Lord of Misrule -- January 2002

The Lord of Misrule was the leader of many Yuletime activities in medieval England and his whims had to be obeyed by all during the twelve days of Christmas. So what better way to celebrate twelfth night and the end of Yule than to organise a 6th January Z3 drive entitled 'The Lord of Misrule's Seven Hills Cruise'?

And seeing as many of the customs surrounding the Lord of Misrule and the Mummers had parallels with the Roman festival of Saturnalia, who better to organise and lead the event than David and Pn Miles? Those who know David will understand.

The weather was seasonally misty—caused by warm moist air from the Atlantic meeting a cold airstream from the Arctic. When you consider the south coast of England is at the lattitude of the southern end of Hudson Bay, and that 90 per cent of Scotland is further north than Moscow, it's a miracle we get to drive our Z3s at all in the winter months. Actually, our mild winters are all due to the North Atlantic Current, the remnant of the Gulf Stream that enables palm trees to grow on the west coast of Scotland.

Despite the mist eleven relatively clean Z3s turned up for the start at the old Brooklands Race Track on the south-east outskirts of London.

Gleaming Z3s lined up at Brooklands

Check out the plate

We then meandered along extremely muddy and misty country lanes generally heading east, through Surrey into Kent. Keith and I had the softtops down but the rest of the wimps stayed in the warm.

Judging from the smells reaching my nose I would say much of the mud had a high animal content

No, I wasn't talking about Keith's contribution

As the cruise progressed the convoy got ever muddier and meaner looking, especially with all the fog lights on.

Laura stays inside

Only one thing spoiled the macho mean-looking effect.

Mandy insisted on wearing the tiara all day

We were able to keep in contact through FRS-type 'Talkabout' radios which are gradually gaining acceptance in the UK, though they are on a different frequency than the US sets. Even so the convoy was separated several times when the signal was blocked by hills and we lost our way in the mist.

After a lazy lunch, we continued on our way heading for a small tea room next to a ford. The sign implied the water was less than a foot deep and certainly it only came half-way up the ducks.

When dry running the route on New Year's Day, David drove through the ford amidst clouds of steam and had to wait on the other side for the engine to dry out. Sensibly we drove over the bridge instead.

In total the cruise was about 80 miles, though many of us drove further than that just to get to the start in the morning. As well as a chance for old friends to exchange gossip there were four new couples, so our little Z3 community continues to grow.

Many thanks to David and Pn for organising the run.

Tim Cullis