Well maybe, just maybe; we're nearly there?
The outer drive shaft boot is done now and so I'm ready to book the MOT at the local garage (Oscifer) and it would be interesting if I was stopped because th last MOT was 1993 and the last tax disc also shows that date!! When I was clearing stuff out of the car I found an old petrol receipt from 1991 which was for £13.10 - would this have been a full tank?? I put that much in the bloody mower these days!!
I'm pretty certain there was no such thing as a SORN then and I'm equally certain a lot of MOT's didn't involve the cars turning up at the garage
If I think about some of the s**t heaps I've driven over the 31 years I've been driving and equally the condition of said s**t heaps - OMG it's terrifying. I guess when you're younger you feel invincible up until the point you're organs end up in a yard sale.....
This point reminds me of a holiday I had in Crete once and as the Law there stipulated that you had to hire the largest motorbike you could find and that helmets were forbidden (by law): that said, being the safety concious sort, I thought I'd push my luck (with aforementioned law) and insist on kiting myself out in appropriate (and safe) clothing, Shorts, a tee shirt and of course a pair of aviators. The BMW 600 I hired had ABS and an injection boxer engine - sweet. What could possibly go wrong? The Beemer went really well and so off I went to see and of course be seen!! Top Gun-tastic....
There was a cracking stretch of dual carriageway along which were convoy of jeeps occupied and driven by some of our Swedish friends (females obviously by their attire)
I was steaming along right up next to them shouting out my best chat up lines which, at the time included the immortal line "any of you boys seen an aircraft carrier round here", "do not fire until fired upon" etc, etc -when a quick look down at the speedo heralded the news that were I on the M1, I'd get an automatic ban. I decided this was silly, unnecessary and dangerous and so accelerated past and waited for them at the next village....
The moral of the story (and it was worth it in terms of gaining a new friend from Sweden for the remainder of my holiday) was that sometimes risk is addictive as well as obviously dangerous. Equally it's a poor life when there's no excitement, nor risk - just routine and conformity. This is I guess what sets us apart from other enthusiasts, other geeks as I've been called by her indoors (still regret feeding her to the pigs but it's too late now)
and maybe it's why we don't do the safe things, the easy things. It's easier to restore and run Fords, MG's, Triumphs and so forth and whilst there's nothing wrong with this, we play Lancia's with our friends - as JFK said, "not because it is easy, but because it is hard".
This is why I bought the ie. why I've grafted and why I'm where I'm at with it now (can't decide if it's a he or she??). If you don't shoot as they say....
Wish me luck with the MOT.
Tony B.
