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

Stay in louth - I once got drunk and spent the night in a bus shelter there. Then cycled 20miles to Grimsby to get the train home in my new full motorbike leathers (to break them in for the next weekends race.)

Cadwell is awesome. If you don't run off the track at the gooseneck first time out, you're not doing it right!

Have fun.

There must be something about Louth. My dad always tells me stories about when he did track days with his mates at Cadwell in the mid 80's and then having to shimmy up drainpipes to get back in the B&B/Hotel after being at the local pub past the time that the hotel closed.

Cadwell is awesome. If you don't run off the track at the gooseneck first time out, you're not doing it right!

Running wide at the Gooseneck - been there, done that, hit the tyre wall.

You shouldn't be able to see through the rear bodywork, and the rear wheel should be well inside the rear wheel arch.

Cadwell is a fantastic circuit though.

Merc has new Conti boots and a Blaupunkt USB/Bluetooth stereo. Much better than the Kenwood CD changer.

Latest 'surprise and delight' discovery: The cloth 'wings' either side of the sunroof that stop bugs being blown in when you have it tilted up.

Something about Louth and Cadwell definitely - it's an epic track. I've only been round on bikes but I'm sure it's similarly awesome in 4 wheels.

Sorry about the naff phone picture, but just had the clutch replaced and finished work early enough to go for a spin. So much better off for it too.

http://imageshack.us/a/img11/2474/0phq.jpg

Any Mercedes W123 fans within this thread?
If not, please ignore the photo of my sort of current project.

Very yes. I had a W123 diesel saloon in exactly the same colour. Stunningly good car and incredibly comfortable - and head rests that you can actually rest your head on!

Unfortunately I bought mine with my heart and it was an unreliable dog - a bodge job with a good car underneath, somewhere. And you think your 240d is slow? Mine was a 200d. 55 horsepower in a 1.5 tonne car... 0-60 in 25 (albeit extremely comfortable) seconds.

I absolutely must own another one one day - beige saloon diesel, of course, but a more modern diesel engine from a W124 to give it a little more poke and a little less thirst.

Looking great Jambon!

Cheers, even if you are a little biased eh. Quick question:
I'm going to get the wheels refurbed and wondered would going for a graphite or darker colour be sinful, considering all of the car is original?

My Dad had one of these Mercs when I was about 14 (20+ years ago) it was a 280TD and it wasn't very fast either. It had a three speed auto box. And it was yellow. I drove it into the garage door when they were on holiday once. Oops. The first car I was ever in charge of and I crashed it at 0.5 miles per hour.

I will be going slowly around gooseneck

Cheers, even if you are a little biased eh. Quick question:
I'm going to get the wheels refurbed and wondered would going for a graphite or darker colour be sinful, considering all of the car is original?

I'd say go for it. Would look great on anthracite wheels and if you want to put it back to original, you can always find another set of those wheels or get them refurbed again!

I will be going slowly around gooseneck

Boring!

Saw V-L buzzing up Masbro Road earlier in his mini. Looking well it is.

@nh well not going to go right to the edge

@wpo750 coolio!

Cheers, even if you are a little biased eh. Quick question:
I'm going to get the wheels refurbed and wondered would going for a graphite or darker colour be sinful, considering all of the car is original?

No! Don't do this, dark rims on a black car will look smaller. Just clean them up and keep original. If you want black rims 3 weeks of hard braking will sort it out. On that note, ebc green pads are good brake pads for the 306

Isn't the 306 too heavy for greens? I'd go for yellows.

Greens are good for the mini no?

As far as I'm aware.

Leaving the house this morning I noticed that there was no rear numberplate on my car.

Either I'm so famous that people are taking souvenirs, or it fell off.

Probably the former, so I'll bolt the bugger on this time.

Anyway- last time I got new plates I needed the V5, is this vital or can I order some new ones using the power of the Internets without supplying documents?

You need the V5. Mine fell off the bus on a french autoroute last summer, customs had a quiet word when I got off the ferry...

I think it fell off, when it was parked in the hotel car park in Torquay I came to it in the morning and the right hand side had unstuck and fallen down so I stuck it back on and it seemed pretty secure. Apparently not secure enough!

You can order "show plates" which for all intents and purposes are road legal plates, just without the BSA marks and the postcode from the internets.

Dubmeister and craigsplates both offer that I think.

I've ordered a show plate, cheers NH.

My plate was held on with sticky pads- which are crap, but I had to fit the plate in a car park and had no tools.

The Volvo boot actually has two M5 bolt threadings in it so I'll drill the plate and use a couple of bottle cage bolts to ensure that it doesn't fly off again.

Isn't the 306 too heavy for greens? I'd go for yellows.

Dunno? Never had issues when I used to run them. That was on the street, never did track days with them. I vaguely recall being told that the yellows squeal like a pig until their really warm, and have no feel... which is useless on the road. Happy to be corrected though.