CCC CX, XM and Xantia Rally 2012

[Dean]

I cant believe Dom squealed about our plans for your C4, such a girl

Didnt get a proper chat with half the people i wanted to but it was a really good weekend and i enjoyed it very much, especialy the unofficial convoy from the M40 back to my house with a 350z, which was wierd

D

[jeastham]

Well; things went considerably awry on Saturday.

The coach ride up to London, on Friday evening was a nightmare, and took 4 hours. My mates, not long back from New York had yet to reboot their body clocks; so consequently didn't wake up until 11:30 Saturday morning; and only then, cos I shouted up the stairs to them. I'd been up since 09:30, and originally planned to get the 10:15 from Euston; which would have got me to Bletchley Park for 11:00.

So; after much getting ready, faffage, and going out for a lunchtime breakfast; we get back to the house, to find that the proposed transport had an expired MOT (ran out two days earlier). So; that left the converted (into a camper) van; which had picked up a parking ticket earlier in the day; because their residents parking pass had expired the weekend before. So; it's now around 2pm, and we're crawling out of London towards the M1.

I'd won an ebay auction earlier in the day, and it just so happened that the seller works in Milton Keynes, so he suggested meeting up at a BP garage on the A421, which was ideal, as it was on the way. Whilst I was taking delivery, and handing over the wonga; my mate took the opportunity to put some fuel in the van; the wrong fuel, as it turns out. Luckily; he realised what he'd done, whilst filling up, so hadn't started the engine. I managed to source two 20L oil containers, and a length of pipe, but gob-fulls of unleaded were all for nought, as I couldn't get the fuel to flow from the tank (probably because of one or two nicks in the pipe, which presumably were letting in air). So; with a petrol soaked beard, and a desire for a cigarette; I admitted defeat; and went to the gents, to give me chops a good rinse. Spent the rest of the day belching 95 octane, and bacon, from the earlier breakfast.

A local tank-draining firm was called upon, and some time (and £178) later, the tank was ready to be brimmed with DERV. Add to the £178 the £50-odd of unleaded that my mate had initially put in the tank; and it made for an expensive lesson. With mobility restored; and Bletchley Park now closed; we set off back to London.

To be fair to my mate; he rarely drives the van, as he drives a petrol Beemer; and hadn't put any fuel in the van, for a year or more. Add to that the 03:30 curtailment of bevvying the night before, and an out-of-sync body-clock from returning from the States; and it's easily done. My old man did the same thing, a few years back.

So; with the exception of Jim; I missed the lot of you, as well as Bletchley Park; which will have to keep for another time.

Big thanks to Jim, for not only the injection pump; but also coming out to where we were temporarily stranded, to deliver said injection pump. Much appreciated; and hope you enjoy the pouches of GV

Until next time, when hopefully the gods will look more favourably upon my travel arrangements

Cheers all

Justin

[XMX]

Nice to see the site is back on line tonight (As it was down last night) and I wanted to post up some photo's, some of you may have already seen them on the BXC/FCF or the other XM forum, (as I posted to those yesterday evening) !

I mainly took shot's of CX's & XM's but there where plenty of Xantias and BX's too !

ENJOY or click for SLIDE-SHOW :-

























































As already stated the weather was superb, hopefully the weather turns out to be as good for next year CXM rally, But I somehow doubt it will, as its usually rather windy/cool even if the sun comes out (Time will tell) ?



XMX

.

[robert_e_smart]

Great Pics.

Is that NYBL XM on Saab 9000 Aero alloys?

[xmexclusive]

Robert

You were missed.
Posted you a small bag of mixed nuts today as a consolation prize.

John

[Dean]

It was so bad without you Robert, i was stone cold sober and thats no fit state to be in when youve got to sleep in the back of a Xantia and most of us us ended up sitting around outside the toilets which in some respects is just as wrong as eating a jar of pickled eggs then throwing whats left at the locals but maybe a little less sinister.

D

[robert_e_smart]

Did anyone bring pickled eggs with them?

Hopefully I'll be able to come over next year.

Thanks for the Prize John!

[Dieselman]

It was a great weekend, lots of cars, lots of people, lots of sunshine. The organization was fantastic, thank you to everyone that was involved in that.

We arrived too late to join the convoy from little Horwood so went straight to Bletchley park. We were the second to arrive so parked up and had a chat to a newbie called Penny and soon in rolled Dom, who had left the field after the convoy.
About 10 minutes later the rest started arriving.

Cars at Bletchley. We had a designated parking area around the oval and while waiting for the others to arrive had to dispatch a couple of other marques whose drivers thought they could park there.
At one point I overheard a member of the public say "There's a lot of Citroens parked over there". Umm...one or two...

















I took the picture of the good side of Dom's Cx. Honest, this IS the good side...


I don't think I've ever seen one of these in the flesh.









Matthews car looked fab, especially when negotiation tight roundabouts on the way back to Little Horwood.

[Rommel]

I had a lovely time, met quite a lot of people (I am terrible with names) and you're obviously a very nice bunch!

My fate is sealed- I went for a ride in Vince's base spec 2.1- I really liked it.

An extra shout out to Jim for being so friendly and welcoming when we rolled up on Friday night.

I took a several pictures, here's one to be going on with....

[Dieselman]

The nuts and bolts of the computers at Bletchley. These are the first electronic computers in the World.

The incoming data recorder which made the punched tape.






No Enigma machine on show as it's broken, but a write up of what it is.




Collossus... the high powered decoding computer.