FORD CONSUL ZEPHYR ZODIAC

Stage 1,,, well we all made our way to the meeting point at birch services on the m62 , arriving at 9am on a glorious Sunday morning , the sun out and there was a slight breeze ,,, mainly from jims bonnet going up and down , ha ha !  

 

 

 

 ,, yes the day had started with a problem ,, Jim having trouble with his points , so it was a quick fix ready for the off .  

 

 

 

 We were joined by a few others in their classics ,which boosted the numbers and made  an impressive spectacle .     After a cup off coffee from the services which was stronger than anything in my sump ,, we set off onto the motorway , chrome glinting in the sunshine , and passers-by tooting their horns and giving the thumbs up ... 

 

Everthing was running smoothly until about 100 yards from the highwayman cafe ,, our planned stop off point to let the cars have a breather ..We ran into a bottle neck of traffic which sent the old temp gauges up around the red mark ,,  as we crawled along there was suddenly a lot of popping ,banging and black smoke from jims car ,,, his condenser had given up the ghost this time ,,, so it was a quick roadside fix again until we reached the cafe ,,where we met up with Steve toye and his wife for a much needed bacon butty ......    We all scratched around to find parts for jims poorly motor , and eventually got it sorted ..  Myself and Dave , S  also popped and banged our way into the cafe but were ok .. 

 

Stage 2,,,Everything sorted and the cars rested we set off again heading up around York and up onto the north Yorkshire moors with its breath taking scenery ,,,,,,,,  there were some extremely steep hills to test our cars and at which point my brakes started to play up , sticking on and making life very difficult ,,,,

 

coasting down the hills we rounded the bend and there on our right was our our goal ,,, goathland ,,,,, the scene of the TV series heartbeat , and the railway station used in the movie  Harry potter ..... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick drive round the front of the post office and shops , we headed down the road to the car park for a well earned break and wander round the village ..  Down at the station there was a Yorkshire classic car club putting on a bit of a show with some very nice motors ..    After a few hours Dave,clive b and Percy decided to go into whitby leaving myself , Jim , Dave S , Mark b ,Brian and tom to limp back not risking getting any further from home ,..

Stage 3,,,the trip home ,,,,,,  off we set following Brian who took a wrong turn to which we all had to do a 5 point turn to get back  lol ,,   we set off back up the steep hills and holy sh@t  Dave ,S,s car conked out on the steepest hill possible with double white lines to add to the saga ,, my hand brake would not hold properly so I was edging ever nearer Jim before I could drop the clutch and go round Dave ,, daves wife and daughter jumped out to push ,, and gill ran back to help as well ,,, this is where things got ridiculous as modern cars just drove round them leaving 3 women to try and push the car ..... So it was down to Brian , who threw a rope round it and dragged it up the hill to a safer spot ... It turned out to be fuel starvation , and was the scariest moment so far ..  Amazingly it fired up and we resumed our journey home ,,,,   after a few miles we hit yet another bottle neck , where the usual idiots have to drive to very last inch of the restriction before forcing their way in , there is an unprintable word for these cretins ,,,,,,  I,m sure we all used it  lol ...   After a few miles of stop start traffic we got under way again ,,,, ooops spoke to soon !!! Jim suddenly slowed right down again in front , so I passed him and pulled into a petrol station ,, Jim limped past and pulled up in a side road , to find his points were playing up again !!   As I walked back round to my car I noticed a large black greasy residue all over my whitewalls , which turned out to be grease from my wheel cooking as my brake cylinder was stuck on again ,,, so it was out with the jack off with the wheel  and pads to free the cylinder ,, luckily we got it sorted and jims was running again so off we went ,, hitting some dizzy speeds on the motorway ......   At this point I must add that Tom who we had only met that day stayed with us all the way back home making sure we made it back safely ,,, good on you tom , we salute you ....   Arriving home at about 8.30  we reflected on a very good , very eventful road run ,, another resounding success from the club , then went to bed totally knackered   lol ...    PS ,  I have been told that Dave j had problems on the way home , and that he was left for dead on the m62 by a lowly 4 pot consul  ,,, ho ho ho !  Hear endeth the saga that was heartbeat day !

                                                                                                                            jonny b (con 61)

to add my little bit to this

as clive b , percie and myself left goathland we hit the steepest hill iv'e ever seen and it had a u bend at the bottom so you coudn't pick up speed before you hit it. i got up ok looked in my rear view and saw clive struggling at 5mph but made it and from there on it was downhill and when i say downhill i mean downhill we got to whitby to find there was a goth weekender and transvestite meet and the wind blew right through you and we looked in the distance and the biggest black clouds heading towards us so we didnt stay to long just enough time to get fish and chips eat them in a cold empty bandstand and a walk through the centre then back to the cars. i had to stop a couple of times on route because the steep hill jonny mention i thought i'd overtake a slow coach and started to cough and splut as i past him then struggled most of the way home (thats why a 4 pot left me for dead) but everyone got home save and we all had an enjoyable sunday it makes it worth while organising runs when you get a good turnout thanks

                                                                                                                                                                  dave

p.s it was the float in the carb it got stuck and kept flooding 

pps i will add more photos soon as jonny sends them