Ken Broster organised the first run of the year for Northern Centre members with the express intention of giving entrants a taste of bracing Northern sea air.
     Around a dozen cars took part with the start at Junction 27 on M6 and, although the weather was cloudy and threatening early on, the sun came out and made for a pleasurable days driving.
     The run of around 140 miles worked its way up the coast from Southport, crossed the River Ribble on the outskirts of Preston then headed up through Freckleton and Lytham St Annes. Then alongside the Blackpool Pleasure Beach and along the Golden Mile,before stopping for a lunch halt at Dobbies garden centre.(Thankfully Healeys are not designed to carry all the plants that our better half / gardening experts were keen to purchase.)
     The route continued through Cleveleys, Fleetwood and Cockerham before reaching its most Northerly point at Glasson Docks, where we paused for an afternoon tea break.
     We then headed inland weaving our way through the beautiful Calder Valley before finishing the run at Broughton.
     The run was not without mishaps. Organiser Ken chose to break down with a carburettor problem whilst taking a short cut which no one else knew and so help was not to hand.
     Webmaster Mike Smith, on his run home down the motorway had a throttle cable break and carried every spare except that one. A “Heath Robinson” repair comprising feeding the broken cable through the bonnet louvres, joining it to a length of electrical cable utilising a Mole wrench, and feeding it through the drivers window for hand control was the solution. The police arrived as he had “fixed” it and were too interested in the car to check out the repair.( Surely they would never have condoned it.) Well it worked and the remaining 30 miles home were completed without incident.