L7C Hants (North) & Berks - April 2002 meetings

Sunday meetings, Steve's racing debut, Dennis' new car, and a Seven that's worth its weight in gold. By Steve Foster.

2nd Wednesday of the month meet

A very good turn out. I counted some 23 7's in the car park. A suggestion was made to move the 2nd Weds evening meetings to the 2nd Sunday (around lunchtime) of each month. I put this to the vote to test the water. The verdict was a hung vote with half wanting the meet to stay on the Weds evening and half wanting a Sunday lunch time meet. Many felt getting time off from family / chores and the clash with televised F1 European events of a Sunday was not favourable. We will leave the meetings as they are as the 2nd Weds meet is established and so popular. So it stays as is. As advertised in LF and Blatchat.

Several new members and wannabe 7 owners turned up this month. The website and Blatchat seem to be spreading the word well. Among the new faces, Dennis who was very keen to have a car and got a ride or two to confirm the need for a 7. At that time he was considering building a Classic or even having unpure 7'esq thoughts. He came to the meet listened to views and opinions on spec and new Vs 2nd hand. I had said keep a lookout on Blatchat for 2nd hand and go and see a couple. Well quick as a flash Dennis has looked and bought one! More about this later....

The month of April saw my racing debut. More about that in a forthcoming article. Thanks Phil for the mechanicing and some long lens photo's (we will have to get the slow mo's over the curbs sorted out next time) and thanks Simon for showing me the ropes, what to do and when with signing on, scrutineering etc. I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to the next races in May.

Last Thursday of the month meet

More good weather and 24 7's. Highlights this month were the size of Dennis' grin as he showed off his new pride and joy. A 96 Classic in BRG. Phil is hunting for the perfect 2.0L Zetec progression on 40's and had a tough month with endless jet changes, knife edged butterflies and spooky Vecta's / solenoid faults that turned out to be a good old fashioned flat battery! It's supposed to be a hobby Phil not a nightmare! Anyway 500 miles are on the new motor and the rev limit is climbing. Tours to Devon and Spain are planned. Nigel has improved his throttle linkage. It looks very robust and if/when my cable snaps or start fraying I may do something similar.

The highlight for this month was a little black number, dripping in gold. Yes, that's right GOLD.

The car was exported to the middle east for a Sheikh and then all the brightwork was given a thick 24 carat plating. There is a plating specialist who basically does all the rich folks cars over there... The car has now been re-imported to the UK by the current owners. It looked really stunning. Some purists jokingly mentioned that "Colin would have not liked the weight increase" but who cares this was really original and very eye catching. The owners who are based in Buckingham are touring around area meets and brightening up our lives. So you may see the car soon.

That's all folks,

Steve


This page is http://www.strangely.org/7club/meetings/200204/index.html. It was first published on Saturday 27 April, 2002 and last updated on Saturday 27 April, 2002.