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

I saw something a bit special today, as well.

The 'RS' designation is 'Rally Spec', as in the late '90s it was rebuilt and prepared for long distance rallies, (Paris-Peking, etc.) The owner then bored of it, and switched to Mk1 Escorts, and garaged it in 2002. Last year these preparation specialists bought it to save it and again brought it back to roadworthiness & spec.
Raised ride height using all guaranteed MB parts, (broadly Africa spec), skid plates etc.

So a 1964 220SE, 4 cylinder 2.2L mechanical fuel injection.

Yours for just £34,500.

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Looking great, watching progress of this makes me envious of time you're able to spend on it!

Amazing! Hope that trailer has good brakes.

We're probably going to be doing the sensible thing and sell our car in the next month or so.
Its a 64 Reg Golf- TSI Bluemotion 1.4 Petrol (150PS), 5 door, heated seats, sat nav, rear cameras, FSH, silly flappy paddles/ automatic and sports kit (adjustable suspension etc).
Basically as close to the highest spec of the Mk.7 possible with one of the better engines (c. 60 MPG, 0-60 in 8 seconds) in the range.

1 owner (us), and used for very little except occasional trips to the family in Devon. I think we're on 12k miles, but its somewhere south of 15k.

Why are we selling- because having a car is pointless given our lifestyle.
If you're interested PM me, seems like value around £15k. Will come with a bike rack as well.

It's genuinely one of the most pleasant cars to drive that I've ever driven, it's good enough around silly corners in the countryside, and with all the adaptive speed control and safety stuff is miles ahead of other cars in the same price range, and if we had any reason to keep it I would.

Ha. I guess nothing beats a V8 imo. I might be getting old mind. 😎

http://www.kophillclimb.org.uk today and tomorrow. Easy walk or ride from Princes Risborough station. Loads of Exotica static and driving the hill. Recommended.

Thanks, it's getting there slowly. Visually it'll stay the same just coilovers, smoothing the front bumper and Japanese style side plate. Oh and maybe 15" BBS wheels. Hoping to slowly bring the most important mechanicals up to scratch too whilst learning a bit.

@cake double budget for F but could be good?

Just about to leave Lake Como for Tuscany, via the Lamborghini museum at Sant'Agata.

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Car looks gorgeous. Hope you've enjoyed the narrow roads round Como! I imagine it was a frustrating experience having done it myself, plenty of good roads in Northern Italy though.

Genuinely loved going to lakeside restaurants to spend half an hour watching/hearing Italian exotica noisily shuffling around in the tiny car parks.

Yeah. Let me ask the missus. Could be interested.

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So, I'm away to do a compression test on the Forester and expect to be pulling the engine to do new pistons and rectify the work done on the heads..... probably valve stem seals and lap the valves.

FFS :(

Let us know. Cheers @NurseHolliday.

How's the MPG going? Did you drive all the way out? I can't remember if you said you were shipping it there or if that was someone else.

Oof.

I see it's the annual Lambo gathering over in Essen...

#Ridonck

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Nice - Moto Guzzi factory in Mandello Del Lario worth a look too!

I loved it. Everyone there loves a nice car. And mostly they all regard speed limit signs as pretty but irrelevant decorations for the lampposts.
Tearing down the autostrada at 160kph or pooling around the winding lake roads at friendly speeds, it's all been so enjoyable because the car is just so good at all kinds of driving.

The stelvio pass and going 160mph on the autobahn was jolly nice too. It would have been nice to find a stretch of unrestricted road that allowed me to improve upon that but it's still the fastest I have ever driven.

I have absolutely no idea. Certainly Mrs BQ gets much better use out of a tank of fuel than me, because I like to make it do the nice noise at every opportunity and don't care about fuel costs. We've done about 1000 miles so far and have filled it up about 6 times. Luxembourg and Austria are cheapest, and we popped into Switzerland from Cernobbio to fill up cheaply. It certainly drinks like an Aston should.

I agree, sadly I only got clearance for one car/bike thing this trip.

I've always driven a lot in France, just finished a 4,500km trip there. Occasionally been to Italy via Monaco and it always chills my blood to drive there.

Locals tailgating at 120mph with the lovely areas for trucks to pull in/out at the side of a dual carriageway with tunnels and blind bends sends me into a bit of a meltdown, or maybe it's the brilliant roadside coffee. I'm always happy to get back to Switzerland or France.

I have a dealer coming to purchase my car next week, "as long as described" I may have failed to declare some corrosion on one of the wheels and some stone chips on bonnet, wings and rear arches.

How much could I expect to negotiate down?

Ha, after the irritating righteousness of the French and the frustrating correctness of the Germans, never mind following a queue of traffic behind a speed-limited truck on an Austrian Alpine pass, it was such a relief to be in Italy!

If you think that it's just like England in the 80s then it makes sense.
I'd never go so far south as Naples in the Aston Martin but in the north they like to see you really drive. We had tailgaters at 150kmh in Puntos and all they wanted was to overtake, have a look, then sit back again and see us give it the beans.

Not just Puntos either...

There was a Ferrari behind the Lamborghini too.

That's a convoy!

Keep having an amazing time mate, I'm very jealous.