The further adventures of Binky

So as I headed west, warm and snug in a Hyundai 4x4, Binky (Mr Robert Robinson-Collins to you) settled down to wait in the rain with our wounded steed, the Candidi Provocatores Allard. Five minutes after we'd split up, the AA recovery truck arrived and the old J1 was quickly loaded up and strapped down for the journey home to Andover.

The driver folded up his mirrors for the narrow lanes down to the main road to Bovey Tracy and chatted to Binky about our recent derring do.

Then when he got onto the wider road he folded his mirrors back out and lo! One of the straps on the car was loose.

When they stopped to re-tighten them, the Allard did not look its normal self. There was a distinct lack of offside rear wheel.

Fortunately, a very nice man in a Mercedes pulled up as they were staring at the exposed brake back plate and asked, "Is this yours?"

In the back of the car was the missing wheel and tyre, complete with brake drum and recently sheared driveshaft.

They thanked him and relieved him of the errant wheel.

"It didn't hit you or anything did it?" asked a concerned Binky.

"No, I just saw it in the road and thought somebody would be looking for it!"

So that was why we lost drive on Simms. And having seen these excellent pictures by Martin Kelly on PhotoBucket perhaps I can understand why it wilted. Tying down the wheels must have pulled the shaft out of the hub and off it ran with the wheel and brake drum in a threesome only vaguely resembling the dish and the spoon when the cow jumped over the moon.

The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful until the very end when various neighbours were enlisted to unload and manoeuvre the three legged Allard into its garage. The search is now on for a spare halfshaft and the latest news from Binky Towers is that one has been found so let's hope it's an easy job for us to fit it.