Saturday 16th January 1999 we went to Westfield Sports Cars at Kingswinford to collect the Starter kit for our car. The day began farcically. Earlier in the week, I had ordered the van from U Drive in Newbury. "Can I collect on Friday afternoon or evening"? We wanted and early start on Saturday morning. "No" was the reply, "We might lose out on half a days hire". Fair enough. I went in on Friday signed the paperwork and paid the bill, so that there would be no delays in the morning. I Arranged to pick up the van at 8:00 am., having first picked up Andrew. Andrew needed to show his license and sign the paperwork but this took only a few minutes. Out to the van had a look around for damage etc. The girl from reception tried to start the van, NO GO - the battery was flat. Next, get a mechanic with emergency start battery from the garage - still no go. Is the emergency battery also flat?
Nothing daunted the mechanic from the garage gets a brand new Mazda Hatchback and some jump leads, connects up the two vehicles and whilst putting plenty of revs on the hatchback tries to start the van. The starter motor, on the van, just about moves, but refuses to turn. The engine on the hatchback almost stalls. At this point we point out that the van's battery is 24 Volts and car is 12 volts and there is a yard full of VANS. It seems like rocket science to jump start our van from one of the others, but they are willing to give it ago. Miracle!; our van staggers in to life. - It appears that the van has been in the yard all week with the interior light left on and flattened the battery. Question! If it has been in the yard all week why couldn't I pick it up yesterday?
We are now late and we are supposed to be at the factory not later than 11:00 O'clock. The next surprise is, it is empty of diesel. It seems that U-Drive operate a policy of "Empty to empty" and you buy the fuel you use. If we drive to the nearest pump we may and not being able to restart the engine, so we set off. Hopefully we have enough diesel fuel to get to Abingdon. Andrew's driving; after about 20 miles, we get to the Milton interchange at Didcot. This should be enough to charge the battery and we are definitely pushing our luck as far as diesel is concerned. In to the BP garage, fill up and hope that it restarts. It does; now we are really off to Kignswinford.
Our original plan was to start early and stop for breakfast at the "Little Chef" not far from Stourbridge. Well all that has gone by the board and our purpose is to get to the factory before 11:00 a.m. We press on, if 50 mph is pressing on, and eventually get to the factory just about the deadline. Then the revelation 11:00 o'clock isn't really a deadline it is just to stop you turning up to collect your kit at 1:00 p.m. when the factory closes.
Now down to the serious stuff. We sent a cheque earlier in the week so there is just the paperwork to finalise, collect the kit and load up the van.
Dave Stanley has turned up to watch the proceedings. Engrossed, he wanders around, taking in the atmosphere and enjoying seeing how Westfield's are factory built.
Andrew organized the guy who is helping us to load up to get Dave a test drive. Sat in the "yellow peril" we test-drove in December he disappears down the road. Andrew and I return to loading up the van
But where is Dave and the yellow peril? There is no sign of him. "I bet he's got lost". said Andrew with a smile. Some tens of minutes later he appears on the horizon. "I got lost." he says. Believe that, and you believe anything. With that, we set off for Dave's place.
Dave Stanley works for himself and owns a garage in Honeybourne near Evesham. At the time we ordered the kit we had specified that we would build a car with independent rear suspension and not "live axle" We had ordered rear suspension uprights and drive bars to build a rolling chassis as part of our kit.
We had asked Dave to find us a limited slip differential from Sierra 4x4 and set of Ford front solid discs. Through his contacts in the trade, Dave had come up with a complete rear axle assembly including trailing arms Lobro joints drive bars brake discs and calipers. Dave also got a pair of replacement Escort front discs. So whilst we had the van we were going to pick them up. We arrived at Dave's house with just enough time for a cup of coffee and then down to the garage to pick up the bits.
Off on the road again, heading down the Fosse Way towards Cirencester and the M4. It is a fact of life, that whenever you need fuel you cannot find a filling station, that is certainly true if you are travelling down the Fosse Way. Judging by the gauges on the van and Andrew's concentrated silence, we were getting low on fuel and might not make it to the next filling station. It seems that mindful of, the van was empty when we got it, and needed to be empty when we handed it back we had underestimated the amount of fuel we needed for the journey. The last thing you want to do with a diesel is run out of fuel. Running on the last fumes from the tank we find a filling station. A quick calculation on what we think the van is doing in terms miles per gallon, we do a quick "guesstimate" and fill up with enough fuel to get us home. There after it was all plain sailing arriving back at Andrew's house just as it was getting dark.
