This i know is not woodwork. And it seems like bragging, well thats what it really is, I suppose.
I am sixty five and at a stage in life where either I use it or I am going to damn well loose it. The muscles are wasting and the eyes are getting dimmer. So, the answer to some of these issues for a bloke like me, must be, …… Get a sports car!
Now I know this is going to attract the snide, old men in sports car jibe. Little willie, fast car? In my defence i can only say that this particular car… a 1980 Morgan 4/4, she is hand made, beautiful, and it is only the third Morgan i have owned in my life.
I did reach a time, when i was much younger. I considered the cost of fast cars and beautiful women as these two seemed to be the two most expensive catagories in my young vulnerable life. Boy did they both make me poor. But I did also have a smile on my face. So I had to give up one, and I gave up sports cars.
Until today.
Now I can say that I am the luckiest man alive i have a beautiful wife and lovely children and two dogs that all drive me bonkers AND I have another Morgan.
There are silly reasons one develops for making such foolish purchases. One is that it is part of my retirement portfolio and will out corner the stock market, I mean out perform the stock market. This is rot, all those arguments are rot. The only genuine reason is that it is fun. I have had more fun in this car the past few days in rainy devon than in any car i have driven in the past 40 years. And that is with the choke out.
WHAT?
Well everyone, told me the same. Tim Ayres the dealer that sold it to me, the nice man in the paint shop and my mechanic Paul Tilsley. They all said the start on this is auto choke, ignition on, depress the throttle and power it up. Vroooom……. off she goes, making a noise like a tiger with its tail in a mangle.
Except she didn’t quite fly right . Fast yes, sometimes a bit too fast. But misfiring after overrun and making an exhaust note like chucking bricks in the pond BLAP BLAP BLAP.
“I think its running rich Paul” ” Nah….. just give it some Wellie, needs a good run! ”
Except I find a cable and a knob that pushes in and out, tucked neatly under the dash by my steering column, and something lit up in my 65 year old synaptic system . Thats a manual choke and its pulled out! The whole time, test drive, the few weeks of short set up drives i have been driving this car with the choke OUT. Thats is if its connected…..
More of this later.