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This blog is LIVE and the Hard Top Relay starts this morning at Church Square Autos in Shepperton at 10.30am !

The HTR is GOooooooooo!

Northampton standing by...........

Pick up and drop off arranged.

Five lights four lights three lights two lights one light..

and its 'GO GO GO' as Murray Walker would say!

All systems GO ! !

Are we recording our mileage so we have a grand total mileage covered at the end of the relay?

Good luck for the start today

11.00 a lovely sunny day and there off,the relay has started with Faz & Oli,heading to Brooklands where Tim & Liz will take over and travel the Mens Olympic cycling race course before handing it on again.Davek

Yes we are recording the mileage that each car does with the Hard Top, there is a log book going round with the Hard Top to record this......now for the first instalment .......

go gO GO !.........

The launch of the Hard Top Relay took place at Church Square Autos in Shepperton on the day that summer finally put in an appearance in the South East. Tim, LIz, David, Andrea, Oli, Faz, Jonathan and Steven all waved flags and popped party poppers to celebrate the beginning of our endeavour. Faz and Oli already had the Hard Top in place by the time I arrived, late as usual, and it was not too long before they were keen to get away to their luxury Spa afternoon at the Brooklands Hotel. David Koskela flagged them away and the Hard Top relay had begun .......



The group popping party poppers to launch the HTR in sunny Shepperton




Faz & Oli eager to set off to the Spa !



David flagging them away

It was a short trip to Brooklands, and I suspect that it may be one of the shortest legs of the entire journey around the UK. So 15 minutes later we were on the forecourt of teh Brooklands Hotel inside the remains of the great oval circuit and actually parked on the site of the Solomon Straight which runs through the lobby of the Hotel and is marked by stones.




Tim & Faz before the first Hard Top Handover in front of the Brooklands Hotel

So we were ready for the first handover of many from Faz's F to Tim's F with some curious hotel guests looking on !




Oli, Faz and Tim with the Hard Top removed at the Brooklands Hotel

JUST FOLLOW THE CYCLISTS.....

Then it was our turn but not before a sit down and a glass of iced coke and orange juice.It's hot and exhausting work driving the few miles to Weybridge from Shepperton and we wanted to be fresh, ready for the next section of the Hard Top's journey.


Tim & Liz raring to go ....but not before a little sit down and some refreshments!

This section would bring us immediately in to touch with one of the themes of the Hard Top Relay, to mark and support the London Olympics 2012. So it was off to Weybridge Station to pick up the southerly part of the Olympic Cycle Races which take place next weekend. There are plenty of yellow signs about now warning of the road closures and that if you are foolish enough to leave your car on the route it will be towed away!

From Weybridge we headed along the route past union jack festooned houses and Olympic flags hanging from lamp poles. Surrey certainly seems in the Olympic mood and it was great driving past them all and we could pretend that they were all out for the Hard Top Relay !
We headed through West Byfleet out to Pyford, Ripley, West Horsley then across the North Downs stopping for a great view back across North Surrey, that's a long straight steep climb for the cyclists and I don't envy them !


Plenty of Olympic flags along the route


More Banners strung across the roads


It's a long steep climb up on to the North Downs but there's a great view of Surrey from the top. Yellow Tow Zone board just behind the F, better not stay here too long!

We descended down to Shere and Gomshall and along to Dorking before heading for Box Hill. I thought we had actually joined in the cycle race at this point as the zig zag road up the hill was absolutley covered with racing cyclists, some getting up there faster than we were. At least all the speed bumps have been removed and the road resurfaced, so it was brilliant to drive up here for the first time in many years without getting bumped around ! There's lots of infrastructure being built up here and it looks as if they have gone in for it in a big way. No wonder though as the Mens race will actually go up Box Hill on a circuit no less than NINE times, I bet they're looking forward to that one.


Cyclists beat us to the top of Box Hill


The view from the top of Box HIll, Olympic Rings just out of sight !


But not anymore as here they are as seen from the garden of the Watermill Pub in Dorking, one of our favourite venues for South East evening meets

From Box Hill it was post haste to Westerham in Kent and the Grasshopper Pub. This was chosen as a handover point because it has a lot of relevance to the South East MGF Register being the first location that we ever held a South East meeting back in 2003. For our group this is all where it started and it was a great place to hand over the Hard Top to Darren who had driven all the way from Sevenoaks....er about 10 minutes up the road!


Tim and Darren about to perform the Handover Ceremony


The Hard Top being placed on Darren's TF ready for the next stage in the South East journey to Rochester.....

KING OF THE CASTLE

Hi all,

After an exhausting night at softly softly's (Jan's) barbeque and a great lunch with all of the crew we set off to meet Darren at Rochester castle

A very beuatiful sunny evening in a wonderful setting so a couple of pictures to show the hard top handover



hard top on darrens fantastic TF



getting prepared for the hand over

great background



making sure it wont come off



last check of catches



all in postition



and ready to leave for its trip to the east coast of kent thanks very much darren for meeting up and helping with the swap over
i will take the hard top on a short tour of some of our local attractions and will post some more pictures soon
then off to Worthing to meet up with Adam the dragon or otherwise known as Whizz

good luck to the rest of the people in line and lets try and raise as much as possible for a worthy cause

joe

The Hard Top has been in Kent for the last few days and will be completing its journey in the South East Region over the next couple of days. Joe in Ramsgate has been treating it to some of the sights along the Kent coast before passing it on to Adam from Worthing who in turn will pass it on to Rob & Elaine from Guildford. From there it will leave the South East region and head out to Rob Wheatman in Reading before heading to a handover at Thruxton on Saturday.

Keep watching here for all the latest updates and photos as the Hard Top Relay heads around the UK.

Here's a little something to keep us in the Relay mood whilst we wait for the latest Blog update.

It's the Gloriana on the Thames at Kingston, as spotted my daughter, earlier this morning carrying the Olympic flame on its bow, now there's an ornate hard top.

And here's a piece on the start of the HTR on the MGCC website http://www.mgcc.co.uk/mg-news/mg-club-n ... relay.html

The Hardtop has now finally reached the land of the premiership. Two premier cars in front of the Madeski Stadium that will host premier league games next season.

Thanks to Rob and Elaine for bringing it down and having such a smooth handover......On the way to Thruxton in the morning. Not sure about orange and silver though!!!!

Rob

Nice one , we are ready to pick up tomorrow and have a few stops in mind, pics will follow as and when
We will track down the A303 from Thruxton into Somerset stopping at Stourhead Gardens (NT) and then on to FAA Museum Yeovilton, hope to get some decent pics
Then wrapped up nicely for the night until our hand over on Sun at Cricket St Thomas (Gardens closed) for its onward journey into Infini Devon and beyond!!!!

A TASTE OF SUMMER WINE To MADEJSKI

Its been a busy few days for the nations most travelled hard top which has visited 3 counties in 2 days Adam Ford from Worthing met Joe Dowsett from Ramsgate on Thursday afternoon and set off north meeting us at Denbies Vineyard near Dorking. sadly it was too late to sample any of Denbies excellent produce It was another warm summers evening and Adam looked relieved to be able to continue his journey with the roof down. It was certainly warm with the roof on so much so we had to stop on the way back for a spot of liquid refreshment along the A25 . Good job we weren't trying to take this route at the weekend with the Olympic cycle race due . After a trip to Farnham this morning taking Elaine to work it was off to Reading this afternoon to meet Rob Wheatman at the Madejski Stadium as already reported by Rob. It was Elaine's first (and probably last ) visit to a football stadium and having collected the hardtop from an orange F we passed it on to an orange LE 500. At least Rob has air con to keep him cool !

The weather is fantastic, let's hope it stays this way. Time for a quick cup of tea on the deck before getting "the annoying orange" and it's new silver mate fired up and ready for a run to thruxton. Any MG owners that want to see the hardtop and indeed give to the rattling green tin we will be at the main entrance to thruxton at approx 10.30am. Pictures of today's events to follow.

Rob

RACING LIONS

All went well at Thruxton

Rob still has posession

A job well done

Called by Longleat

And then Stourhead House NT


A bit pushed for time so will take some more during our "Stint" and post later.

Stu & Bev

Looking good as the HTR enters the West Country for Week 2 - well done everyone !

Just a quick adendum to my posting on Day 1 of the Hard Top on the North Downs on the Olympic Cycle Route - this was the view from the same spot today - just a little bit more crowded !!

Rested and ready for todays journey

FLYING MANUALS....

Well, thats my stint over So here are a few pics from today
First, on "track" at Haynes Motor Museum (Undergoing major refurb at the moment)

Then, an automatic parked out side of the manual shop

After that we headed over to the Fleet Air Arm museum and found the anchor off my old tub


A quick call at Yeovil Town FC

Tried to get in here, gates locked

Would have helped if we found proper entrance earlier

We than arrived at Cricket St Thomas for the handover

Nice to meet you both Martin

Thats it from us

Stu & Bev

You certainly get about Stu!
Great stuff

DINOSAURS AND BEER

Well as you can see above we picked up the Hardtop from Stu and Bev at Cricket St Thomas...


We then took it into Devon and down to see the sea.
First into Beer,


and then for a bit of Jurassic Coastal Views


We then returned to Exeter for a little 'Cafe' society on the Historic Quayside! (You'd never believe they filmed the 'Onedin Line' here!)


and stopped where the Olympic Torch started its Day 3 by crossing the suspension bridge in the background



After an overnight stop in Exeter we went out onto Dartmoor and tried to find Uncle Tom Cobbly....but he wasn't around, he must have gone off on the old grey mare!


We then met up with Pete, Lin and Lee at Haytor to handover the Hardtop.



It's been a pleasure to get involved and meet you all.
Thanks Guys and enjoy your journeys with the Hardtop.