Jane and Kerry

With the yellow Mini in one of its increasingly rare ‘on the road’ phases, I took the opportunity to enter an autotest run by Chelmsford MC at Woodbridge airfield yesterday. As expected, a good day (although the Peugot driver who broke his gearbox might disagree!), and I managed fifth place. It’s a while since I’ve done an autotest, and as usual, I was just starting to get the hang of it again by the time it finished.

There are a few photos here.

After a couple of months driving Jane’s fancy modern Mini 40 (still a real Mini, of course – not that modern!), I’ve finally got round to replacing the exhaust that fell off mine, and fitting a catch tank for all the oil that used to spray out of the breather filters.

It’s quite a change going back – noisy, smelly, no servo assisted brakes, low gearing, basic interior, non-cancelling indicators…

…which is just how I like it.

After only eight months of ownership, I have now part-exchanged the Saxo for this lovely metallic blue Clio. I had been looking for one that I liked within the right price bracket since Easter, but my search is now over. Still getting used to the wonders of electric windows and central locking, but loving it so far!

I decided that the time had come to have a practical 5-door family car that my parents and/or grandparents could get in and out of without any problem, as well as making it easier to get the cat boxes in the car for the annual trip to the vets and providing a sizeable boot for getting cuttings to the dump. I started looking for a Clio a few months ago, but failed to find anything that I liked and could afford, so I bought this little green Saxo with a really quite interesting (if that’s the right word!) interior. Every seatbelt is a different colour: green for the driver, blue for the front passenger and red or grey for the rear passengers; and the gear knob and doorlock buttons are bright yellow balls! Not my dream car, but it serves the purpose.

I still have the Mini, which is there as my fun vehicle (and also provides an alternative source of transport for Kerry when all his cars are off the road!)