2015 WELSH ROAD TRIP – A
Personal Reflection from the ’Newbies’
Frank and Sandra Allen’s Welsh Road Trip was to be our first
event with the 289 Register, and with only 180 miles on the clock and an awful
weather forecast for the drive down on Friday, we approached it with some
trepidation. The Ace was loaded with a small suitcase full of tools, spare oil
and water, hood and sidescreens erected, and we set off into the rain at about
3pm, fingers crossed that the untried windscreen wipers would keep working.
We’d brought a couple of old towels to anticipate the
occasional leak – though the weather penetrated on a similar scale to my first
car – a 1962 Midget, and Penny and I soon realised that rolled-up jeans were de rigeur. Much water came in from
behind due to the shape of the rear body, some more from around the top centre
of the windscreen and probably other areas as well. Traffic was quite heavy – a
long queue near Tarporley on the A49 in particular. We had a brief stop at
Whitchurch before trundling along to Oswestry and Welshpool. We almost found
Maesmawr Hall first time, and on parking up with a line of Cobras we were
warmly greeted by a number of our fellow members. Somehow we’d managed to take
nearly three hours to travel 90 miles ….
We were pleasantly surprised by the quirkiness and character
of Maesmawr, our room in the tudor part overlooking the car park. Dinner –
which was excellent – provided an opportunity to get to know some of our fellow
guests a little better, and to hear stories of previous road trips. I don’t
think we were late to bed, in anticipation of an early start the following
morning.
After a good night’s sleep untroubled by the various
resident ghosts we chickened out of the ‘full English’ to make room for a
calorific day ahead. Fortunately Friday’s rain was over, and though it wasn’t
warm all hoods were of course removed and stowed. The first leg took us on some
minor roads to Llanidloes, then to Rhayader via Llangurig. Our morning coffee
stop was made at the Elan Valley visitor centre, a good photo opportunity for
our impressive line-up of some 12 cars. We continued up the valley on narrow
minor roads, fortunately almost traffic free, before crossing the watershed and
descending into Tregaron for sandwiches and drink at the Talbot.
Our next leg in an easterly direction on some pretty hairy mountain
roads, via Beulah and Newbridge-on-Wye to our next stop at the Metropole hotel
in Llandrindod Wells – another much photographed line-up in the car park! After
tea and Welsh cakes we drove north up the fine and quiet A483 to Newtown, and
Maesmawr. Day 1 accomplished without incident, the car seeming to ease up as
the miles rolled on.
Another evening of excellent food and conversation followed,
followed by bed with high spirits in anticipation of another good day ahead.
Sunday morning – just about made the 9:30 start, no easy
feat for some, before retracing our route south down the A483 for Llandrindod
Wells, then Builth Wells (coffee at Little Chef) and Brecon, before heading
west along the A40. After a few miles we headed off right on an interesting
mountain road through a military training area, soon being passed by Paul
Blore’s Kirkham 427, hotly pursued by a Caterham, neither to be seen again.
So ended our Welsh Road Trip, at exactly the furthest point
from home, and within a few miles of the lunch stop. In a little over an hour
we were homeward bound on the back of a recovery vehicle, courtesy of the AA.
Our second recovery this year, and wondering how much credit we had left! The
fine views of the Welsh countryside from the cab did little to compensate for
our disappointment at the time, though since we have managed to focus on a few
positives:
- The car is comfortable, believe it or not – with good supportive seats and fat tyres;
- The Ace is not too uneconomical – after topping up several times we’re recording between 24 and 30 mpg;
- The re-designed exhaust didn’t fall off, or hit the ground, and sounded quite good!
- We survived a wet trip without any serious misfortune, the wipers weren’t as bad as expected and the weatherproofing was probably better than an umbrella. Jeans and carpets have dried out ….. (tip: in bad weather leave the footwell carpets at home, or in the boot!)
- Above all we enjoyed the welcome from the T289R members, the excellent venue and interesting conversation!
Sadly we missed the birthday celebration arranged for Frank.
Arranging such a trip is no mean feat and our grateful thanks are due to Frank
and Sandra. We look forward to meeting up again soon.
Tony and Penny Cory
Postscript
The car underwent
major surgery the day after we got home. The clutch was fine. Dismantling the
gearbox revealed that the cage of the taper roller bearing between input shaft
and mainshaft nose had broken up completely. Further examination of the oil
pump showed this had seized and the fibre gears broken up.
Parts are ordered and
all being well we’ll soon be on the road again!
....... And sure enough we were. We've since completed runs to my mum's near Tewkesbury, and to the Silverstone Classic without further bother - let's hope that trend continues! For the rebuild I used a steel oil pump gearset obtained from The Wedge Shop (mailed from USA).
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