Welcome to the first ever online Mogtorque. You will all have seen my appeal for copy a few weeks ago (doesn’t time fly...or maybe not) and I am very grateful to all of the members who have responded. In this issue we do have a report of a Spring Weekend which has never been published. It is from 2003 and has been kindly forwarded by George Edwards . He submitted the report at the time to the MSCC Miscellany without success (and sadly it must be said, without the return of most of the origi-nal photos) My apologies to Frank Manclark. I don’t think this medium will do full justice to the examples of his artwork which I had intended to print in this issue. I’ll keep that topic for another time. At the time of writing I am not particularly hopeful that we will have Club events and meetings to report on for our summer issue, but time will tell. In the meantime please continue to send me any-thing, ANYTHING, which might be suitable to keep your newsletter going during this difficult period. David

Chairman’s Chatter

So what’s the most appropriate greeting?

Happy Lockdown?

Bon Isolation?

Whatever it is I hope you are all safe and well.

Well, so far, it’s all been a bit miserable on the Morgan front. Around here it seems to have been pretty dry and generally bright on the most part, ideal for some Morgan exercise. There was a partic-ular bit of brightness for me just before the lockdown started when I was able to take a trip to Perth and pick up my NEW Roadster. I did have plans to be an (even more) insufferable bore showing it off at the Bo’ness Noggin but you were all saved from that. Unfortunately, I don’t even have the pleas-ure of admiring it in my garage now as it made an immediate return to Perth on a tow truck two days after delivery and is now awaiting the reopening of the Morgan Factory for them to fix the ECU. This is my 3rd new Morgan and I really should have known better than to think it would be straight forward. For the record, its NOT something that the dealer could or should have picked up on in pre delivery.

So you see, there is always something to give you a wee smile.

Hopefully we will hear in the not too distant future how and when we are going to get out of the current situation, although my fear is that whatever it looks like, we will not be encouraged to have mass gatherings for some time yet. The committee will keep it all under review, heed expert advice, monitor the daily briefings, consult the tea leaves and do whatever is necessary to get our happy band back together as soon as possible. In the meantime, stay safe and polish!

Andy

Front Cover: Jockmoggers parked neatly at Lennoxlove House for a MWL. Lawrence Lowe’s photo was used for the front cover of MSCC Miscellany in November 2004.

Castles and Cars in Aberdeenshire Jockmog Spring Weekend 2003

Like so many good ideas, it began with a casual conversation at a Noggin. Reflecting what a discerning bunch Jockmog members are the suggestion of a group visit to the castles of North East Scotland, combining cars and culture, was well received. To begin with around 4 cars were expected to take part – in the end there were 15. And so Cas-tles and Cars – the Jockmog Spring Weekend was born. Whilst the October Weekend has long been a highly successful date in the Scottish cal-endar, this was the first spring event to be organised by the Centre – although a sizable group did enjoy a visit to Ireland in May 2001 to meet up with members from North-ern Ireland and the Republic. The North East of Scotland boasts a varied and interesting collection of castles and stately homes, most of which are in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. In plan-ning the visit the Trust’s representatives were most helpful and it was decided to focus on two major properties – Castle Fraser near Inverurie and Fyvie Castle at Turriff just north of Old Meldrum. Other properties including Craigievar and Leith Hall were visit-ed by members outwith the “official” programme. In addition to castles (and distilleries) the area contains a number of fine country house hotels which, despite the difficulties being experienced by the tourist industry, all seem to be busy at this time of year. Our choice was the Macdonald Thainstone House Hotel at Inverurie and we could not have done better. Set in 40 acres of private gardens and parkland, providing good opportunities for photographs, the hotel is dis-tinctly Morgan-friendly, not least because the manager who drives an MGF aspires to Morgan ownership and was delighted to have so many arrayed in front of her hotel.

Jockmog Lineup at Macdonald Thainstone House Hotel Inverurie

Photo: Lawrence Lowe

The weekend chosen, 10-12 May, turned out to be warm and sunny, ideal for Morgan driving on the fast, scenic roads of this beautiful part of the country. For those who have not driven in this area, it can certainly be recommended. For the most part the roads are well engineered with excellent camber on corners and good smooth surfaces. For lunch on Friday, most gathered at Spittal of Glenshee on the A 93 north of Blairgow-rie from where we drove together past Balmoral and through Royal Deeside cutting north to Thainstone House. At the hotel that evening we were joined by some local members, more of whom teamed up with the party on Saturday. All were pleased to have an event in their area because of the difficulty some experience in attending regu-lar Noggins in Central Scotland. The weekend chosen, 10-12 May, turned out to be warm and sunny, ideal for Morgan driving on the fast, scenic roads of this beautiful part of the country. For those who have not driven in this area, it can certainly be recommended. For the most part the roads are well engineered with excellent camber on corners and good smooth surfaces. For lunch on Friday, most gathered at Spittal of Glenshee on the A 93 north of Blairgow-rie from where we drove together past Balmoral and through Royal Deeside cutting north to Thainstone House. At the hotel that evening we were joined by some local members, more of whom teamed up with the party on Saturday. All were pleased to have an event in their area because of the difficulty some experience in attending regu-lar Noggins in Central Scotland. On a bright Saturday morning, following a photo session at the hotel, we set off for the Grampian Transport Museum in nearby Alford. This little known museum is a gem cover-ing all aspects of transport with particular emphasis on local connections. Under the en-ergetic management of Mike Ward, the specially developed museum site includes a short road circuit and other facilities for hosting a full programme of outdoor events throughout the season. Needless to say, the track was put to good use by Jockmog members – some more flamboyantly than others – and there is already talk of a return visit.

Owen Jenkins and Bobby Donaldson at GTM in happier times.

After a light lunch in the Museum tea shop, specially opened for us, we drove the short distance to Castle Fraser where we were given permission to park in front of the Castle rather than in the public car park. We also had this privilege later at Fyvie giving much better picture opportunities. Castle Fraser is described as the most elaborate Z-plan castle in Scotland and was built between 1575 and 1636 by the 6th laird, Michael Fraser. As we discovered on our guided tour, it contains many fine paintings including a Raeburn and some fine 18th and 19th century carpets, curtains and bed hangings.

Photo: Owen Jenkins

Photo: Owen Jenkins

In the Sunshine at Castle Fraser

Lineup at Castle Fraser

On reaching the battlements we made a discovery of a distinctly unhistoric nature. Looking down on the parked Morgans they were far from being in a straight line – prompting someone to suggest we should plan a Jockmog weekend to practise park-ing! After Castle Fraser it was on to Fyvie Castle about 45 minutes away. Dating from the 13th century Fyvie was once a royal stronghold, one of a chain of fortresses through-out medieval Scotland. Added to over the years, it is now regarded as the finest ex-ample of Scottish Baronial architecture. A rich portrait collection includes works by Raeburn, Romney, Gainsborough, Opie and Hoppner and there is a fine collection of arms and armour. Once again Trust staff could not have been more helpful in receiv-ing us and showing us round. Returning to Thainstone House we all successfully negotiated a police speed-trap which happened to be on our route and was not, we hope, placed there because of us. To round the day off in style there were 28 for dinner for which the hotel provided a private suite complete with its own bar, keeping us away from a large wedding party – either in their interest or ours! Whatever, after quite a long day we had a most en-joyable evening. Sunday proved equally sunny and, after breakfast, the party began to disperse with

most going on to the Na-tional Hill Climb event at Fintray outside Aberdeen where one of our number, Brian Hopkins, was com-peting in his +4. Thanks to Brian we were able to take our cars up the hill – at a much more sedate pace – bringing to a fitting end a very successful weekend. There are other National Trust properties in the same area and many elsewhere in Scotland and the success of this year’s visit highlights

the opportunities which exist for similar events in future. If the warmth of their re-ception and the enthusiastic co-operation received from staff at the National Trust, Thainstone House Hotel and Grampian Transport Museum are anything to go by, a warm welcome to this part of the country awaits all Morgan owners and MSCC members. George Edwards

The Gang on Fintray Hill

I saw that David was looking for copy for Mogtorque whilst we are all self-isolating and seemingly banned from using our Morgans, the following piece comes

from the June/July 2010 Mogtorque from the time when I was editing the news-letter. I came upon it whilst I was looking for something else. It seemed to me to be almost relevant following the recent announcement of the new Plus Four which would appear to be good value considering the suggested ticket price of £100,000 Unfortunately, the concept never came to fruition!

Could This be Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread?

I received the following Press Release from Morgan during last week and thought that it looked an interesting proposition. ‘A four seater coupe aimed at families’ is how it is described. Certainly, the teasing rendering below looks to have many of the Morgan design cues and the projected performance both in speed and economy would suggest that the limit of 100 cars will soon be snapped up. With a deposit of £5000 it could well be priced in excess of £100000, but let’s hope that the project exceeds all the expectations which are suggested, at less than this price!

At a time of global conservation with a drive towards improved fuel economy the Morgan Motor Company introduces a new concept for a sporting family, the Morgan EvaGT. The four seater Coupe takes its in-spiration from the British sports saloons of the early 1950’s. Among these were the Bristol 400 series and the Frazer Nash BMW 328. Af-ter the Second World War rationing forced designers to conserve and make the most of the materials at their disposal. However, the pressure cooker of war had also led to an abundance of innovative engineering ideas. Steel was scarce so lightweight aluminium was used for bodywork. Smooth “in-line” straight six cylinder engines were fitted to give long distance comfort and reliability. Because the engineers had often worked on aircraft development during the war aerodynamics contribut-ed to high but economical cruising speeds.

The Morgan Motor Company is the last survivor of these British sports car manufacturers. Of course, the company is lucky enough to have 100 years of continuous success behind it and like Bristol and Frazer Nash; Morgan has a history of successful collaborations with German suppliers BMW, Siemens and Bosch. But Morgan also works with a number of young engineering companies in the United Kingdom and with world class British university research departments.

The new challenge is to make cars that are more efficient than any we have seen so far. The Morgan Motor Company is in a good position to respond to this challenge because the company is small and flexi-ble with a proven track record of fast development cycles. It cur-rently manufactures one of the greenest sports cars in the world, the Morgan Four Four Sport. Morgan achieves this result with the use of the new Ford 1.6 Sigma engine coupled with a light chassis. Morgan currently has a young well qualified technical team working towards a potential 5 engineering PHD’s, who will make full use of re-search departments at the University of Oxford, Cranfield and Bir-mingham City to tap into a technical knowledge network to make more efficient cars. This team is helping to develop a high torque electric motor twice as powerful as others of the same weight and size and a powerful lithium phosphate battery with a higher charge density to achieve the most efficient performance for weight so far.

The dynamic team at Morgan has made a commitment from 2010 that they will bring out a new model every two years. The legendary sports car manufacturer will target new niches:- electric sports cars, a fun weekend vehicle and the first of the new cars will be the Morgan Eva GT, a four seater Coupe aimed at young families, with a bit of drama or automotive theatre as we like to call it. This is a rev-olution for a car company famous for making the same car for 50 years!

So there you have it!

Colin Mackay

Refurbishment of a Morgan Seatbelt

It was the start of the Jockmog 2019 season when I discovered that the garage and the Morgan had been visited by mice, fortunately there was no serious dam-age but I did find about a three inch frayed section on the passenger seat belt. A patch up job using heat activated sticky tape liberated from the sewing basket worked well for the season but it was always liable to be an MOT failure so I de-cided to SORN the car over winter and get the seat belt replaced or fixed over that time.

After looking up their catalogue a call to Melvyn Rutter revealed that there were no replacements for my car (2009) and the belt would need to be refurbished. I had read in the Mogtalk Forum that the job was awkward but doable, I also got some advice from Derek at Classic & Sports Car Engineering in Brechin. First I removed the luggage rack and spare wheel which gave some access to the single bolt

holding the seat belt reel to the mounting bracket but insufficient to get two spanners and two hands in from that single direction so I took the pins out from the rear carpet cov-ering and carefully peeled it back from the rear plate and removed the screws from along the top of the plate, there was also a couple of screws about halfway down plus a nut and bolt which may be something to do with the cobra light (I don’t have one). This al-lowed the plate to be bent down and allow access from the back of the car.

MOUNTING BRACKET WITH SEATBELT IN POSITION, VERY CONFINED SPACE

PEELING BACK THE CARPET AND FREEING THE BACKPLATE

The information on Mogtalk had indi-cated the bolt was 17mm and the nut was 18mm but I soon found that the bottom nut was 17mm and I could get a flexible head ratchet spanner on it fairly easily this allowed me to slacken off the nut but of course the bolt started to turn and I suppose this is where the fun really began. Various old open end spanners were modified by bending and opening but in spite of much blaspheming I was having great difficulty getting a span-

ner on to the bolt head and keeping it there when it was on, the access from each side was a help but still very awkward reaching a hand in from each side. I enlisted the help of my next-door neighbour but we still found it impossible to keep a spanner on the bolt head and we reverted to getting a large screwdriver between the seat-belt reel and the mounting bracket like a wedge which stopped the bolt from turning, we had to keep tension on un-til the last moment which turned out to be caused by the nut and bolt having Loctite on it requiring the spanner to be used until the nut was completely free of the thread, we did reduce the pressure exerted by the screwdriver toward the end to make sure the bolt didn’t fly off somewhere. Once the bolt was out we discovered it also was 17mm, no 18mm nut or bolt on mine. Freeing the other end was fairly simple although the nut is on the outside and in part of the chassis so I stuffed a piece of rag below it and put some grease in the socket so the nut came out with the socket and if it did fall it didn’t disappear within the chassis bracket.

TOP NUT REMOVED TO ALLOW REMOVAL OF BOLT ON FORWARD END, RAG PLACED IN BOTTOM HOLE TO ENSURE

NUT DIDN’T DROP DOWN IN BOX SECTION

NUT WITH LOCK WASHER, IT CAN BE SEEN THAT THE SIDES OF THE SEATBELT FRAME PREVENT GETTING A

STRAIGHT SPANNER ONTO THE TOP BOLT HEAD

Mogtalk had brought a rec-ommendation to use FDTS Ltd, West Byfleet, Surrey, I phoned on the Monday and talked to Sue Taylor who told me to parcel it up and send it off and they would replace the webbing. It was posted off on the Tuesday and on Thursday morning the postman returned it to me with matching webbing (slightly cleaner than the old one) and a little more tension on the belt all for the sum of £48 which I thought was very reasona-

ble and excellent service. The internet was trawled for a suitable spanner and quite a number bought to the point where I could do with another tool chest but a C shaped ring spanner with 17mm at one end was found to be the easiest to position and hold onto the bolt head. Replacing the bolt was fun with a few more swear word uttered, the first effort I dropped it which lead to me having to remove the tool tray (not so easy with the car-pet and rear plate pulled back) after that I placed a rag under the area which was well worth it as I managed to drop it a couple of times. Then it was time to get the nut started on the thread, I placed some gaffer tape over the top of the bolt to stop it being pushed out while trying to get the nut and a spring washer on, this was all done from the spare wheel side, the rag proved it’s worth again as I dropped the nut a few times but did manage to lose a couple of spring washers which will no doubt rattle from their hiding place in due course. Once the nut was started on the thread the actual tightening was fairly straightforward, the C spanner was fitted on the bolt head from the wheel side but held in position from the back, the nut was tightened up with the hinged ratchet spanner from the wheel side with the held of my neighbour again. Replacement onto the back of the seat and the forward mount mount were straightforward and without incident. The removal and replacement of a seatbelt in a 2009 Morgan is really quite a simple job it’s the awkwardness of it that makes it diffi-cult but it is doable with a little help and a few blasphemies along the way. Brian Graham

TWO USEFUL SPANNERS AND ONE HOME MADE THAT WAS SEMI SUCCESSFUL FOR THE INITIAL SLACKENING.

Mogging about 2009 - 2012. In December 2019 our wonderful Mohair hood finally disintegrated and, after contacting a

few suppliers, we took MOG72P down to Beamish just before Christmas for new hood and

tonneau to be made and fitted. I use the tonneau a lot (French for 1 tonne of water). Once

we had collected the car on 29th January 2020 the drive home was punctuated with, “Ah

let’s go to...’’ or, ‘‘Let’s do...” and so on.

Amongst these interjections were plans to visit the Anthony Gormley statue at Saddell Bay

on the Torrisdale Castle Estate, stay at the new Kingshouse on Rannoch Moor and carry

out a tour of Telford bridges in Scotland. As you will appreciate none of these outings have

yet taken place but looking through the photographic archives brought back a lot of fond

and treasured memories.

The first thing I happened upon was a lone adventure for Sue and I in 2009 with a trip to

Carlisle Airport (yes it does have an airport!) to witness Eddie Stobart donate a small aero-

plane to a charity called Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF specialises in providing essential

medical supplies to remote areas in places such as Madagascar and the Philippines. We

met in the main airport arrivals(!), it was quite wet as it was in the middle of the Lake Dis-

trict floods that took place in November of that year and we were offered a short flight

around the Lake District.

We were just about to start going out towards the plane when 4 Range Rovers hurtled

across the airfield and a bunch of plain clothes policemen appeared and informed us that

we were to remain in the arrivals hut until given permission to leave. It turned out that

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was about to land in an RAF plane and would then be

whisked off by helicopter to view the state of the Lake District floods. Suddenly there were

helicopters everywhere and

it was quite exciting. They

weren’t long, probably

about 20 mins, then we

nipped across the tarmac

and had our very bumpy but

quite exhilarating flight over

towards Blencathra and

back over Great Mell Fell.

Afterwards the powers that

be allowed me to take the

Morgan onto the apron to

get a photo with the plane.

Lakeland Floods

Mog Way West in 2010 meant the

Mog crew all gathered at a

“Fellowship Hotel” in North Balla-

chulish which had the most spec-

tacular view of the Pap of Glencoe

from its front lawn. The weather

on return was again lovely and we

managed to divert round Loch Eilt

and get one or two lovely vistas of

the loch as the sun descended. Sue

and I arrived after visiting our

daughter who was living at the time in a tiny remote cottage called “Ranochan” near Glen-

finnan. It is small, but is shown on just about every road map on the north side of the A830

on the way to Mallaig because there is nothing else there. The weather on the first day was

pretty good and Brian Hopkins lead a mad

dash (we followed relatively sedately) all

the way to the lighthouse at Adnamur-

chan with great views out to Eigg and

Muck with Rhum behind Eigg from here.

The weather on return was again lovely

and we managed to divert around Loch

Eilt and get one or two lovely vistas of the

loch as the sun descended

About one year later, in November 2011,

we set off very early from Livingston, circa 5.00am and stopped for breakfast just outside

Inverness on our way to the Old Inn at Gairloch. The trip from Inverness through

Achnashellach to Gairloch has to one of the greatest Morgan roads in the UK. Once you

pass Garve, the European funded highway is wide, smooth and has long open bends con-

nected by long straights with great visibility. This section ends at the start of Glen Docherty

with the long descent to Kinlochewe, but it is still a fabulous road down and through Kinlo-

chewe (blink and you’ll miss it)

all the way beside Loch Maree

to Gairloch. We arrived at the

Old Inn a little earlier than we

expected, but were well re-

ceived and thoroughly enjoyed

our stay at the hotel.

Glen Docherty

Mog and Eigg

View from the Fellowship Hotel

The weather over the 3

days was pretty good,

but we learned again

that the real problem

with going hill walking

in the Morgan is, after

a wet day in the hills,

no one is nimble or

flexible enough to be

able to change com-

pletely inside the car.

Our solution to this has been to try to choose hotels or caravans from which you can begin

the walk without driving, but this doesn’t always work out. The Old Inn was good in this re-

spect as the drive from there through Gairloch to Tollie Farm was only about 15 mins so we

could just drive back wet if required. In the event, the weather was kind and I would strong-

ly recommend the walk from Tollie Farm over the pass towards Slattadale. However, once

you reach the bealach and can see all the way down Loch Maree, I would suggest you go no

further or on down but explore the peaks adjacent to the path. This area at the summit of

the pass is very quiet an unfrequented. Going further on towards Slattadale just takes you

down into a wet forest so after completing our exploration we just returned to the car park

on the main road

above the Farm.

The next day was

great too and the

drive up to Mellon

Charles produced

some wonderful

views across Loch

Ewe to the Torridon

Hills before we

parked at the Perfume Studio. From here we walked over to Sluggan Bay as Skuggan has no

direct arterial road access and there is only one building there, a ruined cottage. The bay

was apparently a favourite with the Royal family, as when travelling in the Royal yacht up

the west coast, they used to anchor off Sluggan Bay and take the tender in to the beach for

picnics.

Head of Loch Maree

The Hills from Mellon Charles

A 2012 Jockmog trip to the My-

reton Motor Museum near

Gullane was followed by a lunch

at the Craigielaw Golf Club. The

museum itself was the highlight

of the trip and whilst there were

many interesting vehicles, two

things stand out in my memory.

One was an article about a side-

ways bike built by an Irishman

called Michael Killian. This some-

what strange looking machine

was built with pedals at 90 de-

grees to the direction of travel and both the front and rear wheels were steerable. Appar-

ently the comparison between the sideways bike and a normal bike is likened to the differ-

ence between snow boarding and skiing, sideways being snowboarding. I have done snow-

boarding and skiing, but not ever having ridden a sideways bike, I can make no comment

as to the reality of this analogy.

Having just found it again this week, I sent it off the bike photo to the usual communica-

tion suspects and, because of the date, I was accused of playing an April Fool on people. A

very little further research produced this website

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0r2vYjo3SY

which is hysterical with the man himself riding around Amsterdam.

The other interesting recollection was a small electric car called a “Scamp”. It was built in

1965 with range of approximately 30 miles but it didn’t last very long as it not only had

battery problems but also failed the basic MIRA structural tests and so the project was dis-

continued in 1967. I believe that

the name “Scamp” comes from

Scottish Aviation Mobile Project

as it emanated from Scottish

Aviation in Prestwick.

Bruce Davies (hiding at home)

Across

Across 1. TURNS ROTARY MOVEMENT INTO RECIPROCAL (3) 4. WHERE FIRST MORGAN WAS LAUNCHED (7) 5. CAR FOR MUNROS (6) 8. WATCH OUT FOR THIS, ROADSTER DRIVERS (5,4) 14. MAIN DRIVE COMPONENT UNIVERSALLY CONNECTED (8) 15. CHEEKY SCOTTISH CAR (3) 17. MORGAN FOR A WET DAY (4,4,4) 18. KING PINS MUST BE (7) 19. BRITISH HOME OF THE BUGATTI (8) 20. MADE COBS (6) 22. THIS HONDA BECAME ONE IN ITS LIFETIME (1,6) 24. TALBOT THAT'S NEARLY OUT OF SIGHT (6) 25. TELEPHONE OR BENTLEY (6)

My Cars

As you can see, my fascination with cars started from an early age. The Morris Eight shown was converted to a “shooting break” by my father be-cause the rear portion of the bodywork had rotted away. The braking ability was to much the same standard and on one memorable occasion while driving north, a decision had to be taken regarding whether the car would stop at the end of the deck on the Ballachulish ferry, or whether it would be safer to take the long detour round Loch Leven – we took the detour! This memory prompted me to think about the cars we have owned so I decided to compile a list in alphabetical rather than chronological order. Ownership has spanned 51 years on 3 continents and 1 sub-continent. It features engines of 2, 3,4,5,6 and 8 cylinders, FWD, RWD, and 4-wheel drive, manual, automatic, continuously variable and double clutch transmissions, petrol, diesel and hybrid power sources.

Down 2. TYRE LADY (4) 3. ADLER MADE FOR THE FOREIGN OFFICE (8) 6. FAMOUS FOR THE QUARTIC STEERING WHEEL (7) 7. FOUND IN CARB AND ON FISHING LINE (5) 9. RILEY TO GET YOU HOME (10) 10. BOND CAR (5,6) 11. BEFORE THE B (3) 12. SWISS SUNBEAM (6) 13. CRISP COMPONENT MAKER (6) 16. STAR FROM VAUXHALL (5) 21. SHOULD BE CHECKED WHEN FITTING NEW TYRES (7) 23. PRECIOUS BREAKDOWN SERVICE (3)

Auto Union DKW 3=6 Sonderklasse Coupe, Alfa Romeo Giulia Super, Alfa Romeo Alfasud TI, Audi A100 Avant, Audi A4 TDI Quattro, Audi A1 Sportback, Austin Maestro HLE. BMW 2002 Lux, BMW 328 Touring. Citroen 2 CV, Citroen BX19 RD, Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS. Dodge Omni Fiat 124 ST, Ford Explorer, Ford Expedition. Honda Civic Sedan x2, Honda Accord Executive, Honda Civic Type R x2. Jowett Javelin x2, Jaguar XJ6 3.4 Series 3, Jaguar XJ40 4.0, Jaguar XJ6 3.2 Sport. Lancia Beta HPE 1.6, Lotus Elise S2 1.8, Lexus IS300h x2, Lexus NX300h. Mazda MX5 x2 Mercedes Benz A Class, Mercedes Benz C Class Coupe, Mercedes Benz E 220D, Mercedes Benz CLK 220CDI. MG Midget, MGB. Morris Minor 1000, Morgan 4/4 Lowline, Morgan Roadster x5, Morgan 4/4 Aero Racing Sport, Morgan 4/4 4-Seater, Morgan 4/4 Sigma, Mini Cooper. Nissan 370Z Opel Kadett City. Porsche 944 S2 Cab., Porsche 964 C4, Porsche 993 C2, Porsche Boxster S x2, Por-sche 996 c2 x2, Porsche 997 C2, Porsche Carrera 3.2, Porsche 924, Porsche Box-ster 981. Renault 4CV, Renault 4, Renault 8S, Rover 2600 SD1. Sunbeam Imp Sport, Sunbeam Rapier, Saab 96 V4, Saab 99 x2, Subaru BRZ, Sub-aru WRX Triumph 2000 Estate. Volkswagen Beetle (aircooled) x4, Golf, Golf TDI130, Golf R32, Passat CC In addition, I have been blessed (or cursed in some cases) with several company cars as follows Audi A6 2.7 Turbo, Audi A6 Quattro 3.0. Buick Century LTD, Buick Park Avenue. Ford Crown Victoria. Nissan Cefiro. Oldsmobile 88. Peugeot 504 Break, Peugeot 505 x2, Standard 2000 (the worst car in the world at the time!) Toyota Crown. I have noticed that there are a number of gaps in the alphabet, not to mention +4, +6, and +8 – so many gaps, so little time! Donald Macdonald

And Finally:

Brian’s mouse experience reminded me of this cartoon from last year in celebration of the Orkney trip.