Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

very rare (54 produced), a silhouette i believe

He shoots, he's scores.:-)
Absolutely fabulous machine.

Nice

question: once a car is Cat D, is there any way that can be removed?

Nope s'impossible

Just got a text about the car I'm picking up on Saturday. The cold start problem is already fixed, as is the coolant pipe and exhaust hangers.

good news tom,

really need a gratuitous 190 pic, ah here we go:

I thought you didn't like them, or was that just mine?

or was that just mine?

#awkward

So this is the new car...

Love it so far, very different to the Land Rover I was driving before but certainly not missing it or the BIK tax bill that came with it!

hmm, what's the colour?

they grow every year...

colour spy tells me metallic iced chocolate

High octane fuel: Woth it, or waste of money?
Car says 97 or higher on the filler cap.

Asked on FB, but mostly got LOLZ dickswinging jokes in reply, so deleted it!

If it says 97 on the cap - then yes, absolutely essential.

The car will have been mapped with more ignition advance, running lower RON fuel will likely cause pinging/knock/detonation which kills engines or at the very least the ECU will detect knock and scale back the ignition timing, resulting in less performance and poorer mpg.

mates with higher performance cars swear by shell v-power

Exactly what I said on FB but you deleted it @hoops!

^dickswinging admission right there, NH ;p

yeah Shell V-Power or Tesco Momentum are both 99RON so useful for tuned cars as it allows a bit more lee-way that 97

well, I put £25 of standard stuff in thismorning, so hope it doesnt destroy my engine before the next re fill....

If it's turbo charged or high compression then as has been said, high-octane fuel is pretty much essential.

Detonation/knock can kill an engine really, really fast - typically by the time you realise something is going wrong the engine needs a rebuild, or binning.

The other thing to mention is that whilst a modern engine management system is clever enough to work round poor fuel it'll burn a lot more of it in the process, so you'll have worse fuel economy AND less power than you paid for when you bought the car.

It's very much a false economy, unless it's a shit-box and you don't give a fuck if you shatter a piston and then throw the rod through the engine block.

it was attracting far too many eco warrior LOL posts for my tastes!

fill the tank up with Shell V-Power or Tesco Momentum 99 and you won't need to worry as it will bring the RON up of what's left in the tank

My Octavia VRS (1.8t) manual says 97 RON or above. I used Tesco Momentum exclusively for a year or two then added up how much extra I'd paid over that time so tried out the regular unleaded. Absolutely no change in performance or fuel consumption as far as I can tell.

How long 'til my car dies a horrible, exploding death?

Depends, on the Volvo HPT motors the long term result of the ECU pulling timing to avoid detonation means that the EGT's eventually melt the exhaust valves.