Pug Power

Bag (Nessa) and GiT (Steve) have one thing in common ... no, not a single brain cell (although) there probably is that too!!) ... but matching Black Pugs. Sad I know ... and I DID buy mine first.

Given that all females have to name their cars, and given that I am lacking in the imagination department, my Pug is known as 'Black Girl'. She was acquired last year as a results of the sad demise of (yes you've guessed it), 'Red Girl'. Steve has no excuses however.

It was after a rather mad weekend in Aberdeen supporting Alan (Jamieson) and John (Blaber) in the Granite City Rally, that GiT decided to go and have a look at a rather cute Pub 106 Rallye that was for sale. Given that the car was in Scotland and he lives in Hampshire you would have thought that maybe it was just slightly too far, but noooo, the following weekend him and Matt, armed with a rusty van, even rustier trailer and pockets full of cash went trudging back up the country to purchase ... 'Black Girl Too'. I did make their journey all the more forgettable by phoning them at 1 o'clock in the morning (they were at Birmingham by that point), in a very drunken state, contents of the conversation unknown.

Once home, and after some much-needed kip, they spend the next 4 hours cleaning her up. With the club event at Avon Park their aim for the debut appearance, a few adjustments had to be made as 'Too' was in forest spec and lacking an MOT. Now, given that the exhaust system of the Pugs lacks that all important cat, a spare was required. Luckily, in the depths of my garage (and I mean DEPTHS), I had kept the old exhaust, so after much cursing, and discovery of a distant aunt, we extracted all the bits and left it for Matt to reattach to the car.

With the weekend of the rally rapidly approaching, GiT (stands for Gripes! Ingested Tarantula in case you were wondering) was discovering that the brakes were not too good and he couldn't lower the ride height. He even phoned me to get me to measure how high mine was. I was thinking that maybe this was the start of the excuses coming out if I beat him at Avon Park. GiT denies this!

August 12th dawned ... sunny and bright, no need for wet tyres then! One tip, always listen to the weather forecast before leaving home! After spending several hours stuck on the M24, M3 (and thanks Matt for the warning not to go on the M3, unfortunately I didn't tell Alan!) and the M27, we finally all arrived at scrutineering. Once safely through that we headed off to our sea view hotel (only none of us had a sea view and Sharon and Graham had a wall in front of theirs!) for the first of many drinks. The old hands at this rally lark got suitably drunk, whilst GiT and Matt nervously studied their notes and sipped lemonade.

An early start was in order, delayed slightly while GiT turned his number plate back the right way up (thanks to Al for that practical joke) and the attempt to make up some time resulted in me forgetting the speed cameras and getting flashed at! I await my three points in due course.

We set up camp and invited everyone to join us on the ground sheet (it was slightly on the large side!) - Matching gazebos were erected in record time and the two Pugs were looking rather smug sitting next to each other. We hadn't quite had time to have our 'Black Girly Rally Team' T-shirts made up but watch this space...

The day wasn't without a few incidents. Not content with breaking the wing mirrors. GiT decided that some air conditioning was required in the car and proceeded to smash the co-driver's (who else!) window, cutting himself in the process. A spin on the very slippery 7th stage after a brief shower cost him sixth place. Matt thoroughly enjoyed his first ever day co-driving, even more so once he had mastered the art of turning the page! 'Black Girl Too' behaved herself despite being very tricky to handle (like most women of course) - GiT will sort out the suspension in time for the next event he tells me!

The original 'Black Girl' returned without any damage! That's a first and rather surprising considering we took a trip across the gravel trap taking our various logs in the process. I had an ongoing battle with Car 59 all day and finally beat him, collecting 3rd in class in the process.