[DML] My Day at Dave's (v long)

[Martin Gutkowski <martin.is@xxxx>]

Hi all,

There are posters on the wall in the London underground advertising the
upcoming London Motor Show. They say "When was the last time you sat in
a dream car?". I saw that today and was able to smile and say "I DROVE
TWO yesterday!"

Okay, to be fair, they were both the same car.... here's the story. As
usual there are accompanying photos on the website at
http://delorean.connect-2.co.uk in both the Club Gallery and Members
Cars pages.

I want to buy a DeLorean. I've found a way of financing the purchase and
I'm starting to take a look at cars. Dave Howarth, the driving force
behind DeLorean ownership in the UK, is thinking of selling his
right-hand conversion (1982 grey interior, 12,000 miles on the clock)
and has been kind enough to say he's in no rush and will wait for me to
buy it.

Yesterday morning at 8am, I got into my car accompanied by fellow
non-owner DeLorean freak Gareth Nunn and my flatmate and general car
freak, James. We had agreed to meet up with fellow DML member Chris
Hawes when we got to Manchester and then drive to Dave's. I won't bore
you with the journey. It was boring. Stilll we made good time and
arrived at Chris's at just gone midday.

Chris knew the way to Dave's and said "watch out for the covered
DeLorean in the driveway". Dave lives in a Cul-de -Sac so he doesn't get
many people driving past and his neighbours are all used to the cars on
the driveway!

Dave has four cars on his drive - see the website - and we were able to
drive two of them; the right-hand conversion I want to buy, and Chris
Parham's factory right-hander. I will refer to these as the "grey" and
"black" ones respectively (interiors).

Unfortunately the weather teased us mercifully all day (we drove through
a downpour just south of Manchester on the way up) and the first task
was to give the two cars on the drive a rub-down. Then Dave took the
grey and black ones off the driveway and reversed the John Taylor car
onto the driveway - pic on website. Dave then took Gareth off in the
grey one to get some petrol, and just handed Chris and me the keys to
the black one! "Take it out for a spin - whatever you like". We didn't
need telling twice! Chris drove first and we took it out maybe a mile,
then swapped over and I drove it back. I need not tell you all of the
looks and double-takes we were treated to by other road users and
pedestrians alike. It was the first time for me experiencing it first
hand. The car was quick, but noisy (some work needs doing on the
exhaust) - buy who cares? It was reponsive and cornered like it was on
rails - I deliberately wanted to see how well it cornered and threw it
round some tight bends without a squeak :o)

Poor James was left standing in the cold and I'd forgotten to leave him
my car keys - so I sat in my car and turned the heaters on while he and
Chris went out second time. I didn't have to wait long and Gareth and
Dave were back in the grey one. Dave said he was having problems with
second gear. We stood around and chatted for a bit while waiting for
Chris and James to return, talking about the grey one and going over a
few things - Dave likes to chat and we love to hear all the stories so
we were perfectly contented until it started raining so we went into the
garage to have look over the left hooker (Dave has been offered 50,000
pounds for that car but he says "that's my baby" and will never sell
it). He agreed then that he'd start it up for us, but needed to pull the
battery out of the grey one. Dave often swaps parts out of the other
cars when he wants to drive one and a particular relay or whatever is
missing or not working properly. Consequently all the relays have the
registration number of the car it came from written on it!

Gareth was itching to have a drive so after James and Chris returned, he
and I took the grey one out - Gareth took over quite soon and we drove
the same route I took with Chris. Gareth soon discovered the visibility
problem as we pulled out of a small side road, but ultimately cars
stopped in both directions to let us out! Never happens in my Citroen
:o) Verdict: much quieter, but Gareth and Chris both said later the
brakes were "woody". Not that I noticed, my car has power assisted
brakes so all others seem "woody"! Second gear worked fine, but there
was no "clunk" when it engaged, so you were left wondering if it was in
gear at all. Just a linkage adjustment Dave assured me.

On our return, Chris pulled out some of his models for us all to admire,
and to cut a story already too long, Dave took a phone call and Chris
wanted to drive the grey one so Gareth and I went out in the blackone,
following James and Chris in the grey. Chris took us rather further than
I'd expected - but including some dual-carriageway where we were able to
pull up to 70mph together. Shame it started absolutely chucking at down
at this point, but thats english weather for you...

We stopped and Gareth took the controls in the black one and James took
them in the grey. We started back, but got separated on the carriageway
and Gareth and I missed the turn-off. We decided to carry on a couple of
miles to put some petrol in the black one as the light was coming on. I
rang James' mobile and they came to meet us.

At the petrol station, I swapped to the grey one to drive with James and
unfortunately after putting petrol in the black one, Gareth couldn't
start it! We had pulled in to the far right of the petrol station and it
started raining again... just as I experienced the joy of having people
come over to look at the cars and ask questions! (most amusing was this
guy's comment that he'd nuged his wife and said "get a good look at that
car, you'll never see another one on the road again... and another one
pulled up!") getting colder and wetter, I rang Dave and his friend came
out to try and get it started. Gareth went a bit red because it started
first time (he's a mechanic). [for all of you saying "hot start
problem", it wasn't that].

On our return I plugged in the laptop I'd borrowed from work and dialled
up to the internet so Dave could get a taste of "our" world. I think I'm
winning him over, just showing him the vast amount of traffic through
the back issues of the DML had him making noises in the direction of
going on line. I jokingly commented that if he sold me the car for a
discount, I'd sort him out with a computer and get him on line and show
him how to use it. I don't know if he took me seriously, but I'll keep
on at him!

I don't remember when Dave put the battery in the left-hander, but we
rolled it out and he started it up. WOW! For all those who say the PRV-6
cannot sound like the BTTF car, you have to hear it! Not QUITE as
throaty, but damn close!

Chris took video of that and much of us driving the cars - hopefully I
can have some clips up on the site soon (Chris?)

Anyway, this is already too long - hope you've found it interesting!

Martin

DeLorean Owners Club UK
http://delorean.connect-2.co.uk