well that went well..... Took the new toy to my local TSSC and CT meet and it decided to release lots of Lucas Smoke from the fuse box wiring harness! At least I got off the A14 before the car filled with smoke, lots of support from my mates at the club meeting. Decided to phone the RAC, complexly useless, forces you to the web app, put the details in and then told to phone the recovery number! Estimated to get a van to come out between 12 to 3AM, over 4-7 hour wait.... Phone car insurance breakdown and a very helpful AA man turned up within an hour and helped bodge the car so it was driveable with front and rear fog lights and drove home with him following. Checking/sorting out the electrics was on my job list for the car (someone has fitted a replacement fuse box..)  but that has now moved to the top of list. Not sure what the original cause of the fault was or why the fuses hadn't protected the harness... but will need to replace some cables.... mike

Thanks Nick. I'm sure I missed a lot of that back in the days of dipping in and out of the forum.

@thebrooksterCheers Phil. Look forward to more tanker chat. @Yoda I'm kind of zoning out too. And its not because I'm bad, don't  care, want to remain ignorant, want to stop others expressing their views. It's just that after 10 pages of the essentially the same thing it gets a bit monotonous. I get your angst, but if we were in the pub together someone would change the subject. Or most folks would leave and noone would hear the message again.

In direct response to TheBrookster: Let me start with my regrets for losing your StarLink acess. It is my understanding that this area of Sideways is dedicated to "The Rant" It's not an area that readers are forced or required to read and have the absolute right to ignore and skip by. It's very much like pressing the clicker when you don't like programing on the telly.  If you don't want to be involved in a subject, or choose to remain ignorant of WORLD EVENTS, that's your choice. This is  a very vast and diverse forum/universe.  This area is quite novel as it does not censor users other than basic common decency, no one shouts fire or calls for violence.  If you read clearly, this zone is called:  Ranting Arena Anything go's in here so please feel free to rant and rave about anything within reason.... So, I think you can clearly understand my point, though you may not appreciate it. There is a Triumph forum that does censor members and has some egregious members who call out for the removal of any mind set that disagrees with them. They, in truth make up roughly 30% of the membership but most are not as nasty and vocal as a limited crew. I've learned a lot on this thread about Canadian and British governments and the mindsets of their citizens. I hope those who seek to preserve government responsible to the people continue to report and share their thoughts.

I'm for one glad someone else has noticed! I mentally switched off from this thread a few pages back, then vaguely noted the angst against TE forum before concluding I had little views on that subject either. TBH, I wouldn't be upset in the slightest if this thread could be laid to rest. And in more positive news, I shall try and update my tanker thread soon. Company had switched our Starlink off due to over consumption of data hence no action so far however once I can retrieve some photos from the cumulus or where ever they are I shall regale you all with a major overhaul of a generator I carried out last year 😁

Nick, Thanks for the post. You'd be surprised how ignorant we in the States are ......  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/02/how-peter-mandelson-links-jeffrey-epstein-came-to-light

One very small silver lining is it may, in a very roundabout way, finally finished Mandelson off. The cold, dead tentacles of Epstein retain power not yet spent!

Back on modified Spitfires….. this is the baby of the original creator of this site.  Not a quick read though 

Yep. Forgot about that. Had a mate with a Mk1 GTI he'd had for years. Until a rather unpleasant divorce.

Mk1 Golf RHD (apart from 1100, which had no servo) had a cross shaft so they could leave servo and master on the left.  That’s one I know for sure. I’m sure there are others.