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- Created on Monday, 26 June 2006 15:56
The Italian French Job
After saying goodbye to all at the Z Magnette Day, we headed to France for the European Event of the year. The car loaded as always with camping gear in the spacious boot, two kids on the backseat and my wife as navigator left of me.
It still was a very hot summerday, therefore we chose to take as few motorway as possible and enjoy driving in the "airsmoothed style" on small roads.
We passed Saarbrücken and crossed the border to France. Nowadays only signs show you that you cross the border as there are no posts anymore inside the EU.
Some terrific roadsigns around Nancy allowed us to see the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of town as well as some poorer areas (this must be where they burned some cars a few weeks ago...) and it took us quite a while to getback to the motorway.
But anyhow we managed to reach our first campsite. Punctually, when we started to buid up our tent it started raining... But for an experienced camper it's more important that the tent is dry when folding it together. Well, the next day the sun was shining again.
At 9 o'clock everything was tucked away and the engine roared again. Destination Clermont-Ferrand. Everything went fine except the horrible traffic around Clermont-Ferrand. The needle of the temperature gauge moved far to the right. Too far I guessed, but no choice to stop anywhere or move faster to get the engine cooled down. But the car ran smooth and it seemed as if nothing happened to the engine.
At Clermont-Ferrand we met with some other MG-friends and the Eades with their Varitone. We planned this trip a long time ago, but Malcolm's postion in the MG club forced him to be in Silverstone rather than at the Magnette Day. So we only could meet at Clermont-Ferrand.
The French club had organised some scenic routes prior to the event, but we preferred to do our own trips and explore the area on our own. We had some nice picnics with cheese, baguette and red wine and small old villages around. The mood was too good when it happened: after stopping at a t-junction my Magnette refused to accelerate. It was like running on three cylinders. I stopped beside the road and opened the bonnet. First check: fuel. The chambers were full. Second check: spark plugs. Visible check: ok, but let's check whether there's a spark. I held the spark on the cylinder head while my friend started the engine. A large fontaine of liuid came out of the open plug hole straight into my face. This gave me the opportunity to smell and taste and find out that it wasn't fuel but water! We all know that water in the combustion chamber is not only counterproductive more even it's a big fault.
As we where somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Malcolm made an advance guard to see if there was any garage nearby. Some minutes later my Magnette was hooked on his Magnette to tow me away. The emergency line of the French MG club gave us the address of a M.G. garage 50 miles away. Malcolm headed off to buy a new cylinder head gasket, while I started to dismantle the engine. This is when you are happy that you have done it several times before at home. After a while Malcolm arrived with a new gasket. Imagine the owner of the garage was restoring a - Magnette! All we could do during assembling was hoping that the head was still ok. But luck was on my side. Just in time when a heavy summer shower started the engine roared as before. The day was reviewed with a small dinner. This is how tales for the coming events are made...
From then on everything went very smooth and MY 57 including the occupants enjoyed a wonderful time around the Massif Central: nice roads around the Gorge du Tarn and a trip to the worlds highest bridge at Millau were the highlights.
The way back was marked by some wine tasting in Burgundy and on the next day a visit to Verdun, a bloody setting during WW I.
But before we headed home we had to fulfill our promise and make a short visit to Armand, a kind Magnette owner in Luxembourg.
by GünterGraskampGermany