Three Weekends, Plenty of Cars and Two Fuel Pumps - Mid Wales road trips
- The Sticker Queen
- 16 hours ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 7 minutes ago
Summer seems to be disappearing really quickly but looking back, we’ve crammed a lot in!
Over three weekends in July, the Laugharne Sports & Classic gang managed an overnight trip to Abergavenny, a garden full of cars at our summer BBQ and a proper run into Mid Wales. There were some brilliant roads, great food, plenty of car talk, a few beers, some fantastic people and, because apparently we can't just go somewhere and come home without incident, two separate encounters with the RAC.
There is a slight recurring character throughout all of this too: Karl's 912. Having recently swapped its four-cylinder engine for a six, July was going to be its first proper chance to stretch its legs. It certainly did that. It also spent rather more time on recovery vehicles than any of us had planned.
Abergavenny, SMG and the 912's first proper outing
Our first trip was an overnighter to Abergavenny over the weekend of 3rd and 4th July.
As usual, we met down on the foreshore in Laugharne before heading off, grabbing the obligatory lineup photograph before we left. The first notable sight of the weekend wasn't actually one of ours. Not long after setting off we passed a DPD van which had somehow managed to leave the road and end up nose-first in a hedge with its wheels in the air. Quite how it had achieved this remains a mystery, but here’s the photographic evidence.
Our destination was SMG Motorsport, where Lowe Classics are also based, for an open morning they'd organised. This was Karl's first proper drive in the 912 since fitting the six-cylinder engine and it drove there beautifully. I was following in the Targa and, once we arrived, the 912 immediately started attracting attention.
Lowe Classics in Abergavenny Lowe Classics in Abergavenny Lowe Classics in Abergavenny
Ashley and Ollie had Karl park it right outside Lowe Classics, which couldn't really have been a better spot. The setting there is absolutely stunning, surrounded by rolling Welsh hills, and I've got some lovely photographs of the cars outside with the countryside behind them.
Kev had driven over from the Cotswolds in his 356, so it was great to catch up with him again too. His car ended up parked alongside Karl's and, at one point, next to a rather special Ferrari F40 belonging to Welsh racing driver Alvin Powell. Unsurprisingly, the F40 gathered quite a crowd.
Another highlight of the morning was a talk by automotive photographer Bart Kuykens. He talked about some of the cars, people and places he'd photographed over the years and, afterwards, signed Karl's 912 just inside the engine bay, which is a pretty special little addition to the car's history.
Tim joined us as well, although for him the trip had another purpose. SMG had had his car for a while giving it a fairly major overhaul and he was there to finally collect it. Before we left, everyone gathered outside for some group photographs, with the cars lined up against the hills and everyone wandering around taking pictures and talking. It was a really good little gathering and, as usual, probably rather more time was spent chatting than actually getting anywhere.
Abergavenny may also have involved beer
We headed into Abergavenny and dropped our bags at the Abergavenny Hotel, which was genuinely a lovely little place, we had lunch at The Angel and with the sun shining, found ourselves sitting outside with a pint of Hereford Pale Ale. Tim, incidentally, definitely wasn't staying. The plan was that he'd collect his freshly sorted car from SMG and drive straight home, but then he had a beer, the sun was out and everyone was settled in. I think there was a fairly rapid moment of realisation along the lines of, stuff this, I'm staying.
That evening we'd booked The Gaff on the recommendation of the guys at SMG and it was every bit as good as they'd said. A few drinks, great food and a warm summer evening in Abergavenny; at this point, the whole trip was going suspiciously well.
And then the 912 wouldn't start
The following morning we were supposed to head back to SMG, where another event was taking place. Except when we came outside, Karl's 912 wouldn't start.
We tried it over and over again but got absolutely nowhere, so eventually the rest of the group headed home while Karl and I stayed behind and called the RAC. At one point we were being told it could take six hours for someone to reach us but in fairness, somebody eventually arrived after about three.
Then, while the 912 was being loaded onto the truck, we discovered another complication. Because of the driver's tachograph hours and the distance he'd already covered, he couldn't take it all the way home. His suggestion was that he could take the car as far as Swansea and leave it with another recovery operator who was within the correct distance of where he lived, and then somebody else could potentially take it further on towards us.
Unsurprisingly, we weren't very keen on that idea. We had no idea where the car would actually end up, who would be handling it next, or how many times it might need to be loaded and unloaded before it eventually got home. Even the recovery driver himself admitted that it wasn't ideal, but being a Sunday there simply weren't that many people working. Thankfully, there was a much better option so we took the car back to SMG.
Ashley, bless him, tried to get it going so that we could drive it home, but eventually the problem was traced to the fuel pump. So the 912 stayed at SMG and Karl and I headed home together in the Targa.
A lawn full of cars
The following weekend was less about going anywhere and more about getting everyone to come to us. We held our summer car BBQ at home and invited friends from the Laugharne group, Karl's friends from the Spirit Motor Club and various other car people we know. We ended up with a fairly impressive collection on the lawn, including lots of Porsches, a couple of Lotuses, a Ferarri and Sammy's Jeep, which looked absolutely brilliant parked out front while also appearing, at one point, to be making a concerted effort to take out my hostas.
My parents were also down for the weekend and they knew perfectly well that this was a car gathering involving rather a lot of Porsches, so they improvised…
As the afternoon went on, what I really liked was seeing different groups of people we know from completely different places all mixing together. Cars are very good for that. People who'd never met before were suddenly deep in conversation about engines, restorations, road trips and whatever else had caught their attention.
People stayed well into the evening and I've got some fantastic photographs from after dark, with the cars still parked across the lawn underneath the festoon lights - a perfect summer car BBQ.
The morning after: Pendine Sands
The following morning, with an almost completely cloudless sky, we took the Brasilia and the bus down to Pendine Sands as there was beach parking – they make a fine if I don’t say so myself!
Mid Wales
On 19th July we were back out again, this time heading northeast into Mid Wales. Harry was home from Manchester for the weekend and came with me, so we met the others on the Laugharne foreshore at 9am and headed off. Karl was back in the 912, having collected it from SMG earlier in the week, while Harry and I were in the 997.
Our first proper stop was Rhandirmwyn, where there's a little metal bridge that has become a bit of a favourite with car people for photographs. We took some photos and video of the cars coming across before carrying on towards Llyn Brianne.
Andrew on coffee duty Carl & Crwys surverying
The roads up there are exactly the reason we enjoy these trips. Proper Welsh scenery, quiet stretches of road and the sort of views that make you slow down rather than rush through them. We'd brought flasks and food with us, so we found a spot overlooking the water, lined the cars up and sat there having our breakfast with the lake in the background.
Llanwrtyd Wells
On the way back we stopped at the Neuadd Arms in Llanwrtyd Wells. It's certainly got a bit of character to it, the welcome couldn't have been friendlier. We all sat outside at the front and before long a group of bikers arrived. As tends to happen when you've parked a few Porsches together, conversation started and it turned out a couple of them were really into the cars.
Once everyone got talking, it also turned out that there were some mutual friends and connections between the bikers and people our group knew, which made the whole thing feel like one of those classic small-world car moments.
By this point it was around lunchtime and the plan was simple. We'd head home, then everyone would probably meet up again in Laugharne later for a drink. Harry and I set off ahead in the 997, aware that certain members of the group weren’t catching up.
Then the phone rang - Karl had broken down, again. The 912 had barely made it away from Llanwrtyd Wells before giving up on the hill out of town.
RAC? We have a trailer
Karl rang the RAC and the response was, once again, along the lines of possibly six hours, accompanied by various reasons why nobody could get there any sooner. At that point we decided we'd had enough of waiting for breakdown trucks.
Harry and I carried on home and got our own trailer. I'd never actually towed properly before. Harry and I worked out how to hitch it to the 4x4 and I set off back up to Mid Wales to retrieve Karl and the 912. Slightly disappointingly, given how much I'd built it up in my head, towing turned out to be much easier than I thought it was going to be. I even managed a three-point turn with the trailer when I spotted Karl.
We loaded the 912 and brought it home ourselves. By this stage there aren't many photographs, which is probably understandable. Funny how enthusiasm for documenting a road trip starts to disappear once you're collecting your own broken Porsche from the side of a Welsh road.
So what actually happened?
The slightly ridiculous part was that the fuel pump which had failed in Abergavenny had already been replaced and this new one was faulty.
Depending on who you talk to, this is either incredibly rare or absolutely standard behaviour for modern aftermarket parts but wither way it had failed. Karl has since fitted another one and, so far, everything is running properly again. For the moment we're sticking to a few local runs while we build up confidence in it.
The 912 has now proved conclusively that it can do three things extremely well: look pretty, draw a crowd wherever it goes, and look equally good on a trailer.
Hopefully the rest of the summer involves rather more of the first two 😊
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