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

How does the conversion cost £24k? Pop top installs are £5k or less AFAIK so you’re paying a lot for the wet room and removable kitchen. Even the rear seats and fit out are coming from VW right?

(I’d also ask how a crew van costs £48k, but VW tax is VW tax)

No, they order a plain van- not a Kombi type thing.

Someone here looking for a camper???
Read the description 😁😁

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bedford-CF-Motorhome-a-reminder-of-some-terrible-life-choices-/265345781696?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

I can drive this because I'm old

Go big or go home

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LLL Thread >>>

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Ok, burn it to the axles.

There’s something about the sign and the can of raid sitting in the corner that’s completely cracking me up.

The joy of camping surrounded by a cloud of midges.

You know what’s not live laugh loving here? Fucking flies, that’s what.

Petrol stations seem almost normal again… popped into the Tescos at Barking and not even a real queue, all grades available.

Petrol stations seem almost normal again…

Second this. I filled up at Asda on the Old Kent Road an hour ago, no queue at all. On my way home saw that the Texaco and BP garages in Greenwich were both also open and no queues.

Back to rally cars: Anyone remember the group B BX 4wd?

Engine bay with a longitudinal engine instead of the usual transverse

These are really rare cars as citroen bought back all the unsold homologation cars and scrapped them.

@Dammit pretty much, it is labour intensive repairing and building up in layers, eight hours for a passenger seat and 1.5 hours a rear side bolster.
1/ wash seats and dry
2/ clean with leather cleaning solvent
3/ fill cracks or damage with leather filler paste and dry gently with heat gun, rub down with mild scotch brite pad, repeat 2/ & 3/ until happy with finish.
4/ apply layer of leather colour with sponge pad or spray gun
5/ dry and rub down and repeat until happy with finish {don't rub down finish top coat
6/ there are some colour fixer treatments to protect it.

Nice work steve

Beautiful job but certainly looks labour intensive

That looks ace.

Luckily this is just for the steering wheel and shifter.

I think as a first fix I'm going to carefully used some saddle soap and then a conditioner to see what that does. Logic being; a) it's in my cupboard, b) is realistic giving my childcare requirements, c) it shouldn't prohibit doing a better job later if required.

Took the kids up to RWYB at Santa Pod. 9 sec diesels are fun. Conversely, pretty much the fastest street car was a Porsche Taycan at 11.2.

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Mmmmm. Look at the shit pouring out of that.

Picking up on Steve's post from yesterday - I was thinking about the future of ICE cars as I drove home from Peaslake this afternoon.

My gut feeling is that the petrol cars that survive the transition to an EV norm are going to be the older ones, and not just because they'll be the ones that have the nostalgia value- I genuinely think they're better than modern ones.

Not, to be clear, as transport to get from A to B. My 2015 Mercedes is simply a better can than the 2006 Mercedes or the 1996 Volvo that went before it. But, and this is the key - the older cars were much move involving. I think a large part of that is that the older cars had hydraulic power steering - no car that I've tried with electronic PS has much feel. But they also had more character in how they delivered their power as well. The Volvo 850R (at the end of my ownership, I'd be interested to see how it performs now having belonged to Nurse Holiday for a while now) was, as a car, nowhere near as good as the E63 as a turbo-charged road car. But it was a lot more fun. Partly because the E63 doesn't really feel turbo-charged in the old school "nothing nothing nothing WOOOOSH" manner - it just feels hugely linear. But that means it doesn't have the excitement of turbo-lag, nor does it have the feeling of a naturally aspirated engine coming on cam and starting to really scream.

TL:DR - I think the cars that we will keep are the older ones, which is possibly going to throw up some interesting bargains in ten years.

I can drive this because I'm old

True, but us young'uns can now tow heavy trailers!

https://www.whatcar.com/news/driving-licence-changes-more-drivers-will-be-able-to-tow-without-taking-a-test/n23504

Death the grandfather rights!

The other thing that may be a factor here is the amount of electronics in modern cars.

When all the built in touch screens, ECUs, digital displays etc are FUBAR in 20 years time, it will be a hell of a job to strip it all out and replace. Most will just get scrapped, I would think.

Stuff that has dials and switches is easier to keep going.

That's a good point. Reminds me:

The engine project for my 996 means that we have to go to a standalone ECU in order to be able to run alpha-N (basically throttle position) based maps, rather than MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor) based. But! I want to keep cruise control - so time to investigate.

My car is so early in the computer-ification of everything that the engine ECU runs the engine, the instrument cluster itself runs the instruments, and the cruise control? That's a standalone box that (I shit you not) pulls the accelerator pedal down with a cable/releases some cable to maintain a steady speed.

Which is actually good news - the cruise (as long as it continues to get a speed signal, which is fine) does not give two shits what's actually running the engine - could be carbs and a distributor for all it cares.

My E63, on the other hand, has five engine maps available from a rotary controller which can also be programmed to change the traction control, the stability control and the damper performance to any combination that the driver (or passenger) wants. And launch control. And it'll park itself. So very much to go wrong/be totally borked when you can't get the right ECU in 10 years.

Don't use saddle soap. Reading up that it is the wrong thing.

Looking on the net I'm going to try olive oil and vinegar to clean my seats and other leather bits.

Looking at a ways to clean and fix the leather in the shituar on the cheap.

Look at some of the ECU issues that the Ferraris 355/360 are having.