When an email came around asking if we wanted to have a dyno run in return for a donation towards Joe's new wheelchair (he has muscular dystrophy), I jumped at the opportunity. The brakes were working, I thought the car was ready for a run. The Thursday before, I pottered about the garage, checking and double checking... And I noticed that one of the tabs on the radiator that hold the tanks to the core was not even folded over! It looked like it had never been bent. Ah well, big pliers time! I gave all the tabs a precautionary nip, and hoped for the best.

Saturday morning, I fired everything up and headed out to TDI in Thurrock. On arrival, there was a tasty Exige on the dyno, and various Lotus' and the like lined up ready to go, including a VX220, S1 and Evora, and I wasn't the first 7 either. The tension was building...!

TDI's workshop is tidy. And when I say tidy, I mean cleaner than a hospital and less clutter than an empty room. The best comparison I guess is with the Audi R8 workshop on the advert!

As my time approached, the tension built further. I filled in a form and took the car for a little drive to warm it up. I left her running, and then it was time. One of the technicians jumped in and took her in to the dyno room, and they began to carefully set it up - jacking the car, removing the driven wheels, and bolting the hubs to the dynos.

The operator ran it for a while, making sure everything was calibrated and running well, no overheating, nothing coming out where it shouldn't be... And then it was time for the runs. By now I felt like I was having a heart attack. Martin the owner reassured me it was normal to feel that way, and if it blows up, well, there are plenty of 25's about!!!

Then, it was over! The chap killed the ignition and hopped out and checked the readings. "Just under 107 at the wheels, not bad". Nothing else was said, and according to the others, that's good! Because if he says more, there's something wrong...!

The nervousness was over, and the wheels were put back on and the car taken outside again. I got my printout straight away, showing 106.5 at the wheels, and peak torque of 95.4 lb ft, which seems reasonable for a bog standard 1.6 - they reckon on about 15% transmission loss, which would amount to the stated 120bhp at the flywheel, but they don't put any of these numbers down, because they mean nothing on the road.

And so there it is! If I was fussed, I could do some investigation in to why the torque dipped between 3 and 4k rpm, but for now I am happy - there are no dips in the power and it looks relatively smooth, so no major issues I don't think!

Little Joe put in an appearance too, and his dad knocked up some hotdogs and burgers for everyone, and I doubt there was a single person not touched by how the two of them are coping so well with their situation.

Hopefully a good amount of money raised for Joe, and we all had fun and learned something about our cars. Thanks must go to TDI for opening their doors and allowing all funds to go to Joe, it was super kind.