Yoss

So, I've posted pictures of this 900 before as it's where I park my car for work. Although that was with the blue Favorit so here's one with the green Favorit. But this morning there was a second Saab! That's quite special isn't it? I assume it's owned by the same person. Unless one of the neighbours liked the white one so much they decided to buy their own.

Blimey.

Some pictures from my archives. My archives are totally random so it's a case of pulling some albums out and seeing what's in them, so these are in no particular order. My first Landcrab. I'd walked past it many times in a council car park in Shirley. I walked past one day and it had a notice of removal from the council stuck on the windscreen so I left my own note on it expressing an interest. Got a phone call the same day. Went back and agreed a price of £80. I drove it home there and then to park it up in a different council car park. Needed lots of welding but I got a couple of years out of it before the tin worm won. This picture was outside a friends house in Hastings. He had it on loan for a while when fleet numbers were getting out of hand. And this is the car park it ended up in. These were all mine. I didn't always park them like this, I generally spread them out across the estate so as not to draw too much attention to them but it was the middle of the day so most people were at work so I brought them together for a photograph, no other reason. And this wasn't the entire fleet, there are no Triumph 1300s here and I haven't been without at least one 1300 since 1991. Here's the Austin out and about. No idea where it is but it obviously looked photogenic. The 3-Litre belonged to a friend of mine. And this is in a quarry somewhere on Portland. The P5 belonged to the same friend who had the Austin 3-Litre. I would say he had more expensive taste than me but none of these cars were more than a few hundred pounds. I think the Austin was £800 but he had that one a quite a long time. The Rover developed gearbox problems and was moved on quite quickly but was nice while it lasted.

So, I took the new Fav along to the local Škoda meeting. It's called a Škoda meeting but it is almost all Octavia VRS's. Not that surprising really as VRS owners tend to be enthusiasts whereas people with a basic Fabia probably just want a car. Anyway I do my best to add to the variety with my fleet and thought I'd make quite an impression with my new one. But then somebody turned up with this! I can't compete with that can I? Though I was very happy to be out shone. What a glorious car. They are now on my lottery win list as prices have gone stupid. Always wanted one and having a good look around this one hasn't changed my mind. Funny thing is we'd been there for half an hour before anybody noticed that the pub was shut! So a quick call was made to another local pub we have used before to see if they could feed 14 people at short notice. They could so off we all went. I followed the S110R and it went surprisingly well once he had an open road ahead. Of course most of the Octys are remapped and buggered about with to 300hp plus but I bet we were having more fun. God I want this.

They don't have tickover as such. The engine only has one speed which it uses to charge the batteries. In theory at least. I haven't been on any for ages and have heard that the batteries are getting worse so the diesel is on more and more often. I think the idea was sound but they were underdeveloped as Boris wanted them in service by a certain date. I don't see why they can't have charging points at route termini so they could be topped up whilst on layover. They need to be used on electric more to justify their existence.

I had never heard of May and Schofield until I put the new* speakers in my Favorit recently. They are still going and based in Basingstoke apparently.

Do we know where it is? Have I missed that from the original post? I'm sure somebody could tell from the buses, though I realise we don't even know what colour they are.

The kiosk in the bottom right corner has the word holiday on it three times which would also point to valet parking. Can't make out any of the other words but it makes some sense.

So I've done my first mpg test for the new Favorit. A three day trip round Dorset with brief forays in to Devon and Somerset. A mix of fast dual carriage ways, A31 and A35 plus the five miles of M27 before it fizzles out, but mostly trundling around the Dorset lanes and town driving. Brimmed it before leaving and brimmed it again this morning. 211 miles. 22.81 litres. Which is almost exactly five gallons. This works out at almost exactly 42mpg which I'm very happy with. I think it would do more on a steady run. I honestly think this might be more economical than the standard car. Mainly because it is so understressed in normal driving in such a light car. I'm just tickling the throttle in most cases whereas in the 1.3 I'm flooring it most if the time. If I drove the new one the same way I would soon drive in to the back of something.

Thanks, I stand corrected.

Those are not Triumph 2000 wheels.

Beaminster, Dorset

Both Chieveley and the green Favorit are on their first holiday with us. Of sorts. We thought we'd start small so it's just a couple of nights in a cabin on a farm in Dorset, less than two hours drive away. You have to think about what you're packing more when the dog is taking up the back seats. It looks very farmy in this direction. There's also an interesting looking Merc 190 round the corner which I shall have to investigate later. The view the other way is much greener. The paddock up to the fence is ours. It is supposed to be dog proof but we don't entirely trust Chieveley, he can be very inquisitive so we've got him on a 60ft lead. Mrs Yoss has gone for a walk down to the local Spar so he is ignoring me completely at the moment. Edit: The Merc.

That is bloody lovely.

In the days before shared vans, i.e. two people in a Pug Partner, one driver would service about six to eight foot deliveries taking extra bags out to a pre designated bag drop. On one of my old deliveries it was at a dry cleaners. If I got there before my driver he would just push my bags out of the open sliding door on to the pavement without stopping. Used to love driving around with the doors open. That's great, we never had any anywhere near that new. My last Sherpa was Y833TDA but that had conventional doors. The last I remember us having were M or N reg.

Ooh, I thought somebody was selling my car for a second. I had to look out the window to make sure it was still there. Its actually a bit bASer than mine, looks lovely from the very small photos though. Apart from the wheels which are far too bright silver and need toning down a little.

I'd like to point out that mine only has a matt black bonnet (and wing tops if we're being picky) and it's not even matt black it's satin. Also it's been like that since 2008 and I've owned the car since 1995 so it is definitely not following the same career path. Today I have driven to Northampton to pick up a brand new Favorit bumper. The new car has this exhaust sticking out in the wrong place for which they have cut an extra lump out of the bumper. It should protrude from that recess just to the left. It's not the hairiest of boy racer exhausts but it is a little noisy and I would prefer a standard looking one in the right place at some point. In which case I now have an unmolested bumper to go with it.

Cherwell Valley Services now. I am parked opposite. Would have parked next to it but they were disabled spaces. I ignored the Rolls Royce.

Google lens says Lada Priora. The suspension seems to break a lot.

I bet his neighbours love him.

Went right over my head. Anyway I just got back from Swanage. Top day out, well documented on the Railshite thread. I drove all the way the home with the roof open so I now smell of both diesel and petrol fumes at the same time which is an achievement. Had to stop to snap this at Corfe Castle. Just the right amount of shabby and the back was stacked full of cardboard boxes. The only slight downer was the Triumphs gearbox or clutch started making a funny, quite loud noise on the way back. Fortunately only two miles from home and it goes away when you dip the clutch so I managed to coast most of the way home with my foot on the clutch. Hopefully it's something simple like the clutch release bearing. I'll add it to the list of jobs to do. Edit: Oh, yeah, and this was parked near Harmans Cross Station.

It's blue gingham I'm afraid.

Off to the Swanage Railway diesel gala. Thought I'd arrive in something appropriate for riding around on 1960s machinery all day. Got here early so it's still nice and quiet. Found unrestricted parking a five minute walk from the station so that's a result. Not on the seafront obviously, that was just for photos.