Doli Wallies

This morning we left at 0800 hours and headed off to London to pick up our Triumph Dolomite 1300. What can I say this car is the quintessential English gent. From the walnut sports steering wheel to the thick brown shagpile carpet he is a suberb specimen. Yes the sills may be a little holey and he may be in need of some TLC, but ultimately you can't keep a good man down. The chap we bought the Triumph from gave us the original bill of sale which shows that in August 1980 the owner paid a handsome sum of £3802.37 for him. 'Him' being the aforementioned Dolomite in a nice sandglow colour with a chestnut trim. The original owner kept the Dolomite for 25 years and we are only the 4th owner. We have all of the MOT's and even the original handbook and service book.
The drive home was steady as I kept it to a sedate 50 mph and the weather was filthy however as we entered Dorset at one stage I'm sure I had a whopping 67mph out of him. Upon returning to a steady 50 the blood returned to my knucles and I was happy to plod along. I didn't want to overexert the old feller on his first run out afterall.

We arrived back in Dorset at 1630 having had a couple of stops along the way - all in all it has been a thoroughly good day. With our Team registered and the number awarded we have now become the 'Lucky No.7' Team.

The car

After a very short conversation, a colleague of mine decided that he too couldn't miss the opportunity of a lifetime and he became the second member of my 'Turner's To Be Confirmed' team. Paul then began to search for some vehicles with kudos which in Windy 500 terms means an old clapped out 'heap'. After some searching we decided upon the perfect vehicle; a 1980 1.3 Triumph Dolomite. From the pictures on ebay it looks like an absolute beaut and it is with great antisipation that we head up to Enfield tomorrow to pick up our chariot. If it makes the trip back from London then I am sure that it'll just chew up the 5500 miles of road along the 'Windy' route.

The Windy 500

Having heard 'Spooky' talking about his trip from Weymouth to Africa in a double decker bus, I knew that I had to be involved in his next project. After ruling out a trip from the Middle East back to Weymouth in tuk tuks, it was decided that we would travel across Europe in teams along some of the best driving roads in the world. And to make it interesting we would do it in cars that cost no more than £500. After a brief conversation the name of the event was decided upon - the Windy 500.