Sunday the 26th at a very wet and windy Brands Hatch Indy Circuit my Father and I passed our ARDS test and qualified for our National B licence. The written was not too bad having revised for two months and watched the DVD eight times. The instructor laps were a lot harder than I anticipated not helped by the driving rain or my nerves!

Any way a pass is a pass and the car shake down will get more laps under my belt.

So the trusty old car transporter trailer must go, and in its place something more suitable. My old one has been a good local tool over the years but is in need of some TLC that a new owner could lavish with time I don’t have. So an advert on eBay and 20 mins later a new owner found from the Midlands.

In its place a second hand PRG Millennium complete with full cover, tilt bed and tyre rack. lots of thanks to the ‘Royal Bank of Dad’ for the funds as he needed something for his classics too.

It is permitted to remove the air conditioning in the car and this is worth doing as the kit that makes the air con up is quite weighty.

The removal of the air con required me to remove the front bumper, condenser and fan then while in there remove the bonnet catch as pins are required and indeed ordered. Removal of the air con metal hoses and the unit by the horn under the n/s/f wing. The temporary removal of the expansion tank and fuse box allows the rest of the metal piping to be removed. Finally I took the radiator out which upon inspection is knackered and will need replacing – great more money.

While the bumper was off I decided it was an opportune moment to spray the tow hook red as required, a can of Rover Flame Red from my MG Maestro Turbo did the trick there.

The amount of components making up the air con system is shown the so the weight gain is massive.

The front now looks a bit sparse….

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So the build continues, since the initial hanging in of the roll cage the following has now been carried out:

Front and Rear brake strip out and this involved the following:

Removal of the front calipers, discs (which are shot), pads and brake hoses.
Removal of the rear calipers, pads and brake hoses.
Drain of the brake fluid, including kicking half a pot across the workshop floor!
Freeing up and winding in of the rear caliper pistons.

The brakes are now ready for the new front discs and Mintex race pads that are mandatory for the new class D Trophy series. The first problem is the set of grooved and drilled discs I have bought for the front are not permitted so they will now have to go on My MG Express 160 which needs some anyway and an OEM air ordered.