TDCIR 2009

[SprintMWU773V]

Sorry I couldn't make the event this year. It was just a little too far me to go in a non-o/d 1500 with wobbly wheels. I didn't let the side down too much as went to a show at Cholmondeley Castle instead.

Hope some more pics can be posted on here to see.

[David6214]

A great day, good venue, easy parking, hideous journey home though, the car got rather hot queuing to get past an accident and sat nav was called into avoid roadblock mode. East Knowle or wherever it is seemed to have some nice roads.

As usual I didn't see another dolomite on the way home.

I think the event (ie TDCIR in general) could be improved if we had a method of tying up people with cars, name badges wouldn't work, but maybe a list of expected cars and their owners names would be a good idea. I have received similar details from other car shows.

There were lots of people at this show I didn't recognise and it would have been nice to put a few more faces to names / cars.

See suggested improvements for TDCIR thread in the club members section.

I only took a few pics this year....I took plenty of my newest acquisition at HPOM the previous week

[tinweevil]

What a great day and what a great turnout! I found it a very pleasant change to be travelling different roads this year. 'twas a fine location with all the facilities and interest you could hope for. Top stuff.

Really nice to put some new faces to names and see unfamiliar cars as well as to catch up with the usual suspects though I missed several of the latter, the day just evaporated.

Let's go North next year.

Tinweevil

[Glynnd]

I was there

I wish to thank Mike and the gang for organising this great day, and for the others who helped in selling the regalia (as well as everyone who bought stuff - it meant my sprint wasnt quite so loaded up on the way back)

The journey home was more successful than the one down, only taking 3 1/2 hours - instead of sitting for 2 hours on the m5 round Bristol with a very hot sprint.

Lets get some ideas going to venue for next year, it would be good if we had some volunteers and the date and venue organised by christmas

Glynn

[David6214]

I was there

Lets get some ideas going to venue for next year, it would be good if we had some volunteers and the date and venue organised by christmas

Glynn

There is a thread in club members section re ideas and one asking for volunteers in meetings and events

[Mad Mart]

I can't remember if I thanked you Julian. A big Thank You to Julian (tinweevil) who has stored a Sprint o/d gearbox at his house for the last 6 months & delivered it to my door on Sunday morning.

[dollyed]

Fantastic day that was, a big thank you to all the organizers for a top day out. The convoy down was great with some lovely cars (made mine look even more shabby though! ) and great to meet you all, reg/lee/brian/ady/another neil!/carl/martin/matt..... and everybody else i meet on the day, great stuff

NFC behaved it's self all the way there and back with only some minor niggles to sort out but very pleased with it's first run after a lot of work, it feels better with every mile covered ....just need some 40 webbers and a cam to sort it's performance out!!

Cheers Neil

[tinweevil]

Least I could do I thought having deprived you of it for 6 months! You're most welcome.

[mbellinger]

Blimey, now I am a bit more cogent, I can post some more thoughts. I will respond to David's other thread in the Members section as well.

Firstly, my travails last night. I left Sparkford, joined the A303 eastbound and quickly settled into an 80(ish) elephants cruise. Suddenly I heard a loud hissing noise from the area behind the dash, the heater went stone cold and the temperature gauge marched H ward, all at the same time. I slowed to about 40 mph (as slow as it was safe to do as the road was extremely busy); and looked for somewhere to pull in. And looked, and looked. eventually after just under four miles I found a lay by and pulled over.

The engine by now was scalding hot and clearly all the water had vanished, but before I could investigate at all I had to rather forlornly sit and wait for things to cool down. After about 20 mins I had a look and discovered that the small hose from the back of the cylinder head to the heater had burst. This hose was, typically, just about impossible to access and required the removal of the coil pack and other distributorless ignition ephemera from the back of the head. Even after that it was a long pipe cleaner fingers jobbie, continously burning my arm and hands on the cylinder head.

A lot of rude words were said.

I carry some spare hose, but all the bits I had were too small in the bore and there was just no way they were going to be persuaded onto the outlet at the back of the head. The RAC card was twitching in my wallet, when I decided that I would try the top hose running from the rad to the expansion tank and hey presto, it fitted. I was then able to cobble an ertsartz collection of bits of tubing (including a bit of domestic copper pipe I had ligging around in the boot) together to replace the top hose. Somewhere during the latter stages of this ordeal, Lee and Reg pulled up in Lee's very smart PI, and did exactly what was required by ripping the p1ss out of me and laughing their bollocks off. This somewhat lightened my mood I have to say and we all ended up having a bloody good laugh.

The next problem was how to refill the system with water, but I noticed a camper van further on the layby having a brew up, and when approached he very kindly donated several litres from his tank. What a star.

So, duly filled, off we went with Reg and Lee riding shotgun behind in case of disasters, and instantly went into about ten miles of crawling traffic. The temperature behaved and the car seemed okay so I stopped at a petrol station after about seven miles, refilled all my water bottles, we said our goodbyes and I made it back home about 11.30pm. I was too tired to even unload the car, and fell straight into bed.

Thoughts on the day?

Loved the venue. As David said elsewhere, you do need more than a field. The museum was interesting in its own right, and the Rare Breeds car show was an added bonus. The cafe was excellent, and in my view well priced. It was somewhere that you could have genuinely taken the kids and they would have been amused. Well done again Mike, and all the others involved.

The idea of giving out info sheets is a good one - I too would like something to connect people with car as there were an awful lot of new faces for me too. To save admin on the day, these could be posted on the website in downloadable form so members could do a neat typed version if theywish and take it with them to the show. Some blanks could be kept for overspill cars who turn up on the day.

I loved the little 500 Jap engined single seaters being on the track - they sounded and smelt great. The noise didn't bother me at all and it was great having a walk round their makeshift "pits" after and chatting to them.

The principle Committee members were disppointingly thin on the ground. This is the Clubs one national event of the year, and I know everyone cannot make it every year, but all the same I was disappointed. It was really nice to see Glynn and Mark there albeit we only got the chance to chat fleetingly. A chance was almost missed, as I was approached by a motoring journo doing a "Buying" article for Classics magazine. He wanted to talk to the Secretary or whoever did the valuations for the Club. Rob Marshall and I directed him to that good looking bald bloke in the white shirt again and all was seemingly well.

Yet again the day flew by - I looked at my watch only twice, once at 12.30ish and then seemingly a few minutes later at 5.00pm!!

A long drive for me, but worth every second, and a great success.

[Matt Cotton]

Indeed, a great day and a great location.

As per normal, there wasn't enough time during the day to speak to everyone, but I'm glad it was a success and it was great to catch up with everyone. I was particulary pleased to meet Neil (Newbie) with his Sprint...a great story that would make an interesting article in D.M in the future.

My folks also came this year. They left to head along the A303 at 4.30 ish and got stuck in the traffic...as did I about half an hour later.

Apparently the accident causing the chaos involved someone from the rare breeds collection? Mum and Dad didn't know what the car was, and it was clear by the time I limped past, but I hope the occupants were ok. Anyone see anything else?

[MalcGE]

Glad a good day was had by all, venue is somewhere i've always wanted to go. I'll bite ny tongue on comments about committee members not being there as i've been to 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and had some cracking ecvents, but alas, Aug and Sept are two very busy months for me these days and a September date clash is somewhat innevitable.

IMHO if as a club we are going to rely on committe members to attend every year then the future doesn't look so good, personally think it is excellent that the event was organised, run and well attended without the reliance on the entire crew of committe members, glad you all had a good day and weather/

Go for July in 2010 and I may be OK.

Keep the phot's coming cos I wanna see what I missed

[Covsprint]

Can I add my thanks to Mike and his team for organising an excellent day, of which our club should be proud. It was nice to ring the changes, and now that we have broken the mould, I look forward to attending national days in other parts of the country. With the Coventry Run on my doorstep, almost literally, on the Sunday, it was very tempting to save a tank and a bit of petrol, 6 hours driving, and go there instead. But, I am very glad that I opted to support the TDCIR. Just a shame that I havent been Dolomite powered for a couple of years now. One day....

I am not a regular forum user, but I noted a few comments about absence of committee members. As a recently ex-committee member now, I do find this type of comment a little disappointing. It is easy to forget that TDC committee members also have families, work, and other commitments. It is fair to say that we have put in a hell of a lot of effort over the years, and it isnt fair to expect us to be everywhere. As Malc says, if we wish to have a TDC in the future, we need to move away from having a small number of people doing everything. In fact, if my daughter had thrown up half an hour before I left the house on Sunday morning instead of half an hour after, I dare say that I would have been absent too.

Anyway, I digress. Congratulations and thanks to Mike and his team for a successful day.

Mark Mc

[Mad Mart]

Malc, I wasn't having a pop at you as I knew you couldn't make it. But surely it could have been arranged for someone close by to pick up the spares from you & bring to the show? I was going to buy a few parts from the club (for my next project?) which would have saved on p&p (for the club, not me ). What I'm getting at is that it is a missed opportunity to increase the club funds.

[straylight]

phwoar, look at all those dollies.

looks great guys and girls, thanks for flying the flag and putting such an excellent lot of cars up on show.

stu

[Mike Groom]

Just got round to the forum!
I'm glad I wasn't the only one with coolant problems. Car ran fine to the event at 3/8 on the gauge, but on arrival dumped about a pint of coolant from the expansion tank! Thanks to Chris for pointing it out and Lee for assistance later with the hose-squeezing.
A very enjoyable day overall. Had good fun playing 'spot the knobhead' as various members of the public attempted to park in our area!
Good also to see a few familiar faces including Reg, even if he was piston broke (seemed quite sober to me!)
Car ran OK on the way back, but sounds like I left just before the accident otherwise I too would have been in the layby cadging a sausage roll! Car ran a 5/8 all the way back, but helped by the secondary cooling system. My feet were glowing red by the time I got home, but the coolant stayed in the car this time!
Well done to those that organised the event. I think I will be volunteering to organise next year's TDCIR and have a few ideas to table.
There will be a short video to follow, if I can stop my editing software from crashing every 5 minutes. I'll post a link here later.