After about 20 mins -on our maiden voyage- we came to a halt (overheating If I remember?), on the hard shoulder of the M42. The motorway was extremely busy and noisy. So deafening was the noise on the motorway – I could not hear the mobile phone in the car. I needed somewhere quiet!? Having seen Chris Bonington climb a few peaks in his time, the steep embankment on the motorway held no fears for me. Leaping like a gazelle over the fence at the top (this is where Sue and I recall the incident differently – Sue described my masterful leap to be more like a pathetic grovel under some barbed wire, which snagged one of my best jumpers and almost reduced me to tears?! Surely Sue was not remembering the incident clearly??) Anyway, once over the fence at the top-I found myself surrounded by a flock of sheep-several of whom showed a great deal of interest in my telephone conversations with the garage owner and rescue services!!

This handy addition fills this compartment and in addition to looking really neat also provides a place for drinks and your phone or loose change. The item has been manufactured using a 3D printer by member Jon Franklin. It can be rotated 180 degrees and is supplied with a foam base to protect the existing console.

£40 plus postage and packing

I love showing the car off and have spent many hours cleaning the engine as best I can. Although this now looks fab the quality of painting within the bay always bugged me. I could not afford or even justify removing the engine and all its parts so tried a 'work-around' solution.

This involved hand painting with a brush (I know what you're thinking) and then spraying with lacquer. I was so impressed I also painted the areas around the lower boot and inside too and again with excellent results.

I would not have published this if I wasn't impressed with the end result, but I will leave it to you to make your own assessment.

If ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ this doesn’t seem to be the case with our members and CarFest North, as this year, we had eight cars (our largest number ever!)

Those arriving on Thursday to set up joined fellow members and friends for a ‘getting to know you’ or, indeed, a ‘nice to see you again!’ pub meal at the Egerton Arms, thankfully close enough to the campsite to walk – and this set us all up for the weekend ahead.

During the day our members staff the Club stand on a rota basis which ensures we always have members around to chat with visitors but also allows everyone to get around the festival to engage in the daytime events (this allowed me to catch Sir Chris Hoy being interviewed by the BBC’s Louise Minchin which was really entertaining!)

As ever our stand gets loads of visitors, many returning ’fans’ who visit us every year together with the usual ‘What are they?’ and ‘OMG! I want one!!’ comments.

In the evening the music on offer was wide-ranging – despite a COVID call-off (The Fratellis) and an ‘admin issue’ call-off (Richard Ashcroft) we were still treated to Sister Sledge; Seasick Steve; McFly; Steps, The Feeling; Lulu; Roachford; Ricky Wilson; Mel C; Faithless Sound System; Nile Rogers & Chic and Ronan Keating amongst many more.

My experience of this was an interesting journey as to start with I decided to go down the spray route and purchased the Figaro Club Spray Can. The colour match was OK but it made the carpet really hard.

We decided to take the Pale aqua to grey – it was badly stained with Japanese coffee and mud that just wouldn’t shift. I used a liquid carpet dye from Leather Colour Doctor (see above) and sprayed it on using a compressor gun. Air dried and the result are fantastic.

The cost of the dye was £22.99 x 2 Bottles so say £46 for the complete restoration plus free labour!

This compares very favourably to installing replacement carpets which are available from The Figaro Shop which costs £359.36 – £587.99

Remember, as a club member you have access to lots of DISCOUNT CODES across a range of Figaro products and services. Click the link below and enter FOCMDC