Report from Grahame and Karen Colliver
Lining up in the V8 Hotel carpark getting ready to visit Ford factory and museum at Cologne.
We left the amazing V8 Hotel and Motorworld car collection in Cologne for one of the highlights of the whole trip, a visit to Ford for a guided tour of the heritage collection and the factory where they build the Fiesta. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos inside the factory but many were taken outside and in the museum areas.
The Ford visitor car park.
Waiting to go in at Gate 3.
Just a few of the many historic cars Ford holds in their European Heritage Collection.
Ford very kindly provided teas and coffees in a conference room where very early examples of both the Taunus and Sierra were proudly displayed.
After the factory Karen and I wanted to visit Boppard. Billed as being on the bendiest bend on the Rhine river, this is sort of on the way to Speyer.
Coming out of Cologne we were caught up in road works and forced to go the long way round we very quickly lost the rest of our group and ended up travelling on our own. We eventually arrived in Boppard via a very windy road and begun looking for the chairlift ride to the viewpoint. We found this surprisingly easily at the bottom of the mountain road we had just travelled down. We got parked and took a very slow 20 minute ride in an old chairlift up to the top, admiring the view and the peace and quiet along the way. We found a café at the top just a short walk away and sat on the terrace enjoying a coffee and taking in the view.
When travelling back on the chairlift we could see some of our group arriving at another carpark below, so we decided we would try to meet up with them. As we pulled away from the junction the gear lever became all floppy and we coasted into the carpark.
After stripping out the centre console I found the gear lever thread was faulty and unusable. I had quite a few spares with me, but a gear lever wasn’t one of them. Amazingly Graham Orchard did – all be it a different size to what I needed – but we made it work thanks to the help and ingenuity of all there.
We then left in convoy travelling down the side of the Rhine for some time taking in the scenery to Speyer hoping the gear lever stayed in – which it did!
The broken gear lever, complete with its stripped thread and missing lock tabs.
Fitting the replacement gear lever making use of the previous non-standard fixings.
Trying – and failing!!! – to get the gear knob off the old gear lever,
That day I realised how committed, helpful, and friendly the group was, and that this was really going to be a fantastic trip.
Glynn was caught washing his MkIII in the carpark at Speyer.
All photos © Cortina MkII Owners Club LTD unless otherwise stated
