Update - 29/3/06

Jess (photo right) has a trial fit in her new home.  Thanks to a chance conversation in our local pub with Richard the Goat, we now have somewhere to store the old girl for six months pending the start of the Staples to Naples Rally.

Although still exposed to the elements and not tucked up in a heated garage as is her want, she is at least, out of sight and therefore out of mind.

Update - 1/4/06

Staples2Naples Meet and Greet, Matlock.  Our first "shakedown roadtrip".  A great time was had by all but only two S2N teams made the trip.  The Midland Pub in Matlock was full of Home2Rome teams. 

Best of all, Konnie Huq and Liz Barker from the BBC programme Blue Peter were in attendance as they're hoping to compete in the Home2Rome rally.  The photo on the right shows Gareth the Phone chatting to them.  And no, he wasn't star struck at all....!!!!!

March 2006 - MoT bodges and other tricks:  Mark the Mechanic knows a man who knows how to weld.  So Jess the Jag was despatched for some plates to be welded over the rotten bits.  The old bus is now as strong as a very strong thing that has a particular reason to be strong.

Gareth the Phone removed the boot lock as the barrel had been drilled out by a former keeper.  Thinking that he had a spare barrel with key, Gareth the Phone took the lock apart, made some modifications, put the boot lock back together, tested and then shut the boot.  Oh dear.  The boot handle and the lock became detached.  So now the boot was locked shut and couldn't be opened.  Fortunately, Mark the Mechanic knew a trick or two...

Dave the Dropper, Gareth the Phone and Bomber Harris managed to organise their lives and spent a fruitful hour in a local scrap yard.  We purloined some spare bulbs and paid a nominal sum for a replacement boot lock with key.  Job done!

February 2006 - The MoT loometh...  The car was delivered early March to the able mechanics of Tune-Rite Motor Services of Grove, Wantage.  Unfortunately, the team strategy of distraction and banter failed to yield results and their man with the clipboard spent a couple of hours putting together a nice long list of advisories and an equally long list of failure points.  After handing over the required fee, Gareth the Phone and Dave the Dropper examined the failure sheet:

4x Worn tyres (NOW FIXED £156)
Sidelight integrated into headlamp not working (NOW FIXED - DAVE THE DROPPER OWES HIS DAD A PINT!)
Broken indicator side repeater  (NOW FIXED AT NO COST)
Incorrect colour indicator side repeater  (NOW FIXED AT NO COST)
Blowing exhaust  (NOW FIXED £20)
Excessive corrosion near a seatbelt mounting point  (NOW FIXED AT NO COST)
Excessive corrosion to the sill  (NOW FIXED AT NO COST)

January 2006 - An offer was made:  The car was collected late February on a very cold Saturday morning.  Gareth the Phone and Dave the Droppers dad met up with Rover SD1 enthusiast Stuart "Club Shop" Fairley after he'd made us an offer we couldn't refuse.  Would we like to have a free car for our Staples to Naples run?  The car still had a months rent and two months ticket.  "Oh, very well..." came the response.

Following normal protocol in these matters, the gents met in a public place (that was deserted) and after Gareth had made a small fuel contribution, the keys were handed over.  The car was carefully piloted back to HQ where the team busied themselves for the rest of the day cancelling the various warning lights cluttering up the dashboard.  Within hours, we'd restored NSF indication and OSR fog lamp illumination.

Over the next week, discrete enquiries were made at various Jaguar breakers for some part-worn, metric tyres.  Then, some further investigations were made into obtaining some non-metric wheels to fit non-metric tyres...  Oh dear.