A very successful Display Day - even without Dame Zara

So, the Daimler Display Day I'd been doing so much work helping to organise went off pretty much without a hitch on Sunday. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but not too hot (even though I did get a very sunburnt neck!)

We had over 40 Daimler and Lanchester cars, and about a dozen 'visitors' (including a good showing of Rovers, a Triumph Dolomite Sprint, a Wolseley 6/110, V12 E-type, lovely late 60s Mercedes convertible, 1924 Buick, MG TC special ...) . There were also plenty of general public visitors wandering by, so I'd say well over 100 people attended.

Among the very special Daimlers were a 1936 Straight-eight limo with Edward VIII lineage; two DS-420s from the Carwood wedding fleet; the 2nd prototype Special Sports, owned by Keith Vaughan (bottom picture); an Empress; and a Conquest Roadster. There were also about 10 SP-250s, a strong turnout of V8 saloons, plenty of DB18 varieties and a fine smattering of Majestics, Majestic Majors and Regencies (well, at least one of each, and two Majors - that's a big showing for these big and now rare cars!)

Richard Bowen's Conquest Roadster (driven on the day by Tony Porter as Richard couldn't make it) won the People's Choice award (top picture); a recently restored pre-war Lanchester was Ladies' Choice and the DB18 register took out the Best Registry Display prize (abve, showing Peter Towns' Empress and Russ Monger's Consort).

Just a few photos here - but I've put the full album up on my Flickr account and Steven Rowlandson has posted his pictures here.

At the suspension doctor's

Dame Zara has been off the road for the past week, in an inelegant yet elevated position up on the hoist at Trutrack Suspension in North Melbourne.

Under the caring eye of Dr. Ralph, head suspension surgeon, she has undergone a number of (in)delicate procedures, all of which are beyond the skills, equipment and experience level I can muster at home.
At the front end, upper and lower wishbone bushes have been replaced, the steering linkages are all being renewed and everything else has been checked, adjusted and cleaned up. New Koni Classic shocks are to be fitted all 'round - the front ones hadn't been installed when I took these photos.

Ralph has also sourced a reconditioned brake servo from JagDaim (from whence many other parts have come - all those not supplied by dad and his mates in Canberra), so we will now stop better as well as going over bumps and around corners in an unruffled manner.

At the rear, both leaf springs have been re-set and re-bushed to cure sagging and creaking (which is how I feel most mornings). The Panhard rod and link arm bushes had all been replaced just before I bought the car last year, so they were OK.

Ralph has been impressed at how sound, straight and rot-free the underside of the car is - no hidden horrors have come to light! He's even offered to replace the weepy core plug hidden under the left-hand exhaust manifold while she's up on the hoist: mainly I suspect because he was sick of coolant dripping onto his nice clean floor.

Quite a few weeks transpired between the original inspection and quote and the beginning of work, and once things got underway last Tuesday, Display Day was imminent. We had hoped to have everything finished by the end of last week, but it wasn't to be so and Dame Zara spent the weekend in 'hospital' awaiting track rods, wheel alignment and a final fettling, which meant that she missed Display Day.

However, Dr. Ralph's latest diagnosis is that all will be finished by this Wednesday and that the driving experience will be entirely transformed.

I'd love to say 'will be entirely transformed or your money back,' as this process will be costing me a four-figure sum ... but I suspect Ralph's terms of trade are rather more pragmatic!

But Trutrack is a very professional setup, and they know from all sorts of cars old and new, as the Lancia Monte Carlo, modern Ferrari, '75 Camaro, 50's Caddy, assorted rallying Subarus, and other exotica parked in the clean workshop attest.

I expect that Dame Zara will be back to her best - quite possibly the best she's been for decades - within days. If I don't update, it's because I'm having too much fun driving around roundabouts!