STAFF CAR SAGAS
James is reunited with an old flame in Cumbria
James Walshe
DEPUTY EDITOR
Engine 698cc/3-cyl/OHC
Power 80bhp@5250rpm
Torque 81lb ft@2250rpm
Gearbox 6-speed semi-auto
0-60mph 10sec
Top speed 112mph
Fuel economy 55mpg
Fiddling with degraded wires!
1985 CITROËN 2CV6
Daily duties mostly. Time for a big trip?
1989 SAAB 900 TURBO
MOT next month? Maybe…
2004 CITROËN BERLINGO HDI
Realistically, it’s all the car that I’ll ever need.
Be it car, train, plane, steam engine or lawnmower, our species’ obsession with restoring lost and broken old machinery of all kinds can easily lead us down the path to insanity where all logic goes out the window. Why would anyone, for instance, drag wreckage up from the depths of a lake and spend 20 years attempting to rebuild it? My pilgrimage to Cumbria this month led me to some answers, while also giving me an excuse to get out the house for some springtime sunshine.
Having thoroughly twiddled with my beloved Smart Roadster, changed the ABS rings and given it a proper service (Practical Classics, May 2024), my primary mission was to record the revival of a Clan Crusader (see page 66) near Keswick. Basing myself at the Lakeside Hotel & Spa, I could afterwards work remotely for a few days while taking another day to mooch around the area in search of more classic tales for the mag – and revisit a story we first published almost ten years ago regarding a certain jet-powered boat.
USEFUL CONTACTS
Classic Lodges, classiclodges. co.uk
Lakeland Museum, lakelandmotormuseum
Ruskin Museum, ruskinmuseum.com
2024 marked the long-awaited return of Donald Campbell’s record-breaking hydroplane to Coniston. Nine years earlier, having reunited Donald Campbell’s daughter Gina with her dad’s old Jaguar XK150 in 2015, I’d travelled to a Tyneside workshop to meet The Bluebird Project’s Bill Smith – the man who raised both K7 and Donald Campbell’s body to the surface in 2001. At that time, Bill was hard at work restoring Bluebird with his team of skilled volunteers and it was clear this was an expert piece of engineering – faithful to the genius of the Lancashire-based Norris Brothers, who first built the craft in 1955.
Homecoming
The drive along the eastern edge of Coniston Water remains an emotional experience – it’s a narrow lane that twists its way along a thick wooded shoreline. The lake appears through a blur of trees as around halfway up, I pulled into a lay-by where editor Hopkins and I stood on Janua
