Olympian Shock

This morning I have received some surprising news from Colin Thorne concerning the former First Eastern Counties Olympian 34110 (W437CWX) in that he has decided to withdraw from the project.

Colin's financial circumstances have changed during the past year and as things currently stand he is unable to make any serious progress with it. His abandoning of the project has been due to lack of finances and engineers prioritising other work. It is also forcing one of his other vehicles off the road as he has had to use the legal tyres off another. This means he has to keep a perfectly usable vehicle off the road for 34110 which is nowhere near roadworthy and won't be for sometime yet.

It was thought that with the impending uncertainty with the Great Yeldham site would mean the need for legal tyres on 34110 to take it on the road to another site. However. he is frustrated by having the other vehicle off the road so he will be replacing 34110s tyres with illegal ones again

He considers that realistically 34110 does need a massive amount of work with the corrosion bad enough to justify scrapping. As mentioned on the blog previously, there's holes in the chassis over the rear axle which weren't seen until the wheels were removed.  That's without a lot of mechanical work required too including brakes and airbags He says if it wasn't for it being the last UK Olympian he would simply walk away and scrap it!

Scrapping is an absolute final resort option though  as it has been advertised on the preserved owners group on Facebook. He is currently not in a rush to make that decision so there is some breathing time yet

If there is anyone or group wishing to take this project forward please do not hesitate to contact Colin via email at nige333@blueyonder.co.uk

My thanks to Colin Thorne for contacting me regarding the sad news and I just hope someone else with a lot of enthusiasm and money (!!) takes it on

Roy