Should it stay or should it go now...?
The planned move from Canada to Scotland is looming, which puts some pressure on the project list. I alternated between keeping and discarding Pimple the 1990 RSP Mini Cooper and the Mini Marcos, but Pimple would need an MoT and road tax on arrival, whereas the Mini Marcos should soon get a 1974 Canadian registration in my name, after which it just cruises into the UK as a tax- and MoT-free 40+ yearold, like the rest of my cars. I have decided both to sell and to keep Pimple on several occasions now, but ultimately importing two Minis is unnecessary, and Pimple is worth substantially more in the States.
Besides, it’s a pain to work on, with power brakes, an oil cooler and air conditioning jammed in the already tight Mini engine bay. Changing trackrod ends and shocks was easy, but replacing the rubber suspension cones was a pain, and the subframe mountings were also difficult. Changing the spark plugs should be a piece of cake on a Mini, but on this one the alternator has to be disconnected and moved out of the way to get a plug spanner in. The RSP Coopers may be the best-specced Minis ever built, but they are a royal pain to fix.
The 1992 334,000km Jeep Cherokee will probably be left behind. It could theoretically be overhauled to pass an arrival MoT, but I think I’ve had enough value out of the $2000 or so I paid for it 15 years ago. A Land Rover Discovery will probably replace it, as Range Rovers old enough and simple enough to be reliable are now fashionable and silly expensive.
The 1958 Chevy Delray is gone, and so is the dreadful Dodge campervan. I will regret the Chevrolet at length in a later Diary, because importing something like that is well worth thinking about in the UK. I was quite fond of its ridiculous size, cheesy styling and very pleasing proportions. Tough as old boots, simple, crude, with very cheap and readily available parts, it would be great fun to drive one in Britain, apart from parking it.
It was fun to drive, and would have been even more fun looking ridiculously out of place on small UK roads, like a whale in a garden pond. Some of the fleet had to go, though, and the Bentleys won.
The Dodge van was totally unreliable and stranded me multiple times, unlike anything else I ever owned. The notion that old Chrysler products are either excellent or garbage definitely applied: the Jeep has been magnificent, the Dodge was utterly rubbish.
The 1947 Bentley MkVI is coming with me. It has actually been very reliable and tolerant of abuse. Bumf-wise, it will just cruise through UK customs collecting a set of period UK number plates on the way. It will be weird and entertaining driving it on the wrong side of the road.
The nightmare of the 1957 Bentley S1 crawls on. The twice-rebuilt transmission is still unacceptably jerky, although new seals and a few miles have improved it. If it doesn’t settle down to the perfection I deserve from the vast amount of money poured into it, the tranny comes back out again and goes back to California. Again.
After three years, the Wraith boat-tail special I have orchestrated for Al in Chicago is nearly complete: we’re at the trimming, polishing and painting stage. The bill has been enormous, but the car is exquisite. There is talk of it being invited to Pebble Beach, to be exhibited rather than judged: there isn’t a class for 1930s lookalike specials. That project led to the Ayrspeed Cloud conversion projects and the blown Bentley specials as well, and it has been a fine experience. Al would have been flying over for visits and fittings of his very bespoke Rolls, but for covid. However, for 160 weeks he has had a Sunday evening report with pictures telling him how the car is coming along. This has been excellent discipline for me, as something has to be achieved on the car every week so that Al can have something to read about in his report.
The Triumph Bonneville bike will be coming as well. So long as I have owned a vehicle for more than six months, it travels with me as Transfer of Residence personal possessions free of import tax, not that the tax is expensive on repatriating old Brit vehicles anyway. I have resisted the temptation to get the Triumph sorted out, as it must remain low on the priority list. I wouldn’t ride it on the road in BC anyway, as the driving standards here are lethally bad. The bike is just parked in the sitting room, outraging wives and impressing husbands who come to visit. The husbands’ eyes go very wide, the wives’ eyes go very narrow.
Sunny Tsawwassen was under a brutal 100° heat dome this summer and was a nervy, inflammable tinderbox, so not being here next summer appeals. With warming visibly speeding up, the Mini Cooper’s air conditioning was one of the factors in my previous decisions to keep it, although actually the best car so far for travelling in vicious USA summer heat has been a Mini Moke with the roof on and no sides. I can duplicate that openness with the touring body on Big Beast, the brewing supercharged Bentley special based on 1930 8-litre chassis specs, because that will have a canvas roof and completely removable sidescreens.
The TRbra, the Cobra based on TR6 running gear, has also been sidelined. It will be coming with us, but probably as a pile of bits. A semi-dismantled car takes up a lot of space, but several completely dismantled cars can be condensed into a 20-foot container, which is the plan.