The Smaller Tool Kit That Can Solve a Bigger Problem
The best tools are not always the most expensive.
They’re the ones that quietly earn a permanent place in the boot, the workshop drawer, or the touring toolkit because they solve a genuine problem with very little fuss. The sort of item you buy once and then wonder how you managed without it.
One of the pleasures of grand touring as promoted at The GB GT and The Register is self-sufficiency. Not in the sense of carrying half a workshop in the car, but in being prepared enough to deal with the minor inconveniences that inevitably arise when travelling.
A loose trim screw. An awkward fastener. A battery clamp. A bracket hidden behind a panel. A small job that should take two minutes but somehow risks turning into twenty.
The QUALITY ⅜” Socket Set
A good ⅜” drive isn’t just handy — it’s the set that actually does the work. A proper, well‑made one will take on far more than its size suggests: plug changes, bracket fittings, interior fixings, light suspension jobs, and all the awkward reach‑in tasks where the larger sets feel clumsy.
A cheap mixed set is fine for the boot of the Marcos, but the workshop needs a quality ⅜” drive that’s strong, accurate, and ready for real jobs. Paired with a small adapter kit, it becomes the most versatile socket system you can own.
Compact. Capable. Used every week.
This is where humble tools, or at least good quality smaller ones, often outperform impressive ones. They enable access, increase leverage, improve visibility or simply make an awkward job easier and can be worth far more than another expensive addition to the toolbox. Not glamourous, but useful.
The touring motorist has always lived somewhere between enthusiast and pragmatist. Every item carried earns its place through utility rather than novelty. Space is limited, weight is limited, and there is little appetite for unnecessary clutter.
The result is a toolkit shaped by experience.
Over time, the unnecessary disappears and the genuinely useful remains. The Marcos carries a small cheap set of 3/8 sockets for wayside emergencies (and has earned its keep). Proper jobs need better and a mixed Gordon and Draper set is in the garage in a proper red steel box!
That philosophy sits at the heart of this series. It hopefully sharpens thinking about ‘appropriateness’ or the odd essential item you might have missed because the main motoring stores don’t have one in a bubble pack or their standard kit!
Rather than highlighting specialist equipment or expensive workshop machinery, Ten Tools focuses on those useful items that have repeatedly justified their place through practical service.
Some will live permanently in the garage.
Some belong in the boot.
All share one characteristic:
They solve real problems.
And in engineering, touring and life generally, practical solutions are usually worth far more than theoretical perfection.
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