Seven Austins and two moderns met at the Fairfield long stay car park in Dorchester for our first car run in over two years. Despite the forecast, the weather stayed dry as we meandered through some of Dorset and Somerset's beautiful countryside. Unfortunately the Dorset Group were outnumbered by the foreigners (from Somerset and beyond) by four to three. Only joking, it was great to see a lovely turn out. Lisa Harcourt and her husband Paul bought along Lisa's lovely black, two door A35, Lizzy, from Sparkford. Zak Linham bought Buddy, his famous four door A35 from Taunton. Tim Neathey bought along his mini monster truck along with Steve and Mary Neathey travelling down from Bath in Steve's modified A30. Dorset was represented by Pete and Denise Legg in a van, Mike and Anne Farrell in another van, Dave and Elaine Mallett in a van conversion. With Rob, Teresa, Naomi and Naomi's boyfriend in a modern. I also bought along Nicky, Harry and Hannah in Scooby the Skoda. The car park at Sutton Bingham reservoir was to be the destination for our picnic. A chance for a chat and a coffee went down well and many would have been happy to have stayed there all afternoon. Mel Rowell joined us in Sutton Bingham along with Nicky's parents. Dave was particularly impressed with Tim's mini monster truck. Harry was very keen to have a ride in an Austin and Paul very kindly took him for a blast around Halstock. Harry was a bit concerned about the fact that the Austin didn't start with a conventional key. The indicators didn't self cancel, the handbrake appeared to be missing and the seat belts didn't self retract. But the smile on his face when they both returned made up for any Austin shortcomings. Upon entering the car park at Chard reservoir, it was lovely to see Doug Lockyear who had just recently replaced the engine in his little Austin and had bravely decided to join us with the Austin's maiden voyage with it's new engine. Some of the group decided that it would be a good idea to walk around the whole of