83C

Went to a Cars & Coffee type meet this morning in Wrectwm. Some decent cars on show including: I was never much of a Nova fan but these days I’m beginning to appreciate them a bit more. The Capri was a bit interesting too, at first glance it’s a standard 280 Brooklands but it sounds too smooth to be a Cologne and barely visible behind the 15s was a 4-pot brake setup on the front and a disc conversion on the rear. Sadly never saw the owner to ask what was hiding under the bonnet, though I suspect maybe a 2.9 24v conversion.

Gave the Range Rover some long overdue attention today, with an oil and filter change. Also found the air con belt has shredded itself, probably because the compressor is seized. Think I might have to do something about that.

Much the same for me. Left the suspension in auto all the time, but did occasionally put the gearbox in sport mode. It’s done well for oil changes, it had one 7-8 months ago with me. Absolute doddle to do.

The previous generation (VT-VZ) Commodore was based on the same floorpan as the Omega, the old GM V platform. The VE was a clean sheet design by Holden that gave GM the Zeta platform and is very different to the V platform. I wonder if those alternative geometry figures were influenced at all by the HSV Clubsport variants of the VT-VZ?

Today the VXR8 went for proper 4w alignment. This all went well until the nearside leading lower arm on the rear axle (which is adjustable on the HSV variants of the VE Commodore) sheared. The garage had tried penetrating oil, heat, and then sheer force to get the outer adjusting nut to free off (having already successfully managed the inner), and the arm gave way instead 🤦🏻‍♂️ Got a lift back home, then had the fun* of extracting the spare arm off the spare subframe (lucky I bought that…) which put up a fair old fight. Fortunately it came around to my way of thinking before I went full fat gorilla on it. Back to the garage, dropped the replacement arm off and let them get on with it. Collected the car a few hours later and it drives so much better, but still isn’t exactly perfect. There was an adjustment bolt on one of the rear arms that they were understandably reticent about messing with, having already had the experience with the leading arm, so it’s good enough for now. With the spare rear subframe available to refurbish and fit later this year it’s something I’ll live with, once that is all on everything will be new and easy to adjust. Back home and it got treated to a bit of an engine bay wash and brush up: A close up of the vital details: I have to be honest and say I’m pretty satisfied with how this has turned out, it was a proper wreck when I bought it and now it’s a damn good car. The cosmetics still need attention and the clutch can judder a bit away from standstill, but they can wait for now.

Each carriage is powered, Cummins QSK-19 with 750bhp per coach. They go ok but they’re not the most refined of things to be a passenger on. Vents - no idea.

XC first class is alright to be fair, take advantage of the free drinks and snacks.

In more fleet news the Range Rover passed its MoT today, making 6/7 of the fleet this year. Just the Arnage to go, maybe later this month. I’m always glad to see the back of MoT season. I also changed the diff oil in the VXR8 to try and help solve the issues when it’s on the move. At the moment it’s suffering from some very wayward steering which is booked to be corrected tomorrow morning with a full 4w alignment on a Hunter machine. It’s also exhibited some odd behaviour where it feels like the diff is very slightly locking up and causing the back of the car to wander every so often, as well as making the odd click when turning tightly. I was relieved to see ‘nice’ black/brown used oil drain out rather than a silvery goop that would indicate something really badly wrong, and it’s been refilled with fresh oil which happens to be specific to the VXR8 and a few Land Rovers with electronic diffs. £42 for a litre bottle from the local LR dealer is the cheapest I found it, and I needed 1.2L… Still, I’ll only need to buy one bottle at the end of the summer to refill the diff when I swap the subframes over. Small mercies and all that. I keep thinking of selling the Fabia, not because there’s anything wrong with it, I just fancy something with a bit more ground clearance and chunkier tyres. But not the Range Rover. The roads around Shropshire are utterly shit and getting worse, especially where I am. The Skoda is a cracking little car, economical, goes well, handles alright and stops ok, as well as being a doddle to park and comfortable for me. But it gets lost in some of the bigger holes and my dog will soon outgrow the boot space unless I start folding the back seats down. I did consider the E320 that was for sale as it would tick the comfort and dog space boxes, but really I want something with really chunky 70-80 profile tyres, lots of ground clearance and ideally slightly shorter than a cruise liner. Something like a short wheel base Frontera diesel or a Mk.1 3dr Freelander Td4. I’d really like a Jimny but I doubt I’d fit in it and finding a non-rotten example cheap would be a bit of a mission. Ho hum.

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly. Still, at least it looks good:

Just as well I sold the A8 because I am tempted by this 😄

No idea what each car is but I know I'm paying around £150 per month across the fleet for the next six months. Only the Range Rover and the Skoda (or whatever daily I have by the time October rolls around) will stay taxed through winter. It's like all the other tax we all pay - I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it if we were actually getting something worthwhile for the money rather than a country rapidly falling apart at the seams.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a spare set of wheels with the intention of stripping the old tyres off and then having them powdercoated and new tyres fitted. The wheels that were on the car have a mix of budget brands thoroughly unsuited to the car. These wheels that I fitted today are neither the originals or the spare set: They’re a set that came up for sale locally in excellent condition with almost new Pirelli P-Zeros fitted, so now I have three sets of wheels. Anyone want a set of VXR8 19’s? Speaking of wheels I also managed to get the hubcaps kindly sent by @AnnoyingPentium onto the Skoda: Note the quality* repair to the hole in the rear bumper.

Thanks, this was pretty much my thinking (having done it in the past with a couple of other cars), but there were still a few curveballs that I really didn’t expect with this one such as the missing n/s handbrake. There is a plan for an ongoing program of improvements including the rear subframe which will be sorted over the summer for fitting during next winter, and at some point I’ll have to face up to getting the small bubbles in the paint along the rear wing/bumper join sorted out. Still, that’s all for the future, it’s time to give a few other vehicles in the fleet some attention.

Extra long ratchet strap* right around the body? If the mounting is similar to the Skoda there isn’t really much else you can do other than find a tame welder to add a new stud. *Don’t laugh, I nearly did this as an emergency fix with the Skoda before I managed to find the bungee cord box. It would have also held the front doors closed which would have made getting in and out a bit tricky.

Just out of interest the work so far has cost: Walkinshaw cat-back stainless steel exhaust (secondhand): £1000 Superpro springs, dampers and front topmounts: £949 Pair of front droplinks: £70 Pair of rear droplinks: £75 New suspension arms all round, new track rods and ends, and new GM alternator from the States - £1050 including shipping and import duty. Both rear hubs and driveshafts (secondhand): £300 Rear discs (secondhand): £150 HEL braided brake lines: £108 Rear ABS sensor: £10 Front ARB Superpro polybushes: £45 Steering rack Superpro polybush: £45 MoT + fitment of new exhaust, braided brake lines, fresh brake fluid, set up tracking: £407 Total: £4209. Plus the parts that aren’t fitted yet: Pair of good condition headlamps: £300 Set of alloys for refurbishment: £300 Rear subframe for refurbishment: £150 Total so far: £4959. Still to spend: Clutch (LS7 upgrade, fitted): £1700 Tyres: circa £600 for something decent. Wheel refurbishment: ? Rear subframe refurbishment (strip, blast and powdercoat), plus fitting: ? So after all that I’ll have spent £7259 + whatever the wheels and subframe cost to refinish. That’s a huge amount to have spent on a car, and the vast majority of that is with no labour charges. I don’t know the ‘book times’ for the work I’ve done but I’d be surprised if a pro garage didn’t book at least 2 solid days for the work I did, so that’s probably 15+ hrs at £50-£75 per hour adding another £750-£1000 at least. I’ll not count the money I spent on extra tools as they’ll get used on other things. So how does it compare to buying a properly nice VXR8? MWPerformance in Chester are well known for retailing good quality VXR8s, they have a red 6.0 VXR8 in at the moment for £16,995 but it is an auto. It’s somewhere close to what I will have spent including purchase, but on the upside I have a car I know is solid underneath because everything is new. That’s not to say the MWP car (or any tidy VXR8) is worn out, it’s just that those cars might need suspension work long before mine ever should. So it’s swings and roundabouts - buy the good one for an instant hit of fun and nothing to worry about immediately, or buy a rough one, spend the money putting it right and then enjoy. I could have saved money by not buying the Walkinshaw exhaust and just cocooning the crap joints on the old system in gun gum and exhaust bandage, I could just leave the subframe refresh, the spare alloys, spare headlamps and not bother changing the tyres, and the springs and dampers would have passed an MoT as they’re not cracked or leaking. But I certainly wouldn’t have been happy doing half a job, and I really dislike having to come back to something a few months later because of a job that could have been done when everything else was apart got missed for the sake of saving a few quid. Horses for courses, you takes your pick etc. Hopefully I’ll pull a few quid back by selling the old exhaust backboxes, the stock springs and dampers, the old headlamps, what will become the spare set of wheels and tyres etc, and maybe someone might even want the old subframe for their own refurb/swap project. All of the above is probably applicable to any performance car, it’s the old triangle of choice; you can have something that is a combination of fast, reliable, cheap. Pick any two…

And it’s good news! The good folk at Halfway House Garage fitted the replacement exhaust, braided brake lines, sorted out the tracking and gave it an MoT. It now drives nicely, and the exhaust is mega - a proper howl at higher revs. Not the quietest though… Need to polish these a bit. Glad to reach the end of this stage of works on it to be honest, it’s been a bit of a mission and there’s been a few occasions when I’ve questioned my sanity for taking it on.

Update - new studs welded to the underside of the Skoda so the fuel cooler is back where it ought to be. Also, fitted a quad-exit exhaust to the VXR8, alignment needs a bit of work though:

Bear in mind that the L-series might be enormous, but it really isn’t very powerful in N/A form. It should be ‘adequate’ - what that meant in reality was somewhere around 200bhp in a very lazy state of tune, and that in a car that is very heavy and lumbered with a 3-speed auto. As others have said though, worth giving it some love. Filters, spark plugs, check the dashpots, usual stuff. Glad you got in there before I did though, I would have been very tempted!

I always have a healthy selection of bungee cords, ratchet straps and cable ties in the shed, essential parts of the toolkit. @horriblemercedes that would be mega, I’m in no rush other than not wanting to keep @Marshall2810 waiting, the wheels are for the Fabia anyway.

VXR8 - now ready for MoT. I pinned down the ABS fault to a weak wire (not fully broken) with the aid of this: One of the old hubs, the spare wiring harness, a couple of spare ABS sensors and the diagnostics box plugged in and giving live data. All dashboard lights off, so it’s booked in to be taken to the garage on Tuesday next week for exhaust fitment, braided brake line fitment, tracking and MoT. The Bentley came out of hibernation too once the VXR8 had moved out of the way, needs a damn good clean but otherwise ready for test. All these good moments can’t go unpunished of course, so last night as I got home I heard a scraping noise from under the Fabia: Bollocks and arse. I was supposed to be meeting @Marshall2810 to collect some alloys today but that plan has had to be shelved as I don’t even have the L322 to hand until Thursday at the earliest. If anyone is passing his way (Chesterfield/Mansfield area) and could bring a set of alloys closer to Shropshire I’d be very appreciative. Looking again in the daylight and it hasn’t got any better: That’s the fuel cooler which normally bolts to the underside of a Fabia. Except thanks to a spot of alloy on steel action, it now doesnt: So the only thing left for it is to move the Fabia to the naughty side of the driveway with the cooler secured like so: And get the push-iron out for the trip to work. Bugger.

It’s Shropshire. It won’t be dry.

Onwards. Today went a bit like this. Make brew: Reassemble N/S/R suspension complete with the mad idea of having an actual functioning handbrake: Refit rear disc. Look a bit closer at said disc: Swear, lots.

The 2.5 isn’t ‘proper quick’ but given the amount of stuff written about its alleged slowness I was very pleasantly surprised. Driven back to back with your 3.2 it would feel slow, but come to it from any normal car and it’s more than adequate, as 200bhp in a 1250kg car should be.

Makes you wonder how Bad Obsession have taken so long with Binky, when instead you can nail a Mini shell on an Audi floorpan and make a front end out of old school lockers…

Last year I was looking for a 750kg trailer for general usage, moving junk, tip runs, etc. I got so irritated looking for a good secondhand one that hadn’t been owned by a fuckwit that I splurged £850 on a brand new 7x4 including frame and canvas cover. At least I know the thing is all good and I can maintain it without wondering if the previous owners ever bothered to grease it or give it a check over every so often. Only thing I’ve bought since for it is a decent chain to have in addition to the securing wire.