Apart from overheating at Sainsburys before we started out (coz the fans were turned off), Elaine drove Doris the 90 miles to Brighton with no problems, and the roof off :-)
We arrived nice and early to get a good place on the seafront, and within 30 secs of pulling up we had a complaint about the noise from the grumpy bloke selling toy cars on the stand behind us. - I guess if he was a 'proper' trader selling useful Mini bits then it wouldn't have been an issue.
The small AMOC contingient, with a subtle hurdle to catch the unwary...
Being a nice day, it wasn't long before things started to get a bit crowded, with hoards of people walking along from the marina end.
While the local thugs were fighting with sticks and hankies...
We tried to get a few shots of Doris without too many people around,
Impossible with the front open though !
Half way back Dave couldn't get started at a petrol station, it seemed the battery was flat. Not sure if the alternator was not providing a charge, or if the battery wasn't holding it. A quick bump start got it running so we carried on.
About 25 miles later there were a few few nice flames from his exhaust and no power so the convoy stopped again.
With no leccy left in his car, so time to test Dorisses new towing eyes, erm and clutch !
Scott was well pleased to have an excuse to use his orange beacon :-)
The V8 seemed pretty happy towing, and would pull nicely from 25mph in 4th gear, although Dave did start getting a bit worried when we got up to 60mph - maybe the towing strap should have been longer, he did seem a bit close ?
After 15 miles of towing, with some fun hills and a nice fast bit of A road, we got Dave home safe. Doris behaved really well, with water temp showing normal and no signs of clutch slip. After the occasional breakdowns last year it was good to return the favour ;-)
The U bolts we used to attach the strap had suffered a bit from some hard acceleration and the strap got a bit frayed when it got caught under Daves wheel, but apart from that, the emergency kit seemed to work.
Doris finally arriving home after a long day out in the sun.
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