It's alive, really alive.

Ref. my earlier comment of Toad of Toad Hall I am now truly bitten by the bug. I drove the fledgling Cobra for the first time just before the new year and again on New Year's Day.

Not far, just to the end of the unadopted road which is the shared drive with 7 other properties.

It was below freezing hence the water vapour in photo up above, that's not engine smoke!

And with friendly neighbour Tony on hand  with a few thoughts too.

If I can find out how to put video up here I will post a short video or two too.

What can I say, what a feeling of accomplishment that everything I've done so far is ok, and behaving as it should. 

The brakes were dire the first time but given that the discs were probably still coated with grease, wd40 and who knows what else combined with brand new pads it was akin to trying to stop an avalanche with a small snow shovel.

However a few runs and the brakes started working better and it felt a lot more controlled (I was coasting in 1st with engine idling at this point!)

More important to me (odd as it seems) was that I had put the transmission unit back together again correctly and that the reprogramming was right. On New Year's Day I did a few quicker runs that got 2nd and 3rd gear involved too - clearly on gravel it wasn't that quick but everything responding as it should.

The downside was that whilst I'd had over 3" clearance of the sump to ground when last checked, now the body was on, all the fluids filled up etc it was down to 2"... Meaning I clonked the sump on the 2nd run going over a small speed hump too quickly. A sign of things to come?

Looking at the front wheel arches there wasn't much clearance there and one of the tyres rubbed against a body bolt that had been put in from the wrong side too. So turning round the bolt and raising the suspension up from starting position gave 3 1/2 " clearance plus no snagging.

The wheel sits better in the wheel arch now although some will find this too high.