geoff1

You could phone eric at millwood...he has a magic trick for this...

I have had a chat to the 'experience team at Morgan and they do a factory tour and test drive day for the Super Morgan 3- i am thinking we could do this as a Three Pot event (The Super 3 has the 1500 cc Ford Three Pot without turbo- i have chosen a random date to get things started- here are the details.. let me know if you are interested Three Pot Special Interest Group Meet the Morgans in Malvern Malvern Morgan Factory Tour and Test Drive of a Morgan Super 3 April 16th 2024 The new Super 3 Three Wheeler is available to test drive as part of an experience day that can be booked at a discount for a group. www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/morgan/super-3 The day starts at 10.00 am with a two hour factory tour followed by lunch from 12.00 to 1.00 in the café then test drives in one of two Super3’s between 1.00 and 5.00 Time in the car is an hour, half an hour as a passenger, half an hour as a driver assuming a maximum party size of 16. The cost of the tour and the test drive is £105 or just the tour is £29.25 On previous visits to the factory we have stayed the previous night at a gastro pub in Staplow near Ledbury so that is also an available option Oak Inn Staplow If you could let me know if you are interested I can make the booking. All best Geoff

This year's eco event will be on Easter Saturday (30th March) start, mid and end point still to be confirmed but probably West or South of Central London This is the write up of the 2023 event It’s Official - the cost of a Caterham is £10.00 per 100 kilometers- and sometimes very much less Very few of us buy a Caterham for its fuel consumption. The fourteen of us that turned up the inaugural Easter Egg Eco Blat hosted by London West Middlesex had no idea how much petrol we were going to use on the three hour run out to PT Sports in Cookham Dean and back to our start point, the Duke of London Classic and Collectors Car hub in Brentford. A trio of three pot Suzuki’s, 160 and 170s and a range of four pots including a 1994 1.4 litre K Series, a 2003 R400 1.8 with all the goodies (215 bhp) and 1.6 litre and 2 litre Sigma’s and Duratec’s including two with Premier Power upgrades were typical of any local meet though we had some hardy guests from Stone Henge, both of whom arrived frozen after a two hour drive. Several coffees later after brimming 14 tanks of petrol at the local Jet garage and a briefing on speed bumps, speed cameras, bus lanes and lights stuck permanently on red - the joys of driving in London - we were off down the A4 heading for Taplow. Slough Trading Estate may have been a minor planning error. We should have taken John Betjeman’s advice. Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now There isn't grass to graze a cow. Or drive a Seven before Eleven Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! But then a sharp right turn and we were heading for the green uplands of Taplow and Hedsor, then Bourne End and Marlow and a bit of arm wrestling up Winter Hill to arrive at PT Sports nestling in a lush hidden valley in Cookham Dean Bottom, where all the cows from Slough can now be found. After a tour of the workshop and having stocked up with Easter Eggs (a big thanks to Chris and Ian) we were on our way back to the Duke of London via Maidenhead, Bray, Windsor, Runnymede, Staines, Richmond and back to the Duke of London with tanks brimmed again just after 12.00, more or less on schedule. Some stressful school boy maths was then needed to sort out average and actual power consumption over the 62 mile (100 kilometer) route. General findings are that mileage readings varied from car to car so we ignored those numbers and went with the calculated distance. The clear overall winner was Lee Davis in his strikingly beautiful 2018 special sixtieth anniversary edition Sprint Super Sport painted in Innes Ireland Zandvoort racing green. With a passenger and spirited (though legal) driving, Lee‘s car used 4.26 litres of regular grade petrol or in proper numbers, a remarkable 66.16 miles per gallon. Best of the Four Pots was Amir Jahannia. This car won the 2022 London Concours and seems to win everything it enters including more than a few race meets and still looks immaculate. Amir used 6.28 litres which in old money means 48 miles per gallon. In third, the two litre Duratec owned by Greg Wong used 6.36 litres (44 MPG) and the 1.4 Series owned by Bob Baker used 6.86 litres (42 mpg). Even Colin Ford’s SV with more or less every upgrade you can buy and a notoriously heavy right foot did more than 35 miles per gallon. The big surprise which shouldn’t have been a surprise was how much difference a windscreen makes to the fuel consumption. Lee’s Brooklands screen and Amir’s aero screen seemed to be producing about a 20% gain over the equivalent cars with windscreens so being ice cold after two hours on the M3/A303 turns out to be financially worthwhile. Probably most impressive was the average consumption across the range of Sevens which even at today’s pump prices meant that we had been out to play for the best part of three hours for less than £10 per car, rather less than I would spend in my Renault Zoe set to economy (electronic milk float) mode. This was not a competition so we didn’t have prizes but we had a raffle and with applied Seven Magic, the winners of the raffle were Lee Davis and Amir Jahannia. Special thanks to club members Andy and Sara Ward for donating two lovely Easter hampers from their eco bakery in Brentford and two bee keeping courses (this was an eco-event so obviously we had eco goodies as part of the package). The club chipped in with an Easter Eco Mug for everyone. Thanks to Luke Whittaker from the Duke of London for getting up early and being a patient host and to Ben Kavanagh for bringing the Caterham demo 170R along (the car that did 60.5 mpg in the recent Top Gear test). His passenger was hugely impressed by the car and of course Ben’s driving, sparkling wit and repartee. I think we would definitely do this again (but miss out Slough). My hunch is that putting the hood up on a windscreen car might reduce the amount of fuel used but then, why would you do that? This event was free to enter but we encouraged participants to donate to the club charity. Two of us are debating whether to do the London Marathon again next year for PCR but in the meantime any donations to the club charity site are welcome. If you are interested in joining the Three Pot Special Interest Group and/or the London West Middlesex mailing list, e-mail or phone Geoff at London West Middlesex. London West Middlesex meet on the second Tuesday of each month at 6.00 at the Ace Café on the North Circular and at the Hare and Hounds in Osterley for lunch on the third Saturday every month and visitors are always made to feel very welcome. londonmiddlesex@caterhamlotus7.club 07710 020 040 PS The 2024 event will be on Easter Saturday 30 March, start and end point somewhere West or South of Central London.

Harrow rather than Narrow though at least some of the cars are narrow

Our monthly meets are on the second Tuesday of each month at the Ace Café NW107UD from 5.30 with our friends from the Narrow Car Club and Midget and Sprite Club and the third Saturday of each month for lunch at the Hare and Hounds Osterley TW75PR plus annual events which include the annual eco run on Easter Saturday and our annual London Concours at the Hare and Hounds on the third Saturday of September. We also usually organize a group to go down to join the Taffia Fish and Chips run every May plus ad hoc trips to air shows, steam shows, car shows and anything else that looks like a decent excuse to take our cars out for the day or week end. Images with thanks to Colin Ford and Andy Ward.

Now with a sparkly new ECU my very beautiful and fully sorted 2001 VX1600 is back on the market at a tempting £12,500- 23,500 miles, full hood, half hood, tonneau, side screens, heater, heated screen, carpets, everything works, surprisingly economic and quick and one of the best sounding Caterham's you can buy phone 07710 020 040 or e-mail geoff@rttonline.com

My brilliant 1600VX is up for sale, 2001, 23,500 miles and great condition mechanically and bodywork, need to upgrade to ULEX compliant as I live perilously close to the North Circular so if anyone has a 160 or 170 for sale I am definitely interested- confidently priced on piston heads at 13995 but very open to lower offers- car needs to go to a nice home in the country.. best to phone 07710 020 040 or e-mail Geoff Varrall <geoff@rttonline.com>

The pesky oil pressure issue on my 1600 VX 8 valve seems to be getting worse- was 40 psi cold 20 hot then 20 cold ten hot then ten cold and naff all hot though warning light does not come on- revs make no difference- new mechanical gauge so its not that- couple of minor oil leaks but no smoke or smells or rattles and compression good on all cylinders plus no petrol in the oil and the engine to all intents and purposes seems happy but I am not- any ideas? looks like another trip to see Ian at PT Sports

The pesky oil pressure issue on my 1600 VX 8 valve seems to be getting worse- was 40 psi cold 20 hot then 20 cold ten hot then ten cold and naff all hot though warning light does not come on- revs make no difference- new mechanical gauge so its not that- couple of minor oil leaks but no smoke or smells or rattles and compression good on all cylinders plus no petrol in the oil and the engine to all intents and purposes seems happy but I am not- any ideas? looks like another trip to see Ian at PT Sports

Thanks all - but also re diesel, I seem to remember reading that Suzuki were working on a three pot diesel compression petrol engine with a spark rather than glow plug start cycle to replace the now defunct three pot that ended up in the 160 It would yield about 100 MPG in a Caterham which would be an interesting way forward Loads of low end torque so lower friction losses Light as well But I guess it got canned with all this electric malarkey Geoff

When I bought my twenty year old 1600 vx from Paul Matty two years ago it had a handwritten note in the docs which said 'Please only put Shell V Power in this car'. So being an obedient chap that's what I do. Ian Payne of PT Sports said they had done some tests on Premium Petrol and V Power was the only one that made a difference. The theory is that it is the only 99 octane that has gone though an extra refining process where as all the others use additives to get the extra octane rating Do we think this is right? Perhaps anything would work, except perhaps Diesel.