POLAR NEWS   -  No. 44 October 2007

THE HAZARDS OF HEATED SEATS Well, if you use your lovely heated seats on a day that is so sunny you can’t see that your ignition light is showing red (indicating your ageing alternator is no longer charging) then what happens? You end up with a flat battery BOC and have to be trailered home!

 

 

 

FROM YOUR EDITOR Many thanks to Glenn Morris for a box of A5 envelopes plus some paper and to Sonia and Hugh Jackson and John and Ann Walpole for donations that buy a black and a colour cartridge - it all helps to keep your Polar News coming through your letterbox. --- Helen

 

THE HAZARDS OF SENIOR MOMENTS A certain Polar Bear decided to check the oil, duly topped it up, shut the bonnet and headed for the supermarket. On the way back, a hot oily smell was noticed - very unusual for that particular car. A quick stop, the bonnet opened and Guess What? The oil filler cap was missing - it had been left sitting on the rocker cover - ooops. Steps were retraced and the filler cap found at a roundabout - but having been run over by several large heavy vehicles, it wasn’t exactly circular any more. So, this car now has a nice alloy rocker cover with the bog-standard black plastic cap!

CAR NEWS Harvey and Wendy Cooke are now a three MG family - having bought a ZS to replace their old Volvo tank engine. Harvey thinks he’ll have to sell the V8 to free up garage space, so I told him “Keep the V8 and let the ZS live outside.”

 Martin and Elaine Whitelaw have now bought a 1994 Porsche 993 Cabriolet in Speed Yellow with blue and brindle interior! It is affectionately known as "The Yellow Peril".

HIGHLAND FLING '07 Another very successful event at Coul House Hotel, Contin was organised by Fiona and Mike Davies. 36 people (and 18 interesting cars) had a fantastic weekend touring round the Highlands, eating far too much and getting quite competitive about Daft Limerick Competitions and Impossible Quizzes! Even the weather was kind with only showers on Saturday morning followed by sunshine - although it was quite cold on the Sunday. A glorious sunny Friday was spent squeezing bags into nooks and crannies of Brian's V8 roadster (although, having seen the space available in Jeff and Mary-Jane’s Lotus, I’ll have to stop complaining about the MGB!) and blasting up the A9, via some retail therapy at House of Bruar. The Preston Gang were late due to an accident on the A9 and I believe Archie and Liz came via Braemar - but at least they managed to get their dinner. The rest of us tucked into gorgeous scones before getting ready for our dinner and the dreaded Limerick competition - we drew a car make and had to write a limerick on it - won by the Preston Gang. Mike had thought up some limericks on our own cars to inspire us - I’ve printed Mike’s and our efforts on a ‘limerick page’ for your amusement. Saturday involved a run to Inverewe Gardens on the west coast - with a devious quiz to do and a task to "find the most beautiful leaf"
. However, the quiz answers weren’t actually on the route - you either had to know, guess or read the route book in advance! Once the rain stopped, we were treated to some amazing scenery and an interesting walk round the gardens. On the way back, Brian and I came round a corner at Garve, to be met by a trailer - just sitting in the middle of the road. Cars were dodging round it dangerously, so we stopped and Brian pulled it into the bus stop. The jockey wheel was broken and the plug pulled off the electrics, so we reckon it had come adrift and just stopped in the middle of the road - while the driver went on, quite unaware he’d lost his trailer. (How do you miss a trailer falling off the back of your vehicle?) Once back at Coul House, it was ‘get glammed up for the gala dinner’ and enjoy the sumptuous meal. George auctioned off the Polar Bear print donated by the artist Barbara Robertson which raised £82.50 and was bought by Fiona. We then had the raffle, with just about everyone winning a prize and David and Jackie Reid being the ones to get about six tickets pulled out the box - although they kindly put most of them back to let others get a chance. The raffle raised £280.

 The best dressed man was then judged by Susannah Macpherson and Keith was awarded the prize. Juliet and Keith won the prize for the most beautiful leaf, collected from Inverewe! Sunday dawned cold and clear - it was so cold, at speed in an opentopped car, I got ear-ache like I’ve not had since I had to play Hockey or Lacrosse or some such awful team game, in a gym slip, in Edinburgh, in January, in a biting east wind off the North Sea! We were heading up the east coast to Dunrobin Castle and some of us stopped off at the Little Ferry Circuit for some fun. At Dunrobin there was a fund-raising session, meeting the Highland and Aberdeen MG clubs and a tour of the castle. Jeff and Mary-Jane and Archie and Liz decided to visit John O’Groats and had a blast up north and back in the time it took the rest of us to see the castle and the falconry display. Sheila sold several bears and Fiona rattled the can, raising another £120.10 from the public and the generous Highland MG club members sent us a cheque for £250 - fantastic! We also received a £20 donation from a friend of the Walpoles and David Marsh will be sending donations from colleagues. Another lovely dinner - the old waist band was getting quite tight by this time - and after coffee, Fiona announced the quiz winners (Archie and Liz) and handed out prizes for the longest distance travelled to the four couples who’d come more than 500 miles - Mike and Caroline, John and Ann, Derek and Gill and David and Gerry.

 Dick and Pat won the greatest distance travelled in the past year to support Polar events and Martin and Angela’s Maserati was the car Fiona would most like to take home - I’d vote for that one too! Monday dawned nice and sunny again. Some had to head for home but most did the scenic run down Loch Ness to Spean Bridge and back to Dalwhinnie - with a comfort stop at the House of Bruar- arriving home tired but happy after a great weekend. Many thanks to Fiona and Mike for organising this and to all of you who participated and donated, raising £ 752.60 for CHAS. This is in addition to the £900 already presented from gift-aided entry fees. Well done everyone. Helen Fiona thanks all Fling participants who have sent in feedback and photographs. There is still time

 

RUMBLE IN THE EAST Several Polar Bears took part in Chris Glaseby's tour. Tony and Iris and Philip and Sally went down from Edinburgh while Paul Bonsall, Bob and Mary Smith and Kevin and Sandy Talbot travelled down from the North of England.

 

THE LEGEND O' THE WHITE VAN MANNIE Hamish was in the garage when the phone rang. It was Mrs McDougall at the village Post Office. "Three sporty looking cars have just passed, Hamish, they'll be passing your window in a wee while." she said. Hamish thanked her - she knew he was passionate about cars. There was not much Mrs McDougall didn't know, but no-one local knew that he had raced with the best before and after the war - that he had driven wheel to wheel with Ascari, Fangio, Hawthorn and Moss. He lost interest in racing after the crash in 1957, though he still liked to keep his hand in. He opened the garage door and climbed into his van. Smiling to himself he started her up, the roar of the twelve cylinders filling the closed space. To a casual observer it looked like an ordinary white van, but Hamish had "worked on her" a little. He still had contacts in motor racing and special parts were easy for him to come by as many in the sport owed him favours. Only last month a leading F1 driver had visited - incognito of course - for some advice after hitting a lean spell on the circuit. His van pulled out onto the road, the narrow winding single track road that writhed up out of the glen. As usual he drove slowly for the first mile or so, occasionally scrubbing the wide tyres to get some heat into them. Eventually the three cars caught up, a Porsche and two Lotuses (or was it Lotii he mused) and fell in behind him, peeved at being held up. Again Hamish smiled as he pressed on the throttle and increased his speed. He knew the road and rarely braked, keeping his momentum. Briefly the three cars were lost in the distance. Their drivers were obviously a bit surprised that they had fallen behind but they began to concentrate and eventually caught up. Soon the road reached the open moorland beyond the glen where it opened out. Ahead was a fast stretch with good sight lines which Hamish considered a fairer test for the other drivers. He flipped the gear paddle on the steering wheel and pressed his foot down harder. The speedometer crept to 100 mph, 110 mph and upwards. The cars behind were beginning to struggle and fell behind again. He got into his old racing rhythm, taking each corner smoothly. "Not bad for a ninety year old" he said to himself. His rear view mirror was empty. The other drivers' frustration at being unable to keep up with the white van affected their concentration and, puzzled, they gave up the chase. On the last long straight he was touching 160 mph, before taking a long right hand bend followed by a sharp left out of sight of his pursuers. He slipped off the road into a hidden forestry track. They did not see the instant orange glow of the carbon brakes as he slowed. A short while later the three sports cars roared past his hiding place. "Not much of a contest" he thought "but enjoyable for all that."