Oxford Blue
1589 finally at home in Dorking. (Photo: Al Barnett)
Al Barnett has
sent in an additional report as a sequel to his previous
reports of his experience of buying and reimporting Oxford Blue
1589 from David Boniface in Japan who had advertised the car on
the V8 website in March 2007. It is an interesting tale.
On Sunday
(12th August) Fiona and took part in a road run in our recently
acquired RV8 which involved passing lot of navigation instructions
and distance assessments between navigator and driver. We
quickly came to the conclusion that the single box exhaust
on Oxford Blue 1589 was just too noisy for us to hear each
other under competitive conditions. This concerned us
since we are getting ready to leave UK next week and not return
until after this year's Prix des Alpes. So yesterday, Monday,
I drove up to Clive Wheatley's workshop to have a two box
system fitted.
Clive had managed to fit me in at short notice so off I set
just after 10am. It was not a good day for travelling; the
M40 was closed for investigations into the murder of a motorcyclist
at the weekend, the M4 was closed because of an accident and
everyone, including me, seemed to be hoping to use the M1.
The result was a northbound queue of almost 20 miles through
roadworks which took over an hour to negotiate. But I now
know the air conditioning system on the car works well and
that the car does not overheat in traffic.
I eventually arrived at Clive Wheatley's workshops at Worfield
shortly before 3pm. Clive looked at the single box exhaust
and identified it as one of the earliest, number 10, that
he had supplied. He said that later and current systems have
a bigger silencer box and stronger brackets, Nevertheless
I went for the two box system that I had on my previous
car which, in my opinion, strikes the right balance between
an attractive sound and the need to travel long distances
without emerging deaf. It was interesting to see Steve modifying
the mounting brackets to ensure a correct fit and shows how
experience makes a job a lot simpler. The work was finished
within an hour or so and, after the usual lengthy discussions
with Clive about the supply of spares etc, I set off back
for Surrey.
The car now was much more pleasant to drive being both
quieter and smoother. I had the hood down and was enjoying
an early evening drive, particularly as the M40 had now reopened
and traffic was very light. I was cruising at around 70mph
when I was passed |
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by
a Saab 900 which was going a little quicker. As he passed me
I heard an odd flapping sound and I thought that doesn't sound
too good: at that moment his rear tyre exploded! There
was a very loud bang, a puff of brown dust and after a few seconds
the Saab half spun and smashed into the Armco central barrier.
By this time I was on the hard shoulder, braking heavily and
wondering what I was going to do if he bounced back into my
path. Bits of car came heading my way, including a wheel
trim disc that seemed to be heading directly for me. The Armco
however had done its energy absorbing job and the car stayed
against the central barrier. After moments of indecision I accelerated
and the wheel disc passed just behind me.
By now I was past the incident and could see lots of hazard
lights in my mirror. The Saab was clearly badly damaged but
the passenger compartment looked intact. I made the decision
that there wasn't much I could do and stopping on the hard shoulder
would probably only increase the risk of another collision.
Was I right? I don't know. Anyway I carried on, a bit shaken
and reminded of how quickly a pleasant trip can turn nasty.
Incidentally I carefully checked the fuel consumption for the
day and for the 351 miles travelled, including 20 plus miles
of traffic queues, I averaged 29.25mpg. The journey was
also interesting because on each of the three occasions that
I stopped at a garage people came over to talk about the car.
At the M6 services a heavily tattooed man asked if it was new
and when I replied "No it is 12 years old' he replied by
grabbing my arm and saying "Good on you" in a very
strong Midlands accent. At the next stop just outside Stourbridge
a man wanted to know if it was an American car and another said
how nice it was to see such a good British sports car. Finally
when I stopped at Ripley in Surrey, to top up the car to check
the consumption, a delightful young lady came over to ask what
type it was as she had never seen one before and it was the
nicest car she had seen all day. Unfortunately she didn't seem
to think the driver was the nicest thing she had seen all day
and drove off with a wave!
So there we are an interesting day with an RV8.
Al Barnett
(14.8.07)
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Diary
of reimporting Oxford Blue 1589
We felt many members would be interested in a series of running reports
on Al Barnett's experiences with reimporting this RV8. So Al will
be sending a series of reports of how he has organised the export
arrangements, freight and insurances, reimport procedures, collection
from the UK docks and preparation for UK roads. The full set of reports
is available using the links below.
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