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

I absolutely fucking love it.

https://www.mackinnonmotors.co.uk/
Probably not the absolute cheapest. But they’ve looked after all our family cars well. Had my Astra serviced there for most of its life before I started doing it myself, and it never let me down.

Not sure if i've posted this before but i've put a few in car videos on my youtube channel from a few hillclimbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNehcSiaqw

Christ, you know more about them and I owned a couple. They were poor.

But googling found out that the interior may have been an identifier where it was built, well original interior

Westfield cooling issues, let me pick your brains.

1.8 1995 MX5 running gear, standard westfield cooling setup.

Built the car 10 (ish) years ago, never over heated before but fan would kick in when stationary.

Last autumn, before hibernation, water temp on gauge was rising when car was static.

Found pinhole in rad, so swapped that and thermostat.

Filled the system today and within a few minutes of sitting idling temp gauge is heading off the scale, before the thermostat even opened.

Left it until the thermostat opened but gauge stays high. Using IR thermostat, water thermostat housing is around 80 degrees and fans cuts in and out but gauge remains off rhe scale.

I'm thinking it's the sender for the temp gauge? If it was really off the scale as far as the ECU was concerned, the fan would run continuously.

Any thoughts or suggestions. I have ordered two new temp probes in the mean time!

Ok, where does the guage get the temp reading from?
Where does the fan sensor get the reading from?
Is it OBD2, if so what does the ECU reading say for temp?

I bought a buyers guide once. I learned all the things about a car I doubt I will ever buy.

You missed nothing, only car I have ever owned that the gearbox fell out of. Think that car ended up going to Grinnal nearby to become a V8. Or someone converted it to a grinnal V8 as the body wasn't in bad condition but the engine burnt alot of oil and the subframes were rotten even tho the car was MOT'd 3 months before.

This is my uncle's alloy wheel for the TR7. I think they were also used on the TR8 too. And the instrument design work.

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TR7-TR8 were alike, ish. The TR8 needed different sub frames to run the front ends and rear ends. The real beasts were the 16v homologated rally sprints, they made more power than the v8s and were never produced as even in standard trim the power produced was close to the 3.5 v8. Pitty the wheelbase was short to be competitive.

The only reason I loved TR7/8 were the pop up lights...pity the rest of the car was so poor.

Can't help with your predicament, but just wanted to share something with you that ruined my life a few years ago. A friend who's a Porsche concours judge on occasion told me that if the pointy bit of the Porsche crest isn't pointing towards the valve cap, that's an automatic mark down of points.
I now can't look at a Porsche without checking for this ridiculous detail. You're welcome.

Apparently the Sprint was easily the best TR7/8 variant, and they were going to go into production but they died when Speke was shut down, as this also ended the Dolomite's run, and without the numbers to keep the engine in production the plans were cancelled. About 50-60 prototypes and press cars made it out before the end

Thanks for the info. That sounds very much like making sure your tyre labels are aligned with your valve cap, and is therefore the kind of pointless pedantry I can totally get behind.

I'm obviously embarrassed to see that the photo I posted is exactly 180 degrees wrong.

What ones do you take part in?

Love the Stratos!

Saw this today, originals go for over $1,000,000, and google says the last Cobra 427 Super Snake sold for $5,100,000 in 2019!.....so no surprise this is a replica, but even these ones, called AK427's are in the £40-50k range. And this only has a 5.7 litre instead of the originals 7 litre.


Also saw a very tidy 355 GTS, much prefer this colour to a red one.

I agree, the dark blue is really nice.

I remember the first time you posted it. Just put a massive smile on my face re-watching it. Looks bloody fun, and looks like some pretty handy driving too (I know nothing about driving, but still).

Thought the TR7 sprint was homologated for rallying? There are many more sprits around now than were ever made.

I wanted to do the engine swap on my tr7 but the dolly engine was rarer and more expensive than the rover v8.

Have chatted to people at Ricardos (amazed how much work that comany did) and the story is that the first Spen King 16v engines made 150bhp bit of an issue when the V8 made 15bhp more. Then then the triumph 3.0 didn't make that.

Just the local ones really - You can close a public road for a hillclimb here with relative ease compared to the UK.

So against all better judgement this found its way home. The 2 years factory warranty remaining made it a slightly less silly purchase.

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Yay. The right decision I reckon.

Yes the blue looks way better than the red. On both those cars really.

WTF Gunpla yo 😁

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Thanks. It's feeling like the right choice after a few drives. The contrast to the 306 is amazing. I can't lie though, a bumpy and twisty back road and the 306 is where I'd rather be. But having kids in the back the 308 is the better car. And the back windows open nearly all the way, which they love.

355 in that blue... Just became my favourite Ferrari. The 355 just looks right.