dollywobbler

Bloody amazing day. Good to catch up with those I managed to. Sorry the Dacia couldn't be coaxed back into life. Catering was a massive balls up. Just not enough of it. Didn't stop us absolutely loving it. I don't think the McLaren was a judge as they were in and working very early on. I think Danny Hopkins was having a go as the stage was right next to it. Some people are just dicks I guess. We borrowed a relative's latest purchase and found a German friend. Winning car was a Swedish Daihatsu Applause. Also chatted to a chap who drove his E39 from Portugal and plenty of my Dutch friends. Commercial? Nah. Given Hagerty run the show, they still don't really promote themselves that much and there were only a couple of trade stands. Roll on 2024 and the 10th anniversary.

Not a chance of me taking TWC sadly. Berlingo and camper for us.

Have fun everyone. I can only apologise for the weather, which has been tremendous for weeks... More seriously, some parts of Wales have a weather warning for wind and it looks like thunderstorms are also likely. Stay safe folks. I'm sure you'll have fun regardless.

Surprised at the level of hate on here. The thing WAS unsellable, apart from the one person prepared to do a shit ton of welding to make it solid again. When I owned it, this car was still pretty original but subsequent owners began putting their spin on it with the wheels, interior etc, which is absolutely fine. This car really has had quite the life, and still lives! That's great. A paint job can be undone (it was utterly f*cked when sold at auction) and other additions could be removed easily enough. Why the doom and gloom?

Aw, lovely. Folk have been asking about the Mighty Dacia. Very impressive. I'm on prom duty this week with the 2CV. Very proud to have been asked.

Berlingo is back in action. It's been out of action for months due to a misfire. I was thinking it was injectors, others suggested high pressure pump (actually the only pump on these), blocked cat, clogged fuel pick up and pretty much anything else you can think of. Rather that just continue guessing, I asked a mobile mechanic to take a look. He quietly contemplated the data on his computer, and concluded the injectors were not bad - one pair a bit worse than the others but not enough to really be concerned about. He suggested EGR, though had absolutely no interest in investigating further. I paid him his £50 and he retreated. I wondered why. Then I tried removing the EGR valve. You can't even see it! It's buried down the back on the engine. This is one of the first Berlingos to have the HDi engine, and it's clear there were some packaging issues. In fact, they changed the design to make the EGR easier to access (slightly) just a couple of months after this one was built. Typical. So I gave up and, in desperation, but some Lucas Oils Diesel EGR& Turbo Cleaner on Ebay. Made a video about this and the ensuing runaway scenario... scary. In short, leaving the engine on idle allowed a puddle of this stuff to sit in the intake. I revved the engine, just wanting to see if we had any difference yet and because I suspected the exhaust was full of crud, but it just ran away as it sucked in the puddle of EGR cleaner, old engine oil and detritus. I followed the instructions to the letter but, having given it another quick blast last night (before I did an engine oil and filter change), I think it's better to hold the revs at about 1500rpm. It sucks more in, and keeps it moving, preventing any pooling in the intake. The difference has been absolutely incredible. The engine pulls cleanly from below 2000rpm like it never has before, any thoughts of a misfire are long gone and it feels much, much happier. The intake could still be all gunked up for all I know - it isn't an easy thing to check - but if your HDi is stumbling a bit at lower revs, or feeling a little sluggish, I think this treatment makes a lot of sense. I'll just say my car doesn't have an intercooler or a DPF - caution suggested with both. So pleased to have the Berlingo back for something so simple! Can finally take a rest from the Fairmont's fuel consumption (can nudge 30mpg on a 60mph cruise, but more like 18 on Welsh hills).

Very jealous SIC. When we went to Alcudia last year, we barely saw anything old other than that Mehari. Hope you went to the Hawaiian bar with the naughty parrot.

Oh great. I've just bought a cheap old laptop to chuck Lexia on myself, so I can actually speak to my Berlingo. Sounds like I'm in for fun.

I've driven the Mehari they did and I felt performance was on a par with standard - though perhaps a little quicker on account of no gearchanges.

I loved our C5 but it was an utter pig to work on. No easy jobs! So French.

A man of so many talents I forgot some of them... Thanks for reminding me of this one's anniversary. Hoping to get started on bodywork soon...

Ah nuts. Doubt I'm going to have time today as we're currently camping. However, she should be undergoing bodywork improvements fairly soon...

I have such fond memories of that tree!

100% no this year sadly as it clashes with my annual actual holiday. Bah. I'll be thinking of the tasty corners.

There is apparently a requirement for the test car to be able to reach 62mph as well, not that the route we covered gave much chance of that! Was an entertaining collab that one.

Great to see this car today, though sadly I didn't get a good look around. Just enough to make me think a Model 70 is a lot easier to drive...

A pleasure. Thanks for a hassle-free sale! Autoshite wins again.

Great stuff! Nice to get an update.

Yes, YouTube is always watching, regardless of cookies. Thanks for the road marking stuff. I should probably find someone to explain it all on camera next time I'm there.

That may be true, but just because it's free doesn't mean it should be less good than it could be. Plenty of folk are putting more effort in regardless of whether anyone pays or not. I don't mind criticism I agree with!

I'm disappointed too. It wasn't the day I hoped to have. I was utterly shattered having filmed about a fortnight's worth of content in three days. I'd been up the previous night editing until about 10pm and then not slept well because I'd eaten a load of shite instead of dinner because I was too tired to consider doing anything other than run around an Aldi. All this meant I failed to find Schiedam at all, got lost in Rotterdam - which I'd actually intended to avoid completely. I then failed to find anywhere to park (the one car park was blocked off as they were repairing the entrance barrier), couldn't really find anywhere to even just stop and have a think (you know that feeling when you seemingly can't react in time to grab a parking space?) and was getting increasingly fraught and hangry. Which is how I ended up in Hoek van Holland about six hours before my ferry was due to begin boarding. I ended up having a snooze in the back of the car, as I grew increasingly nervous about having to drive 300 miles back home the next day. (turns out that journey was an absolute doddle, so worrying about nothing). But, there's a certain pressure to still put a video out about how the day went. Maybe I should have ignored that pressure. It isn't content I'm proud of. Sorry to have such a lengthy reply, but your comments stung because they hit weaknesses I perceive myself in this one.

Cheers! I certainly need to attend next year. Utterly loved the Allanté. Stupid concept, flawed in so many ways but just my sort of hopeless.

That was such an awesome day. Utterly overwhelming. Which is my excuse for the errors... Definitely needs more Autoshiters next year. It's about an hour from Hook of Holland. https://youtu.be/cj-e1P9r2Og

Only reason for mentioning the C5 is because we owned one, and it has the same engine.

Odd. Someone messaged me yesterday to say they'd seen me driving a white Renault 4...