Longest Drive Ever! (so far)

At the weekend we decided to embark on a 320 mile round trip over two days, 2 1/2 hours and 140 miles each way (plus some extra local mileage at our destination) which is by far the longest journey we've done in the cobra so far. It took about half an hour to settle down and stop tensing up and desperately trying to work out what every small sound was - e.g. driving over a dry twig which snapped so loudly we could hear it over the exhaust made me nearly poo myself that something had fallen off!


We waited and waited for it to stop raining and eventually set off with very wet road. Naomi was brave and drove the first bit, flooring it on a slip road to join traffic was interesting - "slip" road is definitely the right term! The fuel gauge had me worried too, It's never been completely full apart from the IVA and I had forgotten that it doesn't drop in a linear fashion. Full to 1/2 is only about 20 litres so that was gobbled up in the first 70 miles and I was getting quite worried but then the needle barely moved for the next 50 miles. Range on a full tank I reckon is about 240 miles but that's pushing it a bit unless you know exactly where the petrol stations are!

Got into the swing of things but 2 hours on the motorway at 70mph must be reaching anyone's limit of fun in a cobra. We were togged up with ear plugs, hats gloves etc. We swapped drivers halfway but I was definitely ready to jump out and have a cup of tea by the end. Sunday morning was fun though, visited a number of friends and family and gave them all a go in it. I was especially pleased to go for a drive with my grandad who was an AA man for about 40 years and has been in the motor trade all his life. For him to say "not bad" was practically the highlight of my life so far. He nodded in approval as we thumped through the villages in 5th gear 30mph, 900rpm, then did the classic muscle car trick of 0 to a nice round number entirely in top gear.Rest of the journey home was ok. Slow traffic on the A1 southbound in the evening and we were crawling at walking pace for about half an hour, car was fine, fan working well and was actually quite pleasant with the heat wafting up from the footwells to combat the cold as it got dark. MPG for whole weekend was about 17, I reckon I can get a little more out, maybe 18 or 19 but not that bad really considering almost 40 miles or so were "demonstration" miles. The whole journey used about 150-200ml of oil but I know I've got a small leak from just behind the dizzy which is on my winter list to sort out so wasn't really concerned by that, everything is nicely rust proofed by oil now!
Just got to clean it all up and do a few cursory checks: header bolts need snugging down again as I could hear it chattering towards the end of the trip and I suspect the tracking is slightly off after catching a massive pothole.