Lost in London Thunder

[billy no brakes]

That will be a day that I will never forget it seemed to go wrong from the start.I left home to meet up with a few others at Dartford in sun shine. I stopped to get some petrol and drove up the A2 when a porsche came up behind me trying to egg me on well I normally would have pulled over and let him by but I pushed the loud pedal and left him behind I got upto ////// mph and thought I would look in the mirror to see if said porsche was behind but all I could see was a green boot lid Oh dear I did not shut the b----y thing properly when filling up with petrol pulled over and shut it.

meet up with the others and made our way to the ace Cafe the clouds came and dumped gallons of water on us. I have never drove in worse conditions.Crashes every where, 4x4s giving it large through the puddles soaking me even in the cerb but I did have the window down,This must be the first time I have driven through rivers on the underpasses.Cerb got us to the ace Cafe with no problem at all.So much for unrealiabilty I saw cars broke down all over the place.

I was asked if I would take a passenger from blackpool how could I refuse after they made the effort and came to London.stood in the ace Cafe car park and got dumped on with gallons of water but I was not going let that dampen my spirits.

Of we set on the rally after going thruogh more rivers I was not paying to much attention to where we was heading just following the convoy when I thought this the wrong way and we was heading back to the ace Cafe.we turned into a side street which was one way and sat there for 1/2 an hour going no where due to road works.

When we finally found the A40 the guy who I took as a pasenger phoned his wife who wasin an other TVR and she was in Trafalger Square.We managed to get to the Haymarket after 2 and 1/2 hours after leaving the ace Cafe and it was at a standstill and I was running out of petrol so I asked this poor guy if he wanted to carrying on so he phoned his wife who was now on her way back to the ace Cafe so we decided to head back guess what I missed the turning for the A40 another detour.

I do not think I will forget that day for several reasons the way the cerb performed having evrything thrown at it from the rivers we had to cross to the traffic jams.

the amount of TVRS in London

and the PASSION AND SPIRIT of all who attended well done

[Blipi]

Getting lost was inevitable and part of the fun!

Funny to see cars heading in all directions beeping and waving at eachother!

As for the water, didn't TVR murmour something about making boats??!

[Graham]

Lol... My day started at 7am, pushing trailers and cars around to get the race car on the back of the borowed transporter...

met up with the m42 convoy at hopwood, stayed with them to warwick then free ran down to london. got a bit lost finding the ace, nice drive through residential streets with a 25 ft truck....

got to ace, parked up around the back, stopped for about 30 mins then joined the queue. out of the ace..


we did manage the entire route but it took about 5 hours and was dark by the time we got back to hyde park corner !!!!

got stuck in a jam on the m1 after an accident up front and got to castle race engine at silverstone about 7 to drop off the car and the truck..

left there at 8:30 and got home for ten... the old chap got home about 11 !!! from getting in the truck at 8:45 we were moving ( all be it slowley ) for all of the time from there to 11pm bar about an hour and a half !!!


Still we were there and flying a union jack, which i must get back to its owner

G

[IM]

Sat-Nav - no good in London on a busy day - You need "Cab-Nav". Me and 3 other cars (you know who you are) were led down to Picadilly Circus from the Paddington slip road on the A40M by a "well known and much respected amongst his peers" - (debt now repaid Rob) - London Cabbie.

Weaving our way around the Capitals side streets and reaching Picadilly in what was double quick time compared to some of the postings on here.

Sadly, there was no further quick headway to be made as we hit Haymarket but I think without that help I would have been tempted to jack it in much earlier.

Again - thanks mate - It was much apppreciated by my aching clutch leg.

[blue_chim]

I don't think you are alone in getting lost, not by a long shot! My day started well, getting to the M40 J4 meet point with time to spare. Then the rain came in bucket loads, my roof was down until that point! Applied the vinyl in the wet, it managed to stay stuck down mostly.

Got to the Ace and was one of the last to squeeze into the car park. I got off to a bit of a bad start (with my works passenger John) by following some cars led by sat-nav (I assume) since we completely missed the A406 turn! Then it was about an hour sat in slow moving traffic, roadworks etc. and onto Edgware Road, down to Marble Arch.

It then got better for a bit past Hyde Park and St. James park before hitting the TVR car park We made slow progress along Picadilly and Trafalgar Square, eventually making it to Whitehall (my passenger's wife relayed info about the events there) then headed back to the Ace.

We still got lost coming back thanks to the magical mystery tour that is getting back on the A40 Ended up on the A5 stuck in traffic and eventually decided to turn back to find the A40 for a 2nd time, getting back to the Ace about 5:30pm.

Despite this I think it was a good day and felt proud to be part of this momentous, record-breaking event! Driving in London is like no where else I've ever been and I'm just thankful I got back in one piece. Thanks to all who organized it and PH, the Ace, police etc. and the workers who had such a long round trip - it wouldn't have been the same without them.

My pics are here: www.zen94723.zen.co.uk/LondonThunder.html

[AlexRWD]

IM said:

Sat-Nav - no good in London on a busy day - You need "Cab-Nav". Me and 3 other cars (you know who you are) were led down to Picadilly Circus from the Paddington slip road on the A40M by a "well known and much respected amongst his peers" - (debt now repaid Rob) - London Cabbie.

Weaving our way around the Capitals side streets and reaching Picadilly in what was double quick time compared to some of the postings on here.

Yup, I can certainly endorse Cab-Nav as a much better system than any old sat-nav - cheers again to Rob

Awesome day seeing all those Tivs in London, just a shame the police didn't let us depart from the slip road where we were parked at the Ace for about 90mins!

Hats off to the bus driver who was trying to get through that road, and just simply gave up and told all his passengers to get off! A very good natured bloke, he then sat there waiting along with the rest of us - apologies to the passengers!

Be good to see a video of Parlt Sq with the initial wave of Tivs - when we finally got there, the spectacle was long gone, but it sounded brilliant by all accounts.

[Bacardi]

Coming off the M25 was where it went a bit wrong for me . I found myself in the wrong lane and it was ahead only... up the M1.. Arse! (I wasn't alone, with at least three, later, appearing behind me). Not a big deal, only three miles up to the next junction and then we could turn around and come back. Only, less than a mile away from the junction the traffic stopped. Someone had lost it in a people carrier type thing (difficult to tell as we passed, it was a mess). We must have spent the best part of an hour there.

Eventually back on track we finally made it to the Ace cafe and eventually parked up in a street behind. We had about 25 mins there with a chance to say hello to a few faces but the food wait was to long and then we were being called to start off again. But arriving later, we were to the back of the convoy.

I had put the itinerary of the route in my TomTom that someone had posted. But that went pear shaped as soon as we crossed the bridge at Ace. Instead of turning down the North circular, plod directed every one straight over. We followed along in convoy, ignoring the satnav, until we got caught at some lights on a corner. By the time they had changed and we turned the corner, they were no Tivs to be seen. The road forked left or right, I guess I made the wrong decision! I had about 6 or 7 blindly following me, (sorry folks!) God knows where we went! I had a charcoal Griff behind me all the way but some of the others behind me must have thought 'where is this plonker going?' and made their own way.

I followed the TomToms directions, and tried to make 'Whitehall' the destination within the itinerary which ended up leading us back to the Ace starting point. (Seemed like a good idea at the time but I need to check how this itinerary business works). From then on, with my passenger on the maps, we took the original planned route down the north circular (plod had gone by this time).

We finally made it to Park Lane, went around Piccadilly Circus and down Haymarket, but by the time we reached Trafalgar Square we had had enough and bailed out. The traffic was just dreadful and my left foot was going numb with use. By this time it was getting dark and the first convoy must have been there about 1 1/2 hours before.

Would I do it again? Maybe... but only with hindsight.... like get there early, get to the front of the pack and take a cabbie as a passenger! .

[byker28i]

Ah I wonder if we were followign you. At one point I was behind a light green metalic Cerbera, but kept catching the red lights. After we scraped our bottom over the speed humps down that ridiculous road with the narrow, gated entrance we lost them completely at the lights. After that we made our own way and followed the signs to Paddington and onto Marble arch from there. Was I glad to see others at this point. I thought we'd have been left far behind.

[hormone]

I now feel a lot better.
We got everywhere we should've just not when everyone else did!

Truley awesome at Parliament Square. How the police let us get away with all those 'U' turns and excessive revving is beyond me.
Maybe theyfelt as we do about the direction TVR is heading in.

[FlipFlopGriff]

At least you got to the Ace.
We queued for ages on the M4 (got soaked when we eventually stopped and had to pull over to get the roof on) and then the north circular only to decide at 1.20 to divert off and fortunately we joined a convoy just getting onto the A40. Apparently the police had closed the north circular by the Ace so we'd never have got there anyway, and that was what all the traffic back up was for.
Took us 20 odd minuteds though to actually get onto Whitehall from the island with quite a few annoyed drivers/cabbies.
Great day out, 450 miles and 4 fuel stops over the weekend.
FFG

[itsallyellow]

byker28i said:

Ah I wonder if we were followign you. At one point I was behind a light green metalic Cerbera, but kept catching the red lights. After we scraped our bottom over the speed humps down that ridiculous road with the narrow, gated entrance we lost them completely at the lights. After that we made our own way and followed the signs to Paddington and onto Marble arch from there. Was I glad to see others at this point. I thought we'd have been left far behind.

I was behind you mate. About 6 cars back. I turned right at them roadworks and found Boss cerbera and crew. Worked out ok in the end!
mike

[Bacardi]

byker28i said:

Ah I wonder if we were followign you.

Didn't make a note of the cars behind. To busy trying to figure out where I was and where the hell I should be going! Didn't notice a narrow gated entrance, perhaps you were lost with another crowd! Apart from the charcoal Griff, the only other car that I remember was a red, or slightly off red, Tuscan a few cars back. He went another way but I did see him in my mirrors along Piccadilly later, so I guess he found a way there.

Looking at the map, I'm guessing the guys I was following had already got it wrong. We were bearing to the left. Had we kept to the right we would have joined the Western Avenue a bit further down instead of looping around to start again. Ho hum. If I go on another one I'll be putting a disclaimer in the rear window "Don't follow me, I'm lost too!'

[mack]

I wish we'd gone into London,the route we came back out on - we may have made Whitehall before dark then!!!

[byker28i]

I'm guessing we went down the A404, down some dodgy side road with a really narrow entrance, turned the wrong way at the road works to meet cars coming the other way, went around the heavy traffic bit around Willesden, past the Willesden police station then played follow the signs to Paddington.
Then we saw the A40 with TVR's galore on it and we knew we were OK. We turned right onto Edgware road and then were back on route.

Looking on the map it seems so easy, but that took about 90 mins