Skut

Amsterdam & SC.

Aspires are just a face lifted Kia Pride.

Plans afoot to do just that.

I got to drive two USDM cars yesterday. A 1996 Ford Aspire and a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis. Still buzzing! The Mercury was the car I really wanted to drive. It rocks when you blip the throttle! Nor does it seem monstrously big but that’s maybe because it’s on a big American driveway. It doesn’t seem particularly fast but it’s hugely characterful. It wonders quite a bit even at low speeds but corners relatively flat. It seems inconsistent. Sometimes floaty, sometimes not. It rides pretty well but shudders still get through to your bum at times. The Aspire drives like filth by comparison. Any attempt to go round a corners above parking speeds and the steering goes horribly heavy. A real set in concrete feel. Something is very wrong in the sensors somewhere as it starts to die the second you put any load on it. The manual gearbox was fine. About the only good thing about it. It was hard work to drive. It felt as if it had to be manhandled everywhere. Loved every minute of it! Also the remains of what I think is a 40s Chevrolet upside down in a wood.

Me and my pal from Crieff came down in our ZR and Polo. I was somewhat surprised by the You Tubers. I had expected a couple of the big names but not roving bands of the creatures. Old tat channels must be reaching saturation point. I greatly admired Colin Corkes Princess. Meeting the Allegro bloke off The Cars of the Stars was enough celebrity for me.

With regards to the location of the abandoned Electric Harper. All the guy who took the photographs would say, was it was in Harrogate. He didn't give the impression he was going to be more forthcoming than that.

I was there with my dad. There was a time when Border car shows resembled something from Craggy Island. It's more like a music festival now.

This Roller is in Kirkton, Dundee. Rough area. The playpark was on fire. .

What is it with women in their 30s. In my teens ot 20s if you didn't fancy someone you told them, harsh words were sometimes exchanged and you went your separate ways. Now lasses im my demographic ask me to reconsider the decision and question the validity of my decision making process. Since when has that been acceptable to pressurise or manipulate people into a relationship. Maybe I'm not being clear enough, but I thought "I don't fancy you" was pretty damn unambiguous. What's next? Tell her I don't fancy a sack of spuds.

A Geely on Ukrainian plates. Papped on Dundees Riverside drive.

So what are they like.

I own a Y10 Turbo in many separate pieces. Anybody driven or owned a Berkeley.

It's a private FB group called Scrapyards from the Good Old Days. Nothing to stop you joining of course. I've messaged the guy that posted it to ask where it is. There may be more of it there than appears in the photographs. The roof and front could be nearby in the undergrowth.

Wish granted sort of. This appeared on my FB feed on a Scrapyards from the good old days Group. I'm no expert but it looks like a Harper Mk6. I was intrigued enough by the rakish lines to go digging on the net till I got a match. Only downside is it doesn't say where it is except it's in a field. I guess you could message the guy that posted it.

S-class, sightless Mini and a Discovery. I've uploaded the Discovery before but it's presence is clearly getting unpopular.

That's why I choose that image. I can't stand Rostyles. I really wanted a bubble shaped Mazda 121 when they were new. The looks caused quite a stir at the time but aren't nearly so striking today. All Autos in the UK I think.

Dundee again. First shot is a posh area somewhere around Roseangle. The others are on the site of Wellgate Street that had just been cleared for the Wellgate shopping centre that in now largely empty except for the odd Junkie and the library.

The Rootes Arrow based Sunbeam Alpine. I'm sure I remember a book describing it as a stripped austerity Rapier. Not that the Rapier is much better remembered. A great shame as they're nice looking cars. Rootes did badge engineering much better than BMC.

That happened to me more than once with my old Panda. Always on new distributor caps bought from Halfords after a long run. Once happened on the Isle of Mull which was helpful. Just crap parts I reckon. The Graphite contacts don't seem good enough quality to handle a long run and break off flush with the plastic. You can just pull the brush out as it's an interference fit spring underneath it and replace it with one from another cap. It's how I got mine running again on Mull after rooting through a garage scrap pile.

The Fiat 133 was sold here for a bit. Almost totally forgotten.

Wankers in Fog. Driving home and the worst pea souper I've seen in ages descends. Then someone who must have some marvel comics X-Ray vision emerged from the gloom behind me at astonishing speed and tailgates me for the next 2 miles. But they don't overtake because like me they can't fucking see. Who the fuck drives that fast in fog you can't see 30 feet and then tailgates. I can only hope they win the Darwin award they richly deserve.

98-01 Suzuki Alto. I had one off Mr Shitpeas for quite a bit. I only saw one other in the entire time we had it. Quite a likeable little car but rust was getting a hold in a big way. Clutch, CV joint woes and a break in sealed it's fate.

In a compound near me. The Discovery has an impressive array of aerials. The Snowmobile one of many.

I've got a feeling the plastic wheel trim is mounted on an old tyre, minus an actual steel rim. They don't normally have wheels mounted on the boot so it would make sense.

The Effa Ideal is not something I'd ever heard of and was on FB marketplace in South America. Effa is a Uruguayan manufacturer building ckd kits of other peoples cars. Also apparently sold in Italy as the Martin Motors Ideal 1000.