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

if we sawed our legs off at the knees

that roll bar might protect my rib cage

Clearly built for hobbits. My sister’s ex had a Morgan. It was the only thing I liked about him!

The new ones (post 01?) are fine.

hotpiss.

#driptray

Wow!

Oh, I see. Thanks.

Oil catch can with return to sump successfully fitted.

The half fitted bodge job of the temporary one was hopefully the source of the fume smell in the cabin..... I had left the PCV non return valve venting to atmosphere and one side of the PCV system disconnect too.

This picture doesn't actually show the tank.....

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Test piece for tool path etc.

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It's my birthday this weekend. It's a biggie.

Ms Mashton and I have come away to a nice hotel in the New Forest, to celebrate.

A perfect trip for the MG, of course.

Except that when I went to get it out of it's winter garage yesterday morning the front driver side tyre was totally flat and it wouldn't take air with a portable compressor. I currently have no spare and didn't have the time to wait for the RAC.

So I drove the Passat.

Boring.

Disappoint.

(I've just realised that what I should have done was blag Neil to lend me the porker)

You would have been welcome to borrow it, but as you say a little late now.

Did you bring the bike too? It’s lovely down here.

Didn't bother. Rain plus romance...

*inserts inappropriate joke about mashtons weekend with the missus here *

happy birthday by the way

Having a ride anyway?

Fnar Fnar

I have eventually finished putting the sill stand tubes into the passenger side of the car, can now get the car on stands (pending suitable jack purchase)

Also test fitted the frankly ridiculously big brakes on the front, using 3D printed prototype brackets.

Some mods needed, glad I prototyped it first. They even ALMOST fit under an ET38 wheel, which unfortunately doesn’t fill the wheel arches anymore

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Just realised that TVR has spring back to life.
Sadly the new design isn't quite up the old designs imo.
What do you guys think?
Engines supposed pretty good tho... built by Ricardo engineering.

Yeah v40 did not age well. Diesels are Renault I think and are OK, slow noisy and not refined, but more reliable than the newer plastic Ford engines that the V50 got.
Budget estate car, get a 1998 to 2004 passat with a 1.9 pd tdi. Comfy as, reliable, easy to work on, mad mpg from the lower power versions and seem to last forever so long as they've had the right oil in them.
Also massive boot and usually have cruise control standard, central locking and a sun roof which helps make them stay useful for longer than you think.
Made a mate buy one out of basically a field 5 years ago, got a 110 pd with less than 100k for 500£, it needed an exhaust (years sat in a field) and pretty much nothing other than brakes, general servicing and some tyres in the past 5 years. It's now on 180k and spends most of its time going from Scotland to alps for climbing.

Just passed my test... 💪

Well done!

Is it the one you have to do every two years because you are so old?

Woot

watch out australia

Driving where I am is easy, no real traffic to speak of and big roads... It's a little terrifying that I've had less than fifteen hours in the cockpit and I'm free to do my bit for Queen and country and defeat the Hun...

Wait, that's something else... Still, I'm legal with just twelve hours behind the wheel... Amazing...

Did nearly 400 miles in the Panda over the weekend, partly to visit some folks outside London and partly as a warm up for the drive back to NI for Xmas.

The car was great, a lot quieter on the motorway following recent service.

The only issue is it is not very comfortable for my right leg/hip just cruising along with little movement of the accelerator. My heel is obviously on the floor but holding the ball of my foot back to not give it full beans (all 60 raging horses) leaves me with a bit of a dull ache.

Anyone else experienced similar? The seat is fully back and I think moving closer would make it worse, but it could be one of those counter intuitive things. I thought about putting some small cushion under my right cheek.

A mate of mine had a knee injury a while ago and before getting a cruise control fitted he drove around with a shoe horn squeezed between the seat and the accelerator. Worked quite well.