Driven At Heart

They say only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. These words are lyrics to a well known song and describe to a lesser extent the eccentricities, courage and spirit of adventure of the English. It certainly describes Driven at Heart team!

Being English myself as well as a geeky engineer i was duly excited when waking up this morning to know that that 5 Morgans traveling from the Morgan Motor company to the North Cape in Norway would be arriving in my home town of Trondheim, Norway. Hurrah!!!

Checking the weather forecast was as usual depressing for mid Norway and i decided the unthinkable would have to occur. The hood would have to go on before venturing out into the Trondheim spring. In total fighting the mohair roof into place took a little less then an hour unfortunately the roof bars could not be put in the proper positions as the damn thing had shrunk to such an extent that even the will of god would have had difficulty getting it into place. Luckily we would be heading to Hell today so divine intervention could still occur.....

At 10am i squeezed myself in to the drivers seat. Getting in and out of the car when weighing 90kgs and being 1.8m is no simple task when the roof is on. You have a small hole to squeeze an over sized butt and stomach through without damaging any paintwork. In short order i was off to stjordal to meet the other Morgan owner in Trondelag, Karl. We had decided to offer a light lunch and coffee to the drivers arriving around midday. We met up and then proceeded to head to the rendovoux point, the highway check point for lorries and heavy good vehicles a little north of Trondheim.

Only 5 to 10 minutes later a magnificent sight greeted the eyes. Five Morgans pulled into the area including a 3 wheeler. The driver of the three wheeler looked suspiciously like the Stigs evil twin decked from top to toe in a black driving suit. Everyone hopped out of cars and good natured greetings where exchanged, the cars looked magnificent however the drivers looked like they needed intravenous caffeine drips . The journey North from England had been long and hard and the previous two nights had not ended until the wee hours of the morning. Only a few hours sleep had been had in the last two days. Despite the need for caffeine everyone seemed in remarkable good humor  In short order everyone squeezed back into the cars and we where off for our first destination, Hell station.

Hell is only really known for 2 things. Firstly is the station and the famous sign "Hell - Gods Expedition . The sign actually means cargo handling but due to the actually Norwegian words having a direct translation into English its always a good spot to park and take a picture. The second is Miss Universe 1990, who marketed herself as the Beauty Queen from Hell and incidentally also was a guest on Star-trek the next generation. Id like to reference the opening paragraph where i paraphrased that i was a geeky engineer at this point. Anyway enough rambling the cars looked fantastic and it was great to have my Morgan next to them.

Next we headed north for 2 kilometers to stjordal. We had obtained permission to park in the main square and had coffee, tea and rolls waiting. We arrived in a storm of engine noise and parked slap bang in the middle of the square causing quite a stir. People immediately converged on all the cars and started taking photographs oggeling them.

Everyone started munching the rolls and consuming coffee. It was great to hear the stories of the drive so far, the Atlantic road, driving over the mountains and fighting with gps systems. Meeting the entire team and having a short chat with each member was a great privilege 

A short time later roofs where removed everyone climbed back in there cars and revved up while stationary. The sound was pretty amazing and knowing Norwegian laws probably illegal.  We were off north and soon we had had lovely long windy roads beside the fjord. The clouds cleared blue sky appeared and the sun shined, a magic experience and the smile plastered on my face was from ear to ear.

After about an hour we pulled in and waved the team off further on there travels. I think we would have liked to travel further north with them but it was not to be and we had to travel back home. In total it was a 200km round trip so an excellent day of driving a remarkable machine.

In. the end there is only one way to finish such a great day, sitting on my balcony over looking the fjord with a cold beer in hand.

To everyone on the Driven at Heart Team it was an honor to meet you, thank-you for letting us share the experience even if it was only for a short time. Karl and i had a wonderful day with magnificent cars !