Callie update

 I'm very aware that I've not really mentioned my adventures with Callie, the last post I left you with a list of jobs I had done and the promise of a fairly major journey in the pipeline. Well, the very next day she went into my usual garage for her MOT, all was going fine until the brake test, not only did she fail this, but was totally immobilised in the test bay! Going for the emergency stop test the brake servo split in half, leaving no braking at all! Fortunately I have two cars so I could drive across London to pick up a new servo, which they could then fit, complete the test and free up the testing bay. All could now go ahead for my trip to the French National Motor Museum in Mulhouse.

Waiting for the ferry at Dover

The first day went well, the drive down to Dover was pretty boring, but the crossing was quite nice and I picked up a duty free bottle of Ballantine's! I got away from Calais quite briskly but avoided the "payage" sections of Motorway, and had a quiet night. The next morning I quickly discovered that the overdrive had decided to stop working, I had a quick look under the bonnet for a lose wire or blown fuse but couldn't see anything. As the main purpose of overdrive is to make high speed cruising more relaxed I decided that I would just carry on, but avoid the motorways and major dual carriageways.

This meant I was driving on much more entertaining roads, and I will admit to enjoying the experience of driving an old fashioned GT on some great driving roads ~ until I found myself enjoying the experience a bit too much, and came upon a very unlevel "level crossing", I'm pretty sure I made air but I definitely grounded out, a quick check didn't show any obvious damage, until about fifty mile later when the exhaust broke in half. I still had one box left attached to the car, so I put the other half in the back and carried on!

Route Departmental 66

The lack of exhaust didn't seem to effect the performance, or upset other road users so I just picked up some ear plugs and carried on, I thought I could sort this out when I got home. That night I stayed in Luxeuil-les-Bains in Lorraine after some more fantastic driving roads through the Vosges. By the time I got to my Hotel I was in need of some rest, some food and a glass of wine - not necessarily in that order! ~ and yes I did have quiche for dinner!