The Morris Six engine's oil filter is going to cause me problems as the cover is adjacent to the offside torsion bar and may prevent the filter's removal. Because the original filters are no longer available, a composite is made up from two short types with a joining tube in the middle. I'll have to see if I can squeeze the filters around the torsion bar. If not, I'll dream up a remote system.

New Year's Day was blinkin' freezing in Suffolk, so I wrapped up warm and took the Hillman to Hawkedon. The throttle decided it would stick open at various inconvenient points along the way and I could only contain the situation by switching off the ignition - which resulted in a ton of fuel going into the exhaust followed by a spectacular bang as I switched back on to keep the engine running. At one point, I rolled to a halt at a junction outside a local MP's house. After three reports from the Hillman's exhaust they might have thought they were under attack!

My 'car of the month' was a toss-up between this 1938 BMW and the Sunbeam saloon. I would normally go for the sportier ship, but the Sunbeam wins for sheer elegance. Wire instead of artillery wheels on Edwardian and 20's cars always sets them apart and the door handles were very stylish. Its sister car, a tourer, is the one I did a lot of nickel plating for earlier in the year.

A Christmas project for The Other Wright Brother was to unseize and test his collection of model aircraft diesel and glow engines.

There's several Mills, ED's, PAW's, a couple of DC's along with a tiny Cox and an engine I can't remember the name of in the top left of the first picture - Typhoon, Tempest maybe?

A call to arms and an emergency job in Nordenham saw me and a fellow Magneteer off to Bremen early one morning.

I'd never been to Bremen before and was pleased to see this Super Dakota (a Basler BT-67) parked next to the terminal. The picture's a bit blurred as I shot from the hip on the way past, but the starboard 5-blade turboprop can just be seen. 'Polar 6' belongs to the Alfred Wegener Institute and used on Polar survey work. There's a 'Polar 5' as well, also with a turboprop conversion.

To pass the time while sitting in the hut in the middle of the River Weser, I had a look at the Riley front suspension and its mountings. This is the 2.5l and though there are some differences between this and the RME, I can get some idea of the dismantling sequence. A big spanner for the hub nut is something I might have to make.

And this is how my flying chum spent his Christmas - it's always good to keep out of the sun as much as possible in the Middle East.....

.... or Delhi, where The Other Wright Brother has gone to get away from the diesel engine fumes.