Plenty to keep us busy!

There certainly isn’t any rest for the wicked and since you last heard from me things have been absolutely flat out!  The car’s coming along nicely now and it won’t be long till it’s ready for the first testing session.  All the paintwork is done, the panels are back on and all the ancillaries are fitted.  It’s got a new exhaust from Simpson Race Exhausts, which is a ‘work of art’ and an absolute pleasure to look at.  The car is now sitting in the new TPR Signs HQ getting stickers done.  This is my favourite part of building a car and I love seeing all the designs and watching the car come together as Jay sends me pictures of it.

As well as my car there are plenty of other jobs to keep me busy.  John’s engine found its way into my pick-up at the N.E.C so Dad and I had a trip to Anderson’s one evening after work to drop it off for a rebuild.  I had arranged with Robert to pick his car up from SHP, for him in return bringing a Transit van down from Scotland for me.   At the same time John’s Hot Rod came down and is now sitting in my workshop awaiting an engine and a rebuild.

Swapping all the vehicles around turned into a military style operation.   We ended up with the Transit in our yard, Robert’s engine and various other items that would be heading back north on the front of his lorry, our Range Rover loaded onto the back and his spaceframe on the trailer!   John’s car in the meantime had acquired two flat tyres and had to be man-handled into my trailer at home. There was no chance that all this shuffling around of vehicles could take place in our drive so we went and caused a few minutes of chaos in one of the side streets opposite our house, no doubt leaving the residents of this usually very quite cul-de-sac wondering what on earth was going on!

When all this was done it was time to pile into the lorry and head to Stoke on Trent to attend former National Hot Rodder Iain Grayson’s 40th birthday party.  When we arrived at the hotel we had another mission: unloading the Range Rover so we could get to the party and I had a means of getting home next day - plus backing the trailer up onto the back of Robert’s lorry ready for the trip back to Scotland.   With all that done it was time to get changed and head off to the party.

Seeing as most of us were driving next morning and with Robert and Lauren’s baby due any day we were all pretty sensible and were back in the hotel by 1am.   It was a very good party though and we had a great night  . . .  but hopefully Gary will be able to remember the words to ‘The Gambler’ next time he decides to sing it in front of a room full of people!

I now have my new racing lorry and my Mum spent a very busy (and cold) Sunday peeling all the signwriting off it so I can get it re-done my way.  I have a few jobs I want to do to personalise it but I’m really pleased with it - and it will certainly be much better than lugging the trailer around everywhere.  The old lorry is coming together pretty well too and hopefully after a few more evenings’ work it will be ready to go on eBay and find itself a new owner.   While the car’s missing it will give us chance to try and finish it and also do some of the other jobs that get neglected whilst the car’s on the ramp.   I desperately need to sort my wheels out before the start of the year and all the spares need loading up into the new truck.  John is heading down in a couple of weeks and we aim to get his car pretty much finished and ready to go.  So you see, there’s certainly enough going on to keep us all busy!   Next time you hear from me I should have a finished car so I will upload some pictures and show you everything,

Thanks as ever for reading.

Until next time

Mikey.