Another high profile outing, and this time one much closer to home. In fact, I have been looking forward to this show since last year, when I walked along to look at everything. Obviously being my closest car show, as soon as online registration was open I signed myself and my 360 up (although not for the concours, as my patience for immaculate cleaning is rather low—especially with a car I’d rather drive and not just look at). A whole day, looking at some absolute classics, alongside my modern-ish Ferrari: perfect!
Before the Uxbridge Charity AutoShow, I had to collect my Ferrari 360 from its usual resting place at Slade’s Garage. On my previous day trip I had noticed a couple of issues, so I have had their technicians take a look: first at the reoccurrence of the engine cover opening whilst bumping around town, and secondly at a rattle coming from within the passenger door. When I dropped her off we discussed the engine cover and agreed that the best solution was the simplest: a couple of extra washers between the lid and the clasp just to increase the distance and keep the rubber stoppers from causing it not to close properly. The door rattle is just something that slowly developed and I had been trying to ignore—as all cars I’ve driven have some sort of rattle, especially the older they get—but when I emailed to let the guys at Slade’s know I was taking my 360 out, I mentioned it just to see if they could find something obvious that was loose.
Unfortunately there was only a limited amount of success with the fixes this time… The noise from the passengers door has been taken care of—it was part of the hinge that just needed greasing; the engine cover still seems to shake loose, which happened after leaving the showroom, whilst on a lovely afternoon drive in the sun last Saturday*; finally the handbrake: not tightened at all, as I discovered when I got in my 360, tried to turn the ignition and found her in gear. As soon as I took her out of gear, despite the handbrake being on fully we started rolling backwards on their shallow forecourt! However I might be partly to blame for this, as when I emailed Slade’s earlier in the week I failed to re-mention it when asked if there was anything else that needed looking at. When I drop her off next week I’ll remember to have a list written out that I can leave for their technician. (No harm, no foul.)
So on to the main event of the weekend: the Uxbridge Charity Autoshow. Despite the weather forecast predicting rain for the entire day, I awoke to find the clouds parting, and by the time I had readied myself and my Ferrari, the sun was starting to peak through. Keeping it slow, I made my way to the show-ground (so as to limit the spray from the road), and after doing two laps of the field—because I was looking out of the wrong window—I eventually found the area allocated to cars since 1970. And that was pretty much that; I wondered around looking at everybody else arriving, and once the gates opened to the general public, armed with my camera, I entered tourist mode and set off to capture and record what I thought was interesting.
* Seems it’s back to the drawing board, as the latch does clasp when cold but doesn’t once the engine has heated everything up—likely caused by the expansion due to heat—though despite being hot it does come loose. (If you have any suggestions, please email me and we’ll see if we can hopefully solve this mystery.)
