It's been a busy return to work, having arrived in almost a foot of snow it's now a balmy 15deg: the office heaters are off and the door is open!
- 2 gearboxes built & despatched
- One M41 & uprated J-type overdrive for a (4 litre?) supercharged Bristol
- John's M40 with close ratio cluster that had jammed following a WRC Subaru piling into the back of him.
- Paul's P1800E departed after last November's worklist
- Wayne's P1800E departed after fettling his fuel injection, much better than when it arrived and the quickest P18 we've had in the workshop by a long margin (nearly as quick as Emma's B18 PV544, but not quite!). The fuel pressure was low, the idle switch wasn't set, and a couple of other improvements. He's definitely got a trick camshaft in the engine, hence its gusto, and it's poor idling characteristics.
- Currently working on Sital's P1800E: full suspension upgrade plus a couple of little things.
Africa Many years ago we returned from Angola having felt cheated: the war was at its height, the rebels were only a couple of miles north of us in Luanda, and so we never drove down the country to Benguela and all the other bits we wanted to see.
Then on New Years Day in 2001 we went to my favourite Mexican restaurant (Cafe Pacifico in Covent Garden), having been to the superb map shop round the corner, drank sufficient Margerita to lube the mental faculties, and formulated a route through Africa to Cape Town. Then PY announced the London-CapeTown rally, and Emma sent me to recce how you cross Africa in a car. So, when Sophie hits 18 (Amy will be 20) in 2018, we shall do that trip down the West Coast of Africa, and back (Emma tells me!) via the East coast.
- We shall invite a couple of other cars to join us if they wish, and since we're not rallying the cars can be ultra light (no roll cage necessary) and very standard.
- Crews
- Emma & Sophie Henchoz
- Rob & Amy Henchoz
- Cars, since we don't need a rollcage the obvious choice seems to be a Volvo estate, and modern enough to have aircon (using the weight we saved from the rollcage!)
- LHD, since it's simpler, lighter and everything is easy to get at, and the majority of countries will be LHD
- Early 145, before roadtax and side impact bars - but it won't have decent aircon
- Any 245, or even a 745 really
These are my birthday thoughts! Tomorrow it's off to the wilds of North Norfolk for SCCoN's 12 car rally with Amy in the PV544...
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