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

Rad, expansion tank, mount, transponder, and both hoses.

He had himself crooning Come Fly With Me on the latest one. The fame is getting to him.

Urgh. Mostly parts then.

50/50

Sounds like you have had to do the common cooling system refresh. It's almost a guaranteed requirement of E39/E46 beamers of that age. At least it'll be good from now on, if you plan to keep it.

I popped out for an hour in the 996 tonight - more to bring it up to temperature and get some amps in the battery than anything else, but it did provide a good opportunity to compare the two cars that are now parked outside.

The 996 is totally analogue, everything is manual, driven by physical cables in the case of the gearshift and the throttle. The E63 by contrast is an extremely digital, automatic and automated car.

Of course, one is a sports car and the other is a (big) estate, so the driving experience was never going to be identical, but it's interesting just how far apart they are. The 911 is absolutely the car to take if you want to enjoy the physical act of driving as much as possible, but interestingly I'd also say it's more comfortable than the E63 - the fixed back bucket is in the perfect position for me, and of course I've spent years now tweaking the relation of wheel, seat, pedals and gearshift.

If you just want to get somewhere fast then it's the E63 of course, especially if you want to take stuff (or collect stuff).

On a different (but related) note, would anyone be interested in sharing this space?

I'd like to use it for parking and a workshop, but I'd not want to fund it all myself.

Supposedly this is normal behaviour for new exhaust wrap... ☹

It does sound good though and goes like stink with the 17% pulley and spark plugs swapped in!

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What material is your manifold?

I stopped heat wrapping manifolds on my rally cars, i found it just made manifolds a consumable item.

Mine's stainless. I read a lot of different opinions on both sides of the fence and figured that as a road car it might be the right thing to do... or not?

I'm open to further wisdom on the subject though for sure!

Isn't there something about making sure it's super tight and finished properly otherwise it can be a fire hazard? vague youtube knowledge filtering through.... maybe roadkill...

I did the very best I could (bartape experience came in handy) so I hope it's not going to go up in flames but the smoking did die down after a bit and once I took it out for a blast there was almost no more when I got back.

The 911 is absolutely the car to take if you want to enjoy the physical act of driving as much as possible

You need to try my Striker one day. No windscreen, no doors, carb'd engine, and if you go over a speedbump too fast you can feel the bolts holding the seat down scrape across it. As the seat rises slightly. And if you want to measure the suspension travel, bring a micrometer. The only gauge or light that works on the dash are the neutral and low oil pressure lights, but frankly that's all you really need.

Well, it's a bit far away. And it's smaller than The Shed. Which costs me 350 a month...

Mine just held water in it and rotted the mild steel manifolds i first had.

Then i got a stainless one and they all cracked.

Now i have an Inconel manifold and it's not wrapped.

Standard advice on Fisher Fury builds was not to wrap the manifolds. The silencer ran through the sills, which were (mostly) fibreglass. If you wrapped the manifolds it just shunted the heat into the silencer and set fire to the car. More than one Fury met a combustible end that way.

It looks awesome and sounds like a tonne of fun.
I'd hope with the cycle wings issue that most MOT testers would understand and turn a bit of a blind eye. It looks so much better as a speedster without them.

We are using a chap who we found when looking over that F40 I posted a while ago- he made the manifolds, then very carefully TIG’d heat-shielding around every pipe, so they are essentially one unit but with integral heat insulation. Given where the manifolds are on a 911 using conventional heat wrap would be sub-optimal from a water and dirt collection perspective.

that sounds noisy, should a weld crack or break.

Called up on Tuesday to book the E63 in for the start/stop issue to be diagnosed - lady on the phone says it will be 30 mins to half an hour and would I like 8 or 9am on Thursday.

I pick 8am, dropped the car off this morning.

First interaction with MB staff is a lady shouting "mileage! Precise mileage!", this turns out to mean "go back out to your car, read off the mileage to the individual mile and come back with this information please".

I get to the counter, the registration they have is wrong, as is the mobile phone number, but they have my email address and vehicle type. Close enough.

I ask whether I should wait, lady harrumphs and says "no, we need the vehicle until 5pm".

Why give me the 8-9 slot then?

Anyway, I'm walking home then. I stop midway to get a coffee and whilst I'm there receive a text "we will need your vehicle for two working days".

WTF?! They're diagnosing a fault, not rebuilding the gearbox.

How are they going to get the hours up if they only keep it for 30 mins?

Always hear horror stories of MB service departments.

Speaking of service departments; was reading something the other day about the reasons Toyota are holding out on BEVs as long as possible.

Essentially they're now the Lexmark printer business of the car world; they don't make money on the vehicles but on the aftermarket - servicing, parts etc.

With BEVs, that largely goes away and they won't make money any more. Be interesting to see how that does affect the affordable car market come 2030 etc.

Is this a different MB place than you used for the previous car? Or, did you not use MB dealer previously?
Personally, I wouldn’t be happy with the service so far - and so far = 5 mins!

I stopped servicing my Leaf when the warranty ran out. £200 to kick the tyres from Nissan seems a waste of money. There are no drivetrain service parts (other than a diff oil change at over 100k miles).
The real question is when to get rid. The range is now not quite enough in the winter to do all the stuff we want to do.
A car restructure beckons next year. Mid life crisis coincides!

A friend of mine is selling his E91 2.0i '07 plate. It's recently serviced and MOT'd, but having read Colm89's posts about his 325i and trawling Pistonheads, I'd be a mug to even consider this right?

Having said that I had an old 986 2.7 without an IMS upgrade for a short spell and that never blew up. Hmm.