Sat 4th Run to East Anglia......

[greenwoo]

thx Adam, have done a route already and funnily enough will be around the b115 - the other side of Sudbury ( so we'll miss the 1058 )......
ironic eh that the Tiger boys are leaving E/Anglia just as we arrive! Even nicer that not one of them bothered to respond with a bit of local info about roads to travel etc etc. Now where does Giles live and where's that jemmy.

[greenwoo]

how come i always seem to wake up 30 mins before the alarm when going on a runout and mon-fri's are such a struggle? hey ho, more time for an extra coffee!

[Big_Al]

Cheers for letting me join in with your run yesterday. Hopefully I did not hold you up to much.

After departing from the convoy my steering started to have a little bit of play. After a few more miles i found the 6 bolts holding the wheel to the boss had become lose. Made it home without the steering wheel falling off.

Definitely the hardest run my car has ever had, and also 10% of my limit yearly mileage.

Cheers.

Al.

[Nogoingback]

Thanks to you all for a great day out even if it was a long one i felt quite tired when i got home.
Thanks to Tony, Rob, Mark and Paul for giving me a lift.
Here are the unofficial times for Saturday practice.
First test won by Mark superb R1Rs
Second Paul 888s
Joint 3 and 4 Tony and Rob on lots of blue smoke.
Sorry Chris but you missed the braking point then lifted off.

First run Mark 14
Tony 14
Rob 14
Paul 14
Chris 14
A cheeky second run by Mark 13
Tony second run fluffed it 15
Man in van going wrong way 19

[Tony B]

Cheers Al, was nice to meet you and hope you enjoyed the run.

Absolutley blinding day yesterday, weather, company and the roads, the early start was bit much but the conclusion was something we need to do again, maybe next time making it a 2 dayer to enjoy the roads we drove in the afternoos a bit earlier in the day.

Good to see the Uckfield Possy together and keep the consistency of mishaps, this time minor ones ! (I wont say any more but I'm sure Mark's report will probably have a photo or 2 !)

Got home spot on 7pm absolutley knackered and looked like a coal minor, east Anglian road crap must be dirtier than Sussex stuff, I reckon I clocked up about 400 to 450 miles.

[Tony B]

Could have been worse than 15 if I hadnt manage to straighten it up after almost slamming it into the kerb !!

[Nogoingback]

Good to meet up Al i thought i saw a few spiders fly out of your exhaust.
Kerb Tony oh no.

[greenwoo]

So the formal Match Report. Famous Five to Anglia.

Met up with Tony, Paul, Rob ( with Bryan riding shotgun ), well would be nice to say that we met them where we'd agreed, but apparently Paul was navigating. So Chris and I set off to Lakeside and joined the boys there. We trotted off and on the big roundabout by Lakeside i lost them, as the lights turned green. No matter thought i, i know that they all have the route......Cue phone call from Tony ' err we'll be about 10 minutes or so, Rob's wheel has fallen off''. Lucky i got the call just before jumping onto the M25, so i headed back down the other slip road and found them parked up and already working away to solve the issue.
A bit of inginuity, a bit of brute force and use of Chris's tools/jack and the problem was solved ( these Elise's do have their good points - storage!)
Here's a wee snap with Paul adding some weight to the issue....



Right, set off Mark 2.
Up the 25 and across country to Maldon and out the back. Murphys Law followed a bus, car lorry combo for about 9 miles manging a heady 32mph at one stage, pity as that road is quite a good one. Arrived at the old airstrip and the fun commenced. A few attempts at drifting ( seems those R1r's are pretty sticky) and then a home made version of 60-0 to see how fast our chariots could stop in the event of an emergency - and finally a loosely timed (sort of 1/4 mile).

The phone rang - Big Al ( an Essex Tiger owner ) was due to meet us at a nearby Cafe and we hadnt even left. A quick run and the 1st U turn of the day saw us hook up at a little Cafe ( yep that'll be 6 Full Englishs please)...From there ( albeit a tad later than envisaged ) we headed North. The route was shall we saw 'awesome', fantastic B roads, many reminding me of some that we'd sampled in France - a mix of fast sweepers, twistys and short straights ( enough to pass if needed, which to be fair we didnt as it was pretty quiet). By now Bryan had swapped Rob's passenger seat for mine ( no idea why??) and repeated glances in teh mirrors revealed a rather empty and desolate road behind us. So we settled down to a nice cruising speed - a flash of lights, a toot of a horn indicated that Rob had caught up and wanted us to stop.
Good job we did as a check on why his steering felt a bit off revealed 4 loose wheel nuts. '' Chris - where's that socket set again''

The next section i think were some of the best roads i've driven for a while, and Bryan and I pulled up at the 1st (intended ) stop. the others following us in and parking up. After the usual banter Paul enquired why we;'d stopped in the middle of nowhere - clearly failing the schoolboy test of using his eyes ( the Lotus Factory Sign seemed to be visible to all ).....Yep we'd brought the Elise back to its spiritual home and our 7'esque cars as well.



A run across country heading East took us to Oulton Broad, just shy of Lowestoft. The odd dark cloud now replaced with some sunshine as we sat and had a nibble on a sarnie and a well deserved backside break.
The banter flowed nicely, driving as we often do may be about finding new roads, or enjoying old favorites, but it would be flat and empty with good banter. At thisd point Rob showe his versatility, swapping from Court Jester to Naturalist.... there's a chance that i may have used the wrong word: to be clear he didnt get his kit off - but instead drew our attention to a Cormorant that had dived on the Broad. Of course such seriousness couldnt last as he lapsed into Bill Oddie mode.



A look at the watch showed that the timing had gone to pot, so off we set again....this time heading South, trying to hug the B roads that had looked so appealing when planning that leg of the route. FAIL. Seems that in addition the the world and his wife now being on the roads that the councils up there have a love of sticking 30-40mph restrictions anywhere ( irrespective of whether there's a village or dwelling anywhere near). I guess its fair to say those roads were fine, it was the traffic and restrictions that weren't! Especially when we ended up in a queue of atleast 10 cars behind a blloming great bit of farm machinery for mile after mile. Taking Tonys cue we hopped up the column eventually ( after miles ) freeing ourselves of those chains, only to find yet more dawdlers. A quick conflab at the next services led to us deciding to cut the day/route short and head for home down the somewhat boring A12 ( the sat nav telling us that noot doing so would result in 2 divorces and 2 severe 'humps' ). So Chris and I said our goodbyes to teh Uckfield Possy ( Big Al having already split himself from the group at an appropriate juncture or should that be junction). Paul however decide dto leave us with comedy moment and comment number 23.
Having filled up with petrol he wandered back across the forecourt to the slip road where we'd parked ( we didnt need fuel) and talked to us for about 10 minutes. Suddenly a concerned look crept across his innocent countenance - 'err where's my car ? '' ........Numtpy, it was still on pump 4 right behind him. Quality.

I have to say that we really did cover some miles, in doing so i was lucky enough to visit a part of the world that i hadnt been to for yonks, and find some superb roads for blatting ......a return is on the cards. I reflected on the way home that i've been lucky to find some really good mates through owning the car. They say laughter makes the world go round and a run like that ( or many others that i've had the fortune of being part of through the year ) is a boon. When i bought the car i never envisaged that side of ownership, i'd bought it with the intention of solo drives and the odd pub run with the Mrs - how wrong was I !

[Rob E]

Dito marks coments , what a day and company apart from the susspension mount falling of just as we had pulled up to the lights 1 min earlier and we would have been in the armco 30 mins earlier and well lets just say i have used up some lives . Must say Brian you have a big pair to get back in the car , and thanks to chris for the use of the jack and the tools .

Rob

Trying to put the drifting vids up but cant work out how as yet anyone know how?
Tony we need a shuffle around as in one vid you sound just like muttly

[2kwik]

bejesus! is that some sort of members run out record?? what mileage?