Fun day on Sunday taking part in the Ile Valley Classic Car Tour in my 850. Started near Bridgewater, 50 mile trip to get there, and meandered through North Devon , up into the Quantocks with views over the Bristol Channel to Wales. Later driving though Exmoor and medieval town of Dunster. You are given a tulip map to follow the route, and Mrs H did a fine job of navigating.
After lunch at Minehead Railway Station, we took the toll road which is the easy route to avoid the much steeper Porlock Hill. Nice and smooth with a few hairpin bends, lovely views over the sea. We get to the top, now the route book contains the odd interesting fact, and Mrs H reads about the most famous AA box in the land, situated at the top of Britain's steepest main road (not the road we ascended by). Not only was it the most used AA call box, on account of the aforementioned hill, but also famous for being involved in Jeremy Thorpe incident and for alerting floods at Lynemouth.
Now an 850 is quite good on these runs, as you dont really go much above 40 on the lanes and your continually looking out for the next way point. Power is a bit wanting, as you struggle up the stepper hills and a little brake fade on the descents.
Another characteristic of these runs is that if you catch the car in front, you tend to switch off and just follow them, not the instructions, but you can guaranteed they go wrong so you get lost too.
Just before reaching this historic AA box, I caught up with a mate in his XJS (i thing he stopped rather than my superior turn of speed) and duly followed him. For a crucial few minutes we switched off, until Mrs H started voicing her concerns that we we going back the wrong way.
The problem is we were now descending 20 to 25% gradients and there was rather nasty burnt smell coming from the brakes, rather disconcerting, but we soon got to the bottom and all was well, apart from the fact we'd missed our turn. So call up mate in XJS, deciding that we had to go back on ourselves.
Needless to say poor little old 'Vera' laden with the 2 of us and the dog, tool kit etc etc, oh and plus the fact that she jumps out of first gear, just couldnt make it up the notorious Porlock Hill. Coudlnt hold it in first and 2nd would just die. I was faced with possibly having to try and roll backwards, but those drum brakes just dont work as well in reverse. Managed to somehow nurse it up the first section to a pull in. After a rest we successfully turned around, I say successfully, would the hand brake hold us from rolling back over the side of the sheer drop, the view out the rear window reminding me of the coach at the end of the Italian Job. We went right round to the toll road again to pick up the right route. Somehow we could see the greater significance of that AA box.
So after reaching the limits of my machine, she did go on the complete the rest of the run and the 50 miles homes without missing a beat.
