PROCEEDING GINGERLY

David swipes the Galant keys for a 500-mile adventure to settle an argument about, er, snacks

THE STORY SO FAR Miles driven 543 Total mileage 231,213 The exhaust What’s The exhauste gone wrong is blowing a bit...

DAVID SIMISTER Our megamile Mitsubishi’s been assigned its most delicate task yet – settling a dispute. You see, a bitter argument has broken out in the Simister household… about, er, gingerbread. For years my wife Natalie, who was born and bred in the Lancashire town of Ormskirk, insists that nobody does the vaguely spicy snack better than the bakers in her hometown, whereas I know, hand on heart, that it’s the time-honoured recipe used in the Lake District that’s actually envied the world over. Neither of us, of course, was prepared to budge.

Then managing editor James stepped in with a suggestion; why not head north, bring some examples of each back, and let the C teCaWm decide? Surely a bunch of people able to determine (for example) whether or not the MG Midget is a better sports car than the Triumph Spitfi re would be able to resolve the debate?

There was only one snag – James has become so attached to our £600 Reliant Robin that he refused to relinquish the keys. My only option was to commandeer our 230,000-mile Galant for the job. Sorry, Charlie.

The fi rst thing that struck me was that the car’s exhaust still needs sorting out – it’s not horrendous, but I can defi nitely tell from its rather gruff-sounding note that it’s blowing somewhere, so that’ll be a job for us to sort when it returns from its adventures across the north of England. Charlie also warned me that the fuel fi ller pipe issue that he encountered on his trip to Goodwood hasn’t been fully sorted yet because the temporary epoxy fi ller-based fix that he’d tried out during this car’s last outing in our pages ( C, 1C7W April) hasn’t cured the problem.

But that all faded to the back of my mind as soon as the Galant settled into what it’s really good at – gobbling up motorway miles. It would be mean to draw comparison with our Robin, of course, but I couldn’t help likening it to the one car of mine that doesn’t appear in CC – thWe 20-year-old Toyota Avensis that I use for all the boring drives and trips to the tip. The Mitsubishi might be a much older design and have more miles under its belt, but I’d say that it’s actually the better car, feeling far more comfortable and settled on longer journeys. A big part of it must be the Galant’s refined 2.0-litre engine; it feels like it could go on forever, so it’s no wonder that it’s lapped up so many miles in its 29 years.

Following an overnight stop in Southport, it was a short hop to the fi rst of our gingerbread purveyors – Mr Thompson’s Bakery in Ormskirk; it sells its produce from a stall in the town’s market, which dates back to the 13th century. You can pick up the town’s best-known snack in chocolate, fudge and a veritable deluge of other flavours, but I only had eyes for the original, non-flavoured gingerbread, so that the team could assess it back in the offi ce. And I’m absolutely not allowed to have any. Oh go on, just a little bit, then.

One quick pit-stop at the town’s Shell garage – complete with gingerbread-themed town mascot – later and the Galant was back on the motorway, this time having picked up the M6. Barely an hour of effortless cruising later and it had whisked me, Natalie and our precious gingerbread cargo into Cumbria, where the asphalt turned from smooth motorway into potted B-roads and twisty Lakeland country lanes.

It’s not the Mitsubishi’s preferred territory – if I’m being really picky, I’d say that the two-litre engine seems to hunt around a bit for a happy spot further down the rev range – and wallows a little into the tighter turns, but it does everything with an uncompromising focus on comfort, without ever feeling out of sorts through the bends.

Once again, it arrived utterly unflustered at our destination – in this case, the tiny cottage in the heart of Grasmere serving Sarah Nelsonbranded gingerbread, described by its creators as ‘very moreish – a cross between a biscuit and a cake’. The 150-year-old recipe is such a closelyguarded secret that it’s stored in a bank vault, but visitors to the Lake District have been enjoying it for decades – and the C teCaWm was about to join them.

After a fuss-free drive back out of the Lake District and straight down the M6, M62 and A1 back to our offi ces in Peterborough, the bargainbasement Galant had chalked up another fan. I’d still swipe the keys to the Robin if I was looking for grininducing automotive entertainment, but the Mitsubishi would win hands down if I needed a classic that could get me to Inverness tomorrow, no questions asked. The fact that it’s a much nicer companion on long drives than my considerably younger daily driver speaks volumes in itself.

And the gingerbread? After handing generous samples of each out to

C’sCvaWrious scribes, the result was… disappointingly inconclusive. The team enthusiastically chomped both down, but no clear winner emerged.

Further research is clearly required on this gnarly subject, but I’m happy to oblige. Now, where did I put the Galant keys?

NEXT WEEK David gets to work preparing our Robin for a Reliant club meeting