What a day

Ok....it's late. No pics (sorry).

Today, I i picked up the new trailer from Brian James, sped down to Maideanhead (at 67mph) and loaded the now (90%) complete race-car onto it's transport ahead of the year's first outing in the car - at Brands tomorrow.

Set off c11am for Brian James. Despite all the gloom about racing this year (more about that when I have more time to post) it was hard to suppress the "christmas day" feeling as I pulled up to see a brand spanking new trailer waiting in the car park at Brian James' HQ in Daventry.

There was a minor SoHF as we discovered the trailer coupling didn't marry to the tow-bar ball-journal: which was coated in a resin (to stop it rusting in shipping) which the guys at BJ told me had to come off as their coupling was designue comedy moment ed for a pure 50mm ball-journal.
60 mins later, and thanking the stars I picked the trailer up versus having it delivered, i set off for Maidenhead to pick up the car.
It's been touch-and-go as to whether it owuld be ready in time, but Steve and the guys did a great job, with only a couple of minor items remaining.

Cue comedy moment as i arrive at Steve's workshop and try to reverse (visualise Benny-Hill sped-up footage) the trailer back down the lane to park next to the loading point. It was the first time i'd operated the trailer, let alone loaded a car onto it.
4 hours later (joke - it was *only* an hour) I was on my way.

The tow car is a Skoda Octavia vRS TFSI Petrol. MPG when not towing: c33.
MPG towing: 23mpg. Welcome to trailer ownership!

Got home, spent 2 hours unloading all the sh*te from the footwell's and seats and faffing: fitting rear-view mirror, adjusting harnesses, seats, loading up tools etc etc.
Just had a glass of vino and off to bed.
Can't wait for tomorrow.
Target: finish day without major mechnical problem.

Sound the alarm, you've had a sense-of-humour-failure (ah well, it's only the first)

I dropped the car off with Steve Williams earlier this week (at last!). I felt some sense of consolation when he told me he tells customers it will take "two to three hours" to fit a race / bucket seat in an Elise. Most customers it seems, cannot hide their astonishment_quickly_turning_into_injustice at this figure - but trust me, 3 hours is childs play.

Rewind 48 hours: It's Sunday afternoon, we have some close firends coming over for a cuppa, and I'm stuck with my feet hanging out the driver-side footwell, trying to re-fit the Corbeau race seat I'd taken out the day prior. This is a job I expected to finish by 10am.
It *only* took me about 4 hours to take out the race seat, pax seat, clean the tub (and discover an empty packet of Marlboro lights in the process - not mine i hasten to add) and discover that the new seat setting I intended to try - one notch closer on the seat rails - was in fact far too close for comfort. Resetting the seat to the original setting, *all* I had to do on Sunday morning was bolt it back in. Simple right? Anyway, 5 hours later, a sore neck, shoulders and back, and an enormous hole inthe front of the car - where the windscreen used to be - now replaced with a Corbeau seat (joke) - and I've given up trying 55 different settings on the seat rail spacers and bolts and decided simply to refit the pax seat on the drivers side - after all, the first thing Steve will do on receiving the car will be to take the fecker out.

....So that's the nasty part. And the pic to the left is the goooooooooooooooood-times *bit* of today's post: it's my new roll cage (yay!). Note the extra low height of the horizontal harness bar: THIS is the offending item which has caused so much damned hassle. After much metaphorical "beard-stroking" Steve and I were both of the opinion that it wouldn't fit (OMG, pleeeeeeeease not again) as the harness bar - at least on the "3 and a half fingers" measurement technique appeared not to be high enough to clear the outcrop of the bulkhead behind the drivers seat to accomodate the fuel filler hose-to-fuel-tank. So, it came as a

not insignificant sense of relief when I got a voicemail message from Steve a mer 24 hours after dropping the car off saying "The A-frame is out and the rear section of the cage is in. And.................................(drum roll) it FITS" I a rather un-manly display of emotion I fist-pumped the air in my office - much to the chagrin of my colleagues. Hey-ho.

So...we are moving forwards. Steve is now well into the other jobs: fitting the remote thermostat, oil cooler, driveshaft oil seal, gearbox mount, easy-access battery charger, toelinks etc etc.

Also, I've found my trailer and will be picking it up shortly. Light twinkles at end of tunnel. A track with black tarmac may actually happen in March.............