... will continue, in all likelihood, right up to the last minute.

Despite giving my best attention to the rear crankcase seal - a weakness in the design of the Morris Six engine - deposited at intervals, small spots of oil  have charted our progress around East Anglia for the last 600 miles. This incontinence is no longer acceptable to the public at large and a permanently mounted drip tray needed to be devised.

The bolt holes are slotted so you need only loosen the bolts to slide the tray out for emptying. One further refinement will be a small hole to indicate when the tray is getting full.

The fuel pump had continued to give trouble by interfering with the left hand indicators. After an iron core thingamajig, then a couple of capacitors fitted between the feed and ground, I tried resistors in an attempt to alter the frequency of the signal being produced.... still no luck. So what about a Faraday Cage? What about it? It didn't work. Angus the Electric popped his head round the door again and suggested I tried running the pump directly from the battery thus avoiding all the miles of wiring. Bingo!

As you can see, I set about installing 2 core shielded cable between the switch, the pump and the battery and the problem was solved - Yahoo! We did speculate that the problem with the rev counter might be caused by the same electrical interference as well but a road test showed that, although slightly changed, it's still reading roughly double. That'll have to do for now.

Another 100 or so miles round trip took in the charming town of Thaxted in Essex where there happened to be a convenient spot for a photo opportunity. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find somewhere not ruined by yellow lines or signs announcing some restriction or other. Speed bumps are another of life's irritations and we stumbled across a particular pernicious set on our way to the rolling road....

The last time I was at Mr Baldwin's rolling road, I was with a friend and his racing car. It was a new experience for me and I have to admit that I hid behind a very large tool box for most of the proceedings for fear of something letting go! I was better prepared this time and whilst I was doing 70mph, Mr Baldwin and Learned Counsel busied themselves making adjustments to the mixture and ignition. The book says that 70 BHP is achieved at 4400rpm. After Mr Baldwin's attentions, 80 BHP flagged up at 4200rpm and the Lamda readings indicated that the car would pass easily the current MOT emissions test.

The car was quite happy at 75mph and the back axle was still in one piece at the end of the exercise. It was interesting also to note that the water temperature at idle was around 55° and under load went up to 65 -70°. That's apparently about right for an engine of this vintage. So, barring any last minute adjustments, I think we're good to go.