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

Ace, thank you, much appreciated.

I should mention that this one has about half the mileage of most others, 100k miles is much more common, and double that isn't rare

Heads up Munich fans, next week's Wheeler Dealers episode sees Mike and Edd restore a BMW 2002 that hasn't been driven in 17 years.

Lots of welding you say?

Spotted a Turbo 2 rolling down Sunset Blvd through Echo Park in the pissing rain yesterday with the numberplate 'groop b.' After a very wet ride home, it made my day. It's the first I've seen in ages, the last was up near Grasse in the south of France. Popping and banging and making all the right noises!

I have been given an original smart car. The car is immaculate (now washed the dust off it, had been sitting in a garage on axle stands since 2012) with the brabus wheels and shocks and springs and barbus leather seats The wheels and suspension were an upgrade to make it handle properly. The interior to make it confomrtable after the suspension. It even has the matching brabus steering wheel with paddle shift.

Now the reason why it is free, the engine has a cracked exhaust/turbo manifold and has ECU issues, both engine and gearbox. The issue was an upgrade to the ECU which effects mileage changes and lack of power. The car also ran low on oil, its got 120k km so it is in the engine rebuild territory.

So far it has been moved 3 streets by pushing it, will see what it needs the next few France visits. Or may have been moved for a bit to being outside till I get rid of it.

What it needs, Lynx, is a GSXR engine conversion.
http://www.smartuki.com/

How's the Porsche? You had it delivered yet?

Will it be the first in BG? ;)

Picking it up this weekend.
(If I can shift this fucking flu enough to be able to drive, that is. Currently feeling like shite.)

There's a few in the area, some that seem to live parked on the street. Hopefully that means mine won't stand out as a target for the pond-life.

Volvo invoice is in, £2,800. Ouch.

Blimey. £2800 worth of fast though?

That's just gone up a bit more, and no, sadly - not all of that was spent on "fast", £36 was spent on bulbs, for e.g.

£700 was on a new turbo, however.

Is that from Kill Bill? themetune

Ouch indeed -£2800 is a good chunk towards something already fast or a good holiday. Meh, logic.

Honda ad is good - made me dizzy watching it last night! Honda = Great ads, really dull and awkward looking cars.

True, however the Volvo is a known quantity as it were - I don't think I'd get something equivalent to it for that money in terms of space, performance and condition.

Still stings however.

Totally understandable. Although I have made a pact with myself never to invest too heavily into a car again. Unless it's something special. Like a Alfa romeo 105 1700 or a...

But really, the Volvo should now be flinging you towards the horizon for a long time now, you'll soon forget the sting.

funny you should mention alfas - i am at castle combe tomorrow in the gt junior with the alfaholics lot.

Ooof.

I picked up my Porsche at last :-)

I'm liking this vehicle a lot.

Saw some alfa's today that make the alfaholics lot shoddy!

They were here today and this is on tomorrow -
https://cmoncoin.fr/91-essonne/voir-autodrome-vintage-market-linas-AVM05

Oh and some amazing cars TR4, Alpina, GT6, stag, and a Honda s800 on the side of road.

Ok, the car is back together and has now been mapped, a few things came up.

With the stock boost control solenoid we had runaway, uncontrollable surge between 3-4,000 rpm, part throttle/full boost.

This was sub-optimal, but we couldn't get it to behave, so now there is an MBC in there set to 1.2 bar, which CAN control things.

With a smaller TD04 this would be insanity, but the 20T brings in the boost quite progressively in this setup, holding 1.2 bar through most of the rev range albeit tailing off to 1.1 above 6,000 rpm.

I don't really understand any of that. What BHP and lbft has it got, mister?

Good question! It's not been on the dyno, so it's all guesswork.

Which is a poor answer - so I'll get it on the rollers when I'm down in Winchester at Skuzzle if there setup can handle what we think it will do, which according to Tim is going to be around 360bhp, or rather more if run with Methanol injection.

Brick Heaven.

http://www.speedhunters.com/2015/04/brick-heaven-our-top-volvo-240-picks-from-elmia/

^I want a 242.

Note from Tim, he just timed my cars 60-100 at 6.2 seconds.

Nice. Presumably the 0-60 time is hampered rather by the FWD?

I'm still tempted by a 240GLT with a Chevy LS7 conversion. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.