Choke!

I realised last night that the last time I drove the car was on Christmas Eve when I drove a mate to work. I normally cycle to work and was fed up of being battered by wind and frozen to death so I decided to go to work in the Cobra today. I realise that "being battered by wind and frozen to death" also applies to a car with no roof and no heater to speak of but still, a change is as good as a rest, so they say.

I've left it stood for more than a month before and its started immediately with the normal procedure, one long pump of the throttle, then hold the throttle halfway and turn it over. This morning though, it absolutely refused to start. I could get it to splutter holding the throttle fully open but nothing could coax it into life. Eventually I had to admit defeat and use the choke.

There is no choke cable fitted and I've never had to use it before but it was -4°C in the garage and I've never tried to start it from as cold as that. I think the coldest I've used it is probably +3 or +4°C. The choke is wired fully open with some reasonably stiff garden wire so I got some pliers and bent it so the choke was closed. The car then started immediately, and I mean I had barely touched the key and it was alive. I left it for 20 seconds or so and it was idling on its own so opened the choke again, locked it off and jumped in quickly before it died (no fast idle). The car was then happy, used it at lunch time to take a colleague out for a quick spin, and it also started first time coming home even thought it was -1°C.

I don't know why I'm constantly amazed that it works, hundreds of millions of other cars around the world start every day but it still surprises me that a car we built ourselves works in everything the British weather can throw at it.

Driving was a different matter. I've driven in rain, damp and fairly cold but never below zero before. Man alive! It's twitchy round the corners! even pulling away at a T-junction, lift the clutch with no throttle and it slides sideways. I knew it would be a bit sketchy but it was absolutely ridiculous. At lunch with my colleague in the car I picked the driest, straightest piece of road I could find and gently squeezed the throttle in 3rd gear from 1500 rpm. It was fairly controllable until the cam really comes on at about 3000rpm and the back end lit up.. Luckily my passenger is a veteran of Ariel Atoms and similar so he wasn't too worried. Eventually I got the hang of it, if you know its going to step out then you can be ready for it and to be honest, the car pretty much sorts itself out and makes you appear a much better driver than you are.

At junctions and roundabouts, there's something about the De Dion rear end that's very forgiving and breaks away nice and gentle at low speeds (i.e. below 25mph or so). Not unsurprisingly I don't tend to stab the throttle like a madman in the middle of a corner on a public road going at any reasonable pace so I can't describe what its like at higher speeds.

On the way home I slipped into my familiar paranoid mode and thought the steering felt a bit vague so tomorrow morning I might just jack it up and have a poke underneath but I expect its just the bumpy road surface and the fact I haven't driven it for a while so I'm not used to it.