Algy’s Gripe Well here we are, another year on, and the dreaded MOT was due again, fortunately this year the weather was good, it was cold but clear and dry. Now when I first planned building Pootle, I went to a lot of trouble to make sure that I could build her in a very retro style, keep everything simple and easy to build and use, this also was a sound reasoning for running and looking after her. It seems that all my hard work and planning, like chasing round to get the earliest age related plate to avoid things like, fog lights, side repeaters etc has now been overtaken by technology. I booked Pootle in for her MOT and a few days prior to the appointment I had a phone call from the test station asking me to take along all registration documentation for Pootle, otherwise they would not be able to do the MOT. On arrival at the station all the relevant documentation was inspected and all the correct registration details were then transferred onto a computer. It appears that now unless this is done and all details are correct, It would not be possible to get Pootle MOT’d next year without a lot of hassle and as I was informed, also the possibility of losing my age related plate and having to re-register on a dreaded ‘Q’ plate. So technology has overtaken old Algy again, but on the positive side, when the road fund licence reminder dropped onto the mat, it was just a matter of firing up the old 286 computer, logging on to the DVLA web site and taxing Pootle on line, no messing, no queuing, no trekking out on a cold wet miserable day to obtain a tax disc. I know this is also a cause for the demise of the local Post Offices, but we have already lost ours, so no real point in protesting unless of course, they would reconsider opening it again if I did not tax Pootle online? Regards Algynon Headerbox As so often happens, the oil cooler pipes on the 2CV engine are found to be in a sorry state during the rebuild. Any slight bending or even loosening of the unions results in disaster. Solution a second hand cooler or Alan Walker’s repair. Alan is building a Brooklands with Citroen power and came up with the solution below. Using 10mm micro bore central heating pipe and fittings the job cost a few pence.