In which undaunted Sid and Doris gain a new old gearbox and catch up with the rally.
Jonathon collects a gearbox from Earley engineering and takes off just enough bits to put in his cabin baggage that a cling film wrapped ‘box weighs just under the Wizz Air 32 kilogram allowance. 
In Timisoara airport no one knows where the overweight baggage arrives. Well, no one knows because there are no staff on duty except the passport and customs dudes who determinedly know nothing. It is found on a standard carousel mashing up the wheely bags of innocent Romanians.
What with car hire delays and traffic it is about 4pm before Sid and Jonathon are out at Carbenta Com Ford where we are pleased to see the car still on its ramp and the two mechanics who worked on Monday are with us on Tuesday. They are stars and Sid writes the marketing department a very thorough testimonial which is up on their Facebook page before the work is finished.
Jonathon has been up for many hours. First he needs to take bits off the box that was fitted and and put them onto the incoming box. The box and bell housing have to go up at least twice to set the clutch clearances. The clutch is only adjustable from inside the bell housing! S and D will not be having that arrangement.
The hydraulic clutch release mechanism is a complicated thing from Tilton. It takes about twenty minutes to bleed. With three people working with barely a break the job is done by about 9.30. On start up there is a small fire in the air filter, quickly doused with a wet cloth. Why does it do that?
Sid backs it off the ramp. We have forward gears too. We are all mighty relieved that the clearances have been correctly set. Ceremonial photos were taken and there may have been tears. Sid leads Jonathon through Arad back to the hotel for a shower and dinner in the aptly named Euphoria beer garden, where the kitchen is open until 11.00. And a very good kitchen.
Doris persuades Sid that with an early start on Wednesday they could be with the rally in Plovdiv Wednesday night. Doris is not famous for her early starts but by 6.30 all is ready, except the car which does not wish to go into gear very easily. Back to the garage or risk it? We call Jonathon who thinks Sid could drive it.
Over the years Sid has spent many days nursing defective old cars on long journeys. (Hello JGG, Opel Kadett, Teal and the Peugeot 504 the length of Africa). This drive will be a bit of a stinker but if successful will reunite the car with the rally and the sweep mechanics.
Doris elects for the route through Serbia. This means time spent at an extra two border controls offset by more time on motorways. And motorway means not much gear changing. But border crossings means having to push your way into various queues while driving the car ‘on the key’ which is a bit nerve wracking.
The first 200 kilometres are over the usual Balkan excuses for roads. At one point Google maps puts us down a rough farm track but as we can see it does lead to a road off we go.
We do have the fun of crossing the Danube Cycle Way, actually driving along a road we rode in 2019 and that Pamela Mackey’s expedition had used just a few days before in 2022. Here are some pictures of typical villages. 
Once onto the motorway Doris has a turn at driving before handing back to Sid. There is not much to say about catch up drives, but on crappy roads in an open and buffeting car they are really mind scrambling. Add to this the fun of a gear selection roulette. By the time we were driving around Plovdiv after 700 kilometres and 11 hours elapsed Sid was barmy.
Happily Owen and Russ were able to bleed the horrid Tilton thingy rendering the pedal as firm as a very firm thing. Huzzay for a working clutch pedal and beers all round.
So on Thursday it is off out to play among the Bulgarian hills, while remembering that this gear box is not even as strong as the one we’ve already had break. Tests are taken at a non testing pace, we give away time (but already have hours of penalties from our missed days). 
On regularities we reckon to catch up on flatter, straighter sections. Wily Sid’s technique works and the scores are much as usual (plus a triumphant zero).
Our treat at the end of the day is to visit the Cars of Communism museum. We see Moskwich, Zastava, Skoda, Zil, Renault 8 (built under licence in Romania), Wartburg, Trabant, Lada, Polski Fiat and something that looks like an NSU Prinz. Doris gets busy translating some of the posters. 
It is all a grand day out and here we are back at the very pleasant hotel. S and D have been to Plovdiv before in about 1990 and do not trouble to leave the hotel.
Going back to Plovdiv we take care to catch this Mig 29 on a stick with boys calling out Hello, Sid and Doris.
The bird of the day is the house martin. The hotel has many balconies with nesting sites where fledglings are about to find out what a proper day at work really means. Will they never leave the nest?
The car has an extra surprise for Sid next morning when it sets fire to itself. Mike Harrison is quick with the fire extinguisher. 
The charred filter is left behind and the car is safer as a result. Memo: no filter, just rounded bell mouths on the new car.
This excitement past, Friday morning is about larking about in the hills because the afternoon is given over to the Bulgaria out and Turkey in controls.
The morning is really tough with narrow mountain roads. Some of the regularities are rough. Some of the non-competitive sections are vairy rough and are taken slowly. These must have been horrid in the MGB.
Still, how is it for people living up here? They have a bus and it must be a very sturdy thing. They have their mosques and there is electricity in the villages but not much more.
Our usual regularity technique is to stick pretty close to the average required all the time, maybe a few seconds ahead or behind but no more. Nursing the box we now see this run out to over 30 seconds late but wily use of higher speed in the lower kph sections makes for a successful catch up.
Lunch is at Silvengrad which came to Bulgaria in 1912 after the First Balkan War. It has been important because of the bridge over the Maritsa River. 
Joy was short lived because in 1913 Turks came back burning and plundering (plundering what?). At the next peace conference Silvengrad was given back to Bulgaria.
Getting into Turkey is eased because Cars have organised a customs and passport lane for the rally. It is not quick but there is the comfort of local minders. 
The officials come out to take pictures. Sid is detained outside customs by a policeman who wants to talk.
It is just a quick run to the Edirne Ramada out on the ring road. There is much novelty in the design and from the outside it does look like a hotel. The rooms are large. No one screeded the floors. Carpet tiles are laid straight onto unfinished concrete. It is not possible to get a key for room 113 so either one has to be inside or a member of staff has to let us in. It is a hopeless hotel, with one barman. Ramada should be appalled at what is available with a Ramada label. Still, stayed in worse. Dinner is fine. There is bread and honey for breakfast. Memo: if asked to build a hotel, get the plans from a new Mercure and build that. Do not invent the wheel with the offset axle.
All being well just two more days to Istanbul and then S and D will see about the homeward route.
A MIG 29 on a stick is well worth the drive.