In my last blog I was having some issues with warnings displaying on the dashboard of the van, telling me that there were problems with emissions and with fuel supply. Steve, who tends the old van, reset the messages with his computer and all was briefly OK, until I was cruising along the A43 on my way to Brackley and up came the messages once again and the van went into limp mode. Limp mode on the van restricts power rather than speed so if you are patient, it is still drivable.
Once I got it back to Steve it became clear that action was needed. It was decided in the first instance to swap out the sensor which was sending the messages. It is part of the turbo boost system on the fuel supply so we decided that we would take the less expensive option before going all out and replacing the turbo. It turns out that in this case shooting the messenger did the trick. With a new sensor in place all was well and all has remained well. The van is back to its lively old self again and pulling like a good-un. Mind you ‘less expensive’ was still the thick end of £500.
It occurred to me that this made three out of three. Three vehicles where electronic messages on the dashboard reduced or destroyed the useability of a vehicle, without there being any fault to report.
The first was my beloved Jaguar S Type. I drove this car about 20 years ago when I had my software company and we had clients all over the UK and in France and Holland. It was nearly new when I bought it and drove more than 100,000 glorious miles in it. I would leave home about 5:00am and be in Paris for a very pleasant lunch, I would spend the afternoon in client meetings and be home before eight in the evening. A very civilised way to do business. As the mileage headed north of 130,000 the dreaded messages started to appear and limp mode in the Jag restricted you to 30mph so the car was completely unusable. Again the problem was the sensor and not a fault on the car – but the eye-watering cost of replacing it was uneconomic and the car had to go. I never liked the XJ6 I replaced it with anywhere near as much. The model below is by Maisto in 1:18 scale.
More recently my daughter bought a Peugeot 208 which turned out to be crippled by its electronics to the extent that it bombarded her with spurious warning messages almost non-stop and in the end she sold it just to be rid of the noise. It was a truly bad car from a company that used to produce some of the best.
All that and the recent news that Nissan is no longer supporting the software in some of its cars which are more than 8 years old makes me wonder whether, like the older iPhones and Windows 7 computers, it will be the firmware becoming obsolete that drives perfectly usable (otherwise) cars off the road. It almost makes me nostalgic for my Series 2a Land Rover.
Rant over with, let me tell you about my trip into deepest Wales. I was off to Llandovery to pick up a collection of Corgi trucks from Ryan. This will be the third set of Corgi trucks I’ve taken in in the last month and they are really creating some interest on the web store. There are a lot more to come, so if 1:50 scale trucks is your thing – keep looking.
I made an early start, leaving before 6:00am as the sun was coming up. The garden is really coming back to life now and the birds were singing their heads off as I walked down to the van. The weather was a bit misty and murky, but thankfully the rain had stopped. I have to say that I have had enough rain this spring. No more April showers thank-you.
Google Maps took me west along the M4 and I was crossing the Prince of Wales Bridge by 7:00am with the weather improving and getting sunnier.
The last time I crossed this bridge I picked up a piece of tyre debris from the road surface which lunched the clutch on the van. Thankfully this time there was no such incident.
Once over the Bristol Channel into Wales we followed the M4 to just short of Newport and then headed north along the A449 towards Raglan. This is a road I use frequently and it is a good one taking you past Usk Castle, which is definitely on my list to visit. I’ve picked up collections from nearby, but never had the time to look.
I joined the A40 at Raglan and turned west towards Brecon. Raglan Castle sits imposingly above the road, guarding the road into mid Wales.
I was looking forward to doing some research on this castle and recounting its bloody history. It seems however that there isn’t any. Plenty of history, but disappointingly little blood. Placed as it is on a strategic road in the Welsh Marches I was expecting all sorts of mayhem with Offa and Owen Glyndwr and the rest. At least a bit of Henry II throwing his weight about – but no, none of it.
An awful lot of the nobility who lived at Raglan Castle went and did violence elsewhere though. William ap Thomas was at Agincourt and the next family to own it, the Herberts, were great warriors in support of the Crown, eventually ending up on the Royalist side in the Civil War, however doing all their fighting in other places. After the Civil War the castle was scheduled to be ‘slighted’ (made indefensible) but the work proved too difficult and was abandoned before much damage could be done. Apparently though the place was very enthusiastically looted by the local townsfolk intent on finding treasure and smashing things up when they found none.
My first classic car treat of the day came at Crickhowell on the A40. As I was leaving the town there came towards me the most beautiful Batmobile – a BMW 3.0 CSL. Unlike the model in the photo it was a most delicate shade of light aqua blue metallic, which suited the fine lines of this stunning car admirably. It was in truly gorgeous condition and it lifted my spirits.
They may have needed lifting a little as the good people of Wales have embraced speed limits, big time. It is starting to bleed over the border into England now so I’m getting used to bowling along an A road at 50 and suddenly finding myself in a 20mph zone. I’m trying very hard to comply as speeding tickets are no fun at all, but it is difficult as the limits flip-flop all over the place with not a great deal of logic that I can see.
Don’t get me wrong, I think 20mph zones on residential side streets and outside schools are a great idea to improve road safety and I’m pleased that the street in which I live has one, it would be even better if anyone took any notice of it. I keep finding myself being overtaken on narrow urban streets as I grind along at 20 which does not help road safety one little bit.
The 20mph limits do jar a bit on main through routes but I guess in my whole 300 mile round trip to Wales there was probably less than a mile of these, so not a big deal. My main beef is with the frequency speed limits are changing and their unpredictability. Under the old system you always had a good idea of the limit on any given road and it’s a lot harder to comply now, especially as Google Maps seems unable to keep up with the changes.
One more thing before I move on. If I drive a mile in the van at 30mph the engine rotates 3000 times (1500rpm). At 20mph I have to shift down into 3rd gear and the engine is still running at 1500rpm, so that is 4500 engine revolutions to cover a mile. I am also on that piece of road for 50% longer time-wise. I wonder if any work has been done to calculate the increase in pollution caused by these 20mph limits? I suspect that if it has it will not be made public.
From Raglan the A40 begins to climb up into the mountains and valleys which form the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is a very pretty part of the world and the road follows the River Usk along its deep valley through the little towns, Abergavenny, Crickhowell, Bwlch, Brecon and Llandovery.
Spring is much later up here in the hills. It is probably two weeks behind Oxfordshire. The trees are still mostly bare and the countryside and towns have that fag-end of winter look, mud splattered and dirty waiting for everything to green up and look better. The sun was trying to come through, but it was still mostly dark and cold.
One thing very noticeable was the lack of floods. In the Thames Valley, where I live, the fields are under standing water everywhere after all the heavy rain we have had this spring. The land is so flat that it just does not drain away and once the ground is waterlogged the rain pools on the surface of the fields. The River Thames of course drains a huge area of the country and the water which has been coming down it recently is biblical in its ferocity. Levels are carefully managed with weirs to prevent the towns, Oxford, Abingdon, Henley, from flooding which pushes the water out into the fields – water meadows. Last weekend we walked the dog down to Abingdon Lock and every sluice gate was wide open with the water thundering through, the river level just over-topping the banks.
Up in the Welsh mountains the valleys are steep and narrow with deep rivers at the bottom which drain away the water, so although it rains a lot more the landscape can handle it – sending the water down to the Severn and the Thames to flood the lower lying country.
Ryan and his partner live in a pretty old house in the middle of Llandovery and I was there to pick up his partner’s late father’s collection of Corgi trucks. They were quickly loaded and the transaction done, so I turned the van around and headed back the way I had come.
I stopped in Glan Usk at a roadside van to get some breakfast. What a treat, the people who have the van also have a farm and sell meat from their own animals. I had the best bacon roll I have had in a very long time. It’s a shame that I pass this way so rarely but it is worth remembering for next time.
Just a little father on came my next classic. The most highly polished Morris 1000 Traveller I have seen in a long while parked outside the shops. It was a rich deep maroon and looked so smart. A car to be proud of. The model in the photo is by Vanguards in 1:43 scale.
For my return trip I decided to follow the A40 all the way back to Oxford. Motorways are no fun and there is nothing to look at so I decided to head for Gloucester and on through the Cotswolds.
Stopping at a service station just outside Raglan I was rewarded with this sight. A car transporter loaded with interesting classics. The name on the side of the truck reads U-Drive which is a company providing classic car driving experiences.
So let’s unpick that load. There are three Ferraris on the back. The red one is a 360, I’m struggling a bit with the blue one (California?) and the white one is a V12 599. The model below is by MR Collection in 1:18 scale.
The next one along the top is a nice Mini Cooper, I’ve chosen a 1:18 scale car from Corgi for my photo.
Continuing along the top deck we have that classic of classics, the Aston Martin DB5, weapon of choice for James Bond. The car on the transporter though would have both Q and Bond in tears. It had the nastiest set of modern spoked alloys you have ever seen. Who on earth spoils a lovely car like a DB5 with abominable wheels?
The model is by Franklin Mint in 1:18 scale.
Next along the top deck is another Aston Martin. This time a V8 Vantage, also driven by James Bond, this time in ‘The Living Daylights’ when Timothy Dalton was playing Bond. This is the one with side skis and after shedding a tyre cut a hole in a frozen lake.
The model in my picture is from the Eaglemoss James Bond series, depicting the car from the film in 1:43 scale. It is made by Universal Hobbies. It’s a shame they couldn’t find mirrors in the right scale.
Tucked away on the lower deck, just behind the cab, is a Chevrolet Camaro SS in metallic blue, looking just like the one the fixed up on Wheeler Dealers. My picture is a Matchbox Collectibles car in 1:43 scale.
As you can imagine I was a bit carried away by the sight of this load of loveliness and just as I moved in to snap more detailed and close-up photos – the battery died on my phone. So I got no more pics. However the excitement was not yet over as when I got back on the road I overtook another truck from the same outfit carrying more wonderful classics. This time it was mostly Porsches, which, while being excellent cars, just don’t engage in the same way as does an old Aston or Chevy. The highlight for me on this second truck was a V8 Ford Capri with bulging wheel arches. You can see what these people have to offer on www.udrivecars.com, it’s worth a look, they travel the country hosting driving days on local race tracks.
I was chatting on the phone to one of my regular customers about the cars on the transporters and he told me about plans Ford once had for selling a V8 Capri with a 4.5 litre US motor. He was a development engineer for Ford at the time (GT40, Mk2 Escort, Transcontinental truck were among his projects) and he said that while the V8 Capri was fun to drive it was felt that it was just too dangerous to release to the public. This conclusion being confirmed when Ford opened discussions with the insurance companies who were just not interested in taking on that sort of risk, too many of the 3 litre Capris ended up backwards in hedges as it was. The project was shelved.
So, onwards to Gloucester. The road cuts down through Newent and on this section I got my last three classics of the day.
The sun was out and it was turning into a day to get some wind in your hair, for those that still have some. Along came a Caterham 7 in Gulf colours, the full fig, marigold and sky blue with all the logos. I thought I had photos on file, but I do not so this racing green example from Kyosho will have to do. It is in 1:18 scale
Then came a splendid Volvo Amazon, looking very smart. I see more and more of these on the road and I suspect it is a classic that is very easy to live with every day. The model is by Revell in 1:18 scale.
Last of all came a truck
This is a Foden Alpha, the model being a 1:50 scale Corgi and being an 05 plate must have been one of the last produced. Foden was a proud British manufacturer of initially steam trucks, moving over to diesel in the 1930s. Not without a fight it seems as one member of the family, Edwin Foden, fell out with the rest of the family on this issue and started his own company, ERF, to produce diesel trucks. So for a time there were two truck makers in the tiny village of Sandbach in Cheshire with Foden at one end and ERF (for Edwin Richard Foden) at the other and not speaking to each other.
Foden went through bankruptcies in the 1980s being absorbed by Leyland and DAF and later PACCAR who ‘retired’ the brand in 2006.
The truck I saw was a working truck, not a restored classic, and must be one of only a few still operating.
After the nasty drive round the Gloucester ring road, nearly as bad a Chichester in my opinion, the van and I made for Birdlip Hill which was a bit of a shock. This used to be a main route south for me before the A34 was completed. I lived in Chester at the time and worked for the women’s fashion company, Dorothy Perkins, who were based in Bracknell. Every two years or so I had to go down to head office to pick up a new car (Sierra or Cavalier was my choice) and the easiest way to get there was down the M5 and cut across to the M4 via Cirencester. This route taking you over Birdlip Hill and past the old Air Balloon pub.
It is a long steep hill with a busy roundabout at the top, splitting the road for Oxford one way and Cirencester the other way. The Air Balloon has been pulled down and it looks like the hillside is in the process of being excavated away. It looks horrible. I can see the logic in improving the junction, always a bottleneck, but this looks worse than the mess which is HS2. It looks like the ground is being levelled for building housing estates on this once beautiful piece of country.
The next more pleasant contrast was how much further on spring is progressing in the Cotswolds compared to the Welsh mountains. Nearly all the trees are in leaf, the fields are green and I enjoyed this trip along one of my favourite roads, the A40 though Burford and Witney and back to Kingston Bagpuize. After all that I was back at the warehouse in time for lunch.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s ramble, if you did please scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Like’ button.
What’s in the Van? – Home
29th Feb & 3rd March 2024 – South, West & Local
15th February 2024 – All The Way To Essex
1st February 2024 – Heading West
30th November – A Quick Trip to the Cotswolds
9th November – Southampton and a Visit From The Press
2nd November – All Around the Big Smoke
19th October – Stonnall & Bicester
4th/5th October – Berkhamstead & Poole
21st/22nd September – Stratford & Farnham
20th September – Duesenberg Coupe Simone
14th September – Croydon
10th September – New Romney
24th August – Shrewsbury
17th August – Airedale, Gainsborough & Leicester
3rd August – Bedford
27th July – Worthing
13th July – Chatteris, Hinckley & Nuneaton
6/7th July – Magor & Westbury
15/16th June – Newcastle upon Tyne
8th June – Bournemouth, Ringwood & Bracknell
1st June – Diss, Stewartby & Brackley
25th May – Rickmansworth
12th May – Kingston & Fleet
4th May – Witham
21st April – Staines
12th April – Dereham
6th April – Warminster
30th March – Doncaster, Gainsborough & Peterborough
18/22nd March – Bedford & Epsom
15/16th March 2023 – London, Hemel Hempstead & Stafford
8th March 2023 – Warwick & Solihull
5th March 2023 – Huntingdon & Bedford
23rd February 2023 – Little Wheels Museum
16th February 2023 – Devon & Dorset
9th February 2023 – Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire
2nd February 2023 – Gloucester & Hereford
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