Tiger Tales

Summer is almost here, which means the Tiger has been brought out of hibernation. The most important job was to get the car running properly. First attempts resulted in serious backfiring and a great reluctance to start. I went through the usual checks and I confirmed I had fuel and a spark, so the most likely cause was timing. Attention then started to focus on the new trigger wheel which had been installed to enable the Megajolt to run. On close examination, it turned out that the welds holding it to the crank pulley had failed, allowing the trigger wheel to rotate from it's fixed position on the crank. This was also the source of the expensive sounding rattle I had developed on the last track day of last year (not so expensive after all then), and was also almost certainly the reason the car wouldn't start. Jon from 7-Indulgence took the offending part away and re-welded it more securely. On its return, the car still wouldn't run on all four cylinders (there was no spark at the fourth cylinder), so after much head scratching the diagnosis was that the coil pack was faulty. The Ford Mondeo (the donor for these parts) uses a wasted spark system and there are only two positive leads to the coil pack, each supplying power to two cylinders. This meant that, if one of the pair of plugs was firing, then the coil pack was getting power, therefore the problem is from the coil pack onwards - and that can only mean the coil pack, the ignition leads or the spark plugs. Ignition leads and spark plugs were easy to test, and the conclusion was the coil pack had given up. A quick trip to the local motor factors had it sorted and the car then duly started, and I've had no problem since.

The only other problem I had to fix was a strange knocking noise, particularly when powering through a left had corner. This didn't seem to vary with speed, therefore probably not the drive train and very much sounded like something fouling the chassis somewhere. Close examination with the nose cone off showed that the slightly longer fan belt recently installed was allowing the alternator to bang against the right hand chassis rail as the engine was forced right in left hand turns. A test fit of various length belts from Halfords soon came up with one of the right length and the problem was solved.

Final job was a good clean, and the car was ready.

I attended the first track day of the year at Brands Hatch - a sessioned evening run by Focused Events. It was a terrific evening. The weather was perfect, there were few cars/drivers so it became an open pit lane session, and even then the track was clear for much of the evening. And the Tiger behaved impeccably. Apart from the rear fog light disintegrating and having to be 'modified' part way through the evening that is. I think this is probably due to its position immediately below the petrol filler cap and if a little fuel gets split it runs down the car onto the fog light, making the plastic brittle. Easy and cheap fix though.

So, all set for summer and probably another 4 or 5 track days.

Oliver

We went to see Oliver at the Theatre Royal in the West End a few weeks ago. The tickets had been bought a very long time ago when it was first announced that Fagin would be played by Rowan Atkinson, so it was a bit of a disappointment when we found out that Rowan had to take a couple of weeks off due to a hernia and Russ Abbott was to step into his shoes. However, having seen the show, I am happy to report that Russ did an excellent job. He brought plenty of character where it was needed, and just the right amount of humour too. And he can sing.

I have to say though, Russ was probably the best thing about this version of Lionel Bart’s classic. Just like Joseph, I found the production was ‘dumbed down’ – presumably for the benefit of those who were perhaps at their first West End show, having been seduced by the accompanying search for Nancy TV show. It has a touch of panto about it. The acoustic balance was all wrong, with the orchestra being far too loud and drowning out the singers on several occasions. I didn’t like the ‘mockney’ accents – that really didn’t work and contributed to making the show far less natural.

Jodie Prenger as Nancy was exceptionally popular with the audience as you’d expect, but I found her performance very one dimension and not at all fresh. Making every rendition sound as though it is the first one is one of the defining characteristics of a great musical performer. For me, Jodie just didn’t have it. She had probably sung her big number – As Long As He Needs Me – 100 times, and it showed. The phrasing could have been better and some more contrast would have improved things alot.

Having said that, Oliver is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicals ever written and it would be virtually impossible to mess it up completely because the simple melodies, great lyrics and colourful characters will always shine through. So, all in all, not as good as I’d hoped, but I still came out singing.

Musings of a cyclist

Just back from an easy couple of hours on the bike. Very nice morning to go over Polehill and throught the Kent countryside. The road from Otford to Eynsford is beautiful, scenic and is well worth the effort - if only the council would sort out the road surface. It's pretty appalling if you're on a pedal bike.

And while we're on the subject, how is it there's money to paint so many white, yellow and red lines over all our roads, put up a million signs and thousands of cameras, yet there's no money to repair the roads. Sort it out!