MOT time for the Mini was late June. Unfortunately it coincided with other vehicles in the household, so we had already had one trip to fellow Cranleigh Lions member Tom at SGG Dunsfold.

I had replaced the front driver’s side knuckle joint plus the ball joints as it was in pieces and also the track road end due to a heavy handed approach to ball joint splitting.

Also fixed was the catch for the passenger seat, the bar for the driver’s seat catch needed moving back due to the lengthened seat brackets on that side and I had paid some attention to the handbrake, which had proved less than 100% effective when leaving Brooklands a few weeks earlier.

It’s a 10 minute drive to Tom’s garage and half way over changing gear became quite tricky. Now the car came with a quickshift gearstick, which I really didn’t like. Yes, the movement required to change gear was much reduced, nevertheless jumping out of second gear was a frequent occurrence and occasionally selecting any gear was impossible.

Then the clutch pedal went to the floor and didn’t return. I coasted to a stop, switched off and phoned Tom. No problem he said, stick it in gear, start the engine, that will get you going, then change into second. I’ll let security know so you don’t have to stop.

So I whizzed past the security hut with a casual wave and pulled up outside Tom’s garage.