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

thanks to all

@Emyr - i don't think i'll do that, just a proper restoration (has been treated badly). first i'll be fixing the damage to the front bumper (got hit while parked)

@ectoplasmosis - yup, gtfour, a special one at that :)

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15017842/
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15018801/
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15020614/

@theholty - wasn't a locking one.. just a well rounded one :D but there were all sorts of issues with the wheel setup that it came with.. apart from the rims being huge, they were mounted on hubcentric spacers, but one of the rear securing nuts were not flush with the face, so the wheel couldn't allign properly.. it wobbled like crazy.. also, the nuts are for steel rims.. dug deep into the alloy.. bleh

They’re showing up round here for under £1k, very tempted.

£1k plus £3k of welding

Special indeed! Love it.

I had my sills and arches sorted for 2k. Still outrageous.

Thing with the MK2 MX5 is that it's very hard to find one that's mint other than the chassis legs, so what starts as a quick rust repair turns into a mild resto either costing much more time or money than originally intended.

I honestly think Mk3s are starting to get cheap enough that you can get one for the price of a mk1 or 2 that you've then had to fix up.

Or hang on until a MK3.75 enters your price range, that's the cream of the MK3 crop.

A lot have had it done - I think we’ve passed the point where either you do it or scrap the car.

Which year is that from? I’ve seen a couple of very cheap MK3s but not quite at banger money.

Mk2 MX5 owner here, got properly up close with the underside of my car for the first time a few weeks back. It quite concerning the first time you see it! Currently on the fence as to searching for a relatively mint Mk1/2 or spending 5-6x more on a Mk4.

They are truly the spiritual heir to the two seat British sports car, clearly.

My mx5 felt like I was going 100mph when going 40mph whereas my motorbike felt like 40mph when going 100mph.

Looking at things like MG-TFs or MR2 Mk3s as well, but they just don't have the same appeal

I mean, if you want a banger, then just buy any mk1 or mk2 shed with a test in your budget. It'll fail the next one or you pay out for a dodgy test.

If you want a good mk1 or 2, or do up a shitter, I'd budget 2.5-3k. You can get a MK3 for that with fewer problems, probably not as sorted as a fixed up mk 1 or 2, but it's newer, fewer miles, nicer interior, and less susceptible to structural rust.

I think MK3.5 (or NC2) was 2008 onwards, 3.75 is later than that even, maybe 2012?

The 3.5 is a big step up with that facelift front end.

I know it's just one guy, but Jack Baruth often wangs on about how later MK3s are a better car and better value for money than MK1 and MK2s

My friend Gabriel's, for reference. I prefer them in white personally.

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I think MK3 MR2s are much better value for money.

This delightful example keeps tempting me

It's an old John Player Norton race transporter: https://www.classic-british-motorcycles.com/john-player-norton.html#:~:text=JOHN%20PLAYER%20NORTON%2C%201974%2D75&text=British%20cigarette%20maker%20John%20Player,with%20Williams%20at%20the%20helm.

On the way to/from Box Hill by any chance?

Not directly a reply to @Soul who I see might buy a Tesla but would appreciate his opinion.

Why would anybody in their right mind buy such an unreliable car? In the UK 40% of purchased Teslas have needed warranty repairs in first three years of ownership and time to fix is amongst the worst of any manufacturer. In the US, Tesla vehicles have the worst reliability rating of any new car currently on sale.

My neighbour's Tesla has needed its doors rehanging twice (due to sagging on the brackets) and had to have a software fault that caused it to emergency brake whilst driving fixed.

Do people have great faith in the new Tesla being shitloads more reliable than their older cars or do people just not care about their car falling apart?

Ah, interesting! Yep, was en route to Box Hill.

well the extra information makes even more sense.

reckon it could be just what @Dammit needs. got to be less than 50k

I mean, I have a Range Rover right now and they're literally bottom of the table for reliability so clearly I don't learn my lesson...

It's an interesting one though. I think the reason they have such a high warranty repair rate is two-fold:

1. They're a brand new manufacturer with a brand new production process (relative to ICE manufacturers) so there's bound to be a lot of teething issues. The fact the repairs are all warranty shows that, inconvenience aside, it's not a cost problem as an owner.
   
2. They're still purchased by a high number of early adopters / car nerds who frequent online forums. I've never seen so many videos / forum threads on collection day check lists with 50+ items to tick off. I think a significant number of the warranty claims reported are for those items which could be as minor as a 1mm difference in panel gap. Something which your average ford buyer isn't going to use a forum checklist to warranty. It's also something ford wouldn't do anyway...
   
   

It's also probably worth noting that the warranty repair process is extremely streamlined with Tesla to the point that you can submit all warranty claims, right through to booking an appointment and a loan car, through the app. Try doing that with any other manufacturer.

That low barrier for claims probably means more claims are submitted and processed than any other manufacturer too.

I've got a few issues with the RR which require a day in the dealer, who aren't provided loan cars, and I have to phone up or visit the dealer to diagnose the issue before a warranty claim is even accepted. For example, my front driver side parking sensor beeps when the car is stationary and the temperature is over 25 degrees (ish). Luckily, when I took it in for the first repair, the weather was hot enough to detect the fault so they took a look, under warranty, and re-aligned the sensor. The problem persisted though but, by the time i'd booked it in again, it was colder and the issue wasn't replicable. This means if i'd left it with them, they would have charged me £280 to diagnose it (even though they couldn't) and wouldn't fix it. So I just drove home.

Each of those was a 90 min round trip in tandem as they aren't doing loan cars. The second trip wouldn't have been reported as a warranty claim because I decided to sack it off...

TLDR: the warranty claim process for Tesla is so easy that more people claim on it, meaning higher figures than your traditional manufacturer.

It's certainly eye catching

More photos of it in period here:
https://twitter.com/tappetgap/status/1091968278476537858