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

Thanks - good timing, its coming back from the garage after an extended stay to get a bunch of stuff sorted... fuel and brake lines, suspension, emissions and some welding...

Very interested in the CD43. How much would you want? And would you mind pointing me in the direction of the plug-in... been googling but can only find US based companies and costing $150+.

Doesn't the owner of driftworks have these on his turbo?

Yes. The picture on the Driftworks page for the wheels is of his 964 (and a 996): https://www.workwheelsuk.com/work-wheels-brombacher-porsche-mesh.html

They appear to be E88's made from LM materials - stainless steel lip etc.

A full set of the Work wheels would be ~£400 more than I've paid so far, but Driftworks would cancel the LM's and provide the Works wheels for no additional outlay.

However, they'd be arriving in January, at the same time as our customs systems are entering meltdown due to customs declarations increasing five fold on unsuitable infrastructure with nowhere near enough staff. So maybe longer.

IDK. Work Brombachers? Wait for the LM's? There's no guarantee (!) that BBS Japan will put the fronts on the boat in March, astonishingly, it's just "a very good chance".

Not to worry then, with petrol shortages and general system meltdown you'll probably not be able to drive the car before it's burnt out in the food riots in February.

It'd be either in storage or in my garage until April-ish anyway, by which time the Kingdom of England, Wales and the IOM will have asked the UN to come in to form a temporary government after Cummings poisoned the upper and lower house with Novichok as part of his "disrupt government" strategy.

.

In other news, looks like the 911 passes Euro 4 so is ULEZ exempt, I just need to tell TFL that.

It is sad to hear that since his retirement from professional cycling (if Dimension Data counts), Cummings has become increasingly militant. One can see that he needed to channel his excess energy no longer needed to turn pedals, but was napalming Cheltenham truly necessary?

Momo heritage 6 spoke?

They are quite cool, but I think you have to get them in black and on a silver car I find that that means the wheel disappears, visually.

Went and test drove a Mk1 Nissan Leaf today, it drove well, really quiet and just a nice place to be.

Leaf, plus 6kW PV system and Tesla Powerwall is the plan, I really like the idea of energy independence!

Planning on a hybrid Superb or similar to replace the outback in around 3 years and that will mean all local journeys will be electric.

I had a family connection to a guy buying electric cars for a fleet. He went with the Leaf after extensive tests.

The CD changer emulator I had was something like this off EBay: https://m.aliexpress.com/item/2025903358.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.49f2139dxOz4WC

Not sure how much CD43’s go for these days, if you message to remind me I’ll have a look then try to dig out the unit itself. Forum discount obviously.

This is making me all teary-eyed with nostalgia for my E36 328i Sport now...

What's a PV system? That sounds great, but I'd need to learn what that means I guess.

photovoltaic I assume, ie solar panels

I watched the car pervert video on the ID.3 and I'm quite taken by it. 35k though!

Yeah, sorry been reading so much jargon, I have picked it up.

PV = PhotoVoltaic I.e. solar panels

We have a big ideal south facing roof, so it all seems to add up.

The Scottish government is providing interest free financing and I want to be less polluting, plus the idea of turning my house into a mini power station seems fun.

That's good to hear. Lots of taxis in scotland seem to be Leafs too, so that's always a good sign.

The fleet manager at my work is waiting for his

How expensive/available are the Tesla battery banks vs the (any) competition?

They seem to be ahead of the competition when it comes to integration and control. The warranty seems ok at 10 years.

They are much more expensive than some of the chinese competition but I'm not sure I want a large lithium ion battery in my house from a cheap supplier.

They are around 20% more than the LG batteries but they have integrated heating and cooling capabilities which means they can be fitted outside.

They make the payback quite long but we don't intend on moving TBH.

Currently we have one car in(outside) the house, an aygo. I do not like driving it. On the motorway its troubled by the slightest incline. It's also loud! The buzz/drone really gets to you after a while.

My wife won't give the aygo up as she loves how cheap it is to run to work and how easy it is to park.

My plan is to buy a cheap estate to drive on the longer runs (and go to the tip, another problem with the stupid aygo). I want to spend about 4 grand. I think I want an auto. I was thinking a BMW e91. Anything else to consider?

Yeah, sounds great!

Not RWD and probably less fun to drive (but leagues ahead of an Aygo) but Skoda Octavia? Volvo V50/70?

Anything else to consider?

Are you looking for a decent sized estate or just an estate to have some extra boot height to facilitate putting things in/out?

Passat or Superb will have significantly more load carrying than a 3 series, A4, etc. which are similar in load to a Golf or Octavia (both of which would be better VFM).