Powderham

[John Bonnett]

Jerry, Lindsay and i together with our respective wives have just returned from the Powderham Show and what a superb event it was; well over forty Triumphs on the Stand.. Overall a terrific mix of vehicles, a great atmosphere and weather to match.

 

On behalf of our little band I would like to say a very big thank you to Sue Franklin our own AO who organised the stand and I would also like to say how lucky we are to have her. She works so hard, always has a smiling welcome for everyone and above all remembers the names of people that perhaps she hasn't seen in a blue moon. Sue you do a fantastic job which is really appreciated. thank you.k you. Sue and John were there with their freshly restored Herald and what a fantastic job they have made too. Really really nice

 

It was interesting that quite a number of cars were being troubled by fuel vaporisation I guess probably as a result of the ever increasing amounts of Ethanol being added to the fuels.

[Sue Franklin]

Thanks so much for the post John.  So glad you all enjoyed it.  Probably our biggest and dare I say it bestest ever display at Powderham.  We were thrilled to have as many cars on Saturday as we did on Sunday which is very rare. Apart from your lovely special, it was great to have 2 smashing GT6s in the anniversary year.  Jerry's and Chris from Leicester.  Lots of cars we have not seen before, the early 948 saloon of Shaun, long time member Jon with his really nice and previous award winning Vitesse 6, a rare 1300 TC which we have not seen before, and I think at least 3 concours standard Spitfires, 2 of which are 1500s and the other is a young member's Mk III.  We had 2 Acclaims, and through them gained a new member aged 17 who has one.

 

Wonder if the vaporisation issue is becoming a more common issue?  Would be very interested to know of other peoples' experiences.  Pretty sure that was the problem with my Herald last week, has been fine since.  The other two with problems yesterday may be slightly different, Rob wonders if he may have had 2 duff coils - and Jon had to stop several times on the way both to the show and on the way home.  Neither of these cars have done a huge mileage recently - could this be the cause?

 

Cannot claim the credit for the Herald's current good looks though, she was done by Andy Moss of AM Restorations in Plymouth.  Turned out not to be as sound as we had thought she was but after so many years we should not have been surprised.  Lovely to have her back though.

[John Bonnett]

For anyone whose car is suffering from fuel vaporisation problems this might be of interest. Last year when we went to France Jerry had problems with the GT6 in slow moving traffic when idling and when stationary. His car is fitted with the original mechanical fan and also an electric on on the front of the radiator. His car would be fine when driving at normal speeds but very soon after he stopped in traffic the engine would be difficult to keep running and eventually it stopped. One of the main culprits we suspected was a plastic fuel filter near the front carburettor which was heated directly from the exhaust manifold. Removing this and replacing it with a rubber pipe improved things but did not cure the problem. Next the fuel pipe was insulated back to the pump. He had no more trouble while we were in France bu the problem reappeared when in the line waiting to board the ferry to France this year.

 

The smart money is on the fuel in the pump boiling. So the next step has been to arrange for forced cooling in that area using a motor cycle radiator cooling fan. I built the fan into an enclosure made from sheet aluminium. The car had no problems yesterday when leaving Powderham which was quite a good test. Another and possibly more severe test will be at Silverstone at the end of the month.