... is that you should do something every day - however small - to advance your project. Well, I've already tripped up on that one.

It was our first breakfast run of the year, so I spent most of the day before, fiddling about with the Hillman. The 12v supply to the phone charger socket had stopped working, preventing me from pumping up the tyres with my 12v pump when I was out a week or two back. I showed everything the grease gun, especially the shaft on which the brake and accelerator pedals sit. I suspected the brake pedal was opening the throttle when coming to a stop - something which tends to concentrate the mind.

Awkward's Morgan ran very well after his attentions to the engine and gearbox though he's making noises about moving it on so he can concentrate on squeezing 100mph out of the Avon.

I sketched out a design for Leon's Climax-engined A7 which met with his approval - I now have the job of painting it on the bonnet.

I managed to snatch a couple of hours to myself and finished off the gearbox mount on the Teardrop Special.

Talking of which, they are now positioned and bolted onto the top rail. With the engine out of the way, I can get in to drill the rails for the horizontal tubes and retaining bolts. After that I'll be able to start dismantling everything ready for sandblasting. I'll just do a coat of primer for starters as I don't want to break through the powder coating when drilling fixings for the body that don't marry up with existing holes.

Learned Counsel had been itching to get an MX-5 engine into his Locost since the success of the last conversion which The Racing Driver took to 2nd place in the Sports Special Championship last year and I popped along to lend a hand. It didn't take long to get the Ford and all its ancillaries out and clear the decks ready for the Mazda engine to go in.

It was a tight squeeze but once we'd remembered the method, it went in and out quite smoothly.

We had to make a couple of small adjustments on the job - some bits left over from the Ford gearbox mount managed to get in the way of the Mazda gear lever extension....

.... and by the end of the second day the engine was in position and secure so that mountings could be made up. This engine had done only 40k miles - barely run in.

As I'm going to start the Special body by building the scuttle, I was interested to have a look at the Jowett's arrangement. Learned Counsel knocked up a new one of these in a couple of hours - including the swaging - for his original car. I don't think I'll be quite that fast.

Having missed two days of Special building, I comforted myself with the last of Big Sister's truffles. The one with the gold bits reminded me of the rule.