Safety Fast! Notes for January 2009

Hello again, and may I wish you all a Happy New Year. I cannot believe it is a whole year since I last wrote any Safety Fast! Does that sound familiar? Well, it’s exactly what I wrote this time last year..! The benefit of the computer age is that I have access to an (almost) full set of Safety Fast! notes stretching back the last five years – simply by clicking the archive button on the SW Centre website.
Clicking on January 2004 I see that I remarked upon the summer of 2003 being full of ‘MG-weather’, whatever that is.
A year later, I was reporting on an eventful season in the GT – smashing the front spoiler on the Cheddar Naviscat (now there’s an event I miss), a monumental spin at the Cheddar Valley Gymkhana (if you were there, you’ll remember it) and a broken fuel pump on the start line at Wiscombe hillclimb. Fast forward to January 2006 and I was taking you back to 1936 and the very first meeting of the MG Car Club South West Centre. Finally, as I sense boredom setting in, my notes for January 2007 sought entries for a new event – the South Gloucestershire Navigational Scatter. Alas that event was not popular enough to warrant the efforts required to scout the route, but I understand that Phil Archer is going to try to tempt you with a similar event in 2009. I’ll be there, Phil – anyone think they can beat me?

Speaking of the GT, I only managed one event this year. But what an event – the MGs-on-Track trackday at Castle Combe. The car was somewhat better prepared than me, having received a brand-new pair of HS6s, a rolling road tune-up and the latest, up-to-date fashion in catch-tanks! It’s not bling, but it works really well and the four pint capacity is needed after a hard run. To celebrate a year since my last efforts as scribe, I can exclusively offer details of the tank to Safety Fast! readers: it comes in three colour-coded varieties, it’s cheap, stocked by all leading supermarkets, comes with a free protein-packed energy drink and is produced from recycled materials (once you’ve drunk the milk). Anyway, back to the trackday. It was organised so that the cars went out in batches according to model; so MGBs together, V8s together, etc… you get the picture. I learnt lots about the car, and lots about my driving – especially with the benefit of some professional tuition. I hope we can get a few more SW members up to Combe for the event this year.

I’m back again next month, hopefully with some dates from the SW calendar of events for 2009. Until then, I’ll leave you to marvel at that catch-tank I was raving about earlier…

Neil Lock