We have to be honest; today was fairly dull.
Once we had woken everyone at the Travelodge up early – 7:30am – by setting off the Carina’s alarm (sorry! Now realise that unlocking the boot with the key does not disarm the system) we set off down the A1 to the A1M to the M1 to the M42 to the M40 to the M25… you get the picture.
It was dual carriageway or motorway for the whole 400 odd miles and the car just loves cruising along the motorway. It should be no surprise for it was designed and sold in the boom time of the UK company car/fleet market, its main purpose in life being to convey reps rapidly up and down the highways of Britain. Today, on familiar roads in broad daylight, our sole task became watching the hours and miles countdown to the finish at Brooklands.
We're here!! Its been a long 1436 miles but we've made it completely intact!
We think we were first to arrive for it was only after some time posing the car for some snaps on the famous banking that we spotted any of the others. There were no prizes for being first, this was emphatically not a race, but being early did allow us to have a wander around the museum before the formality of the closing laps and prize giving.
On the banking at Brooklands
I was happy to watch Christian drive the course, a mature, magnanimous gesture made less praiseworthy when I confess to using the opportunity to get myself a nice mug of tea.
LINTO laps for laughs
Parade laps over, we gathered to hear that fellow PR teams from Hyundai and Honda had won the prizes for best livery and Twittering during the event. Well deserved in both cases – the Honda guys even went swimming at John O’Groats – and once hands were shaken we made a swift exit to try and miss the worst of the rush hour traffic.
Of course, the real end of the story is next week when the cars go for auction. At just £100 purchase price our old Carina has a bit of a head start over some of the others in making a profit. Let’s see how it goes.
