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

40 miles in "the sticks" could be less than £100, 1-2 hour transport that is.

In/out of London that's easily a £250 job.

Based on recent experience (ahem), the RAC charged just over £100 for ~20 miles but I don’t know if that was a flat fee or had a per mile cost.
I suspect a local company directly booked in advance would be cheaper.

My E61 525i is feeling slow/sluggish in the midrange since the flat battery but I can’t work out if it’s because an enforced couple of days on the motorbike has changed my perception of speed or if there’s something wrong with it.
It is due an oil change...

What's a non interference engine? Does that mean the valve lift is so small that it won't smack the piston at full lift at TDC if the belt snaps?

That's my understanding

Yes. Not necessarily as a result of low valve lift, however - it could also be low compression so there's plenty of space between the valves and the piston. Valve timing also plays a part. But as a rule of thumb, funkeh engines are interference, boggo cooking engines are non-interference. Not a rule of thumb to rely on though. Ever.

Yeah basically no chance of pistons and valves "interfering" with each other if cambelt snaps.

Bloody hell - didn't think such things existed. Anathema. :)

Speaking of low compression though, if I build another car engine, it's going to be boosted. Preferably pro-charger. Met a guy the other weekend with a 1200+hp lump based on a small block Chevy and the thing purred like a kitten, incredibly smooth!

I love the sound of big cam, narrow LSA motors but they're shite for anything other than full gas.

Try Shiply for moving cars. Used them a couple of times and easy and cheap.

Don’t you just push the car a few yards down the road, call the AA and tell them it just happened?

I appear to of bought myself a boy racer car...

It's ridiculously fun to drive! A 2.0 TDCi Titanium and I'm sure it's been blinged by the original owner as the usual boot model and type badges have been removed.

Red calipers and side stripes!

Please add Focus decals over the side stripes.

Definitely riding the motorbike has changed perception of speed.

Hey, hey. Steady on!

I'm still figuring out Cruise Control. Never had it before...

http://carinteriors.tumblr.com/archive

Love this. Thanks!

1 Attachment

Fitted a new stereo to the mighty Panda. DAB radio meant wiring in an amplified antenna. Managed a decent job of it and didn't destroy too much trim running the wire down the pillar and round the back of the dash. Same for the BT mic on the other side of the car. Thankfully mrs_com is crafty so we had some modelling wire I could use to fish through the gaps I could even see down.

1 Attachment

The hula girl has become a little dishevelled in the heatwave. There is a similar vintage, same model Panda in yellow parked around the corner with a hula guy on the dash.

/csb

Nice bit of Hot Hatch History on my lunchtime walk:

two fastest cars up the goodwood hill climb were electric
still haven't beaten the old heidfeld petrol f1 record but closeish

wonder what that car that recently took the nurburgring track record would do up there

That was the second one no?

What was incredible was the fact the works VW was only about 1 second quicker than a production vehicle you or I could drive. *cough* For $1.5 million

https://insideevs.com/nio-ep9-hillclimb-goodwood-video/

Daf variomatic and a citroen GS?

When was the last time you saw one of them on the road?

Cherry Europa ;)

Does it count as Japanese as it was built in Italy along side the Alfa Romeo Arna. Alfa Romeo Nisssan Autovehicili, bet someone took ages to think of that name.

I have had an Arna TI and then later a 1.2, that became a 1.5 as that was the engine I could find the cheapest.

The issue I'm having is finding as car that is too good to scrap. Feels wrong to scrap a decent car. Then rebuilding a buggered engine I will get in to the relms of wanting a tough engine that will have all the go faster bits. Then it will go past the point of being cheap speed.

Is that the ford engine or the PSA?