Over this last weekend, I've been down in the Cotswolds in the Morris Minor for Pre-War Prescott 2021. It's an annual event (cancelled last year for obvious reasons) at Prescott Hillclimb, home to The Bugatti Trust and Bugatti Owners Club, and organised by the Vintage (Morris) Minor Register (VMR) one of two organisations/clubs for the 1928-1934 Minor. Even though the VMR is the organising club, it's open to all pre-1940 vehicles. I had three climbs of the hill booked, but as I was in sight of the Finish line on my second run there appeared to be lots of 'smoke' entering the cabin through the opening for the gearbox, along with a smell that both I and my friend thought was burning clutch. I crossed the line and made my way down the return road to the paddock and as I was reversing back into my space there was suddenly lots of steam exiting the engine compartment through the louvres on the off-side of the bonnet. I quickly jumped out and on lifting the bonnet the problem was very obvious... The rear core plug on the cylinder head had completely disappeared!!! There was just a big round hole where it had been. A quick run around the paddock was rewarded with the purchase of a brand new plug and it was fitted there and then. The engine was left to cool right down for several hours and then I refilled the radiator. Annoyingly, the plug failed to seal fully. Thankfully a chap came past and offered to head back to his car to get some JB Weld out of the boot. That was applied and once the paddock had mostly emptied we pushed/free-wheeled the Minor round to the orchard where we were camping over the weekend. It was left empty of coolant overnight and at 7am on Sunday, with the Cotswolds Tour/Navigation just two hours away, I refilled the radiator and success!! The tent was quickly packed away and off we went on the 2 1/2 mile drive to The Royal Oak at Gretton for the start of the Tour. Some 70-odd miles later that was completed without incident and it was time to head home via Leominster (where I started from on Friday morning) to drop my friend and navigator home, then home to Worcester in the dark. The 6v lighting was good enough to keep up a brisk 40mph or so (car maxes out at around 50mph). From Friday to Sunday the little Morris did about 240-250 miles.

Oh, and as I managed to complete the Sunday Tour after the failure the day before, I was awarded The Sports and Vintage Motors Cup for 2021. I was genuinely shocked by that. Definitely didn't see it coming. I did thank the guys who helped me when I was handed the cup.

Awesome. And there's a lot to be said for cars that are easy to push isn't there..

The little (less than 10ft long) Minor was back on the Queen's Highway on Wednesday afternoon. We pootled down to the Cotswolds again, up Fish Hill past Broadway Tower, and down to Burford for lunch. From Burford it's only a short drive across the A40 to Carterton where the Morris spent its first years as a brand new car in the early-1930s. I had hoped to jump out and take a snap at the location of 'Mangapapa Fram', which no longer exists since the area was heavily redeveloped after the war due to the very close RAF Brize Norton. Sadly the road has double yellows on both sides and is a busy route.
Today's journey was much shorter. We've pootled down to Madresfield Court near Malvern for the VSCC Driving Tests competition. A great day out looking at more pre-war motors.

GB Identifier is no longer valid abroad. Boris changes it to UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58734265

I thought he had bigger problems than this...

The GB ident has been in use since 1910. In that time there have been 20 previous Prime Ministers (4 were PMs on either side of another serving PM, so 25 sitting PMs) and none of them at any time thought it was necessary to make a change from GB to UK. The Boris government is a joke that's not remotely funny.

The difference between UK and GB is Northern Ireland.

So this is probably a brexit thing. Not something the other 20 PM's had to consider.

Now they have created the next problem. EU citizens have to have an expensive passport to enter GB. Before an ID-card was enough. That will help tourism and the needed truckers oming in...

It's that (NI) but also down to Boris being fixated by the term 'the United Kingdom'. He bangs on about it all the time. Whether it's in relation to Northern Ireland, Scotland/SNP, or the wider country. Sadly, the truth is that the country has never been so divided.

We have always required a passport to leave the UK (UK border control) and to re-enter (again, UK border control) as UK citizens born and bred. Madness really, seeing as we could then move freely within the EU's Schengen zone once in France, only to have to show our UK passports while sitting in the driver's seat of a UK-registered car and speaking with an obvious UK accent when returning to the UK. My passport expired at the start of 2020 and I've yet to renew it. It appears the Home Office/Border Agency has introduced a new rule that will require me (at my expense) to travel to Birmingham to be 'interviewed' by an official to ensure I am who I say I am!!* WTF?!?!

*And the authorities know more about me than I know about myself

@ Jonathan:
That is "The new normal".
Brace yourself for more stupidity !