London to Brighton (solo) Hot Rod
run
by Simon Phillips
If
you’ve nothing better to do here’s my version of the recent London-Brighton
run…..
Ian & Colin from the NSRA chat
forum kindly organised the 2nd London-Brighton rod run for Sunday 5th
September ‘04 and I was dead keen to join it this year after I missed the first
one last year. Sunday morning saw brilliant sunshine and an early start for me
and my mate Andy navigating, as we headed up the M3. Unfortunately fellow
Victory Wheeler Terry was unable to make it so we were running solo and looking
forward to a fry-up at the Battersea Park café.
Made good progress up the
M3/M25 and by 8.30 we’re heading into London on the A3, not too much traffic,
listening to the radio and enjoying the reflection of the ’32 in shop windows
and pedestrians looking round to see what’s burbling. Its getting warm already
and we’re following the A3 chatting about this & that and not really paying much
attention as we sail past Clapham Common, suddenly we’re crossing the River
Thames and into the City and I realise we’ve gone too far north. ‘Not to worry
says I, we’ll go back along the Embankment and cross back over’.
Cutting
through the empty City streets was a laugh and we hit the Embankment (see pic)
but soon turned into a nightmare as half the road was fenced off for some sort
of running race? And the traffic was at a standstill in the narrow lane. The
small block was starting to get pretty warm by this point and as we stop-started
all the way down to the Houses of Parliament it began to misbehave & misfire, a
problem I put down to fuel vaporisation but haven’t managed to lick it yet. Had
to keep slipping the shifter into neutral to keep the revs up, as we were stuck
there for over an hour with no chance to pull over or turn round. Still, there
were plenty of young tourists strolling the Embankment to look at!
Where
the **** is everyone??’
We’re supposed to meet up at 9am in Battersea Park, then
leave at 10 for the leisurely cruise to Brighton but by the time we finally got
to Battersea its 10.30 and the place is spookily quiet (see pic). Quick tour of
the car park tells us either the rods & rodders are well camouflaged or we’ve
missed the boat…..
No time to cool off the motor
as I’d hoped, so it’s back in the car and follow the excellent directions posted
on the NSRA page by the guys. We very quickly realise that Battersea Park is
about 100 yards from Clapham and we have the pleasure of driving up a road we
were on 2 hours earlier! DOH
Anyway,
back to the chase and we’re thinking we’ll just scoot out of London and catch up
with the guys soon, but we didn’t reckon on everyone in London getting up at
11am and choking the roads on their way to B&Q / Ikea etc…. Stop for much
needed gas, and then we hit one jam after another as we gradually headed down
the A23 and read off the places in the directions, Streatham, Norbury, Purley
etc the traffic lights went on forever and the sedan was complaining about all
the stop-start, water temperature was steady at 185º with the electric fan
working hard, but with the sun beating down on the fuel tank, hot fuel pump, hot
carb and metal fuel lines I was getting problems on hills with patchy fuel
supply. Redhill, Salfords, Horley…. blimey how long does it take to escape
London?? Desperate for free airflow thru the hood we eventually hit the M23 for
a short spell and pulled into Pease Pottage services for the planned rest stop.
Rods seen so far: 1 (mine, in shop windows).
Cruised
into Pease Pottage hoping to see rows of gleaming rods, but it was strangely
empty…. Parked up and cranked the hood open to cool off a little, and strolled
over to a group of guys with a line of Subaru’s. ‘Seen any hot rods?’ ‘yeh,
there were loads, you've missed em by 20 minutes, they shot out of here in a
cloud of tyre smoke & exhaust fumes'
Arse,
we’ve missed them again. Never mind, we’re only 20 minutes behind and they’re
going a scenic route to Brighton, so we’ll steam down the M23 and catch up….
Jump back in the rod and turn the key… nothing! No starter, no lights, not even
the radio…. Had a look round and nothing had fallen off, then Andy redeems his
dodgy navigation by suggesting it could be the battery cut-out switch, which
wears out contacts over time and can fail. Disconnect the battery and jump
underneath with a spanner to connect both cables onto one post (what was that
about carrying tools with you??) and we’re at 12 volts again and sorted. Top up
the gas and hit the road again, though we’ve lost even more time by now.
It’s a
sweltering day and we’re still only half way there but things are looking up as
we cruise back onto the M23 - only to hit a traffic jam caused by an accident…
but eventually we get some open road and head towards Brighton with the sun
shining and the windows rolled down… and the signs say ‘Brighton 6 miles’ when
we hit the queues again – seems everyone wants to get to the beach on what is
likely to be the last sunny day in the UK this year! Gradually make progress
towards the seafront, rods seen so far still : 1, then suddenly there’s a flash
of colour by the roadside and WE’VE SEEN ANOTHER ROD!! We spot Klunk pulled up
with a couple of rods by the roadside with hoods open, seems I’m not the only
one with heat problems…. They’re OK so we carry on, following a few car
lengths behind Klunk as he guns it through traffic and we’re kangarooing on
fumes, finally make it to the sea and Madiera drive (pic).
We follow the promenade down
to the end, weaving round the stupid chicane things, and eventually park in the
designated ‘rough’ end of the car park – where a load of shiny rods are parked
up. Switch off the engine. I was expecting all the panels to fall off like in
the Blues Brothers!, you could have fried an egg on the hood.
Most of the cars are familiar
but sadly their owners have long gone into town so we don’t get to meet Ian or
Colin (do we owe you some dough?) but did chat to Klunk who almost didn’t make
it due to last minute repairs.
A great
line up of rods (including Holmsey’s old ’34) - it would have been such a good
crack to cruise together, we’re still kicking ourselves
Nothing
else for it but ‘pay & display’ and go for chips & ice cream and watch the world
go by. Didn’t see any other Rodders for the rest of the afternoon (but then we
didn’t visit the nudist beach!!) and all too soon we had to get going. Plenty
of cars had disappeared too and as we cruised along the coast going west by
chance we blasted past ‘Woody’s diner’ where there was a great scene of rods
parked everywhere outside – so that’s where Woody’s diner is…. Anyhow, hadn’t
planned to stay this long (next year!) so we cruised on the A27, until we hit
the traffic leaving the Goodwood revival meeting…. More queues and the engine
was fit to bust as it hadn’t cooled down all day, but got home OK having done
200 miles on the Southampton-London-Brighton-Southampton solo rod run!
One hot sedan…..
This is the worst problem I’ve had since screwing the
sedan together, I’ve since fitted a heat spacer under the carb, and going to try
‘leccy pump instead of the heat-soaked mechanical one….. maybe I’ll have to
insulate the metal fuel lines too?
Next year we’ll be better organised and make sure we get
the most from this great driving event – thanks Ian & Colin (whoever you are!),
we’ll be back next time
Simon Phillips