warch

Iirc* this was a badge engineering exercise by Maranello who, lacking a small fibreglass three wheeler in their range during the early 80s approached Reliant to provide one.

It'll be perfectly in keeping with our current test captain (also a kiwi by birth) and our outgoing white ball captain who is from the quaint old English town of Dublin.

Yep, same as the 106. Used to be an issue for early adherents to the Max Power scene, because most big rimz innit only came in various 4 or 5 stud patterns.

They've got a point.

I think I saw the red one in Ludlow on Saturday.

Aren't you about to sprog St J? Old cars have a way of knowing, so they can break down and use all the spare time/money you know longer have. My Golf did an ECU (1200quid) around the time my eldest was born and a turbo (1200 quid again) when her little sister was born. The bastard. Toyota fasteners do seem a bit 'snappy'.

Yesterday was the first time in 45 years I think ever seen my dad in tears. Apparently he'd been getting ready to go out fishing with my brother and his kids and had opened the gate to take his gear out to the car. His dog (a collie) suddenly started barking so he went out and saw a couple with a whippet walking in the lane. His dog does have a fairly poor track record with other dogs so he motioned at them to stop so he could get her in but they didn't and she went for their dog. No serious harm done, but a lot of fur flying. Once the other dog owner had finishing kicking the shit out of my dad's dog (not unreasonably) he then went and started threatening my dad who, whilst not in any way frail is a smallish bloke in his mid-70s. According to my brother he was right up in his face, swearing at him, vowing that he was going to call the police and inform the council, that my dad's dog was going to be destroyed, and that this would cost thousands in compensation. I could put this down to him seeing red but my dad later received an phone call to that effect. My mum and dad's neighbour meanwhile was fanning the flames by inviting the dog owners wife in (who was hysterical) and telling her that my dad's dog is always doing this. My dad is well aware that he is in the wrong and is perfectly willing to meet any reasonable expenses arising from it, but it the dog owners manner that really shook him.

Another tale of Landrovery woe followed by a hopeful fix. As vouchsafed on here my dad’s diesel developed a severe running problem that turned out to be caused by a shattered camshaft thrust plate which resulted in the camshaft attempting to leave the engine via the timing cover. This also moved the drive on the diesel pump so it was horribly out of time. Aaanyway fixing all this improved matters but it was still badly down on power. My dad found upon removing the head that a hotspot had escaped and ended up trapped between the piston and the inlet valve bending the latter and cracking a valve guide. That’s probably the issue then. The piston top was quite badly scored but serviceable, the bore was undamaged. I reckon he could rebuild that for £50 quid or maybe a bit more if the valve guide needs an engineering company to do it. At least my dad has avoided at least two months of £1.75 a litre.

At least the manifold removal on this is quite easy, if it’s anything like the same procedure on my Qashqai. Haynes have been in slow decline for years, because people apparently no longer work on their own vehicles because they’re too complicated. Personally with a world of information at my fingertips and magical machines that tell me what’s wrong just by plugging it in I am managing to struggle on, although even I draw a line at leccy handbrakes.

As others have said a brilliant thread, very engrossing and the model cars are an absolute bonus.

Of course there was also this…

Holy thread resurrection (quite appropriate for Easter). Bathgate built Leyland 2 something something probably a 270 with half a quick detach cab. Massey Ferguson 565/75/90. Have some bonus Zetors as well.

I think so, I especially like the parts backup. I quite fancy buying the detailed shell kit, but I'd probably be too scared to use it.

Predictably I’ve got one of these, having seen a few Facebook videos. RC crawlers are ace, you can have most of the fun of off roading without the fuel bills, pissing off other people or getting stuck. Yours is much cleverer mines just a ready to run version to see if I liked it.

I often wonder what the spacecraft and missions in a theoretical British space programme would've been named, America have this tendency to make everything sound exciting and dramatic, so they have the Eagle flying the Apollo mission. We'd probably have the Stoat Lander or the Marmond Harrington Lunar Traversing Device as part of Operation Lawn Tennis.

I wonder if they considered exhumed?

They’re sort of the crappest homologation model ever, just a boggo 206 GTi with extra long bumpers so as to meet WRC regs (a 206 being slightly under the required 4m length). Obviously didn’t have 4wd or 300hp either. I quite like it.

Spent a happy hour and a half gang mowing the cricket pitch in preparation for the new season. The task was complicated due to the lack of one of the mower barrels and the Landrover’s bloody awful turning circle. But nothing broke, or went on fire. I did decide to run with the tailgate off so I could see what the implement was doing which was a good idea but did fill the rear tub with freshly cut grass.

I’ve been actually using my Landrover. It’s currently leading a slightly dishonourable existence as a tip run vehicle, with at least one trip to deposit the bent and broken bits from the crash I had last year. I have mended a few little annoying niggles like the fly open doors, both of which needed the catches moving. I have also altered the throttle return mechanism so the throttle returns closed and not a quarter open which was annoying if not dangerous and straightened the linkage (also bent in the crash). It now works properly but has a really heavy throttle which should help economy especially at £1.55 a litre.

No but I saw it had been released. I’m still waiting for the Austin Champ and a few others like the AEC quarry truck and cement mixer. I did buy shitloads of Landrovers and two of these (1 by mistake) as I’d bought a dinky little 3d printed plough. The tractor actually has a little linkage that the plough attaches to so I’m delighted with that. Looks good, especially for such a teeny model.

Were you Baldrick?

My 60s petrol Landrover does 20-23mpg which isn't much worse than you'd expect from a 2016 transit diesel engined Defender 26-28mpg. I doubt either of my old Minis 998cc and 1275 (MG Metro engine) ever did more than 40mpg. The smaller engine was underpowered you'd be flat out all the time the bigger one had the Metro diff and 12inch wheels so was very low geared which meant you'd be driving at high rpm at fairly normal road speeds. I had a 200 odd horsepower redtop Calibra Turbo, which was about 400kg heavier than the Astra GTE and 4wd, but did have a then very unusual 6 speed gearbox. It reliably did 35-42mpg in normal use, but could absolutely drink petrol flat out. Bear in mind a contemporary Impreza or SX200 would probably struggle to do 30mpg. My favourite cars for mpg were a Nova 1.5TD and a Corsa 1.7DTi. The former was a bit slow but neither did less than 55mpg, often more like 70ish, even after I'd remapped the latter to 100hp. A 2.5 straight six diesel automatic Omega could do about 35-40mpg realistically which was acceptable at the time, although it was much better on motorways when the gearbox inefficiency was less of an issue. My current car 2007 Nissan Qashqai does 42-mid 50mpg even on shit watered down E10 petrol.

Ooh Windsor Castle, that was a very British protest I thought.

Roadfit TEF10N ?

I’m pleased that’s still on the roads, I can imagine seriously alienating the Caravan Club faithful rocking up in that though. It’s like a early eighties tour bus