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

Gunight. (PLAY LOUD)

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/954783622749347841

Sounds like a fun project.

Not been on here in ages but here’s a little landy update.

Drove to Ireland and back.

It broke down: fuel pump, cost about £800 to set this right because the tank had to be dropped and I’d just filled up...

It got straight piped: sounds like an absolute beast now.

Got the winch working: dirty contacts on PTO was all that was wrong.

Went greenlaning on a whim last night: very very nearly rolled it, got to use the winch to help my mate and his forester out. Lost a mudflap.

4 Attachments

Update on other cars in my life:

Mini is gone (long story, law suit soon come)

Bought a lupo for a couple hundred quid, left it in Ireland as a runaround.

Got given a mazda bongo, also in Ireland.

Going to NZ for 6 months to work, will buy a KP Starlet and bring it back if I can afford to.

Went to a Subaru meet, have a serious hankering (what’s wrong with me?)

5 Attachments

why so cheap?

The CD player is broken and it’s got the wrong steering wheel.

For the avoidance of doubt, that red 996 is the polar opposite of what I’m doing.

For e.g. my CD player works.

#DatInteriorDoe. #Murica

The chap does, to be fair, seem nice enough - he's on the 996 Facebook group.

I'm more inclined toward the OEM+ end of the spectrum.

Ah, you were being ironic.

Presumably his is a bit loud and gauche, and therefore quite cheap, but yours looks like a standard 996, but with expensive performance upgrades, and worth a bit more in the long term? To someone in the know, I mean?

Hard to say-I’d say mine was worth £15,000, if I could find a buyer, which is getting on for 1/3rd of what it has cost me.

The chap with the red one may have been much more sensible.

Next episode is up - Gordon Murray Escort
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y_pvHg54AY

Look out for LS3 in Jaguar Coupe

Good shout, forgot about this.

Yeh that sounds about right. All those low volume, race specials are the same in that sense. There are more TVR Griffiths racing now than there ever was in period and they are nothing like the spec they were back then.

Still regardless if it's original, its a lovely thing to own!

With regards to Croft, it's worth making a trip. Its a flat, featureless circuit but it's great fun and very fast, especially in the back section. They have a good historic meeting once a year too. What championship are you planning on racing in?

Have you long since decided that this will be a car that you'll see your days out with and then be sent off in, in some Viking-style ceremony, brick on the accelerator, over the white cliffs of Dover?

Possibly! I’m genuinely giving no thought to selling it, so that aspect isn’t a consideration. I think it’ll be worth more in future- but who knows. Let’s see what it’s worth in 40 years when it’s running on methanol produced by my cellulose packaging recycling unit under the sink

Tickets booked for speedfest in June.
http://Www.incredible18.Co.uk

HSCC Historic Road Sports

The new MoT rules https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/671818/mot-inspection-manual-for-classes-3-4-5-and-7-from-20-may-2018-draft.pdf coming into effect this year state (page 8)

a car fitted with rally style seats, body kit and a sports steering wheel would not be exempt from the requirement to have a driver’s airbag where one was fitted as standard equipment.

@Dammit - are you going to need to put your original wheel back every year?

What annoys me, things like an E-Type were never that competitive compared to Ferraris. Modern engine technology means that the E type engine can make more power than originally, put the Ferrari engines don't have that jump in power as the close tolerance were there from the original engine.

@bq I read that yesterday, and the answer is I'm not sure- what year did drivers airbags become a legal requirement? My car could have been ordered from the dealer with the current wheel, it's a Porsche part - and it's a sports car. I imagine that I'll find out next year.

Legal requirement or fitted as standard.

I think what you mean is that if the wheel was fitted as standard then it has to be retained, it's a little hard to understand you but that's my best guess.

If that's an accurate understanding of what you meant, then I'd ask what fitted as standard means - does it include standard options? I'd say it does. The current wheel was an option that could have been selected upon purchase.

Tape one of these to the wheel before you take it in; job done?

a driver’s airbag where one was fitted as standard equipment.

so if your wheels came OTP sans le sac du air, you're still good?

Sort of, with safety equipment, there is a year that a model has to have an airbag for type approval. Maybe it was standard equipment before that date maybe not. Was looking at things like BL mini and MX5's with the Nardi wheels.