Since I'd missed all the other kit car shows this year, I made a decision to try to make it to Exeter this year. I'd watched the weather forecast during the week, and Saturday was going to be sunny - but cold. Sunday was due to be wet pretty much all over the country.

The Thursday before, I tidied a few things up - putting some more aluminium matting on the rear section, and fixing a rivnut whose thread had become removed just before the SVA. This entailed re-aligning the door, which is a real pain. I also made a visor to put on the DigiDash unit - at night, it reflected in the windscreen, and with the visor on it, it's much easier to see the road ahead (especially when on main beam).

I left for Exeter at about 7:20 - it was meant to take 2:50 according to my satnav. Nothing major happened on the way there - although the lack of washers was annoying. Twice I had to stop and put some water on it to allow the wipers to keep it clean. I also drove through some very light showers for the first time.

The only problem I had was about 3/4 of the way down and I was coming to a 50mph to (recommended) 20mph curve - and I found the brake pedal went down significantly further than it should. Unfortunately, there weren't any places for me to pull over to investigate for a bit, there were some cars behind me, and it was double-white lines. Eventually, I found a garage/cafe off to the left, and pulled over. The brakes did work, but not that well.

When I got out of the car, I immediately saw what the problem was - one of the brake cylinders had come out of the brake bias bar, and I only had the front brakes working. I undid the front inspection panel and screwed it back in. I've not had this happen to me before - my Locust had one of these, and that had no problems whatsoever. Anyway, for the rest of the trip down and back, I gave the brake pedal a periodic pulse, and left even more room than normal in case it came off again (the next day it's not raining, I'll put some Loctite on them to prevent it from happening.

I got to the show at about 10:25, so the brake problem (and also the refuelling and windscreen washing stops) didn't take that much out of the journey time. I gave the car the best wash I could, and then had a wander.

I stayed until 12:30 (I wanted to get back in time to feed my cats for their evening feed) - the last thing I did was speak to Adam from Complete Kit Car. He wanted to see how I'd done my rear lights (it's not the most complicated system!).

About half an hour back, I got a call from Keith Kilvert - he'd only just got there, which was a shame as I would've waited a bit longer if I'd known he was that close.

Anyway, I had another driving experience in the Aeon on the way back - rain. The showers from earlier weren't that bad, this wasn't torrential rain, but I didn't really want to stop anywhere. Luckily it was on the dual carriageway of the A303 (before it joins with the M3), and the traffic was freely flowing. The wiper worked well, and I got home when it was starting to get dark. After feeding the cats, I gave the car a wash, since there had been a lot of salt on the roads and I wanted to clear it off.

So that's the first 1,000 miles driven (except it's now 1,200 odd). I'll be doing an oil change at the same time as Loctiting the brake cylinder the next time it's dry - which could be a while now.

I've also started to design a new dashboard - there's plenty of space above the steering wheel, and I'd like to have some vents for hot air for the driver and passengers (the passenger ones may run down the doors).