Took my cortina to Ace Cafe London yesterday as it was pre 84 ford estates at the ace. Went up with Matt & followed Kev & Georgia up in Kev's 'al Qaeda Cortina' ( more on that later !). Good uneventful drive at 60-70 all the way stopped in fleet for the burgers & little boys room. Got to Ace Cafe just before 11am as Kevs car started playing up. Only two other cars there....... !
Got busier as the day went on, 12 estates of different flavours. Mk1 & mk2 Escorts, mk2 & mk3 Cortinas, Anglia, mk2 Granada also mk1 & mk2 Escort vans, Cortina p100, mk2 Transits. So a good mix although not as many as I thought there would be.
Classic Ford photographer was there (not Bryn) & we had a chat with him he remembered the club name (I suppose it does stick once heard) did some photos of our cars & got Kevs details, the right ones this time so keep an eye out for the feature.
Left about 3.30 for the journey home in all the London traffic (makes you realise how easy we have it here). Got a few miles from the Ace then Kev had what he thinks is overheating & misfire problems with his ignition amplifier so sat on the side of the road for 10 mins waiting for it to cool till it started again (1st strike for this years Golden Bonnet Hinge Award Kev!!)
As we got on the beginning of the m4 & got our speed up the litre of unburt fuel in Kevs exhaust decided to go up with a real loud bang loads of black smoke & pebble dashing my car in bits of timax & years of old exhaust innards !! & creating the most spectacular split back box i've seen. I think anyone who lived nearby must have called the bomb squad, Hence the al-Qaeda Cortina.
The exhaust note did sound alot better after but I don't think its good for long journeys
the rest of the way back was fine just glad to get out from behind the wheel. Got to do it all again next saturday in the Escort to Santa Pod. Fingers crossed we don't get any more GBH Award candidates !! Looking forward to the show just not the miles
See you next weekend.
