It has not been the greatest season so far for weather, but at last we were promised an entirely dry and somewhat sunny weekend for the August BTCG meeting, after all it is summer? Planned in was an entire day painting and track cleaning prior to the meeting, assuming we could actually get there that is? Just five miles from home, something like a 40 minute tailback, skilfully avoided due to intimate knowledge of the byways of Norfolk. Then the dreaded flashing signs, A1 shut northbound, made even worse by a 30 minute delay actually getting on to the diversion. Thanks to the miracle of the mobile and 'what's app' she took us round all the aggravation with a tour of the leafy byways of Lincolnshire. Best laid plans etc. and whilst track cleaning in constant drizzle is possible, painting wasn't. Manny Williamson kindly delegated volunteers to work on the track area, so thanks to Richard, Steve and Oliver for the mowing, strimming and clearing several loads of grass and weeds.

There we were enjoying an al fresco lunch when in walked a posse that included Alex Phin having flown back from Australia for a brief visit. There were two car boot's full of engines for the next auction as well as two very large boxes of rare and desirable engines to be consigned. Apparently there are a further 500 engines yet to be delivered, poor Lisa having to catalogue all these. Should be one heck of a sale if estimates and reserves are set at sensible levels, otherwise there will be a lot left over. One of the consignees admitted that he had paid 'way over the odds' for many of his engines and was unlikely to realise anywhere near those levels at an auction.

Checking Lyndon's 'retro' ETA 29	Andy's new 'tadpole'

Friday made up for the uncooperative weather though with plenty of track action and some sparkling performances. As announced previously, each car was inspected and weighed before going on to the track to ensure that it met current safety regulations and confirm which class it would run in and on what line. Andy Soars turned up with a lovely Slabang type car that he had been building over the winter from a casting of his own design. Lurking in the back was a trusty TEMP motor, possibly the most freely available tethered car motor of all times? Quality control and performance of these can be very varied as we have seen with nearly 40mph difference in speed between similar examples. Andy had come up with a very well thought out design where the motor was sealed, with the intake leading in to a plenum chamber and the exhaust out through an extractor duct in the top of the body. For a first run it was a remarkable success, running round very stably with the motor just slightly off until it leaned out perfectly for a succession of laps in the mid 80s, one of the better TEMPs. What was even more remarkable was that the inside of the car was completely clean after the run, the duct having taken every scrap of exhaust out of the car. Andy was also taking advantage of the test area to run in and fine tune another TEMP. Fascinating to watch the effect of twiddling the compression and needle in unison until the motor was singing beautifully.

Now, a cautionary tale that I hold my hand up to. Since Model Technics packed up, it has been impossible to get straight 80/20 fuel in the UK that does not have additives, so thanks to Chris Maggs I was armed with a gallon of pure methanol to brew my own. On to 'tinternet to get the correct amount of oil to make up a litre of fuel and I had a bottle of home brew. Only problem was the 2.1 Nova engine was now running super rich and needing leaning off dramatically, something not right and a sudden realisation. The figures had given me 5% oil not 20%, luckily with no damage. Oil content restored engine running better than ever and the three fastest runs so far with that car. Synthetic oil can be used at much lower ratios, but it takes a bit of courage to try it as we know castor works.

Modern British 2.5cc Class	Nova Rossi 2.1 motor Bevel drive

All was set fair for the competition on Saturday, except that instead of the fine and sunny day, it was dull overcast and quite chilly. A few practice runs emphasised the ever present dilemma over tyres. Jan Huning has had two Raylite style tyres where the bond between the rubber and washer has started to fail. The tyre runs out of true and if not under load will almost certainly burst. There are poly-urethane tyres freely available, but these carry a stern warning that they are for display only. Tyres must be vulcanised rubber compound, anything made of a thermo plastic will soften or even melt and pull out of the hub.

2.5cc KMD converted to glow	Spur drive 2.5cc  'Modern British' Class

Contrary to the forecast it then started to rain, with no let up. In this situation nothing else to do but enjoy several hours of chat and anecdotes from a group of people with an amazing range of experiences in modelling and other activities. Most amusing was one of our number who arrived on the site thinking that he had a ruckled sock in his trainer, only to find a live toad lurking in his shoe?  Taking advantage of the lull was the chance to try and persuade life in to the seventy year old 1.5cc car built by Ron Thrower. This car featured in ModelMaker as it pioneered the use of GRP for building an entire car. Not so much as a pop, for reasons that will be revealed next month. Eventually the rain stopped and after a session with the leaf blower activities could resume for a short period. With no prospect of any competition most decided to call it a day having had enough running and several cars needing attention.  Video action from this and previous Buckminster events www.youtube.com

Ironically, Sunday was sunny and hot allowing us to complete the painting, not easy in the direct sun as the paint was drying almost as soon as it was coming off the brush. Jan had grafted a new wheel on to his lovely little Oliver Two Five with the home built twinshaft. This motor always impresses me as it starts by flicking the wheel, runs utterly reliably, lap after lap at 80ish mph and with the front suspension, completely stable. The Peterborough Club Redfin car now has a full sized tank, but with a solid front end fell foul of a bump in the track and tipped over on each attempt. It has to be said that with the temperature headed over 30C we were wilting somewhat so not unhappy being able to pack up and head for home.

The Ron Thrower 1.5cc GRP Oliver	Refuge is now very 'blue'

Final BTCG meeting this month with free running on Friday, nomination and novelty competitions on Saturday.

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