Morris Minor Owners Club

I have just signed up to MOT 2018, having not been since pre-prog days in the mid 1980's. Strangely I am more nervous about taking my restored Minor to France than I was when it was a jumble of welded plates back then.

In those days, we all went on the same ferry and the sight of many minors on the quad at Dover was one to behold. These days one has to book one's own passage. I would be grateful for details of anyone else going and routes / crossings as we all used to go in small convoys as there is safety in numbers for spares and breakdown purposes.

If anyone is going and they are willing to have me tag on to a convoy, I can bring some skills such as fluent french and its of contacts in both Gendarmerie and Police Nationale.

Please PM me or dadmjsdm@aol.com

Happy minor motoring

I was just looking at the MOT site as a coincidence to see where it was taking place. Alas, a bit too far for me. Perhaps one day the tour will visit my part of the world again.............

It's a real shame you're not coming Firedrake.
For anyone worried about breakdowns whilst at the MOT site : don't worry! The whole MOT crew would as usual spring into action, plus you have our home workshop just up the road and we have access to welding, and there's a good local cheap tyre & tube repairer.

I thought Firedrake said he WAS coming (albeit with some trepidation!).
Our story is similar, having taken our Series 2 to the French Riviera five times in the (pre MOT) 1970's. There followed a long lay up, before a 2012-2013 restoration. We've since done the last five MOTs.
On all these trips, we've only ever encountered a total of twenty Minors actually en route.
Convoys can be a bit restricting, with duplicated stops for filling up (food and fuel) and comfort breaks. Plus there's the different cruising speeds and hill-climbing abilities. But rest assured, if you've broken down, the next (if any!) passing Minor will stop and help. To this end the Dorset branch last year produced a small double sided (red/green) plaque you could stick on the back of your car to indicate if you were stopped in distress, or just resting. Check their website to see of they are still producing them.
The MOT handbook has advice on what to do in the event of a problem, including contact numbers.
And the bottom line is that most classic car insurance policies include European recovery and repatriation.
Enjoy the trip, and see you there.
Mike and Sue

No, Firedrake has withdrawn his application. Great shame , he was on the first one and other early ones too and we were looking forward to meeting up again.

Yes, it's always a shame when someone drops out of the Minors On Tour trip - we want to encourage everyone possible to come and enjoy the event, and to that end I'm told we have near record entries for this time of the year, including sixteen first-timers . All from the MMOC so far, so hopefully a good number more to come too once the AMMF submit their figures. Hopefully firedrake might have a change of heart and come anyway.

Mike/Sue, yeah convoys can be tricky, and the more people you have in one the more fraught with potential to go wrong, but if the numbers are small then it can add to the fun. Personally I don't use the autoroutes because one of the cars I travel with doesn't like to cruise much above 50mph, so the 'gains' of using the fast roads are minimal. I've also been in travel groups before where cars wouldn't attend if they didn't have the comfort blanket of travelling in convoy! For anyone that the above does resonate with, at the request of the MOT Organisers Helen & Pete, and Chris & Helen, we now have a basic messageboard for people to exchange details to see if there's someone they could travel with. It's accessible from the Minors On Tour website, at http://minors-on-tour.org.uk/.

And if you remember to bring your samples, I promise not to give you car-washing duties as punishment!!!

Don't be afraid of driving your Moggies on French autoroutes, especially the A20 down to Cahors (which many of you can pick up just north of Orleans if you're coming via Chartres from le Havre, Caen or Dieppe). It's lightly trafficked and an easy drive, and much is toll-free.

Horses for courses I guess, but even when I'm driving in company with quicker Minors I don't find the autoroutes that beneficial. A Minors fuel tank is such that you can't usually carry sufficient for your complete journey, so you have to refuel at the Aires because by the time you've come off the autoroute and gone to a Carrefour or whatever and then got back on the motorway, any time you'd saved has been wiped out. And the cost of fuel on the autoroute is absolutely eye-watering compared to the price in towns. That, coupled with the tolls (and the inconvenience of paying them when you don't have a passenger and the booth is on the 'wrong' side of the car), and the monotony of the bland and featureless autoroutes as compared to the enjoyment of the towns on N roads, means that I usually travel on the slower roads unless I'm in a particular hurry. I'm sure Mary, being Mary, has an alternative viewpoint to put forward

I'm going to disappoint anybody who was looking forward to a forum spat. I have no intention of arguing with anyone about which is the best way from a to b in a Minor. It would be too much like my dear late father in law contesting whether a piece of wood was about six inches or just over 15 centimetres long!

If anybody would like individual advice about driving in France or has a question about a particular route down to MOT I suggest that they email or pm me.

I think you may have missed the

Admin wrote:Horses for courses I guess...

bit, Mary - we were merely discussing different points of view, no "spats" necessary .

Watch channel 5's 'Celebrity 5 go Barging' on Friday nights (see the first episode shown on Feb 2nd on catch-up) to give yourselves a preview of the local scenery you'll find on the trip!

If you're coming on MOT and staying on the campsite please contact Helen Cosslett if you wish to be sited near friends. This applies to mobile homes and to camping pitches.
The campsite will do their best to put you together, but it also depends on the physical siting of different types of accommodation and pitches. Chris and I will be helping them, as we are the local contacts living just up the road. Promising to bring me a bottle or two of gluten-free beer (can't get it here) may me get you the right place!

Hang on. Isn't this essentially the same post as the OP's? But now under a pseudo-plume, or a nom de nym?

It is. It's been reported, as it was posted on a number of different threads yesterday. Admin have now removed it.