OV9

Have a fantastic day. It doesn’t feel that long since I was close enough to go on meets which reached Suffolk. But it was late 2005 that I moved from St Albans.

Yeah, hope you all have a great time and the traffic is kind!

Watch out for slow moving tractors and mud on the road

Really good fun and enjoyable trip out, we ended up in The George in Cavendish which was pretty excellent. Shame Harry got held up, but I suspect we will do another one.

Filthy bitch.

Absolute pleasure gents, great to catch up. Looking forward to the next one.

That was an asbolute pleasure great to meet you all and have a good catchup, plus the cake and burger. It was absolutely perfect weather and I had a blast chucking the Ateca around the Essex/Suffolk lanes with the sunroof open.

Definitely up for another one, maybe summertime before school hols kick off?

Found a biker meet on the way home at Finchingfield, on the B1057 which is a great road for a drive too, it's in Essex so less of the 30mph zones too.

In fact the whole day was pretty perfect until I reached the north circular on the way home <fires up onthemarket.com to create a new search>

Turns out she was 3 not 2, so a bit more aware and into everything

Was looking forward to a decent drive just for the fun of it for a change. Hopefully I’ll be available for the next one!

Really great day. Perfect weather, great company (it is really 24 years Tim, since we last met?!), delicious cake and coffee, cool cycling themed venue, twisty roads, cracking lunch, easy traffic. Duncs' Elise sounds very lovely indeed at full bore through a tunnel - a stroke of lucky timing as he came up behind me on my way home and the tunnel was just ahead.

Aching a bit after 280 miles in the Fabia today, but not terribly. The last 280 miles in it were over the previous 6 months. Could have done with a cap on though as no sun visors = sun right in my eyes most of the way home. Even with sunglasses on it was quite intense.

Forgot to mention the cool convoy that went past me on the way up (I took the M11 up, a different route home). Black 73 plate Bentley, followed by black 24 plate Range Rover, black Volvo XC90 and Black Mercedes S500. All in very close proximity, very much looked like a personal protection squad as they dived off together towards Stansted.

Fabia goes well! Bet it's a hoot to drive.

The journey over on dual carriageways feeling a little tender wasn't pleasant, but after the coffee stop and a bit of convoy fun I was properly grinning and remembering why I love the little Lotus so much. Can't wait to put some miles on it this year.

Excellent to meet you all! And what a day we had for it, gorgeous sunshine across beautiful scenery and gorgeous villages.

For those wanting to follow the progress, after joining up at Maglia Rosso, we headed West across some challenging single track roads to Whepstead to pick up the B1066 and followed this South. Although punctuated by 30mph speed limits for villages this had some excellent fast and slow sweeping sections, although the roads often felt precariously narrow for my fat heavy Tesla. I was in pole position as my Sat Nav was deemed the best which was a new role for me and I was conscious of the considerably faster metal behind me! Jon’s rally spec Skoda and Duncan’s bright yellow Lizzy constant rear view mirror companions, only briefly lost to me after overtaking a reclined bicycle.

We broke West to meet up in Cavendish where the George did us a round of burgers and unusually shaped chips. After more chat, we bid farewells and set off in various directions. I uncovered the B1063, an excellent little B road that really opens up into fast flowing and well sighted as it gets towards Newmarket.

It was an excellent opportunity to meet up and also a timely reminder for me of some great roads right on my doorstep.

JonMad wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 8:34 pm Forgot to mention the cool convoy that went past me on the way up (I took the M11 up, a different route home). Black 73 plate Bentley, followed by black 24 plate Range Rover, black Volvo XC90 and Black Mercedes S500. All in very close proximity, very much looked like a personal protection squad as they dived off together towards Stansted.

Well Zelenskyy did head up to Sandringham to meet the king…

Wow I got sunburn yesterday and I'm happy about it too the winter has broken

That absolutely could have been Zelensky - The Volvo XC90 absoultely gives undercover police vibes.

Z got a helicopter to Sandringham, but there were plenty of other world leaders leaving

Sad I missed this

Any other pics (of the cars) other than Duncs' dirty undercarriage?

IanF wrote: Mon Mar 03, 2025 10:21 am Z got a helicopter to Sandringham, but there were plenty of other world leaders leaving

Looks like helicopter to the grounds then FFRR to the door. Not a bad way to travel

GG. wrote: Mon Mar 03, 2025 10:40 am Sad I missed this

Any other pics (of the cars) other than Duncs' dirty undercarriage?

I was very poor on the photo front, which is annoying because when I pulled into the coffee place the sunshine was really making the paint pop. Apart from getting to sit in the Fabia I didn't really have the chance to have a look at the other cars / bike much either (although I think I did get a better look at the Tesla last time). It was very much coffee/chat -> drive -> lunch/chat -> leave... maybe that's the benefit of the lack of amenities at the last meeting spot!

duncs500 wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 8:48 pm Fabia goes well! Bet it's a hoot to drive.

If it’s anything like when he had the 306 it’s not the car but the driver, he turns cars into Tripods

Dave!

I took this one when I got there but that’s it.

V8Granite wrote: Mon Mar 03, 2025 1:13 pm

duncs500 wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 8:48 pm Fabia goes well! Bet it's a hoot to drive.

If it’s anything like when he had the 306 it’s not the car but the driver, he turns cars into Tripods

Dave!

I've followed Jon enough times to know that! But it surprised me on the straights.

I had to extend my habit of turning up to a meet in the most underpowered car and razzing the shit out of it. The Fabia does take the punishment rather well.
Is it 'fun'? Tricky. On the twistier stuff it seems to turn in pretty well and it does put its power down ok. When you're 'on it' it lets you forget the massively horrible vibration that occurs whenever your off throttle between 2000-3500rpm (because you're normally outside that range). On the motorway it makes you wince each time that happens, which is a lot.

It doesn't pop a rear wheel as much as it used to. Since the adjustable gaz gold shocks on the rear failed an MOT and I replaced them with cheapo std Bilsteins, I lost the means to stiffen the rear. It'll still oversteer on an autosolo though, which is handy.

This is the only picture I took, featuring Duncan setting up his sat nav and a distant Gavin. It is not a good photo.