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

@danstuff did you see this
http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/197684/morris-traveller-1964-restored-herts

I decided to treat myself to a sporty ford.

1 Attachment

Yes, its as bad as it looks...

1 Attachment

I suspect Dan's might turn out a bit nicer than that.

No campers on their own policies and none of the specialist brokers they use will touch me because of my age. Going to view a Lancia delta GTIe on Monday instead and that's basically the same thing right?

God I'm so fickle

Needs bonnet / roof stripes

Is the instrument binnacle held in with tape?

and what of it?

Logical way of doing it if you need quick access to, possibly, the wiring behind it I suppose.

I drove the Fiesta model upon which the Puma is based extensively when they were new, huge contrast between the 1.25 Yamaha engine and the 1.3 litre push-rod unit, the Yamaha unit was light-years ahead.

Been looking at cars today.

Skoda superb - new interior is too much monies for me, old interior looks shit

Passat - interior ok, can't really fit a rear facing child seat behind me

A6 - nice interior, can't really fit a rear facing child seat behind me

V70 II - nicer interior, probably able to got a rear facing car seat behind me.

V70n - better interior than ^ probably able to got a rear facing car seat behind me.

Want to try out a Saab 9-5 before I decide

What car seat are you trying to fit?

Or how long are your legs?

I suppose you must be talking about those rear facing seats for older children.

This beast of a thing:

Two kids - 18 months and soon 4. The older will go forward facing in a year.

I'm 187cm / 6"2

Boredom Klaxon! Look away!

I've been thinking about power-to-weight, here's what I have thrown together on the 996:
3.4 litre coupe 1,320kg 300 bhp, 227 bhp/ton*
3.4 litre cab 1,395kg 300 bhp, 215 bhp/ton*
3.6 litre coupe 1,345kg 320 bhp, 237 bhp/ton
3.6 litre cab 1,450kg 320 bhp, 220 bhp/ton
3.6 litre Targa 1,415kg 320 bhp, 226 bhp/ton
3.6 litre C4S, 1,470kg 320 bhp, 218 bhp/ton
3.6 litre C4S cab, 1,545kg, 320 bhp, 208 bhp/ton
3.6 litre turbo coupe 1,540 kg 420 bhp, 272 bhp/ton
3.6 litre turbo cab 1,615kg, 420 bhp, 255 bhp/ton

Top two are from the owners brochure/manual thing, the rest is from the Internets.

The C4S is widely loved- they go for a lot more money than the other non-turbo, non-GT models, yet they're (almost) joint slowest (my car is the slowest). But that's comparing a cabriolet with a coupe- if we were to compare the 3.4 litre C2 Cab against the C4S cab it'd be a different story, with the C4S taking the gong for least powerful 996.

For comparison my Volvo has 226 bhp/ton, so essentially the same as the first gen, 996.1 C2 Coupe.

EDITed to add other weights and power/weight. C4S cab (using unreliable data) is the slowest 996 in these narrow terms.

what difference does the 4wd make to getting the power to the ground?

Good question. It's a viscous coupled front diff- so only starts transferring power when the front slips, so it's there to help out rather than there all the time. I've never driven one so can't comment, Hefty might well know however.

This is quite fun: http://westfield-world.com/power-to-weight.html

I know this is the wrong thread but:

900cc MT09, 188kg, 115bhp, 612 bhp/ton

Plus, it has shiny yellow wheels :)

Front driver's side tyre keeps losing ~10psi over varying time scales, but no more. What up with that?

Probably going to take to KwikFit and get a new front set and ask them to fix the continuing break squeal at the same time. Is that something they'll likely be able to satisfactorily diagnose?

How much difference does adding a driver make? Obviously less on the heavier cars but enough to notice? I've not done the maths.

Use the calculator in the link to see

My bill came to £2147 in the end, which is better than I feared but about twice what I originally hoped. A fair chunk of that is general servicing which doesn't count but Mrs Hammer is not impressed!
Will see what the dealer has to say for themselves then probably grass them up to the RAC as they claim to do a load of checks before the sale.

Oh yeah, missed that!

lovely... but so much rust.

Front driver's side tyre keeps losing ~10psi over varying time scales, but no more. What up with that?

Dodgy valve? Cracked rim?