..........oh no..........this isn't good.........looks back.........definitely put petrol in......battery starting to loose juice......shit. Leave it a few seconds. Try again. Still won't start. Bugger bugger. Phone the wife. "Car won't start....if I can't get it going will have to use the mondeo" 2 mins later try another start.......oooooo......nearly........nope. 1 last try........vrooom!!!! You bastard thing. Don't do this to me. Guessing the engine got flooded as we pulled into fill up. Give it a few blips of the throttle and go!!! Collected the wife from parents and off the Route 5 cafe at Holden hill, Exeter. The A38 is like a river, I'm bricking it waiting for the aqua plane. Windows steaming up. Wipers that are struggling to remove all the water off the window. But we make it. As we park up in the sea of modern cars I pick out a Morgan and a Vw Beetle and that's about it classic car wise. At check in we are given a map with 10 check points across South Devon. Time to plan our route. Luckily we know where half of them are. Unluckily we have no idea where the other half are. I'm not one for technology but google maps shows us the way and at 11:00 it's go go go to Exmouth for Bay radio. Now the way this cannonball run works is you are given an app to download and at each check point there is a QR code to scan. Once scanned the app sends rally control a time of when we checked in. So when we get to the second check point and there is no banner and no code?! What to do. Other rally participants just take photos of the location and push on. We do the same. It's still raining as we make our way to Tiegnmouth sea front and then on to Paignton. Some more fuel and a sandwich and we press on to Torcross. It was at this point in traffic we started to over heat a little and developed a misfire but once in clean air we were alright. Now if anyone wants to go for a drive around south Devon the costal road from Dartmouth to Torcross is amazing. Now with light rain but the view of the sea on the hill top road was a big moral boost. Sadly when we got the the check point at Slapton Sands Tigar Tank they were holding a memorial service. The coming and going of 100 cars was not the best thing for both parties. Next check point was unbelievably 5 miles away from where my parents lived. The odd wheel pub at Wembury. Rain had almost stopped but the roads were still saturated and many parts were flooded. Then off to the garden centre near Ivybridge. Once completed it was time to blast back up the A38 towards Heathfield to have a play with air riffles. Some check points had activities that were optional to complete. One of these was Crack Shot, where you can shot an air gun at a target. Highest score at the end of the rally would get a prize. My first shot was well over so corrected and made 4 more shots. No idea how well I did but my name wasn't read out so wasn't the best. One last check point then back to Route 5. After 5 hours 22 mins we made it back just before 16:30. No way the fastest but the sight of a bright yellow Escort on a dull wet Sunday brought out the thumbs up from many other rally goers. Smiles all round. Time to go home, collect the dog and put the now very wet and very dirty car away until next time. 4
Admin Vista Posted May 1, 2017 Admin Report Posted May 1, 2017 Well done I was planning a run out myself yesterday but took one look at the weather and abandoned the plan! I wasn't raining it was flooding! 1
DT36 Posted May 1, 2017 Report Posted May 1, 2017 Same here in South Wales. Was planning a run out yesterday and a walk up the Sugar Loaf today. Both rained off, but did visit a Vintage Transport event in Abergavenny instead today.
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 1, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 1, 2017 I did meet a couple of members in Paignton Morrisons car park whilst getting sandwiches. They had OSF hoodies.
Admin Vista Posted May 1, 2017 Admin Report Posted May 1, 2017 I did meet a couple of members in Paignton Morrisons car park whilst getting sandwiches. They had OSF hoodies. Did you talk to them? Names?
Danish Posted May 2, 2017 Report Posted May 2, 2017 Rain notwithstanding, that sounds like fun. Is it open to anyone?
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 Did you talk to them? Names? No names, they walked past the car whilst I was parking and gave a wave.
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 Rain notwithstanding, that sounds like fun. Is it open to anyone? Yes open to anyone in any car. They have a no bike rule. If your caught driving like a knob your out. Believe they are doing a Somerset one very soon.
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 How did you find out about it? Social media. Retards Club.
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 Ha ha ha ha. It changed the book of face into Retards Club ha ha ha ha
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 How did you find out about it? http://www.cannonballcornwall.co.uk/m.events.html
OSF Contributor Mexican Gerbil Posted May 2, 2017 Author OSF Contributor Report Posted May 2, 2017 Had me fooled, rubbish with puters anyway! I've deleted my account on there a few times but there are so many car events organised on Retards Club or twitter now. I end up back on it again
Admin Vista Posted May 2, 2017 Admin Report Posted May 2, 2017 I dont do Still retards club Me neither.......though I have to have an account on there in order to manage the site's page.
deltamal Posted May 2, 2017 Report Posted May 2, 2017 cannonball run, good post! nice to see so many local places mentioned on OSF, we used to play with off road bikes and quads at Heathfield before all the factory units were built, spent lots of Sundays there! 1
Kenworth W900 Posted May 3, 2017 Report Posted May 3, 2017 Rain notwithstanding, that sounds like fun. Is it open to anyone? Are you thinking what I'm thinking Jayne - Somerset Cannonball Run 2nd July?
Danish Posted May 3, 2017 Report Posted May 3, 2017 Are you thinking what I'm thinking Jayne - Somerset Cannonball Run 2nd July? I was, but 2nd July is the Mk3 Cortina club's show
Kenworth W900 Posted May 5, 2017 Report Posted May 5, 2017 Oh yeah, good point, I hadn't realised! Don't worry then, we'll be having a tour of Gloucestershire instead then won't we
puddy Posted May 5, 2017 Report Posted May 5, 2017 Wow , I was down in Exmouth last week and came home on the saturday , never saw any of that weather . Btw , the tank at Slapton sands is an American Sherman that they dug out of the beach . Had been there since the D - day landing practise activities in ww2 . puddy
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