2022 Event Reports

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Select an event February Breakfast Meeting March Breakfast Meeting April Breakfast Meeting Stradsett Show Norfolk Run Derbyshire Run Lincolnshire Run Kimbolton Sporting Bears Parson Drove Car Show Yorkshire Trip Rutland Ramble

February Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

Well the weather forecast wasn’t promising the predictions varied from downpours to gales and anything in between. However the Sunday morning was relatively bright and rain wasn’t forecast until later in the afternoon, so I decided to take the Tiger to the meeting.

Now I will admit it hasn’t been used that much recently (well have any of us) so a quick refuel and it was hopefully ready to go. The wind was worse that I had thought, a combination of cold tyres and wind gusts meant the journey was a bit slower as the car kept being hit by crosswinds. You would think that a machine only 3 feet tall wouldn’t be affected but not out in the open countryside. Anyway I got to the venue to find everyone else had not turned up in their Tigers - yes I was the only one and I wasn’t even the closest (Griff is 1 mile closer than me to the venue).

Once there the ex Tiger Racing workshop looks like a scrapyard with loads of half dismantled cars parked outside it, which doesn’t really enhance the surroundings. On the other hand nothing looks that appealing on a damp winters morning.

There were a lot of club members present quite a few I hadn’t seen for over 2 years, I sat on a table with Andy Dunn, Dom Eaves and Dave Tomblin the last time I had seen Andy was the AGM in 2020, as for Dom and Dave I think that was October 2019. Others who we hadn’t seen for a long time included Nathan Neal (August 2018),

After having some food and a lot of chattering we came to leave. At this point I jumped back into the Tiger and found it didn’t want to start. A few minutes of turning it over and it caught so I could drive home.

After getting home I thought the battery might be a bit flat, so having found my last battery charger had ceased to work I went looking for a new one. A bit of searching later and I found a Ring smart battery charger. No it doesn’t connect to a phone (which is what most things referred to as smart do these days) instead it can test as well as charge the battery.

I found one from Halfords as the price was reasonable and it meant I wasn’t waiting for delivery and plugged it in. One of the built in tests is to measure the cranking amps the battery can deliver. According to the label on the battery it can put out 450, when tested it was down to 230. The battery was also only 60% charged. Wonder why it wouldn’t start… looks like I need a new battery now.

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March Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

Normally I would put in a bit about the drive down to an event, however for me it was a boring drive (A1,A14, turn off and get to venue). Seemed easy enough, however for a lot of people this was a challenge. The problem is that the venue used to be directly on the A14 until the new extension was built. It is now on the A1307 which was the eastbound carriageway.

There were people going up and down the roads trying to find the site. Eventually everyone did make it and we had a good turnout all the 20 people who had said they were coming arrived.

So we had a Harley Davison (Jim Danks), a Honda Civic Type-R (Paul Ashby), a Westfield (Dom Eaves), a MK Indy (Kevin Greeves), a Morgan (Tony Haggie) and 8 Tigers (myself, Griff, Adrian Spriggs, Geoff Cross, Andy Dunn, Steve Newman, Peter Hinton and Steve Tuck). Due to the renewal numbers that meant we had almost a quarter of the club present in one location.

The most important part of the day was then getting the cameras out and ensuring that we photographed everything together. I need the photos as there isn’t much else to go in the newsletter this month.

After the photos were taken and a lot of chatting we then went and had breakfast in the venue. A good breakfast later and we went out to take more pictures and then started departing. I think a few of them then decided to go on for another drive, but I had to get things done and so headed home

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April Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

Well the turn out for the March breakfast meeting was good, however we exceeded that and ended up with 19 cars at the Tap Room for a meeting. That is almost a third of the club in one place just to have breakfast.

It was good to see some new faces as well as some who hadn’t been seen for a few years.

The new (to meeting us) members were Stan Burton (Snetterton) and Michael Dewsbury (Birmingham). Michael had said he was a bit worried his VX220 would be out of place with all the Tigers but after arriving and finding the Marlin, MK, Morgan, Westfield and a Fiesta realised that the club just caters for like minded people.

After plenty of photos and discussion we went in and had some good food (a few who ordered the large breakfast found it was rather larger than expected), before more chatting and then finally some of the group decided to go on to Thetford, where as I headed back towards Wisbech as I needed to talk to Tiger about the Stradsett show.

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Stradsett Show by Giles Cooper

For Stradsett I had agreed to go and help out Tiger setting up on the Saturday before the show. As they were transporting cars to the show and only Paul was staying over a few people needed a lift back to Wisbech and the Tiger wasn’t really suitable to carry 5 people so I took the BMW instead.

I arrived at the factory to find nobody else there yet - a short while later Jim appeared and we started moving vehicles around. Tiger were taking Paul’s R6 and Clio, both going in the lorry, the Lotus Cortina on a trailer (towed by the new works van), a mostly standard Cortina (driven by Ty), and Paul was driving his Escort down.

As you can imagine getting all that moving took a while. But finally we were ready to set out. At this point feeling hungry I nipped up to Morrisons to grab a sandwich. Figuring they would catch me up or I would have to chase them down.

So having got some food I went to pull out the petrol station - no sign of them, this is strange. I headed back to the factory and found the standard Cortina had come to a halt with a problem. What had happened was the rotor arm had split, somewhere in the boxes of Ford spares there was a spare so with that replaced it was back on the road.

No problem, however when approaching the turn off for Stradsett we kept on going as the Satnav didn’t tell Jim to turn left and we all followed him. To be fair for some reason there weren’t any signs out saying show this way, but finally we made it.

Now the fun started after unloading the cars from the lorry we needed to put the awning up. The last time anyone did this was at the Parson Drove car show in 2019. First challenge - remember how it goes together. Second problem - tall people. I don’t consider myself that tall (I’m just 6 feet tall) but compared to everyone else there (Paul, Laura, Jim, Ty and Bex) I am a lot taller, so guess who got all the lifting jobs…

We finally got the canopy up and assembled in about 2 hours - this is quicker than it took at Parson Drove but it wasn’t a windy day which made it a lot easier to handle as it stopped the canvas sheets acting like giant sails.

So with all that done we headed home to go back on the day of the show.

On the Sunday I headed back to the show the weather wasn’t as good as on the Saturday but it was still reasonable - there was a very brief rain shower (less than a minute) but that was all. There was a reasonable selection of cars (no other kits though) and a lot of tractors to look at.

It was a good day but as to be expected with a tractor show the journey home until I got back to the A47 was rather slow due to people driving tractors and large transporters home.

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Norfolk Run by Allan Griffin

This years Norfolk run took place on Saturday 14th May. This being the first time in 2 1/2 years we have been able to host this event due to restrictions surrounding the COVID outbreak.

The route planned was written 2 ½ years ago and the pub The New Forge at Alysham booked so the first thing was to contact the pub to see if they were still in business and secondly confirm a booking for the run, this was all done and confirmed the Norfolk Run 2022 was on.

Emails were circulated and numbers gathered as to who wanted to go. Not sure of the response as this would be the biggest run for a long time I was pleasantly surprised to have 19 cars and 29 people answering the call, all attended on the day.

Thank you all for the support it is really appreciated as a lot of work goes into these events, even though the route was written it was still checked (thanks Giles for the support) and emails responses gathered, pub booked, Tiger Racing informed as we were starting there, and on the morning communicating with lunch stop as to how many were coming and expected time of arrival. We were supposed to have menus to pre-book our food but the pub was redesigning their menus and these were not ready prior to the event, so it was order on the day.

When we got to Tiger Racing at 10.00am a few had already arrived and the rest steadily came to the start point. There was Rachel and myself, Giles, Andy Dunn, Dom and Dave, Jim Danks, Peter and Jenny Hinton, Richard Gaze and Caitlin, Paul and Sally, Ady and Mandy, Mike Finch, Kev Greeves, Angus Grooby, Frank Thurston, Steve Tuck, Dave and Jane Sams, Steve and Heather Newman, Tony and Liz Haggie, Neil Whitehead, Carl and Carolyn Lumley and finally Paul Lilley and Sarah. Some of these people had not seen each other for over two years so a lot of chatter was taking place so when were set to go I was amazed we left on time at 11.00 am.

With this number of cars , it was always going to be hard to stay together but I was not expecting to have no one behind me after only a few miles. We sat at the next junction waiting and waiting until finally Andy came beside Us and informed us that Ady had his exhaust fall off (this was to end his run in the Tiger but Ady and Mandy came along In their newly acquired Sirocco after limping the Tiger home) and to carry on. We headed out towards Wattlington and when we had to stop for a train at the level crossing a large part of the group gathered behind. When the barriers lifted off we go again and as we approached the A47 on East Winch road I saw a number of the group heading off down the A47 (No idea how that happened). The 3 of us carried on (Andy Dunn and Richard Gaze) and never saw anyone again until Gressenhall where I took a wrong turn Andy followed me and Richard took the correct turning but we were back with each other within a mile. That is one of the good points of the TomTom Rider sat navs they automatically put you back on route if you stray off it. A short while later, back together and we arrive at the lunch stop to find Neil already there – that has to be a first and unbeknown to us 4 more cars were in another car park. We all joined up in the pub car park and everyone else gradually arrived.

The pub was spot on. Myself and Rachel both opting for the Thai food, a few had food from the English menu but as far as I’m aware all was good with the venue and for the first time I sampled non-alcoholic ale Ghostship which was surprisingly nice.

A few discussions took place about the different routes people had arrived from and how the different makes of sat nav vary on their mapping systems, but hey ho, we all arrived for lunch. Before leaving Giles had to make some minor adjustments on his car as the clutch was slipping and Steve Tuck proceeded to dance on top of his engine whilst others checked to see if he had broken one of his front springs, almost it was a broken shock instead.

Now it was time to load the second map, as this route was deliberately written in two halves to avoid anyone missing the lunch stop. We all set of in land heading towards the coast road however just before West Runton there was a road closure and people took different approaches to this, some followed the diversion, or if you are like me made my way to meet the A149 on the outskirt of Cromer and headed off towards the fuel stop along the A149 to Burnham Deepdale. We have travelled this coast road on many occasions now and after this time I don’t think I will be planning this on any more runs as the road surface is not very good and the congestion is appalling. When we arrived at the fuel stop we were missing three cars, Mike and Frank who had taken a wrong turning that Giles saw. Giles waited for a while but they never appeared so he set off for the fuel stop. Richard had suffered a gearbox rear mounting failure so had headed straight for home.

After drinks and ice creams members of the group started to head off home. This part of the run turned out to be the best driving of the day as we set off inland towards Docking and Fring eventually meeting the A149 at Sandringham. The day was made better by the lovely weather we had and the fabulous group of people who came along, once again thank you for the support.

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Derbyshire Run by Giles Cooper

It took some wrangling of club members but eventually we managed to do most of the route.

We started off with everyone meeting up at the Oakham services, after shocks over the prices of fuel (11 litres costing £20 - although who knows how much it will be by the time you get to read this). We had 8 cars doing the run, myself, Paul Ashby and Sally, Steve and Heather Newman, Richard Gaze and Caitlin, Peter and Jenny Hinton, Kevin Greeves, Steve Tuck, and Angus Grooby.

Once everyone had arrived, we headed off for the Derby services start point and the journey there was uneventful. At the services we met the new owner of Dave Thomas’ old R10 who came to just see who we were - he may become a club member shortly. We then headed off to the lunch stop via some interesting roads.

Well I say interesting (and on the grounds he wasn’t there I am describing this as a Griff Special). Have a look at the extract from the route map for the run below. The picture on the left is the track we took, the picture on the right is the road we avoided due to the route marker.

Apart from this little diversion the rest of the first part of the route went smoothly until about a mile from the lunch stop - I was in the lead for this section and suddenly there was nobody behind me. I pulled into the pub car park and was waiting for someone to arrive - I had arrived at 12:45 and lunch was booked for 13:00 so I was a bit concerned. Eventually the rest of them started arriving, it turned out Richard Gaze’s exhaust had broken. So unfortunately lunch was slightly delayed.

The damage to Richard’s exhaust was quite severe and he was left with no choice but to call out the RAC - more on that later.

There was some debate about the length of the run as it was about 3PM that we got away from the pub - people had wondered about turning back early, and I suggested that we should do the second part until the planned petrol stop at which point we could reconsider options.

So all of us (expect Richard and Caitlin) headed off for the afternoon loop. Myself and Neil where at the back of the group and found ourselves behind a large camper van - which was really too large for the roads it was driving on. For about 5 miles we were stuck behind it, as when trying to get by you either couldn’t see enough to get a clear overtaking run, or the van was straddling both lanes so there wasn’t enough room. When it finally turned off, it blocked the road as it couldn’t make the corner and had to backup for a second attempt.

At this point we had lost sight of all the other cars completely.

Well the satnav was loaded with the route so we will follow it to the petrol stop. We passed through the Winnats pass and Castleton and onto the Hope Valley. Leaving those villages behind we continued on. Now the satnav should have taken us to the fuel stop but it decided to do something different and sent me down the B6521 toward Grindleford. As soon as we turned off it announced the road ahead was closed and gave an alternative route. The alternative brought us back on a loop to the same junction it tried to send us down initially. This is where not having any local knowledge (or a conventional paper map) becomes a problem. Without knowing where we were in relation to the petrol stop we were lost with an misbehaving navigation unit that did not accept the destination we wanted was achievable.

Having looked at the maps after getting home it turned out that we were about a mile from the petrol stop and I can’t see any reason why the satnav decided to send me down the wrong road.

Eventually I sent a message to a few people saying we were lost and heading home and we headed for the M1 to get back to a part of the country we knew our way around - having never found the fuel stop. We did see one other club member as Steve Newman went past us as we pulled into a fuel station, but that is it and I then left Neil at Oakham as we headed home.

So time for the post event notes. We hit the same problem with this route as we did for the Norfolk run, planning the routes online and expecting them to work is a problem. It doesn’t matter if you are doing a route for yourself as if you go wrong then only one person is affected. However we you have a group of cars we need to verify the routes properly - read the next article to find out how wrong we can get things.

The important thing is that everyone made it home including Richard who after some ‘creative’ work by the RAC (see pictures) managed to drive his car back home. It didn’t work that well but the alternative was waiting another 5 hours for a recovery truck so they had a rather challenging drive but they made it home.

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A Cub's Story: Eatoc Lincolnshire Run by Neil Whitehead

“Nearly Lunch with my Steering Wheel”

Three years on after the last Lincoln run, I was looking forward and hoping for a trouble-free drive and I had a clear goal to avoid Tony and Liz’s Morgan, unlike the 2019 Lincolnshire run.

The only little niggle was my MOT had been booked for the Tuesday prior to the run! By mid-afternoon on the Tuesday I had an MOT failure note in my hand. Only 3 things, but 1 of them was a safety issue that needed to be fixed, the other 2 were quite straightforward, exhaust gasket leak and a ball joint that needed tightening. By Wednesday night the exhaust was off, and the new gaskets had been ordered and were in the post. The safety issue wasn’t as bad as initially thought, the hydraulic brake pressure switch had failed so the rear brake lights were not operating, as this was the second time it had happened in the last 6 years, I thought I would buy a couple more on this occasion just in case!

On the Thursday evening I was able to re-install the exhaust with new gaskets and tighten the steering ball joint. By this point I started to think I had a fighting chance of getting the Cub retested for Friday lunch time. New hydraulic pressure sensors were delivered by 8.00 am on the Friday, so by 8.28 am, 2 minutes before work starts, I had changed the brake sensor, at this point I thought I was home and dry, but I did wonder whether the brakes would be a little spongy after losing some of the brake fluid.

When I drove the car for the retest, the brakes were spongy, so I crossed my fingers and hoped the MOT technician would only look at the list and hoped he didn’t pick up on the spongy brakes when testing the new brake switch. Thirty minutes later he rang to say the car had passed the MOT, at this point I was thinking as long as I bleed the brakes that evening before the drive, we will be OK, and I started to look forward to a drive around Lincolnshire.

At 7.00pm I had the car on the axle stands, wheels were off and at that point I thought 2 hours will be enough. Two hours later still fighting the air bubbles in the brake system, I started to question the easy bleed even though it had worked great on previous occasions.

By 9.45pm I thought sod it and hit the bottle - works every time - by 10.30pm I had a big smile on my face and I came up with Plan B & C.

Plan B was to get up at 6.00 am so I could drive to Asda in Corby then get back on the car for 7.30am with fresh brake fluid in the hope I would be finished by 9.00 am.

Plan C involved sending emails to Racheal and Giles that I was having brake issues, so don’t wait. A little later than planned, 10.30 am, the car was ready but at that time I had missed the start point of the run, but I thought what the hell it was a nice day let’s have lunch with my steering wheel !

A few a hours later I rolled up for lunch at the planned location and was expecting to be having lunch with my steering wheel. However, to my surprise I then found all the cars parked up and I saw Griff in the car park and he passed on the bar staff were still taking the orders. Happy days and the early start had paid off.

On the drive back it was great to see all the cars at the railway crossing, I think there was another 2 or 3 cars behind me. I also had to take a picture of Mrs T as I was driving through Grantham, I took the picture simply because on the previous night on the regional news they had shown her covered in eggs, looks like someone else was up early that morning.

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Kimbolton Sporting Bears by Giles Cooper

The hardest thing about this show was getting a parking area for the club.

Back in January I got an email from the organisers asking how many tickets we wanted for Kimbolton, I replied asking for 15 (probably too many but it is best to overbook). Forward to June and I get an envelope with 15 tickets which I start handing out to people as required.

There was a note with the tickets saying the parking area would be coming out shortly. Well it got to the week before the show and I hadn’t heard anything about the parking area. I put an email out to the club members saying there seemed to be a problem and we were trying to resolve it. Eventually thanks to Steve Newman tracking down the organiser we had a parking area.

What had happened was confusion between the East Anglian Tiger Owners Club and the East Anglia Kit Car Club. It appeared that the tickets came to me (I should have checked on the envelope but the name could have been wrong) and the note about the parking area went to the other club. I need to speak to the organiser and get them to update their records before next year so the same doesn’t happen again.

Anyway back to the show, as usual it was very well organised I think we spent about 5 minutes (if that) queueing before getting into the site and then we found the parking area. We had to persuade a few people to move first but soon we were all parked up.

We had 7 cars on the stand - six tigers and a VW Motorhome… Richard Gaze had brought the motorhome and was expected to be parking in the public car park, but instead was directly through to the display area and parked up under the trees.

We then spent the day wandering round looking at the various cars on show, trade stands, and the show ring which was running events all day. In between as it was a hot day (as all of July has been) people were resting under the trees to stay out of the sun.

I saw a few old acquaintances ex club members Mick Grant (last seen around 2011) and Dean Harley who used to have a Tiger, then a Spire Sports and now has a very nice Fiat with a Bike engine. There were some nice cars on display and some rare ones. One was a fully restored Skoda 120 Estelle - not honestly a sort of vehicle that I would want to own but very nicely done.

There were also some nice hotrods - although can you still call a car a 1950 Ford V8 Pilot when it has a Chevy Engine, Volvo Axles, Rover seats etc….

Anyway after spending the day there it was time to head back home, the only downer on the day being the road back to the A1 via Perry was closed so I had to take a diversion further south. But when I got back to the Kimbolton Junction there were no road closed warnings?

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Parson Drove Car Show by Jim Danks

Back in 2018 I attended the Parson Drove Custom & Classic Vehicle Show in my VW Bugle Beach Buggy. It was a very hot day. Whilst there I came across the EATOC stand and I stopped to chat with a few of the members there. Unfortunately, I cannot recall who I spoke to on that day, probably because I was too interested in the cars. The seed had been sown! I then discovered the Tiger Factory was close by in Wisbech so I went to their open day later that year, again in the Buggy. It was here that a kind Tiger owner took me for a quick spin in their car. The previously sown seed was growing rapidly through my veins.

The rest, as they say, is history. A short ownership of a Tiger Avon and then the beautiful RS6.

Four years on, on a very hot day, I find myself back at the same show, with a Tiger, with EATOC, alongside Tiger Racing who were one of the main sponsors of the event. My car was, for the first time, sporting the ‘new to me’ split rims which suit the car perfectly. I am really pleased with the look despite some issues with one tyre kissing a wing.

Griff and Giles had helped out Tiger Racing the previous evening to set up their stand at the show. We agreed to meet up in the morning at Griff’s home and the three of us drove the short distance to the showground and instantly confused the young lady on the gate who nearly let us in without paying the admission fee. Being honest folk, Griff insisted she take our monies and via a shortcut we were soon parked up alongside Tiger Racing’s fabulous examples of some of their restored cars and Paul’s race car. I sensed there were a few sore heads amongst the crew who had spent the night at the show. Must have been something in the water, obviously!

Tony Haggie arrived shortly afterwards in his Morgan and put his car alongside ours. George Anderson arrived later but unfortunately did not get his GTA into the show area. Left in the public car park he thought he might have flattened his battery as he had some charging issues. This was not the case and I later discovered the car started fine and limped home.

The Parsons Drove Show is held in a large sports field exposed to the elements; this time the sun, thankfully. The show provides an eclectic mix of cars, bikes and trikes from pristine fully rebuilt and modified vehicles to immaculate classics to used-daily old or unusual vehicles, some restored, some not, some just the old school rat-look. There were a number of trade stands and vendors, including various charities, as well as the obligatory fast-food outlets which I had to sample for research purposes. There was entertainment including a very good motorcycle stunt team and various bands performed throughout. Jim Dudley was clearly a fan of one of the bands, calling for an encore – well, I think that’s what he was trying to suggest!!

One of the highlights for me, away from the superb cars at the show, was being able to sit down and chat with Jim and his family in a more relaxed environment rather than in their busy workplace. And after walking what seemed like miles of vehicles in rows the huge canopy attached to Tiger’s truck offered some respite from the sun and a place to sit and have those chats. Although a tiny, very complicated self-assembly pop-up chair provided by Giles didn’t have many takers, except for me and some of the children. I’m not sure if Giles even sat in it.

As the day drew to a close, we all helped out with dismantling the canopy on the Tiger Racing truck. During which time there were calls for “someone from Tiger Racing to present the Best Car in Show Award”. Laura made a dash across the field to fulfil the requirement as Tiger Racing had sponsored this award. The canopy was soon down and we all revved up ready to go home, promising not to do doughnuts, wheelspins or burnouts on the way out. We’re far too sensible for that aren't we Griff!?

I certainly enjoyed my day in the sun at the Parsons Drove Show, supporting the team from Tiger Racing as well as representing EATOC in our cars. I have certainly got Tiger DNA in my blood now.

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EATOC Yorkshire Trip by Jim Danks

OK, so this year’s road trip planning to Yorkshire may have started with a bit of disappointment as we were let down by the new owners of the usual hotel in Knaresborough. But, thanks to a lot of hard work by Rachel and Griff a new hotel was found in Northallerton. This also meant more work for Griff to amend the routes for the satnavs. And so the journey began.

Day 1 - Friday

On a bright Friday morning we were all revved up and ready to go, most of us meeting at Rachel and Griff's home for a coffee and comfort break.

Paired off and satnavs at the ready we all set off, reasonably on time. Angus had arranged to meet up at a lay-by enroute. Unfortunately, someone had decided to load last year’s route, leaving Angus isolated and wondering if he’d missed his friends. This was soon rectified as Angus tagged onto the tail end of some others passing by and was back with his friends.

The journey to the first rest-stop just across the Humber bridge remained uneventful but enjoyable. After a good chat and a hearty lunch, the second half of the journey began. The forecast dry weather was looking doubtful at this time. And just like an F1 Pitstop there was a mad scramble by some to get into wet weather gear. I opted for the dry, exclaiming to Paula that it was just a passing grey cloud! So, on getting quite wet before I’d left the car park, off we set! Some of us hadn't seen rain for quite some time throughout the endless drought so this was a bit of a surprise.

Dom and Dave had to take a detour to find someone to do some emergency welding to the car, making their own way to the hotel. The rain didn’t dampen spirits but did get the cars a bit dirty and we all arrived safely at The Northallerton Inn. An area was set aside for us to park at the back of this former police station. With a smooth check-in via the excellent staff at the hotel we were presented with lovely rooms and a welcome drink. Dinner was superb and a few more drinks consumed. We were set up for a great weekend.

Day 2 - Saturday

Setting off from the hotel we picked up some not-so-scenic industrial estate back roads but this soon turned to the more familiar lovely Yorkshire roads as we headed in an easterly direction to take us over the North York Moors. The first stop was at the grounds of the beautiful Castle Howard for refreshments and perhaps a cake or two.

After an enjoyable break, off we set for the next leg. Now this is where it got interesting. I lost sight of Andy Dunn at a junction and blindly followed my satnav - back to Castle Howard. And every route I took seemed to go back to the same place. Thinking I’d transported myself to the fictitious Royston Vasey (You'll Never Leave!) and would be stuck there eternally, I stopped and put Pickering into the satnav just to break the spell. It worked and whilst sitting on a farm track a few EATOC cars passed by so I tagged along and we soon came across the rest of the group gathered at the side of the road having also done a few loops of the area. It appears a slight satnav waypoint issue saw most of us driving in endless circles with that déjà vu feeling. We escaped Royston Vasey (Castle Howard).

After a very quick pit stop at The NY500 Café (perfect for petrol-heads) just south of Pickering, we were off to Thornton-Le-Dale to a pre-arranged rendezvous with the host of the TV show Bangers & Cash. The club was seriously let down by the proprietors and the photo opportunity did not happen. But once again, spirits remained high and we all had a walk around the beautiful little village, took in some refreshments and ice-cream and chilled out.

There was also the opportunity, using the local stocks, to observe who loaded last year's route on day one. All good fun. The roads and journey back to the hotel were varied and thankfully without incident.

The evening saw us consuming more excellent food and a few more beverages at the hotel. The small terraced area to the front of the hotel gave us prime seating to observe the antics of some of the more colourful characters in the busy Yorkshire market town.

Day 3 - Sunday

Much to the amazement of some of the hotel guests, Steve whipped out his laptop (because we all carry a laptop in our tool kits!) in the carpark to help tweak Mike’s engine management system following some rough running on his newly installed engine. Some of us watched and learned.

We set off this day in a different direction from the hotel and were immediately on the most amazing roads. Sportscar paradise! This route would take us in a more westerly direction and over the stunning Yorkshire Dales.

The drought induced early harvest meant a lot more heavy-farm traffic on the roads than would be expected. This meant that keeping together was difficult at times. I got stuck behind a tanker for many miles. Steve & Paula held back as I tried to pass. Eventually I got past and Steve and I had the most awesome open road ahead of us. Time to put the foot down. After an exhilarating number of miles we came across Mike and Andy on the side of the road, probably much to the satisfaction of Paula who, as a passenger, perhaps didn’t have the smoothest of journeys. Mike’s throttle cable had snapped. Some great roadside team work soon had the Locost back on the road and we set off together to the next scheduled stop at Hawes.

Hawes was very busy on this lovely sunny day but a nice café was found for the obligatory coffee and cake and some photos with some Shrek characters on display in the street! The superb weather had bought the motorcyclist out in force. We did witness some appalling motorcycle rider behaviour that day, including overtaking a train of us whilst indicating and hand signalling to turn right into a carpark for a photo opportunity. I am qualified to call them “idiots”.

Some of the roads we drove were very exciting (read, hairy!); Blind ridges, hidden dips, blind bends, severe drops …...Not for the faint hearted. Perfect! Following yet another slight navigation error we even took a route more suited to a Land Rover, mowing the centre grass ridge with the bottom of our cars as we went through, and pretty much touching the hedges either side. I’m sure John had at least a 10 mm spare gap on each side of his Porsche Boxster.

After few more stops and short breaks to take in the stunning scenery and refreshments, whilst making sure Dom did not get run over capturing the perfect low-level photo, we had a safe trip back to the hotel to complete a superb day on the road.

Another pleasant evening was had in the Northallerton Inn with great food and a fabulous atmosphere created by the EATOC crew, with a few high jinks thrown in. The Naughty Schoolboy (aka Paul) was reprimanded for realigning the breakfast teapots in a fashion not seen before at this brand-new hotel. Thankfully it is no longer a police station as we’d have probably insisted Paul be detained for the night. All good harmless fun.

Day 4 - Monday

Another big breakfast and a smooth checkout saw the group leave homewards bound on a very warm day. It was a pleasant and straight forward route down to a lunch stop at Elsham Hall Gardens. After this there was some natural dispersion as club members headed on different routes home. Some of us continued to follow the pre-set satnav route home.

I really enjoyed our trip, having a great laugh with fabulous people in lovely locations. The weather was kind to us and the Yorkshire roads and the scenery was awesome, as was the Yorkshire hospitality. Following the initial setback this event would not have happened without the hard work and perseverance of Rachel and Griff. We owe them a huge amount of gratitude.

I very much look forward to the next EATOC adventure, wherever that may be.

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Rutland Ramble by Giles Cooper

Well all eyes before the run were on the weather. For those of you who remember last years run (see issue 183 or the website) to remind you, the weather then was atrocious. The days before the run it rained almost non stop, so we wanted (needed) some better weather.

My car had only just come back from having major work done on it; it had a new clutch due to a strange noises coming from the drive plate and at the same time I had a new pedal box fitted to stop the car going through multiple clutch cables each year. As a result of this the brake pedal had a different feel and the front brake pads were new as well. Now as anyone who has driven on new Green Stuff brake pads knows the braking is interesting (terrifying) until the brake-in coating has been worn off. I drove it back on Thursday in a rain storm so it hadn’t really got any use or heat in the pads.

Fortunately Saturday dawned dry and bright with the chance of showers forecast late in the afternoon, so I did bring the Tiger out for the run. We had a good turn out with 11 assorted cars (and one camper van).

Now the plan was to meet at the Rutland Point cafe and start from there. Most of us managed this but Steve and Heather Newman drove straight past the start point and did quite a lot of the run before realising and coming back. Next time put the postcode of the start point in and then start the route at the venue (I think they have previous form for this).

Neil had been asking since he had booked the pub 5 weeks ago for a menu so we could get food ordered in advance. They finally sent the menu to him on Friday afternoon way to late to get anything organised in advance , so once everyone had gathered together Neil compiled a list of lunch orders then emailed it over to the pub so that they could prepare the food ready for us to arrive. After dealing with that we set out on the run.

The first section was the repeat of part two from 2021. When we did the run last year the rain was so heavy that most of the run was spent relying on satnavs to locate the next corner due to a lack of visibility. This year we had dry bright and sunny weather, so we could see the views across the fields and countryside. The view to across the Welland Viaduct (the biggest viaduct in the country at 82 arches and 1275 yards in length), was stunning and made for great views.

After a couple of hours we arrived at the Oakham garden centre where people stopped for a drink and more importantly cake! After a while it was time to get moving again to get to the pub for lunch, so everyone set their satnavs with part 2 of the route and we headed off.

During the second part there were a few brief showers. But nothing significant in the way of rain. There was one navigation error on my part, the 12V socket in my car can occasionally be erratic and if it drops power then the satnav puts up a message “power lost shutting down in 15 seconds” you can cancel this message but it ended up doing It just before a junction about 4 miles from the end of the route, this meant I missed the corner and did a 2 mile diversion before getting back to the junction and being able to get to the pub for lunch.

At the pub the fun started there were 16 of us for lunch which were seated round 2 rectangular tables so it was quite a tight fit. Then they started bringing out food, but the food wasn’t what had been ordered so some was sent back and others had to be made to order. The food when it arrived was good but it was a shame that they managed to muck up the order. Neil stayed remarkably calm through this but it was frustrating. Even more frustrating was that they hadn’t put the meals against peoples names which would have sorted the order out properly.

After the food it was time to head home, however as we came out of the pub it started to rain and did so quite heavily for a few minutes. We waited until it eased up before driving home. Now I had two choices to get back home A47 or A1. I chose the A1 route as it is usually quicker however I should have taken the A47 as there were roadworks from Stamford to Peterborough with a 40mph average speed zone.

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