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

I really like them. Reckon they look great on a cabriolet:

I truly hate Ruf wheels. Such a massive let down on otherwise incredible cars. They're so early nineties Max Power-esque.

Fitment would be ace with less stretched looking tyres. You need a meaty sidewall to pull those off...

Colour wise I just can't stomach the RSR two-tone on anything other than an age appropriate 911... what about getting a set all in silver or with fully gunmetal centres for something that's a bit different but still looks well?

I heard the oil baron playboy who bought Belstaff Pure Motorcycle has also bought the rights to the OG Defender design, and he intends to put it into production. Tool-less door removal et al

No. The more I think about it, it was probably a respray, possibly with smoothed door panels /no rivets.

Wish I'd have papped it.

Either way it was really cool to see a smart looking blue/white instead of the usual murdered out or shitheap look Defenders seem to come in.

Ok, I know you all hate them

Pretty sure everyone loves them mate. Just not on modern ones.

Whale tail above is where they belong.

That defender looks like a cheaped out range.

that is a Range Rover sport.

Ah thanks I can never tell them apart!

Marine blue/limestone (i.e. blue/white) is my favourite colour of Land Rover.

I'd like a series III please.

'merica

In that case, fill your boots.

Hello car people. Should be getting my licence in the next couple of months, after giving up on it over a decade ago after a couple of failed attempts.

Looking at a first car now for 6am rides around the north circular and going on climbing/Sainsbury’s trips, visiting family up north etc. Started off looking at small things like Polos but now looking at stuff like Golfs, Seat Leons, Civics etc from 2007-2010.

Requirements:
Around £2.5k
5 doors
Not expensive to insure for a new driver in 30s.
Big enough to fit someone over 6ft
ULEZ compliant.

Seems to be lots available in that category. Lots of them have around 120k miles on them - is that an issue?

long story short - I've managed to twist fuck out of the foam in the driver's seat of my truck. any pro-tips re where to get it unfucked? presumably it's not something a local garage could do.

Phone your local and ask them for an upholstery recommendation.

Not expensive to insure for a new driver in 30s.

Even in your 30s your first year will be brutal. None of the cars you mentioned are likely to be that cheap to insure I would assume. If you're in London and the bulk of your trips are just around the North Cirular and shops then I wouldn't worry about a much smaller cheaper car. Obvs a bigger more solid car will be nicer for long trips up north - but how routine are those? I used to drive all over the country in a Ka. My gut would be to look at a small engine Feista for ~£1k, (whatever the modern version of the old 1.25l zetec) then in two years get something you want.

Get some quotes for the cars you've mentioned, add the total and then double check if any lease deals will give you free insurance.

A Spanish work mate who'd been driving since 17yo with no UK NCB really struggled. But yet got close to free insurance with his Cupra R lease.

Here's an annoying detail.

Stock ratios:

With a higher rev limit:

So if you fit a ring and pinion with a 4.0 final drive ratio:

1 Attachment

Polo 9n3.
Drives like a bigger car than they are, really well built/solid feeling. Don't drive exciting though, comfy city car that can happily sit on the motorway. Whereas the newer 6r model drives better but honestly feel like a kia inside, not as good on main roads.

Wouldn't bother spending much on a first car, you will ultimately kill it.

Is that in to keep you in the power band for more of the time - at road(ish) speeds?

Seems your gearing is quite low... Am I wrong?

I'd say it was quite tall - 40 mph in first, seventy in second, touching one hundred in third.

All of which gets worse when you add another 1,000 rpm to the situation -80 mph in second.

Shortening the ratios up with an increase of final drive from 3.44 to 4 has an impact, but ideally I'd like to shorten them all further, maybe a 4.66. That'd be a custom ring and pinion though.

doesn't this mean you can ditch all the other gears though, save some weight only having the first three?

According to this the distance between the side mounts should be 395mm:

Runners on the outer row of mounting holes:

Too far apart to mount the seat:

Flip the base, look at the mounting holes:

I moved the runners to the middle position, so they're inline with the mounting holes in the car:

At this point the seats would mount using the supplied 5mm spacers:

Or I can move the side mounts inward, which would mount the seat to the side-mounts with no spacers (which does strike me as better).

However, what I'm struggling with is what this gives me over mounting the Recaro side-mounts on the OEM sliders.

The BBI side mounts do have more mounting holes:

Than the Recaro:

Which as long as the seat doesn't hit the base suggests that ultimate mounting could be lower, but I have to count the thickness of the base plate in the total stack height.

With that said, I'm really struggling to see how this base unit is going to mount the seat lower than Recaro side-mounts on the OEM sliders.

Honda Jazz.

paging @Dammit

These have potential as a step on from the Fuchs - https://fifteen52.com/collections/52outlaw-wheels/products/outlaw-001m-machined-rsr?variant=14922776281154

Shame they only do them in 19" or 20". Might be a bit big.