A regular scan of gumtree had failed to find us a suitable motor for the scally rally so when I spotted a fellow competitor wanting to offload a gorgeous looking Metro I contacted him straight away.
- fly
Having agreed terms (£100) all that remained was to arrange transport from Worcester to Belfast.
The plan was simple – after some planned meetings in London anyway then instead of flying back as normal – take a train up to Worcester, pick up the car, drive to Stranraar, couple of hours sleep on ferry, couple of hours sleep at home and into work.
Day went well and got to Paddington an hour or so before train so picked up tickets and went for a steak – protein keeps you awake.
When I got back to the station – chaos.
All the trains to anywhere had been cancelled due to a fatality on the rails. I felt this sounded tragic but the hardened cockneys, obviously more regularly inconvenienced by such events (apart from the occasional female admirer nobody ever throws themselves in front of my bike), found it inconvenient to irritating.
Some time later my train simply disappeared off the board!
I asked the rail employee. He noticed that too but had no idea why. “Maybe you should go to Reading” he suggested, but was unable to explain why I might do such a thing or offer any further advice.
So, thanks to mobile internet, I worked out the next train to Worcester was the Hereford train which did eventually materialise.
So I arrived at Worcester at 9:45 instead of 8:25.
I just managed to send a text to Stephen, the seller, with a new rough arrival time, before my phone died.
Thankfully Stephen waited for me at the station and after a quick exchange of documents and fuel I was on my way.
I would like to say I was against the clock, but the Metro has no clock and I had no watch on so I had no idea of the time!
Occasionally I was able to tune in the radio long enough to get a time check and, after a diversion due to changed radio and quick fuel and coffee stop I crossed the border to Scotland at bout 2 am.
Realising I could just make the 4 am ferry that I was booked on I cranked her up along the oh so long and tedious Stranraar road.
With seven minutes to spare I made the ferry – 23 hours exactly since I got up the day before.
Car seems great, underpowered, sometimes cuts out on tick over (idle too low) and a flat spot in the engine at about 3000 revs – possibly carb or timing issue. Corners really well – comfortable and good but firm ride. Must be that hydro-elastic suspension wired the right way.
Still, now she is nestling in my drive while the aesthetics team (John) consider decorations – he has become polystyrene obsessed, and the logistics team (Martin) finds camp sites. I will give her a quick service (clean points and spark plugs, adjust tappets and spray with WD40) and oil and filter change some time next month.
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