Apologies for the lack of recent posts. We’ve been doing a lot of work on the house lately, which has left time for tinkering and driving very restricted.

There was also the small matter of attending the NEC Classic Motor Show. I’ll try and get a report completed soon, but suffice it to say that with a first estimate of attendance in the region of 47,000 and with over 1200 classics on display, it’s a show that you really need to attend. Highlights for me included the Yugo Club and a rather pretty Simca 1100 that was batting its eyelashes at me all weekend.

The drive there and back was conducted in the Rover 75, and sadly all is not well. The clutch has taken to occasional malfunction, making traffic queues interesting. Also, a headlight has gone and it’s rather left me feeling as disillusioned with modern cars as I was before the Rover joined the fleet.

Things are just so difficult to do, with no good reason. Changing a headlight bulb requires accessing a small panel in the wheelarch and rooting around, feeling your way. Naturally I haven’t even attempted this yet, despite the on-board computer reminding me constantly that there’s a bulb out. There are other flaws too. The thermostat is damned near impossible to access without removing much of the front end, and even then it’s better to access it from underneath. The clutch master cylinder is ‘conveniently’ mounted near the pedals – never an easy place to access – while the slave cylinder is even worse – inside the gearbox bellhousing. Genius!

So sod it. The BX and the 2Cv are the priorities on the fleet and I can’t justify spending money on the Rover in preference. It’s up for sale and I’ll either stick with the two Citroens, or just buy a wreck for bombing around in. Project £2000 has hit the buffers.