Starter for ten

I have always wanted a Land Rover. There was go good reason to have one when I lived in the city of Manchester. Old landies are not city cars. Since we have been living in semi-rural South Derbyshire and I have reason to go off-road. The time had come to fulfil a long held ambition. I spent about six months searching the Internet for the right land rover. I did not have the money to buy a fully restored machine, to be honest that is not what I wanted, so the hunt was on for one that had an MOT and was not restored. That was a very long search. The ones I came across that did not have an MOT were branded "projects". i.e. they were in bits and/or did not run. I not have the time or inclination for a project. Eventually I found a likely candidate in rural garage in Shropshire.

I had a chat with the bloke on the phone and went over to see it. It was not the prettiest thing but then it was the right money, even cheap, it started on the key and it ran without sounding like a bag of spanners. The test drive showed it changed gear and stopped reasonably well. Drum brakes all round and weighing in at just over two ton it was never going to stop on a dime. It was a bit tatty but it had a 12 month MOT which meant I could run it for a year before giving me time to figure out what was needed for the next MOT, which it would surely fail. We agreed a price and arranged to pick it up and hand over the cash at the weekend.

My daughter decided to come for the adventure. My wife dropped us at the train station in Burton. We bagged the train to Birmingham and then to Shrewsbury. It was fairly cheap on the train as we were travelling out of peak hours. My father in law, who just happens live in Shrewsbury, picked us up and drove us the twenty miles to the garage in the little village right on the Welsh border. The motor was MOT'd as promised and ready to go. Having done the legals and parted with the cash we jumped in and set off in search of a petrol station.