All quiet at the front

There have been a few new entries dripping in and we're up to entry 123. There have been a few crew shuffles and I have updated the entry list accordingly. I've had a few questions about crews and RBRR 'protocol' so I thought I'd answer those here as well as individually.

Q - "I haven't had an email, is my entry accepted?"

A - I have sent an email response to all the entries I have received. Apart from the last entry (that took me a week to reply to, sorry) everyone gets an email back straight away. If you have not had an email please get in touch, it's likely that I have read your email address wrong or you've given me a duff one!

Q - "Where can I see the entry list?"

A - Click here for the most up to date list

Q - "My co-driver can't make it to the start, can we pick him up on the way?" also "Can I drop off my co-driver before the finish?"

A - "In short, no. In order to participate the whole crew must sign in at the Plough at the start and again at the finish. We need to count you all out and count you all back in again.

Q - "My 12 year old son would like to come with us, is that allowed?"

A - Yes it's allowed but he must be registered as part of the crew. Get in touch direct with me if you want to add to the crew.

Q - "I might not be able to make the run, if I can't make it will I get a refund?"

A - If you know you won't be on the run then please let me know ASAP and I can release your place for use by one of the eager reserve list. If you let me know before 31st August then you will get a full refund. If you let me know after that date you may not get any refund.

Q - "I've entered a crew of two, can I add someone later?"

A - Yes, as long as I get full details and an entry fee, get in touch with me direct.

Q - "Can't I just bring him along on the day and pay you then?"

A - "No, we need to prepare entry lists, sign on details and to let the food stops know numbers. If you pitch up with an extra mouth to feed it will cause us a headache so please, let me know well in advance.

There will be more questions so please don't hesitate to ask them. There are 19 first timers in the running list and of the 23 reservists, 13 are first timers. This is great and rest assured that the organising team are happy to help you out should you have any questions. Remember that there the driver's briefing will answer a lot but don't be shy.

Jason

Post Christmas update.

As always, after the rush, panic and general mayhem comes the quiet, steady progress with entries.

I was very pleased to get an entry from Andy "Bambi Killer" Flexney and Paul "Diesel Dave" Derbyshire piloting the Yellow Missile at No 119. Both great club men in a well known car that never ceases to impress.

The list is updated every time I get an entry and is always to be found here or on my signature on the Forum.

We are now on entry 119, that's 19 reservists - there is therefore a very good chance that all reservists will get on the run.

Plans change and we all know how hard it can be to get a car, job, wife, kids, girlfriend, mistress, bank manager, co-driver, dog and other assorted family, friends, hangers-on lined up to allow you to do the RBRR. If, for any reason, you find yourself needing to pull out of the running, please do let me know as soon as possible. The sooner I can advise reservists that are "on" the better their chances are of raising sponsorship money. If you withdraw before 31/08/10 then I can guarantee a full refund, I cannot guarantee a full refund after that date.

I've had a few requests for updates following missing emails. I think I have corrected all the dodgy email addresses I had so if you have not have any emails from me, please get in touch.

To keep costs down we are doing all RBRR specific communications via the Internet this time - entry list, news and instructions will all be on-line. We will of course use the normal club publications as well and we still intend to produce a printed road book.

So far there have been two important emails issues to entrants - the first will be your "Welcome to the 2010 RBRR" email and the second was the soft copy sponsorship forms. If you have missed either then please get in touch with me (or any of the team) and I'll sort it out.

Please do keep the photos of your cars coming in to Tim and I, a few words about the car are always good too. We will publish them all, even the TR7s!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year.

Jason

Pictures

I hope all reading this have had a great Xmas and that with a New Year due thoughts are optimistic for 2010.

The new CT Public Relations Officer Mike Charlton, has quite rightly been asking me to get some photos together which epitomise the RBRR so he can get a Press Release together. Some of them are very good, most have been featured elsewhere but I think warrant being shown on this Blog, so here goes:

This picture was taken on the A836 near Crask Inn and features the sad demise of Andrew Howart's TR4. Great to be able to state that this car is nearly back on the road following a lengthy re-build and will be at the start of the 2010 event. The 3 red cars are the interesting Bond Equipe of Guy Singleton, the Herald 1200 Convertible of Dale Barker and James Carruther's mk3 Spitfire that is also returning to the RBRR after a similar length of time of the road as Andrew's TR.

This one taken by Ellis Stokes back in 2004 shows to good effect some of the stunning scenery that we all get to see whilst driving the route. I think this is up in Scotland along the A836 after Bonar Bridge alongside the Dornach Firth, just befor the turn onto the B9176. Fantastic pic eh! Interesting to see Martin Randle's TR7 before the works type paint scheme was applied, Ellis's red TR7 DHC is an ex- Canadian left hooker.

A nice atmospheric snap of the entrance to the Lands End complex, I particulary like the way that a car that is approaching picks up the yellow paint on the nose of Mark Deacon's mk1 GT6. The other cars in the pic are the mk1 2.5 of Lester French and the Stag of Andy and Sarah Johnson, I cannot distinguish the Spitfire. Good pic eh!

Not sure who took this one, but I like the modern low level look and the way that Mike Helm's TR6 is slightly out of focus. Again another atmospheric snap. This was taken in 2008 at Edinburgh Airport and is a belter! I think the Stag is owned by Philip Jackson, I imagine the Dolomite is Bill Goodwin's. The white 2000 mk2 with revolution wheels pulling out in front of Mike is the V8 monster owned by Roger Baldwinson.

Right, this one was taken at Dartmoor Lodge back in 2006 and features the glorious 2000 mk2 of Nigel Gair (Recently the subject of a 5 page article in 'Retro Cars'), the works livery painted TR7 of Martin Randle and the very nice looking magenta coloured Dolomite Sprint of Jim Hylton. Martin seems to have put his overalls on, not sure why, obviously things were about to get serious!

This photo was taken at the start of the 08 event, the Herald in the centre being owned by Mike Barratt, the green Tr4A is owned by Keith Bennett and has done over 10 RBRRs, again in this pic. is the green mk1 GT6 of Mark Deacon. Mike and his daughter Libby had to sadly withdraw from the 2009 10CR, but hope to be with us on the RBRR in Mike's fetching French Blue GT6 mk3. Getting 112no. cars into the car park at The Plough was one of the more interesting problems that we had in 2008, however the start time of 18.30 rather than the old 19.00 start makes for more ease when attempting to get the cars out!

This one I think was taken in 2000 and features Dave Langrick and Lester French's 2.5 Pi looking suitably rallyesque! Dave and Lester are one of the stalwart RBRR crews that are always guaranteed to take part, for the 2010 event Dave wil be out in his mk4 Spitfire that has a 2.0 six cylinder lucas injected engine. 'Frenchie' will be in the above car, since then the car has been re-painted and does not have the matt black bonnet, bloody goes well though! Must say the Seaview Hotel looks in better condition these days.

This one show's a determined looking Steve Waddingham in his old Spitfire 1500 . This was taken on the M74 near Motherwell and as can be seen it is raining in a most off putting manner! Steve seems to have gone sticker mad, at this point he worked for Aston Martin and managed to get a serious amount of sponsorship. Before anyone queries the fact, his co-driver is fast asleep. Steve has now sold the car and is presently without a Triumph, however he has plans to get back into Triumph motoring, he will be a RBRR 2010 Marshal somewhere out in the sticks!

This one was taken back in 2008 at Badgers Holt in Dartmoor and features a nice selection of the cars taking part, including the Atlas(t) van of Dave Pearson. As we hope to go to Bude this time we may not be able to go to Dartmoor which will be a shame. Nigel Abdullah our RBRR Route Master is currently investigating the maps to see if we can fit it in, we hope we can as it was an enjoyable stop last time.

I like this one, taken in 2006, it shows Paul Beeson's smart little 1500 Spitfire (Pretty car this one-hardtops on square tailed Spits do look superb) with its minilite wheels covered in brake dust, good eh! The orange estate behind is the Rover V8 of Roger Keys, Roger still owns this car but his time is presently taken up running the Holden and Porsche business he and RBRR regular Andy Everett run called Monkfish Performance. Roger is also restoring a Dodge Challenger at present which will be a real beastie! Behind them can be seen Chris Gleeson fitting new brake pads to his TR6, Chris has entered the 2010 event in his stunningly nice red TR5. The cars were snapped at Conon Bridge Hotel.

If anyone reading this has any RBRR photos, do send them to me, and I will attempt to feature them on this Blog.

Seasons Greetings!

Been a bit slack witht this Blog recently, I will get back to it between Xmas and the New Year.



Perfect opportunity to wish all a Merry Xmas and hope that 2010 is a good year for all, surely with the RBRR that is a given!

Tim

First Recce

Yesterday Nigel and I spent the day driving around Wales on the A483.

We met a chap called Hugh Glossop at Llandovery who showed us a very suitable Control Stop location in the Llandovery vicinity, I will not divulge the location at present, but it must be said that Hugh's suggestion is very suitable. When we got there it started to rain, well it is Wales, so I would suggest that Entrants wear a waterproof when getting their Roadbook signed!

We then went to Usk reservoir, this has a suitable area, but we felt it a bit too far away from the main road, so will go with Hugh's suggestion

We then recce'd from Newtown to Abergavveny, the A483 and the A40 look to offer fast and fun roads, however care will need to be taken by crews. After that is was time to get back home, we used the A466 from Monmouth to Chepstow-a great RBRR road that offers some interesting corners.

I have a few more pictures of Entrant's cars:

The Red Vitesse is Malcolm Philpot's gorgeous mk2 Convertible. This will be Malcolm's 3rd RBRR, the car has been a 'Practical Classics' magazine cover star back in 2005(?) and is extremely presentable. Malcolm and his car are one of those that just do the event, raise a good sum of money and have fun, I do not think I have ever seen them on the event! We are very pleased that Malcolm, his Co Driver Malcolm Ricketts (Team Lotus man) and the Vitesse are taking part.

The 1300 below is owned by Graham Whiting and after last times catastrophic rotoflex coupling break down is hoping to finish the RBRR. Last time Graham crewed with Tony Quick and Brian Cox, not sure what Tony is doing, but Brian has entered in his TR7. Graham is another entrant who has to come some distance to take part being based in Cornwall. Valencia Blue paint and 1300s seem synonymous!

Right, finally amongst the small bunch of photos we have is Dave Pearson's very nice Courier van, this van has just been subjected to a full re-build and really looks the part. Dave tells me the only job to do is to install a overdrive gearbox and then the car is ready, after last times rush to get the Atlas done in time, I think Dave deserves an easier time of it! Interestingly Dave's two co-drivers are to be John Kipping and Jason Chinn. John is coming over from New Zealand to take part, I think it was 1996 that Dave and John last did a RBRR together. Jason as many know is the Entry Administrator for this RBRR and has kindly taken up Dave's kind offer of the third seat. Not sure on the state of tune of the Courier, but the 5.5J steels look good!

A few important aspects of the RBRR have been sorted in the last week, more about this next time!

Remember, get those photos into us!

We would also appreciate any photos that anyone has of past RBRRs, we desperately need to increase the Club's RBRR photo collection.

Tim

Some more cars!

I have received some more pics and words about some of the cars taking part:

First off, its the magenta purple 2000 mk1 of Bruce Jordan. Many are not a fan of this particular colour, however it suits a mk1 2000!

Bruce sent some words:

Welcome to "Elsie" (LLC574D - geddit?) my "Dulux purple" MKI - I know it should be magenta, but I reckon "Dulux purple" is a more apt description! This will be her (and my) first RBRR - so fingers crossed! Mind you as I live in Cadgwith, South West Cornwall (next village round from Lizard Point) she should be nicely warmed up by the 300 mile drive to the Plough..... I bought her sight unseen on the dreaded eBay in August last year - I just had a gut feeling that she was going to be OK, and so it proved as I've done 18,000 miles in her during the past 12 months. By that you'll have realised that she's very much my "daily driver". While there's been the odd minor irritation (yes I know, we're talking Triumphs here!) such as the pressing of the dip switch causing all the lights to go out - not an ideal scenario when you're blasting along the dual carriageway at the dead of night! - the only occasion that required recovery was when the front nearside wheel-bearing disintigrated without warning 350 miles after the same wheel track-rod end had been replaced for the MOT. Hmmm...... At this point I must say that I'm possibly the worst person to have a classic car as I'm fairly mechanically inept - I write computer programs for a living, my local garge mend cars for a living and as we don't impinge on each others area of expertise (or not -see wheel bearing saga earlier) it seems like a reasonable compromise! Anyway, a brief history of the girl..... She started life as a white automatic living in the Uxbridge area in Middlesex, and from what I can see from the history file I have, she seemed to spend more time in the garage than she did out of it. She was eventually sold and the new owner took the MKI lump out and replaced it with a TR5 PI engine, converting it to manual with an A-type O/D while he was at it. Oh, yes, and he stuck the PI badges on the side - presumably the Triumph equivalent of "go-faster" stripes. History has failed to recall what happend to the fluffy dice..... The next owner removed said PI engine, replacing it with a '73 MKII engine plus Strombergs, and replacing the front suspension with that from a MKII of non-recorded parentage. The modifications that I know about were completed by yet another owner who added the power-sterring from a MKII 2500. At some point during all this, she also had a respray in what I guess was supposed to be magenta, but which I prefer to call "Dulux purple". As you can imagine, sourcing spare parts can be a bit of challenge. So there you are - she's no looker and getting a bit tatty round the edges (like most of us!), but as I feed her, water her and say nice things to her we get along just fine! If all else fails I hit her with a hammer..... We're very much looking forward to ThE RBRR, although I'm not 100% sure my neighbour Tim, who somehow allowed my to cajole him into being my co-driver, has competely grasped the enormity of the challenge that awaits. In any case he's yet to drive Elsie!

Full marks to anyone thinking of entering from Cornwall, 300 miles to the start!!


Next up we have a pic of Mike Charlton's mk3 Spitfire that I think was taken at Cadwell Park last May on a MGoT/CT Track day. Looks good, eh. At present Mike is a 'Reservist', he seems very keen to take part, which is good!
Mike sent some words:

The Spitfire MK3 will hopefully be used on the RBRR. Succesfully completing the 10CR and being used regularly on Dutch Night Rallies,HCR and track days its always reliable. Uprated suspension, new engine, gearbox and diff have all been fitted to a solid body with new panels, from front to rear.Uprated electrics and electronic ignition gives superb running.A daily runner with soft and hard tops.

There is something about mk3 Spitfires!

Now we have a picture of RBRR regular Andy Roberts. Andy is a big light in the 2000/2500 register and there is not much that he does not know about the six cylinder Saloon range. He has entered his Del Lines Stag saloon and what a car this is! I attempted to keep up with on the M40 on the way home from Stoneleigh last year, I was in my 2.5 saloon, to say this was impossible is an understatement, bloomin' fast car this one!

Andy sent some words:

This will be my tenth RBRR (have done 84 86 88 90 96 98 02 04 and 08 runs). Our car is “Janey”, a so-called “Stag Saloon” built in 1975 by Ian “Del” Lines at Atlantic Garage, Weston-super-Mare. The basic concept was to put Stag running gear into a 2000 shell. He built 22 estates and 3 saloons; several estate cars survive, but Janey is the only surviving saloon. We took part in the 2008 run in Janey only 3 days after getting her back on the road after a complete rebuild. That wasn’t a good idea – I was extremely tired – do as I say, not as I do! Although we have owned Janey since 1986, she spent many years off the road awaiting restoration. We’re using her now though… 6000 miles last year! I’m really looking forward to the next run, especially since I shouldn’t have to burn the midnight oil to get her ready in time. The attached picture was taken after completing the 2008 event.

Lastly we have the Spitfire 1500 of Will Columbine. This car will be well known to anyone who reads his blog. Another superbly presented Spitfire and one that I am looking forward to seeing next October.

Will sent these words:

Here is a picture of my Spitfire 1500 at the beginning of the HCR '09. My car is a bit rough around the edges but it's had a lot of mechanical work done over the last 7 years of my ownership! I won't bore you with the details because it's all on my blog, but it's got all the usual go faster goodies. It's been my intention to do the RBRR since I joined the club and I used the HCR as a bit of a 'shakedown' run to see if the car (and my co-driver!) could handle the distance. We finished and, apart from a small oil leak, the car worked flawlessly so now we're up for a bigger challenge! There is a bit of work to do on the car before the event. The oil leak needs fixing, the boot floor needs welding back together and I'm going to fit a power socket so I can use GPS and give my co-driver a break!

That's pretty much it. See you next year!

Lastly here is James Cooper's GT6 mk3. As you can see he has a fair amount of work to do to get it done in time, however he is a aircraft engineer so I imagine it will be done. Good luck, James! I expect the car to be another of those fast ones, he has a 2.5Pi lump ready to go into the car and will be incorporating the usual GT6 mods, should be good. James has a nice mk1 GT6 should he run out of time.

Thanks all for sending the words and pics of your car. All this is making me get impatient for the RBRR, 10 months still to go!

I need more pictures and words, so send them in!

Jason has now sent out the Sponsor Forms, so please get going on gaining those pledges. I hope to have some 'MIND' collection tins soon, should you wish one, do let me know and I'll get one to you. They are effective at gatting money, for example I always have one on my desk and fine work colleagues should they need any help, surprisingly enough I do quite well using this method!

Next weekend, me and Nigel are off to Wales to recce some new parts of the route. I imagine we will be taking Nige's Subaru, so that'll be a fun day! We will be incorporating a new stop in the middle of nowhere, if we use the one we have in mind it will be at a location that is used for the Rally of GB when they go to Wales. More about this stop when known.

Many members of the CT Forum have come forward with locations where we could have new stops, these are presently being investigated. Should you know of anywhere at any of the following locations please let me know:

County Durham/Northumberland/Scottish Borders: I have received a good suggestion, but it would not hurt to have a back up location.

Dalkeith/Edinburgh/Dunfermline/Kinross: Ditto

Aviemore/Inverness: Ditto.

Lancaster: Ditto. Yep, I do hope that we do not have to go back to Lancaster MSA, I know the 'girls' were nice last time but maybe a bit 'lively' considering we had by this time been up for 30 hours! Northern lasses, eh!

Sponsorship forms have been sent by email

I have just sent out the new "soft copy" sponsorship forms to all the registered email addresses I have.

I have a few concerns over some email addresses

Entry

69 - Martin Burrows - no email listed, I've sent it to your brother

70 - Andy Chandler - I got a rejection, resent and got nothing - now sorted

92 - Dave Picton - no email address listed so have used a yahoo one I have for Fred

113 - Richard Harker - deliver failure messages come back

As the charity aspect of the run is very important, I know you will all want your sponsor forms sooner rather than later so please get in touch if you have not received the email.

To ensure we don't get anyone masquerading as a RBRR entrant and collecting money using CT as a ruse, we won't be putting these forms on-line. The only way to get them is to give me a working email address.

I have been very careful to keep email addresses confidential by using the bcc field in emails but I'm human (I know, a revelation!) and I will make mistakes. So, if you have any concerns over the security of your email address, use a disposable one just for the RBRR and ditch it afterwards.

Club Triumph does not sell or pass on email addresses and you won't get "spammed" by CT, this is purely for RBRR admin and to keep the costs down for you.

Jason