Budget out of control?

Tues.31.10.06. The last day of October has driven home the reality that the car will not be finished for the Beaujolais Nouveau run on 16.11.06. 

This fact, as far as I was concerned had really never been in doubt. Since late summer the complications that had been created by the countless modifications along with endless time consuming improvements had deemed this outcome to be inevitable. I do not regret any of the developments as each has added to the quality, character and value of the Burlington. To use the term ‘value’ here does not refer to a ‘monetary’ gain but to one of ‘esteem or pride’. The car when finally completed will cease to be a ‘Kitcar’ but an individual, professionally designed and built, totally unique vehicle. Originally this was 001 Burlington SS, and will always remain so, but on closer examination it is far from that earlier primitive, naive concept. The car will be for life, not in the future, becoming an outgrown forgotten toy. The budget at present stands at £8537.26: so the fuckin’ car is not just for my lifetime but those of my daughter and grandchildren alike.

I feel I need to re-brand and promote the ‘run’ as the Beaujolais Vieux, to maintain the interest of the Oak as well as all who had been swept along with the fun of a ‘drive through France’. Selfishly, I also suspect that if we don’t ‘draw another line in the sand’, then we risk the likelihood of drifting along like ‘a rudderless ship’.

Whilst I was on holiday Captain Salty had already stolen back the November slot for his regular jolly to Keswick. Chris has attended this ‘boys’ weekend for the past twenty years so it would have been a very difficult choice for him had the car been ready. Today, he has had his hair cut. The significance of this was his boastful September announcement that he would not cut his hair until the project had been completed. Et tu Brutus. Mind you, I don’t imagine anyone would enjoy the alternative spectre of Howard Hughes bent and curled in the Roy Castle corner.

With every addition the chassis continues to prosper. The spring compressors, borrowed earlier from Slick, have enabled the front Spax adjustables to be fitted to the front vertical link. The newly painted petrol tank is provisionally in position and the radius arm brackets have been bolted to the rear outrigger.

I cannot understand why this is not a tremendously exciting period in the overall development of the project for this was to be ‘the exciting future, the deservedly rewarding elements’: similar to Tony Blair’s New Britain.  But contradictorily the last thing that I want to do is ‘open a tin of chunks’. N’est ce pas?