MOTOR-BLOG from Coventry

I have a working classic car again - at last. Yep, Susan my Triumph Vitesse 6 aced her MoT again. Well I say aced, there were one or two little issues. Some welding to the sills is on the cards but they’re not structural anyway, being held on by self tapping screws.

Good old Triumph. The lack of development cash that forced them into using the old fashioned idea of a separate chassis in the first place, meant that the Herald platform could spawn a wide range of models quite cheaply. Good on them. This is why you can’t get heritage bodyshells for Vitesses unlike the MGB, we don’t need them. Ha ha! Not so clever now Mr rotbox MG are we?

Since the pass early yesterday morning, I’ve done about 60 miles in the old girl, a summer fete (see http://www.helenwoodward.co.uk ) and a car show. Brilliant. I’ve burned about a quarter of a tank of juice too, but don’t fret you environmentalists out there, the Vitesse tank is tiny, so the fuel always goes down quickly. It’s been far too long, and I intend to do a lot of driving in the old girl this year. Hooray for old cars!

Yes boo to MoT time indeed. As you’ve probably gathered one of my fleet has just failed the dreaded MoT test, and to make things worse it was Sabine my SAAB 900 Turbo. I’ve owned this car for the best part of 3 years and it’s never even had an advisorary before, well, it did fail last year on a tyre but as I knew about that and it passed within an hour of the fail courtesy of a brand new Firestone, I don’t count it.

Realistically though, for a car which is 20 years old this year the fail wasn’t a big deal really. First up, it needs new brake pads up front - a service item at best. The Flexihoses need replacing too - 20 years is probably a long enough service life for such a crucial part of the braking system anyway, so I don’t begrudge that. The problem lies with the brake lines though - they’re a bit rusted around the ferrules which may make removing the old flexihoses troublesome, so it may be quicker just to replace the brakes lines with copper items while we’re at it.

So there we are, my first proper fail in the SAAB. Still, I’ll feel better driving around with new brakes, lines, hoses and fluid, so it should be worth it. It’s just a shame that I’m off on holiday next week and I won’t be able to get the work done for a week or so…