NEC

["mgutkowski@xxxx" <webmaster@xxxx>]

Hi All

Just my tuppenceworth.

I am still buzzing from the time Verity and I had over this past weekend.
For us it was the culmination of weeks of work on "Lex" to get her
show-worthy. It really did mean all those jobs that got done in a
half-assed way previously HAD to be done properly. Could anyone tell that
my rear fascia, just 12 hours before the car went on the stand, had been
sitting on my kitchen floor with the lacquer still wet?!

To be honest, I had been nervous in the weeks leading up to the show that
my baby really wasn't show-worthy, but I caught myself feeling like a proud
Dad more than once (sad, I know, but I think I've achieved vindication on
buying a "fixer-upper"!). There's still a long way to go on "Lex" but I'm
really enjoying the work - and hey, who at the show's going to know my
drivers' window doesn't work or that the clutch squeaks! Really the only
downers were the rear wheels which badly need repainting (GREY!) and the
bonnet which needs rebrushing and getting rid of whatever someone tried
writing in it at some point (I don't really think it says "Toss" Mark...).
Anyway it's been like that since i've had it. I was a bit peeved that the
armrest got broken after having only fixed it a couple of days earlier.
Maybe some more money for James & Co :-)

The highlight for me would have to be the Saturday night at my mate Al's
place in Wolverhampton with Dave, Claire, Rich, Helen and Verity getting up
to all sorts of shinanegins (lighting fireworks with a flaming
parrafin-soaked bread stick being merely one of them...). Haven't laughed
so much in ages, and really dreading seeing Claire's video... Oh and
nobody's going to call Dave "Wingnut" any more, are they?

Sunday I finally got to say Hi to James Espey, who kindly handed over my
nice new fuel tank sender - I look forward to dropping that in! (then Rich
can have his back :-P). He was extremely complimentary about my seats - and
I didn't even hear Chrispy mumble "unoriginal" once! I gave James my second
hand Hammerite Hammered finish black paint can to try out on their stereo
brackets (looks great on mine).

Someone else I got to meet at the show was Darren Bowker, the cheerful
Manchunian Renault30 fanatic, who as luck would have it, was right opposite
the DOC stand. He's building my new engine for #4426 and on Sunday, Jason
and Terry from the Diesel Centre dropped by to hand the block over as it
currently is (block with heads and not a lot else). He was grinning from
ear to ear when he finally heard Chrispy's echo-chamber exhaust.

For those who don't already know, my car now has a lovely exhaust note
thanks to the lack of cat. it also has the positive driving experience of a
6000-mile car should have. But now with Pirellis and PJ Grady's shocks all
round, the new seats, the sound-deadened rear and the new stereo and
speakers, the driving experience on a long trip is lovely. The trip up to
Wolverhampton from Reading was uneventful, but honestly I could drive that
thing for a year and not get tired of it! Even on the way home, tired as I
was, I relaxed and enjoyed myself all the way. Verity was loving the
attention from other drivers :-)

So to summarise, I had a terriffic time, and it was a real sense of
achievement seeing as 5 years ago, almost to the day since I met my first
DeLorean at the very same show, and a year to the week since #1458 got its
first MOT.

Bugger. I need an MOT.

Martin
#1458 "Lex"
#4426 "Tinny"

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