Social Scene Report - TR Action Issue 313
TR Action 313
Publication Date: 29th April 2019
Derbyshire Dales Group Social Scene Contribution
Alan Ford reports:
So, whoever said that winter was the quiet period in the classic car world? The Derbyshire Dales Group seem to have had a crammed diary all season. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who was still getting around to a catalogue of 'due' jobs when the sun started shining and the birds started to sing. Time to get one's finger out, therefore. Mind you, I did take the '6' out for its MOT in a hail shower, with plenty more in the offing.
With regard to club activities, the 'open season' started well in early April but back to the Derbyshire Dales' events. Bob Green started the Sunday events off with a well-attended pre-season lunch at Santo's, Higham Farm, above the Amber Valley.
This was followed by a midweek visit to Pirelli's Performance Centre in Burton upon Trent organised by David Sygrove. Members were given a tour round their spacious, immaculate and fabulously equipped tyre workshop before being given an opportunity for our cars to be brought inside for a free alignment and tyre condition check, whilst we all attended a presentation covering modern tyre technology and manufacture and tyres in the high-performance car world. Somehow, I don't think that the presenter expected to sell many of this type of extreme tyre design on the day. It was interesting to learn, however, that in the top echelons of the exoticar world an impromptu puncture can necessitate their car being uplifted on a low-loader for transport to their respective specialist marque centres – sometimes at the other end of the country - in order to effect the necessary wheel change. No whipping a wheel off at the roadside for these guys. Long live TRs, we say. A frisson of excitement was experienced when one of our members was called out of the room into the workshop; apparently there was some problem with his Merc. It turned out that his car was up in the air on their very sophisticated to-die-for ramp which had jammed in the up position. His car was, eventually, lowered down gently, but only by the manual overriding of the mechanical interlocks.
We now have four of the Derbyshire Dales Group members engrossed with major projects: two TRs, an Austin Healey 3000 and now, an MGBGT courtesy of Ryan Walker. Our webpages now have a script and several photographs of the work that Ryan has been undertaking, along with more photographs of the other three projects in their varying stages of completion.
On the subject of young Ryan (young, because he is our youngest member), last December he obtained a non-running 2001 Rover 75 and brought this back to life over the winter months at an all-in cost of £800. Then in mid-February he undertook a 2400 mile trip through Europe taking in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy before returning home through France, taking time to visit the Auto & Technic Museum in Sinsheim, nr Heidelberg, en-route. Apparently, the sum total of problems experienced was a faulty battery connection and a loose throttle cable. Not a bad achievement at all by anybody's standards.
By the time you read this we will have had our club night talk on Barnes Wallis and our midweek visit to RAF Scampton, and the Derbyshire Dales Weekend organised by Dave Worne will be imminent.
Future Events:
Wednesday 8th May Club Night – A talk on the Life and Work of Sir Barnes Wallis at The Peak Edge Hotel – see our webpages for more info.
Wednesday 15th May – a visit to the RAF Scampton Ethos & Heritage Centre.
Sunday 19th May – National TR6 Day – Meet at the Donnington Grand Prix Collection car park museum for a group run down, or at Wroxhall Abbey Hotel, CV35 7NB. See our Webpages for more info.
This year's Derbyshire Dales Peak Weekend is taking place over the weekend of 7th to 9th June 2019 and is based at the Palace Hotel, Buxton, organised as ever by Dave Worne.
For more details and more events, again, please see our webpages.