Hi Leon,
Thanks for posting this. I love these kinds of adventures, the Cape Town
one was great too.
Jane
'67 GT6
> We had come a long way already, some 1,700 miles in 3 days since we
started
> from the Brooklands Motor Museum on Sunday Morning (31 Jan). Under clear
> skies, that first day had been a breeze, fast and easy over mostly
straight
> roads, and adrenaline had overcome thoughts of sleep as we drove further
into
> the night. The Triumphs heater was working well, so it wasn't until
midnight
> approached and we joined a long queue (line) for petrol outside a little
cafe
> in Erize-la-Petite that we realised how cold it was - minus 11 degrees
> Celsius, someone said. We could only wonder at the fortitude of the
Vintageant
> crews in their open topped monstes; catching them on the road, we'd first
see
> a pair of tiny glimmering rubies in the darkness, the a great black
Gothic
> shape silhouetted against the moonlit sky or the yellow aura from two
giant
> headlamps. As we overtook these bellowing beasts, which took every ounce
of
> the Triumph's performance, we were overwhelmed by their sheer size, their
hub
> spinners whirring past somewhere above our heads. The heroism of their
pilots
> was captured in an unforgettable, other-worldly moment at
Erize-la-Petite,
> where in the shadows beyond the cafe's warm light, I glimpsed two Titans
clad
> in heavy fur-lined leather armour leaning motionless against an
outlandishly
> long-tailed 4,479cc 1938 Lagonda Le Mans, the whole frozen ensemble
looking
> like a giant cast-iron monument to speed, power and endurance. How they
coped
> with the wind chill, I cannot imagine; just after we reached the snow
line, we
> realised the Triumph's heater didn't work at less than 60 mph. Soon after
that
> we encountered our first snow and realised, as we sat broadside across
the
> road, taht our tyres didn't work either ...
> We had feared as much. The chaps at Racetorations in Gainsborough,
> Lincolnshire had called me a few days before the start to say the
flexible
> winter tyres originally fitted didn't suit such a quick little car on dry
> roads; in a last minute panic, we fitted Avon CR6 tyres, which were
fabulous
> on Tarmac, wet or dry, but whose ZZ tread pattern stood a snowball in
hell's
> chance when the going got icy. We carried snow chains, of course, as is
> compulsory in France, and had practised fitting them in historic rally
expert
> Mark Tipping's warm, dry and well-lit Weybridge workshop. It was dead
easy.
> But now we were driving a GT6 loaded with spares and luggage, and the
rear
> wheels had disappeared into the arches, along with any hope of fitting
the
> "rapid-fit self-adjusting" chains in less than half-an-hour, while
wearing
> gloves, or without losing a good deal of skin in the process.
>
> More in part 4 (tomorrow)
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