Great balls of fire..

Great balls of fire....

The Scimitar was readied just in time for our “Nice Pint 2013” 2,000 mile European fund raising trip -the car was running great setting off at 2.0am Thursday morning to catch an early ferry from Dover to Calais, the only glitch being we missed our planned ferry - the electronic ignition unit failed whilst waiting to load, so a quick swap back onto points and slotted into the queue for the next ferry.

Out of Calais running great 80 mph cruising sun roof open all was well with the world then…..BOOM a fireball erupts from under the bonnet …we pulled over onto the hard shoulder stopped and were out of the car in seconds, me with foam fire extinguisher in hand Homer ready to lift the bonnet..On his count he lifted the bonnet and I fired the extinguisher- not one of those tiny things from Halfords this was one normally used on Buses-the fire was out within seconds but not before the wiring loom was damaged along with a few plastics bits like the oil filler cap etc

So what caused it?

The brass union for the carb return line had come out-I assume the rate of expansion for the carb body and the brass union are different thus the brass union fell out spraying fuel onto the hot engine, I more than likely could have fixed the damage to the wiring –but had no means of making a safe reliable repair/modification to the carb so with heavy heart the car was left in France awaiting insurance recovery etc and we made our way back to Blighty via Taxi, hire car and ferry.

On return to the UK I did a bit of investigation and it turns out these carbs were part of a product re-call to have the unions pinned! If only I had known before never mind hind-sight is a wonderful thing.

What next-?

Well hopefully the Scimitar will be back with me in the next few weeks; the damage is minimal and I  now know how to fix the cause of the fault.

I will be planning to do a similar run next year so will keep the Virgin giving page open and try and raise even n more for Cancer research

Long term plans for the cars-

Triumph –get running and sell on as a going project-get in touch if intrested its a MK1 "worksalike" road rally car fitted with 2.5 engine

Rover – Take my time and plod on restoring, sourcing parts when they pop up.

Scimitar - get back on the road ASAP and use as much as possible!

Future events runs etc-

I doubt I will have a working Triumph for Club Triumphs 2014 Round Britain run so Homer and I might offer ourselves up as Marshalls if needed

“Unfinished Business 2014” – European re-run to South of France return via Stelvio in the Scimitar raising funds for cancer research