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

Needs.....

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That all looks far too neat to be "because race car". Roll cage in particular looks very good.

Yes, on the extruded aluminium frame. It's quite a bit wider than the older one and has proper suspension.

Yeah it’s got a pretty decent weld in T45 cro-mo cage in it, whoever built it originally spent some decent wedge on it (and then made a huge mess of the wiring loom)

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New car has roof rails so I need new bars. Anything other than the obvious Thule I should be looking at?

Not just a new footpack?

Nah old ones were 2nd hand cheap clamp on jobs and not particularly aero, thought I'd treat myself.

Nightmare. I'd love to achieve mechanical zen level and be able to re loom a car without completely losing it. Just redoing a stereo is bad enough.

It’s not so hard just time consuming, and it helps if you’ve got a bit of a stock of the right bits to do it nicely of course.

I have wiring OCD though to be fair.

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That's what I meant. Patience, or the lack thereof. I just don't have it. Nice job, looks satisfying.

Anyone got any form of tubeless sealant in their tyres? Have a set of new tyres that now leak steadily through the wheel itself. So need refurb'd but don't have time till end of the month.

Tyre shop put some magic sealant in (gonna be tractor tyre sealant I imagine!). Great slow leak is stopped. But now have quite bad steering wheel shake when accelerating from 60-xx. Basically any harder acceleration above 60 gets quite bad, until speed reduced a bit, then accelerate again a little more gentle. Thought it was maybe CV shaft had gone but just had a feel and they are still spot on.

Sealant doing weird dances inside the tyre? Zero idea how much they put in.

Think I've sorted our car problem out by just extending the lease on the Octavia till 2023.

Well, kicked it down the road, anyway.

Shame petrol is like £3k per drop now but worse things happen at sea

Ask the tyre shop to check the balancing on the offending tyre(s) as they appear to have caused an issue. It may just be that the tyres have to warm up properly to spread the sealant around the inside of the tyre. It may have pooled in what was the bottom of the tyres and due to the cold weather is reluctant to disperse. I am not a tyre expert.

Haha I don't think its either of those. I think its literally sloshing at those speed/acceleration and going out of balance. Increasing speed more gradual upto xxx it behaves normally.

The real fix is going to be refurb all the wheels, but means a trip to Yorkshire (5 hours each way), and TBH don't have time. None of the wheel refurb spots near me appear to be able to operate basic tools like tyre levers/tyre machine without breaking everything, everytime.

It was an excellent day, @ElGonzo is an excellent driver. Very smooth and calm, which makes a big change from me!!

Testament to him, I think he drove my car better than I did.

Got some pics through from the MSV photographer, it's frustrating paying for worse pics than you can take yourself, but it's nice to finally get some pics of this car on track.

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Of course, continuing my run of luck with cars, the engine now has no oil pressure so it looks like it's going to need another engine swapping in.

Needs more baffles in the sump. Back when I was into redblocks, so much of the chat on turbobricks was about oil control (they had essentially none, as most family estate cars with open diff, sofa springs, and 185 wide tyres don't generate any lateral g, none) and how best to epoxy bits of soup tins into the sump to prevent oil stavation when on a track. But most of it was nonsense and keyboard engineering, some of it worked though!

superb stuff. totally love to get involved at some point

Can anyone recommend a reasonably interesting car for commuting. Not sure my Audi 80 will be up to it.

50 miles twice per week. Maybe more.

I’ve probably got £3-4K to spend.

Audi 80 > many modern cars in terms of reliability.

Theres a few near me that just keep on going, no rust either, same can't be said for a 6 year old focus!

I haven’t even got the job yet. But it will be 2 days a week. Mostly motorway driving.

motorway driving isn't interesting, in my experience, at least not in the sort of cars i've owned or driven.

maybe just cos i'm old and boring but priorities for me for that kind of use are comfortable seats / driving position, not too much road / wind noise at motorway speeds, decent stereo, adaptive cruise control as a bonus.

for the budget you suggest i'd be looking at a Mondeo or Octavia.

For boring motorway stuff I have been (pleasantly) surprised at how good the camper is- an awful lot of which is due to sitting up high with great visibility, out of the spray when it’s raining, and with comfortable seats and so forth plus an ok stereo.

Had something similar in a friends motorbike front tyre, that he filled the front tyre twice with slime.

I've used slime before as you can wash the slime out with water. Used slime on motorbikes that have had a puncture, not run with the slime in all the time only when had a puncture.

Did they balance the tyres afterwards?

Have used this https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-bicycle-tyre-sealant/p/0344045 before on tubeless tyres with porous rims and that no longer seal on the edge. Worked fine and no effect on wheel balance.