Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest news from the Register.

After a lot of thought, I have decided to try and update this page each quarter, so we would have a Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter theme. So I guess this is the Autumn news letter for the Northern hemisphere, Spring for the Southern!! Guess this could get complicated.....

SITE NEWS. Anyway, during the summer, I started an exercise to 'clean up' the membership register. This has never been done, and there are bound to be people who have sold their 'Leaf's and have left the register, but are still in the database. I aim to finish this work by the end of the year, and provide a method to remove yourself from the register. Many people have changed their email address, so these will need sorting out as well. What I intend to do is remove all those entries with invalid email addresses, and ask those who cannot find their entry on the system, to re-enter their details, with a new, valid, email address. Keep a look out for some changes here to enable you to manage your own details.

OTHER NEWS. The main news in recent months has been the arrival of Register Merchandise, polo shirts and car stickers to be precise. These have proved quite successful, with most of the initial run of shirts being sold. I have one or two left, in the small and medium sizes, and plenty of stickers, so if you fancy one, please go to the merchandise page and place your order.

One person who did this was Marcelo Molet from Buenos Aires in Argentina - he's a happy 164 'S' owner, with 'club' shirt now.

Looks pretty smart I think, and a nice car too Marcelo.

SPARE PARTS. Parts supply continues to become a worry. I would advise all owners to buy any spares they find or are offered, as certain items are getting hard to find. Ebay is a good sourced it's well worth checking the international sections as well as your local area. During the summer, I've managed to get hold of a pair of front wings, fog lamps and a few other bits. All helps in the long run. If you discover that a part is hard to find, please let me know. This will help us to perhaps source the part for you, and alert other members to the shortage.

THE BEAST. I fanally got my rear, grooved discs fitted a month or so ago, using the parts I bought from Julian in Singapore. This included changing the calipers for a pair from a 156 - so the swap does indeed work. The only question was regarding the actual model the calipers were from...I never did find out, but Alan Benett at Benalfa here in the UK, managed to sort it out. The hand break is working nicely now, and the brakes in total are much more positive. Well worth the effort.

I've had to bypass the temperature controlled switch in the radiator recently. It had failed, and the radiator fan was not coming on at all. This has worked for about two months now, while I sourced a new switch from David Thomas. Still haven't had time to fit it yet, typical for me at the moment. Also had an MOT test (anual test of road-worthyness), and apart from hand brake needing adjustment and headlight allignment, all was OK. Not bad for a ten year old car with 134k miles on the clock. Of the three cars in the Greybeard 'fleet', the Beast has cost the least to run this year......

REGISTER EVENTS. This year we had "congregations" at Denham in Buckinghamshire, at Birdlip again, and at the Miland Italian Car Day near Coventry. I couldn't make the last event, but if you did, and have some pictures, please email to me, perhaps with some details of who was there, I'd be happy to include in the next news letter.

MEMBERS CARS. Ellis Tai in Hong Kong sent me some pictures of his QV some time ago, and I've got managed to squeeze them in here, plus some comment from Ellis himself. Thanks Ellis, a nice car, and an enthusiast.



Ellis writes: "If you have noticed my previous posts, you should know that I have only acquired the car since Nov 04. Since then, the car has gone through a serious restoration. Engine has not been rebuilt, but everything else has been done I believe. "

"So, I bet this is one of the well-maintained QVs in Hong Kong. I guess there are still 3-4 QVs, including 12v and 24v, running on HK's road."



Ellis continues: " This is my 3rd QV already, previously my brother and I had owned one red 12v and one white 24v, both were given up due to family development reasons (well you know, getting married, having babies, etc.). If things allow, I would try to keep this one as long as I could."

Many thanks Ellis for sharing your car with us.