NigeT

Well-used top of the range 2500s spotted in Edinburgh this afternoon, some real patina here. Almost 8000 miles driven between 2018 and 2019 MoT's according to online history. 

Well-used top of the range 2500s spotted in Edinburgh this afternoon, some real patina here. Almost 8000 miles driven between 2018 and 2019 MoT's according to online history. 

Numberplate may hold some appeal for Hindu nationalists....

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

Magnificent! I love these. Here’s me being a twat on camera about ‘em;
 
 

Today one of my upper sixth lads told me of how his next door neighbour used to have this old car. It was white and in a bit of a state. He said it was a bit of an embarrassment to the nice road he lived on, and the neighbours used to complain about it. It was badly repaired, and in the end he couldn’t get it started. He offered it to the lad to buy, he declined.  
One day the neighbour says that he has sold the car to someone who was going to fix it up. And on Sunday he shared on Facebook how someone had not got it running again... the lad clicked on the profile of who was fixing up only to be met profile! He couldn’t believe how this old car he had known all his life was now in my hands, and it was the car I had told them about in (a few) previous lessons! 
 It’s a small world... 

Fuck. Where to start...
One of the Doloshite's headlights is wedged in with cardboard and cut up garden hose and then bathroom sealed into place as there is no longer any metal for it to bolt to.
The Acclaim's O/S/F wing is largely crafted out of gaffer tape rattled canned blue.
The 1850HL was ran with shoe laces holding the carbs tight to the manifold when the rubber mounts started to split.
Both the Civic's headlight bulbs were gaffer taped in.
I taped over a big hole in my Corsa D's rear light with clear tape to such a good standard nobody noticed when I sold it.
The Acclaim's wiper arms have been filed out to use a nut and bolt instead of a wiper pin.
The Doloshite's rear bumper is spaced out with a million washers to compensate for crash damage.
 
And that's just the stuff I've done...
 
When I bought the Doloshite the throttle linkage was some metal wire twisted around the original broken one.
The radio in said car is also earthed directly to the bottom of the dashboard, through the vinyl, so it doesn't work properly and gets very hot.
The wheelarches had been repaired by riveting repair panels over the top of the original arches.
The entire underside of the 1850HL was structurally underseal, several cm thick in places.
One of the window winder handles in the Doloshite has been replaced with one from a bathroom cabinet.
Every single wire between the Acclaim's ignition barrel and the rest of the car has been cut and then twisted back together and taped.
On purchase the Dolly 1300's radio was wired in such a way that the negatives and positives were backwards the left and right channels were backwards and it only played mono because they'd used the feed from left front and left rear...

I once drove home the Cinquecento that had snapped its throttle cable with a long piece of string fed out the rear of the bonnet and through the window to work as a hand throttle....

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

I miss my old Robin. Genius offspring of an ex-Bond fellow in Newbury who converts Reliants at home in his spare time. 

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

Had never heard of a JDM Orane until I saw this one in the Algarve over New Year.  Would love to know more about them, looks like top class shite.  

Old money

Same fleet as the end of last year. New years resolution for 2020 is to find a new home for the XJ-S V12. Ideal replacement a Reliant or cheap sheddy semi-broken Alfa. Mondial sailed through MOT & was rewarded with new timing belts, plugs, bonnet struts and other goodies. XJ-S needed power steering hose & subframe bush replacement (proper bastard jobs) and gauges now up the creek, the car is no longer bringing me joy. Trusty CLK's been given a full service (incl discs, pads & caliper repair), some DIY bodywork & a new thermostat & running like new.   

Same fleet as the end of last year. New years resolution for 2020 is to find a new home for the XJ-S V12. Ideal replacement a Reliant or cheap sheddy semi-broken Alfa. Mondial sailed through MOT & was rewarded with new timing belts, plugs, bonnet struts and other goodies. XJ-S needed power steering hose & subframe bush replacement (proper bastard jobs) and gauges now up the creek, the car is no longer bringing me joy. Trusty CLK's been given a full service (incl discs, pads & caliper repair), some DIY bodywork & a new thermostat & running like new.   

Same fleet as the end of last year. New years resolution for 2020 is to find a new home for the XJ-S V12. Ideal replacement a Reliant or cheap sheddy semi-broken Alfa. Mondial sailed through MOT & was rewarded with new timing belts, plugs, bonnet struts and other goodies. XJ-S needed power steering hose & subframe bush replacement (proper bastard jobs) and gauges now up the creek, the car is no longer bringing me joy. Trusty CLK's been given a full service (incl discs, pads & caliper repair), some DIY bodywork & a new thermostat & running like new.   

ID like a Ferrari 250GTE please lottery fairy. Gorgeous and understated Cinderella amongst various more attention grabbing prima Donna relatives.
For a very long time fodder for various “recreations” of more expensive brethren chop chop, bin the body. This car paid the bills in period. If was a billionaire I’d buy one of those testarossa/ gto/ LM replicas and turn it back into a 250GTE. In your face Chris Evans.

 


 

Same fleet as the end of last year. New years resolution for 2020 is to find a new home for the XJ-S V12. Ideal replacement a Reliant or cheap sheddy semi-broken Alfa. Mondial sailed through MOT & was rewarded with new timing belts, plugs, bonnet struts and other goodies. XJ-S needed power steering hose & subframe bush replacement (proper bastard jobs) and gauges now up the creek, the car is no longer bringing me joy. Trusty CLK's been given a full service (incl discs, pads & caliper repair), some DIY bodywork & a new thermostat & running like new.   

Same fleet as the end of last year. New years resolution for 2020 is to find a new home for the XJ-S V12. Ideal replacement a Reliant or cheap sheddy semi-broken Alfa. Mondial sailed through MOT & was rewarded with new timing belts, plugs, bonnet struts and other goodies. XJ-S needed power steering hose & subframe bush replacement (proper bastard jobs) and gauges now up the creek, the car is no longer bringing me joy. Trusty CLK's been given a full service (incl discs, pads & caliper repair), some DIY bodywork & a new thermostat & running like new.   

^^Up the ante and buy a broken Rolls next year then.  Give her something to really cry about.

Nothing sums up the shit hole that is Croydon better than seeing a festering Trabant on top of a rusty shipping container.

Who actually buys all these £5,000 white showroom 1995 Ford Escorts 1.4 Pops? I quite like my 2000 Mondeo, it just does the job lovely. I’d not give £5 fucking grand on one though.
 
Or the £80,000 Sierra Cosworths - I mean something like that is practically useless, you can’t drive it anywhere for fear of it getting damaged or putting miles on it, you can’t sit it on the drive because it would get taken away by some nasty men. It wouldn’t be much safer in the garage, chances are someone would be round to frog march you in your dressing gown at knife point in the small hours to open the garage door. Basically all you could do is put it in a heated garage, not tell a soul you’ve got it and toss one off over it every now and again in between whittling about if it’s dropped in value. 

That's lovely... (Anyone want to buy an MX5 ?)...