René Claessens Memorial or the 30th edition of the "Nachtrit"

Yesterday saw the 30^th edition of the annual LTV Nachtrit. Sadly René, the driving force behind well over half of the editions, died last year. Only a few weeks after the 29^th edition. And due to his health he wasn't able to attend. So it was obvious that this year's edition would be dedicated to him. And where better to start than with the rally plates:

But before the event would start we (my navigator Jos and I) had the rather enjoyable task of carrying out the final reconnaissance run. And this was done as close to the start of the event as possible. This meant that very early on the Saturday morning we set of from the start location, Rolduc Abbey. And as usual 't Kreng was the car of choice. We had decided for an early start for obvious reasons. You can lose a lot of time plotting an alternative route, when you run into road works or another diversion! But we needn't have worried, all roads were open safe one. But we already had anticipated on these road works, as a result of which we hardly lost any time. Remained enjoying the weather and the views.

And the driving of course! As the road conditions were pretty good we were back at Rolduc well before the start of the event. Time for some well deserved coffee & vlaai. And a look at this year's participants, most of whom were "old hands" at this event.

But it was also good to see a few new faces, and the return to the event of this car, manned by the only ladies team. Being courteous we allowed them the honourable last starting position. And they certainly got the public vote for most impressive sound track on departure!

With all cars on their way it was time for us (the organisation) to sit back and enjoy the food, the beer and the ambiance that Rolduc Abbey could supply.

p.s. A note for the Club Triumph members who will be taking part in next year's 10CR, they will have to park the cars somewhere else as the rear court is currently under construction. When it is finished it won't be possible to park there anymore. There are other alternatives though ...

Enjoying the fine autumn weather

Or almost €175,- worth of fun, being the cost of the fuel I have burnt over the past few weeks with the DHC. All due to the very fine autumn weather she's seen a fair amount of use, almost doubling the total mileage so far this year. Whenever there was some time to spare, I took the car out. Just to enjoy the weather, the driving and the views! A few pictures of the car during various tours in the area:

At a sand pit beside the river Maas between Neer and Buggenum

Horn Castle

Near "The Broken Castle" Grubbenvorst

Road side cross near Boukoul

Windmill near Stevensweert (De Hompesche Molen)

Railroad bridge over the Wessem-Nederweert canal near the hamlet of Mildert

Lush farmland north of Bunde

And some fine views north of Elkenrade

FHC resto resto nr. 72; Or how time flies!

It's exactly five years ago today that my latest TR7 joined my small collection. I actually bought the car for its, at first glance rather tatty looking, Wolfrace Turbo wheels:

But they were completely undamaged, with absolutely no curbing damage. And on the cars arrival in the shed the wheels were quickly removed and sent of to be refurbished. Shod with new rubber and with newly designed 3D printed wheel centres, they were fitted to my 1980 DHC. Why? Because for as long as I love TR7's I have always wanted a TR7 DHC with a set of these wheels fitted:

With the wheels removed from the car, it dawned on me that I was in possession of a pretty early and fairly original Dutch car, which was first registered here on the 6^th of October 1976. So it was quickly decided it had to be restored. Though with a few slightly non original twists. And the rest is history as the saying goes! But still very much a work in progress, a few pictures of the body work (the full restoration story so far can be found here) ...

As bought in Hoek van Holland (17-10-2013)

Disassembling complete (12-02-2014)

Welding complete and waiting for final "light" shot blasting and a coat of primer (10-07-2014)

Almost ready for painting (08-11-2014)

Underside and inside painted (05-02-2015)

Patiently waiting for its turn in the spray cabin (05-09-2015)

Painted at last! (14-09-2015)

Slowly taking shape (30-05-2017)

Original plan was to have the car restored and back on the road in 2016. As this would be the year that she'd became tax exempt. But life and other games got in the way from time to time ...

FHC resto nr. 71; Fitting fuel filler and happy birthday

Another smallish job on the car completed. This weekend I found a bit of spare time to fit the fuel filler neck and connect it to the tank. Over the past few weeks I had been searching through my spare parts in search of a decent filler neck hose to use between the filler neck and the fuel tank. But I only found one, and that was badly damaged. So in the end I opted for a more modern approach and ordered a 300mm long piece of universal ø51mm diameter flexible fuel hose from a motor sport outlet.

Another "problem" I encountered was the non vented large diameter fuel filler cap. When I bought the car it came with  a rather bodged rear deck replacement from a later model, so with the small vented filler cap. As a result of which the original "breathing" device (part #158526) was missing. Luckily I found a separator canister (part #UKC2257) from a US specification PI car I broke a few years ago. Which should do the same job. And it turned out that the mounting bracket for this canister was fitted to the inside of the fuel filler shroud of my car's body:

With all parts ready it was time to fit them to the car. I had mentally prepared for a few frustrating moments because there is very little room to manoeuvre inside the shroud. But I had hoped that at least the universal hose would slide onto the tanks filler tube easily (as it did on the filler neck). Of course it didn't!

With the later type of filler neck you can assemble the filler neck and hose to the tank, and fit the everything from underneath. Sadly with the early type the filler neck has to be fitted from above. Which means the filler hose has to be slipped over the tanks tube in a very confined space. Took me well over half an hour to get it on. Time for the next challenge, fit the canister and the various hoses and tighten all hose clips in the now even more confined space. But got everything in position in the end. Only had to turn one hose clip after I took these pictures ...

I also had planned to fit the panel to close of the filler neck shroud, but I remembered just in time that I needed access to the space for fitting the left hand rear shock absorber! And just for the records, yesterday was the cars 42 birthday or should I say registration day, as she was first registered on October the 6^th 1976!