Three in a Car

Published on 15th October 2023

Four keen members turned up for our three-in-a-car event, but when we arrived the gates to Dobbies were closed so we all had to park in the Harlestone Firs parking. Apparently the gates were open the day before when Arthur mistakenly turned up 24 hours earlier!!

We decided to all bundle into one car, with David electing (or being elected!) to go first. He took us on a nice route up through Holdenby, East Haddon, across the A428, up to Upper Brington, left at the church then right to join up with Carriage Drive. This then follows Althorp’s perimeter wall (with a viewing place to see Althorp where David kindly slowed down for us!), and eventually back to the A428 and Dobbies – where the main gate was still shut. Thinking they would be open (only about 35 minutes until official opening), David pulled into the entrance, where there was a car already waiting to go in – and without looking that driver started reversing towards us!!

By this time the Harlestone Heath car parking was filling up so David ended up driving almost the whole length before getting parked. A quick debrief which mostly focussed around which gear was used, how David made progress, and the overtaking of a horse trailer (very conveniently going along the only long stretch with great view of the road towards Holdenby!)

We all piled out of David’s car, and after a bit of a walk ☺ all piled into Rod’s car as he volunteered to go next. Rod decided to use the same route but in reverse (no not going backwards, but doing the route in the reverse order). We got back at 10.16, and bearing in mind that Dobbies officially opens at 10.30, we assumed the gates would be open. Yes, you are right, they were still closed and the same car that had nearly reversed into David was sill waiting!! This time there were no spaces in the Harlestone Heath car park, and we were getting hungry! We decided to go on up to the golf club at Lower Harlestone who do a great breakfast!

It is very nice there, the club house has great views over the golf course and lake. Once we had our food, we remembered that we had not debriefed following Rod’s drive. Again the discussion focussed on gears and the differences between the two drives so far completed.

Now feeling human again after breakfast, Rod drove us back to Dobbies – where at last the gate was open! This time it was the turn of the automatics! I went first and decided to do a cut down version of David’s original route. At the same place where David encountered the horse trailer, I encountered a cyclist so was able to do an overtake! I added in a detour through the village of Holdenby but when we drove through East Haddon I decided to turn left onto the A428 and go direct back to Dobbies. Again a bit of a debrief/discussion (and a play with some of the electronic gizmos on my car), we then said goodbye to David who was off to Birmingham, and all bundled into Arthur’s car. This time it was another automatic, a Volvo. Arthur had done some pre-planning and took us on a very different route, going towards Nobottle, then through Flore, past Upper Heyford, over the M1 and along the A4500. Rod and I both thought Arthur was planning to go up Sandy Lane back to Dobbies, and brow beat him into turning into Harpole as Sandy Lane is closed. Turns out Arthur had planned a different route – but was very good and followed ours instead! When we got back to Dobbies we had another good discussion, this time about the use of an automatic gearbox.

It was an excellent morning, and really interesting to see that while we each drove using the System of Car control we each had very different styles of driving.

We will be running another three-in-a-car session in 2024, so watch this space!