Dabooka

GM coupes from the mid-80s upwards really were a little oddly proportioned, I think the "formal" roofline with the steep backscreen is partially to blame there, but even the w-body coupes (Regal etc.) had something funky going on with their wheelbase. Stretching the Riviera really helped it overall though. Its these downsized fwd GM luxury cars that I somehow developed an interest for (what do you have to do to make a somewhat pedestrian platform feel luxurious, even more so over at Cadillac?).
Anyway, as announced, the madness continues with another car arriving today, this time a proper collection thread and all. And nothing less than a freaking E39 540i Touring with the M5s 6-speed manual and LSD diff, an utterly obscure variant of the E39 only existing in extremely low numbers and generally highly sought after. Naturally me being me I bought the cheapest (if you ignore Taylor's repeated automotive thefts) and highest mileage example I have ever seen for sale.

So what have we got? A 1999 built example in Orient Blue Metallic with Sand Beige interior, the same color combo my E38 happens to have. The facelift angel eyes might leave again, I'd like this to be the understated, old money sleeper its been from new and the original pre-facelift amber indicator lights suited it well once:

At 182k miles its definitely seen some action, however knowing how these cars drive at a bit over half the mileage of this one its clear that someone has spent a lot of money keeping it on the road. The clutch, steering and suspension all feel rock solid and the tires are recent Bridgestones on all 4 corners, what more could you ask for? MOT? Just done last month!

The seller was a brilliant bloke and was as honest as they come. I think this was partially the case because he was glad to not see the 5th dickhead showing up trying to screw him over. The car has its flaws but none of them can really taint the experience you have in a proper fast wagon with a muscle car soundtrack while rowing your own gears.

I didn't get much history with the car (other than this sticker and a random photo on flickr). Its had 5 previous owners, with the seller having bought it at auction earlier this year. As for many people at the moment money is tight and family a priority so it had to go and I'm probably one of the very few people willing to give it a good home. It was on FB marketplace for a little while before making its way onto ebay, where not surprisingly the sale fell through only hours after the auction ended.


The drivetrain combo that makes this really special, probably as close to an M5 Touring as you can get (I don't think many more powerful Alpina B10 V8 Tourings actually got a manual). The engine will most likely need timing chain guides and tensioners, something I'll let a professional have a go at. With the timing cover off theres a row of other jobs that can be dealt with at the same time. Lose oilpump bolts is another threat that might require urgent checking (tadts), however having made it up to this mileage you can usually expect quite a few new parts to have found their way into the car by now.

Naturally being a Touring you still have the same practical family hauler as are all the more pedestrian variants. Oddly enough my German 523i has a better spec than this top of the line 540i, no electric or heated seats. They are sports seat though. I'm always wondering who specs these cars the way they are, performance and practicality seemed to be the top priority with this one.
We'll see how I get on with this one. I'd love to be able to take it to Germany for the upcoming holidays, a job I was getting the XM for originally. If anyone is interested in a clean XM with the 3rd of the mileage of this one, let me know! It will be fairly priced on here.

It still survives now, as does the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company building in Allendale Road. This picture is from 1971. The office are now used by Newcastle City Council.

Every street in that godforsaken town is one way they just keep fucking changing it around. All the time.

High street west. Sunderland. 

I’ve always wanted a last of the line l322 Range Rover and ideally in Overfinch flavour, so when this exact combination came up while idly flicking through copart one evening I knew I had to have a bid. I knew nothing about it other than it wasn’t a write off and it had a run and drive marker (which doesn’t stand for much!). I ended up winning it for less than my top bid but a bit more than I was comfortable with. After a nervous 4 day countdown and it was time to see what I’d won.
To my surprise it started up straight away and ran lovely, went through all the gears and even the suspension worked. In fact the only immediate issues were absolutely no brakes due to a burst hard line and 2 flat tyres.
A new brake line was made up, a spare set of wheels was chucked on and the interior was given a scrub. Been rocking this thing for a few days and it’s awesome, needs tlc for some small issues and some bodywork but nothing drastic at all.   Current plan is to run it for a bit while working through its niggles then get it into the bodyshop next year to make it mint providing it hasn’t blown up


 
 

Evening fellow shiters , 
I joined this group when I saw several members mention my old friend Howard Robinson of classic car parts Heathrow .
His storys  are legendary as is he 
Howard is well and Now some what retired , but he is still active and his vast amount of knowledge will not be lost , 
He is very much still in the British classic / vintage car scene and can be sought at the various auto jumbles around the south UK . 
The shop is shut but there is a large amount of stock that will be disposed of over the coming months . This includes new old stock , second used and various projects .
thank you 
regards clas-sick. 
 

In 2018 at the Visa's 40th Birthday party some photography was organised by CCC including a Samba, 104 shortcut and my LNA group shot.

It's a sad story, but only because it hasn't been enjoyed by your Dad.
Try to make sure he gets to do so, even from the passenger seat.
Cars are important to people.

DD12SWL was first registered to Arriva North East in 2012 under the governments "ganning doon the Olympics" program which offered a discount on new buses for provincial operators, in exchange for allowing them to be used for the Olympics before taking delivery.
As such, the bus had a unique layout with 57 seated, zero disabled spaces and a golden throne and strongbox for Olympic officials and the accompanying medals.
Sadly, the Olympic equipment was removed when the bus was transferred to Gloucestershire county council under a prisoner exchange program in 2017.

***yawn***
I think it might still be dark outside and it's cold but it should be worth it 😁 And I'm not at work!
I actually have a few collections to make today, with the main event happening in a couple of hours. Not one of my usual epic trips but looking forward to it all the same. But first, caffeine!

Took the XM to the fancy areas of Newcastle yesterday.

The driver window decided to only go down until 5 minutes of button mashing finally resulted in it suddenly closing all the way again, maybe the auto up button came back to life.
I'm still seeing the no crank issue. It always happens after the car had been running for a while, there's no clear indication yet what makes it crank again.
I'm also starting to realize that the AC system is not very good at demisting the windshield in this weather. Ordered new wiper blades as well as the old ones seem a little tired. A bunch of little bits and pieces arrived today that must have gone missing over the years, more updates on that on the weekend hopefully.
In other news, after waiting for about a year for my turn to send the S8 to Devon to have it checked and fixed by the one and only Audi D2 specialist I've decided to reach out to a different place much closer to Newcastle now. There's a specialist Audi A8 breaker (now supporting many other VAG models) in Stockton-on-Tees that recommended a garage just across the road from them. Reviews seem excellent so I sent them an email to see if they would be interested. The car certainly doesn't get better from sitting for ages so hopefully they can sort out a few issues I personally cannot be bothered with to finally get one step closer to an MOT.

As a reminder, I bought the car during the first lockdown and sorted quite a few issues on it, at this point I'd love for someone else to take over to sort out the ABS pump, O2 sensors and leaky transmission cooler lines, however.
 

The 2023-4 winter runabout has arrived!  Christened "EO the Clio", it's a last-of-the-line Mk2 parts bin run-out Campus model complete with the 1.2 8v petrol lump.  Barely enough power to pull the skin off a custard, but it drives nicely and has been well looked after.  Interior immaculate and seems to have been well maintained.
Better photos to follow...  maybe.
What's wrong with it...?  Well it's due a service, the clutch bite feels a bit high to me and the the MoT runs out in early Feb.  It'll be doing a 500 mile round trip to Blackpool in a week or so, so that'll be a good opportunity to see what else shakes out as we get better acquainted.  Might treat it to oil, plugs and air filter before I go.
 

Got someone coming to view in a few.  I hope the car will disappoint rather less than the M25 has managed to today for them.

Just introducing myself. Currently own nowt shite but looking to get something shite in the near future seeing as fun car has gone away for family SUV now I have a child to lug about. Know a few lads on here from a different forum I used to be canny active in.

It's been a while since I last did this, but with the other half having just gone back stateside I though I'd have a look at what's on offer local to her. I'd have a $6k budget for a car...
 
As always, there's a panther platform car so let's get it out the way first...

This 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis! Not in the best of shape cosmetically , but was the only non-Ex Police patrol panther I could find! (I wouldn't mind an ex-CID, but patrol cars have the wipe down plastic seats in the rear) 
Not bad for $5500, but not sure I'd actually buy it.
 
Anyway, car number 2 is one I've always found interesting due to how the design just doesn't work but somehow does...

A 2000 Chevy Monty Carlo SS! 
This being the earlier V6 SS it has a whopping 200bhp on tap, but I can't say no to it. An actual personal luxury car* stateside would be living the dream! Sure it's not 100% cosmetically, but nothing major!
And for $3995 I'd happily buy that if I was moving there today!  
 
But as much as I like it'd I'd maybe be best getting something more practical in the long run. Sadly I've been told I'm not allowed a pickup as I'd have no need for it so an estate would be the next best thing...

And I am more than okay with that! This 1989 Old's Cutlass Curser!

Bonus internal shot! Need I say more? 
Especially for shy of £2k!
 
But sadly I should think more practical, the Pacific North West is famed for it's bad weather in the Autumn and Winter months, so AWD would be a bonus. Also If I can find a loophole to the "No pickups rule" that'd be great...

Bingo! 2005 Subaru Baja! AWD and its Pickup-cum-estate (If fitted with a bed cap).  
For $3500 it'd likely be the best everyday, practical car!  

I had no idea!
As you know my girlfriend lives nearby so I drive through there all the time, first time I actually stopped at this Morrison's. Totally worth it, the fishcakes tasted at least as good as 90p ones.

Taking the Cadillac to buy 34p fishcakes for dinner. Also bought a replacement ride height sensor, coming all the way from Japan where someone broke a mint condition Seville. Oddly enough this DeVille already has RHD market headlights, something that probably only existed in the Japanese market for these.

Floormats back in the Cadillac, the carpet is clean yet still looks filthy, excellent material choice there. I'm actually starting to wonder whether these are original Cadillac floormats. They certainly are heavy but appear a little generic in shape (edit: they are oem).


Fun fact, the 1993-1996 Cadillac DeVille was the car (I assume 4-door sedan) with the biggest interior volume you could buy in America at the time, even roomier than the even bigger (also) fullsize Fleetwood, Panther cars, Caprice and Roadmaster. The FWD/transverse drivetrain layout of the platform really pays dividends there. The front bench seat definitely offers enough room for 3 average sized adults so I believe Cadillac's marketing claims. A proper 6-seater car to fit the whole family then!
I've also found this little leather sample in the trunk, love stuff like this and makes the car a little bit more special, at least to me. I got something similar with my 540i before, unobtanium if you want complete documentation for the car.

Some of the other junk found in the car, it clearly came with a fitting car cover before, probably long gone now.

MOT planned for Friday, wish me luck.
On the Mercedes SL front, I FINALLY received my steering angle sensor/clock spring yesterday, this time ordered from Latvia after the last one got lost in the mail. Lo and behold, the ESP light is gone!

Only for it to immediately come on again after driving a few meters, this time with this code!

It's like peeling layers of a shit onion. First it was the ESP module that was junk, fixing that revealed that the steering angle sensor was knackered, now I can see that the pre-charge pump is most likely seized after having stood for so long. Fortunately the fix for this might be straight forward (if it is that pump that is), applying 12V directly to the pump and beating the hell out of it usually seems to revive them. I'll see when I get the chance to try that.
The Alfa finally got a little attention again, I have to admit that its silly loud exhaust is a little embarassing, it urges you to go full throttle anywhere you go though (which is kinda a good thing in an Alfa right?). This time to the Metrocentre and Asda.


I've also bought some bits for the XM, thanks again to everyone helping in my Wanted thread, there were some great suggestions in there. Hopefully I can get it running again Friday night, it might have just ran out of petrol...

The owner must have been trying to replace the EGR valves.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266456582503

Just a small job but I stumbled upon the spark plug I’d bought along with the oil and filter so replaced that.  Really need to stumble upon my waterproofing stuff for the roof.

Just a small job but I stumbled upon the spark plug I’d bought along with the oil and filter so replaced that.  Really need to stumble upon my waterproofing stuff for the roof.

Hmm, buy an Astra Mk4 in Prestatyn, or saw my own head off?







Vauxhall Astra mk 4 | eBay