No posts about The Duke and me for some time now. The reason for this is a good one: not very much needs to be done! Well, there are loads of “big jobs” outstanding; the engine needs a rebuild, the gearbox needs one too, I need an overdrive and to do something to deal with my arch enemy…

The Bristol trip used two tanks of fuel, more or less, and I’ve used another three tanks pottering about the place, coming to work and driving round Berkshire. I now have data from five fillups to use to see what’s going on with economy. The results are not good…

Cost per hundred miles is soaring, but much of that is down to the government and their nasty taxes. Petrol has gone up 10p a litre in the space of five tankloads, which makes the yellow trace on the graph rise faster than perhaps it should.

The two “pure” economy measures show that I can’t blame it all on Gordon Brown (or whoever is prime minister this week). The biggest shock was when I got back from my fuel stop this lunchtime. 74 miles clocked up with trips to work (10 miles or so per day) and one trip to Newbury (25 miles ish) and the MPG has dropped right back down to where I started! Starting to be tempted by the idea of a 200TDi conversion…