Kick Those Shoes Off and Relax. It's the Delta 2017 Tea Break

[Mike Bell]

BTW, changing the subject- I hear the Navy’s new boat has a leaking stern gland (that’s the seal round the propshaft(s) to stop water leaking through). From the media response you’d think the thing was falling apart. If that’s the only issue after lengthy sea trials, I’d think it a good result......

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I presume Ford saved royalties by naming it ‘Escort Twin Cam’, and losing outside reference to Lotus.... It always amused me that the Mk1 Lotus Cortina became the Mk2 Cortina Lotus, I guess as Ford produced the car rather than Colin’s workforce.....

The Twin Cam will always be a Twink, same as the original 3 litre Capri will always be a ‘Humpy’.

The difference with the Cortina was that Mk1's were assembled by Lotus, whereas the Mk2 simply went down the Ford production line & was closer to standard, hence Cortina-Lotus rather than Lotus-Cortina.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

BTW, changing the subject- I hear the Navy’s new boat has a leaking stern gland (that’s the seal round the propshaft(s) to stop water leaking through). From the media response you’d think the thing was falling apart. If that’s the only issue after lengthy sea trials, I’d think it a good result......

Im sure there are plenty of warranty issues of one sort or another, but nothing too disastrous.

Leaking stern glands are not uncommon on ships of any age.

Oh, and its a Ship; submarines are “boats”!

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by andy97

Oh, and its a Ship; submarines are “boats”!

I did know that- just being frivolous......

My parents were serious boating enthusiasts so I know all about stern glands!

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I did know that- just being frivolous......

My parents were serious boating enthusiasts so I know all about stern glands!

I expect you know piles about stern glands Mike! They can be a pain in the usual place.

[Gerard C]

Anyone to explain me the Humpy thingy please? My dictionary gives either perverse or badly damaged.
Dont worry about the gland think I already got the picture (selfie!)…

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Anyone to explain me the Humpy thingy please? My dictionary gives either perverse or badly damaged.
Dont worry about the gland think I already got the picture (selfie!)…

Not being in the motor trade myself, I must admit that I have never heard the 3 litre Capri being referred to as a Humpy. However, I will hazard a guess that it refers to the hump on the bonnet or as the Yanks insist on calling it, the hood.

That was the first thing that came to mind.

Which reminds me that in the 80s, a friend of mine had one and he was royally peeved that his Capri couldn't either keep up with or handle as well as my 2.8 Toyota Crown. Although the Crown was certainly no beauty to look at, it was beautifully engineered, and it would happily cruise at a speed in excess of 140 mph all day long in virtual silence. And to prove how quick it was, coming out of London on the M1 one afternoon in a tearing hurry (late for a meeting), I passed a 3 litre Capri police Q-car. When I got stuck in traffic pulling off at Watford, they eventually caught up with me, and told me that they couldn't tell what speed I was doing because they couldn't go fast enough to follow me but that they would be reporting me for doing 99 mph. Never heard another word from them, and so no prosecution.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Not being in the motor trade myself, I must admit that I have never heard the 3 litre Capri being referred to as a Humpy. However, I will hazard a guess that it refers to the hump on the bonnet.

That was the first thing that came to mind.

And your guess was correct. Maybe the name wasn’t universally used, but certainly was by me and my mates.......

[Gerard C]

Ha bien Mike, thanks for taking care.Yes the Crown couldn't be called a beauty and many of so called modern Toyotas can't either. In the seventies, the best our parents could have was the Capri 2.6 GT version. Very sideways in the wet though! Cant remember the 3 litre version on the official french catalogue.
Many exotic cars were subject to import control by the government so, for instance, Datsuns were distributes through a dealer(JP RICHARD may be).And Toyota France was a subsidiary of a Swiss company.

[delta]

Thank you Grant.

[Mike Bell]

In the early Capri days we got the British V6 (Essex) engine in 3.0 form only, and you got the German (Cologne) engine in various sizes. Not sure who got the best deal.......

Well done on the new avatar, Iain!

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

In the early Capri days we got the British V6 (Essex) engine in 3.0 form only, and you got the German (Cologne) engine in various sizes. Not sure who got the best deal.......

Well done on the new avatar, Iain!

Anyone starting an Escort agency??

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by delta

Thank you Grant.

From what I can see, that looks very nice, Iain.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Ha bien Mike, thanks for taking care.Yes the Crown couldn't be called a beauty and many of so called modern Toyotas can't either. In the seventies, the best our parents could have was the Capri 2.6 GT version. Very sideways in the wet though! Cant remember the 3 litre version on the official french catalogue.
Many exotic cars were subject to import control by the government so, for instance, Datsuns were distributes through a dealer(JP RICHARD may be).And Toyota France was a subsidiary of a Swiss company.

In the UK, I believe that Bernie Ecclestone had his fingers in the importation pie of Toyotas in the 701s and 80s. He had already garnered good relations with the Japanese due to his importing motorbikes for his dealership in South London.

I don't quite know which market Toyota was trying to reach in the UK with the Crown. It was so much better and far better equipped than the top of the range Ford Grenadas, yet was 10 to 20% cheaper. However, possibly because it was so inexpensive, it was never considered to be a competitor to the Jaguars, BMWs or Mercs. Nevertheless, I had 3 different models and I loved them all. And even Rolls Royce were impressed with the equipment in the cars. They surreptitiously purchased two, one so that they could emulate what the Japanese had been doing since the end of the WW ll and reverse engineer the air-conditioning system that the Crown had, which was very sophisticated for those times.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Wake up Grant!

"HSCC to celebrate the Ford Escort....

The Historic Sports Car Club will celebrate 50 years of the Ford Escort with two special one-model races at Brands Hatch on Sunday 23 September."

Oh, thought he might have been trying to put something together for the previously mooted Plum Pudding event ....

[grantp]

The joys of internet buying.

On Sunday night I ordered an Network over the mains wiring set from a place based in Minworth.

Some may know that Minworth is near Brum or more accurately near Tamworth - just to the south of it it in fact. So about 25 miles from me. Google maps says 37 mins.

I'm not in a hurry for said item and with Xmas deliveries being a bit random sometimes I thought I would have it delivered to our local Coop on a 2 day delivery rather than take the free offer and not have it arrive until sometime after Xmas.

So I got a tracking reference when the order was processed, promptly, on Monday morning and on Monday evening I saw that it had indeed been despatched and in the early evening reached Lichfield.

So far so good I suppose, Lichfield is heading the right way, more or less. The parcel now near the A38 rather than the M42 but a little closer to its delivery point so not much difference.

This evening the tracking tells me it has reached the "National Hub".

It doesn't tell me where this might be located but the companies involved in the courier service, so far as I can put 2 and 2 together, both seem to be registered in Liverpool at the same address and a little more digging suggests that one of them has a fairly new "National Hub" in .... Walsall.

So having progressed a few miles north and closer in the first 24 hours of travel it has now headed a similar distance south and further away in the second 24hours. It is now close to the M6. (Or at least so I assume based on what I can work out.).

It would be interesting to do some research into "Parcel miles" ... if one was so inclined.

Hopefully said package will turn up at the Coop tomorrow in time for my probable brief visit to purchase some vegetables and perhaps a few other comestibles. Fortunately I only have to travel about 1/2 a mile to get there.

[Gerard C]

Mike B you're right but bear in mind that the Essex was designed as a diesel engine first hence the herons heads. I dont know who was responsible for the V6 Cologne but why siamese heads? The best would be an Essex with a Cologne short block, that's a modern Weslake as we see many!
Mike H interesting story. Because of the RHD cars, UK market was a good place to test any model. About companies buying competitor's models (almost all of them do it in fact) sometimes the "inspiration" becomes obvious. Some speak about design stream in certain cases and watching a Corvair, a Panhard 24 and an NSU TT gives you an idea of how strong the stream can be.

[Neil Duke]

Originally Posted by andy97

Im sure there are plenty of warranty issues of one sort or another, but nothing too disastrous.

Leaking stern glands are not uncommon on ships of any age.

Oh, and its a Ship; submarines are “boats”!

According to submariners,there are 2 types of vessel,submarines (boats),& targets.

[Neil Duke]

Originally Posted by John Elwin

The difference with the Cortina was that Mk1's were assembled by Lotus, whereas the Mk2 simply went down the Ford production line & was closer to standard, hence Cortina-Lotus rather than Lotus-Cortina.

The later Mk 1's were also built by Ford.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Neil Duke

According to submariners,there are 2 types of vessel,submarines (boats),& targets.

Yes, but I decided that I would rather take my chances on the surface and enjoy the "runs ashore" and risk the sun burn, rather than live the life of a submariner. As far as I am concerned boats are not meant to sink, whether deliberately or otherwise.

Submariners are recommended not even to drive for several days after returning from a Patrol, whilst their eyes adjust to seeing more than 5 feet in front of them!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by grantp

The joys of internet buying.

......
It would be interesting to do some research into "Parcel miles" ... if one was so inclined.
......
Hopefully said package will turn up at the Coop tomorrow in time for my probable brief visit to purchase some vegetables and perhaps a few other comestibles. Fortunately I only have to travel about 1/2 a mile to get there.

Significant travel for my parcel reported this morning.

Having spent the daylight hours at the National Hub (assumed to be Walsall somewhere) in the early hours of this morning it arrived at the Alfreton depot. So it has been transported past the Lichfield depot in the opposite direction to its travel earlier in the day (or its starting point and up the M42) and ended up about the same distance north of the delivery location as it started out to the south of it.

As of shortly before 8am, after a brief rest in Alfreton, it seems to be back on the road in a VAN and presumably will arrive during the course of today once it has battled through all the local roadworks.

One has to wonder about the claims of computer based "efficiencies" for modern businesses. I doubt this is an isolated example - I suspect that most of the "home delivery" companies are using pretty much the same transport structures and operating policies.

[Mike Bell]

I remember a couple of years ago tracking an urgently needed parcel being delivered by one of the big name lot. Like yours, it went a considerable distance in the wrong direction before eventually arriving at the local depot. And we talk about air miles amassed food imports!

Maybe when drones are being used for parcel delivery they will take a more direct path....

[VIVA GT]

In October we were staying with my wife's sister & family in the middle of nowhere in Devon. We decided to order something obscure (a pizza oven paddle) for them. We placed our order about 6:30, and it arrived (as promised) at 10:20 the following morning. We discovered that it had come from Aberdeen! Ths was obviously a very efficient delivery service.

[gary396]

Very much overdue but it looks like Donington Park is finally getting the investment in infrastructure that it deserves. The full MSV treatment.

http://news-admin.msv.com/multi-mill...-its-mark.aspx

[justracing]

Originally Posted by gary396

Very much overdue but it looks like Donington Park is finally getting the investment in infrastructure that it deserves. The full MSV treatment.

http://news-admin.msv.com/multi-mill...-its-mark.aspx

Fabulous "old school" circuit in my view, judging by the vast improvements at their other venues this is really good news. I'm sure the intention is to get some major series back from Sillystone, the worst spectator circuit in the UK. It's a bit of a hike for me but I would certainly make the effort. I can see the World Endurance Championship transferring there in a heartbeat if there are any hardcore racers in the decision making process.