Some time ago, Alan and Lauris Hunt whipped up the enthusiasm of the SP 250 owning enthusiasts they knew and with the help of equally dedicated friends, organised a very successful Rally of primarily SP 250 cars at Braidwood in NSW.

At that rally your correspondent appeared in a Majestic Major and sailed past the open cars on the highway, not knowing that they had endured breakdowns and problems in reaching the Rally venue. Your correspondent expressed much surprise that these little cars had problems, as their performance made one forget their age. After all, they've always been a bit like your grandmother's youngest sister at Christmas family gatherings, you know, the one who smoked, told racy stories and had "a past".

That Rally was so successful that another was planned and it took place over the week end of 26 and 27 October 2002 at a town called Gloucester, on Bucketts Way, not far from Walcha and Taree. I had arranged to leave work early, and on the way had the sad duty to attend the funeral of Mary Barnes, along with other Daimler friends. John and Eve Hiscox were also coming for the week end and so we left the funeral together, they in the DH 27 and me in the Majestic Major.

It was a hot day and the DH had been running hot, but it behaved itself and I caught up with them after collecting Roger Giles (SP 250 car not out of dock with a few irritating problems). John had found a petrol leak in a pipe union and fixed that and we were on our way. Roger drove my car for a good distance and pronounced it most pleasant, plenty of power and surprisingly good steering (he hadn't expected power assistance).

We drove at a steady pace, not too fast so the DH could comfortably remain in the rear view mirror and only encountered one SP on the road, that of Stephen and Helen Figgis burbling by.

We arrived at our motel in Gloucester, having taken about 4 ˝ hours from Minchinbury to get there. It was a happy occasion, greeting enthusiasts we had not seen for a while, including Keith and Domenica Ashworth, who, along with two other cars had traveled from Victoria. Dinner was a lively affair with various activities to "break the ice" and get everyone talking at a great rate of knots.

The next day was the run day. Chris and Warren had set an interesting Observation Run around town before we drove on through some spectacular country towards Walcha, over a very hilly and beautiful section of road. The morning tea stop was at the top of the mountain and Chris and Warren had gone on ahead to prepare the venue, laughingly warning everyone to have plenty of water in their cars: "just in case".

I had three passengers in the Major, Roger, and Bruce and Pauline Perkins, SP 250 owners from Tamworth. Their car had had temperature gauge problems so they sensibly drove a modern through from Tamworth and welcomed the chance to sample the delights of the back seat of the Major on the trip that day.

The car was fine early in the piece, but upon encountering the hills seemed to lag in power somewhat, and expired about three quarters of the way up, happily at a stretch with a good view down into the valley beyond. Not so happily, it had got very hot, and surprise surprise what was coming out of the driver's side exhaust but steam and water!! A tisket a gasket: we all went: "Oh #@&*!!!"

We let the beast cool down, fielded enquiries from passers by about needing water or help, and asked our fellow Rally Attendees to let Chris and warren know and to see if by any chance anyone had any chem. weld with them as this had fixed the car three years ago and maybe would do so again.

I must mention that the last Daimler to pass us was the DH grinding its way up the mountain, it slowed, Eve wound the window down and John leaned over and shouted: "Sorry, can't stop, if I do I'm r$t s*@t!"

Needless to say the DH boiled about 500 metres further on: hope I wasn't to blame!!! He did get going soon after.

Once my car had cooled, with lookout from Ian Fletcher and Bruce Perkins I turned the car around on the mountain road and we coasted for another five or so kilometers before getting hot again and deciding to stop. I was worried, water was obviously flowing through the exhaust in a great cloud and I saw little prospect of getting back before dark with there being few houses between where we were and where we wanted to be.

Suddenly, roaring down the road was a TR6 compete with Michael Roche and bearing aloft a bottle of Chem Weld. A rescuing angel from above!!! Thank you Mike, I owe you.

We followed the instructions and poured in the Chem Weld with all the water we had left (even the contents of the thermos) and let the engine idle for 20 minutes. A fair bit of water was sloshing up out of the radiator but I reduced the throttle and all was well. Bruce had disappeared down the road with everything I had to carry water and spot on twenty minutes later reappeared, having been given a lift from some passing motorists with about 16 litres of water. Ten litres were swallowed by the car, and with the bonnet on the safety catch and the radiator cap only loosely put on, we drove carefully back into town, thanking the house holder where we had got the water and availing ourselves of the replacement for the ten litres poured into the car and another two poured in again. Roger drily commenting on the consumption at the rate of five litres per kilometer.

The steam had lessened and the car's temperature had dropped and had stayed stable at about 190 degrees or less.

We got back to town around 12.15 p.m. and after wiping all the clag off the duco that had accumulated while the water spurted out of the tank whilst the car was on high idle, waiting for the Chem Weld to work, we wandered down to town and had a spectacular lunch of fine Italian Pasta and Sauces at a café that happened to be the answer to one of the Observation Run questions.

Considering the possible disaster that had befallen my car, I was in good spirits, buoyed by the support from my fellow helpers and a few bottles of good wine!

The libations continued after a walk through town and back at the motel and later in the afternoon we were joined by the others, asking how the car was and telling us what a spectacular road they had driven on, in true SP 250 style, at speeds which are best left unpublished.

The presentation dinner that evening was a lot of fun, the activity for the night including the wonderful idea of each table being given a huge lump of Play Dough to make an SP 250 model from, I was robbed!!! and a fun auction of a stamp from the St Vincent Grenadine Islands bearing an SP 250 on it, in a frame, sold to Ron Fitzgerald with the proceeds going to a Charity in memory of Tony Ansell.

Needless to say, I received the "Hard Luck Prize" complete with much good natured ribbing about previous comments about unreliable Daimlers made by me and just retribution!

The following day after a photo shoot from a nearby road bridge of the cars, the others set off for Taree, a motorcycle museum and what I was told afterwards was a spectacular lunch at the home of Phillip and Dusty Walkom, local SP 250 owners and then home.

We were joined along the way by Robin Budge, a local who had just bought the ex Delaney Regency from Lorne in Victoria and showed off his car to us and Brian and June Braithwaite who joined the others in their lovely DB 18 for the lunch. Robin had received a phone call from a friend to say that he had just passed a car exactly like the Regency on the road and with a bit of detective work found out that we were in town and rang us at the motel at breakfast on Saturday morning. Robin and his wife had bought in the area and needed a second car and thought that the Daimler had much more presence than a more modern Japanese product and are very happy with their purchase.

I motored gently home and after a worried stop about 45 km from Gloucester to clean up water in the spark plug caps as the car was running very roughly with no power up any sort of hill, I proceeded without incident home, the temperature gauge behaving itself beautifully and the big car driving well. The Chem Weld had worked its wonders yet again!

Thank you to Alan and Lauris and their organizing committee, Mike for the Chem Weld: bless you! and to my passengers on the day for their unflagging good humour and support and everyone who stopped and who have rung since to make sure that I got home okay.

The Chem Weld Kid returns: Yee hah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Grant

Peter's Majestic Major may be viewed on the DLOC website

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