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Spiny Norman

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Everything posted by Spiny Norman

  1. All Google comes up with is "1941 Hispano Suiza Electric van three wheels Tipus 531 design by Alain Goupy in the Tarbes Factory." and that picture but more Googling of all these names comes up with nothing else that I can see. I wonder if it's a clever photoshop?
  2. It used to be the case that if you went to France and drove around with white lamps at night you'd get irate Frenchmen flashing their (yellow) main beams at you so on a period Froggymobile I think the yellow looks OK, but the law in France was changed in 1993 to full EU compliance for white lights same as everyone else so on anything beyond that date they're wrong. Like black and silver number plates on 80s cars here.
  3. By fuck, you're a mardy cunt aren't you?
  4. Why on earth would a non smoker allow anyone to smoke in their house?
  5. I bought a camera from a seller in Japan a few months ago, Osaka to Glasgow in 4 and a bit days...
  6. The one next to the W114 rear light is off a Fiat 125 Special. I feel I should know the first one on the next row too but it's not coming to me.
  7. Everyone gets a framed picture of a Talbot Tagora for their lavvy wall.
  8. I vaguely remembered it was a 'thing' not long after I joined but couldn't remember the details, but you can Google it.
  9. Talking about reading the manual... I'll never forget my first passenger ride in an E60. I was on a business jolly in Valencia and our host taking us back to the hotel had just bought one and slammed it into reverse saying "Watch this, it's got automatic reversing sensors" . Car: "Beep, beep, beep, beep" Proud new owner: "There, it's working. It knows how far to go" Car: "BeepbeepbeepbeeeEEEEEBANG!" Brand new, it had about 500Km on it, the model had just come out and I found out later he had to wait three weeks for BMW to find him a new rear bumper for it.
  10. One FTP, my first in years. More of a black mark for the useless cunt from the RAC than for the car itself, immobilised by nothing more than a detached intercooler hose that I'm sure a half decent mechanic would have spotted in 10 minutes instead of diagnosing a fault in a part the car didn't even have... (Like the one at my local garage did once I'd got them to tow it home after charging me £90 for the privilege, cunts)
  11. I've had that on and off with most saloon type 3 box cars over the years, particularly on anything with a bare metal lid. Sometimes caused by a missing or broken exhaust heat shield which can get the boot quite warm on a cold day.
  12. One I'm starting to notice on the SLK although the Saab 9-5 wasn't much better. Seat belt buckles buried way down and jammed between the seat and centre console. Not so much a problem in decent weather but when you've got a big winter coat on it's a PITA shuffling it out the way to get the belt on.
  13. Lack of easy access stowage space from the driver's seat. It's amazing how some manufacturers can get this so right or so wrong. The Saab 9-5 was terrible for this, there were small awkwardly shaped door pockets and that was it, anything else needed you to open someting up. Nowhere obvious to put a phone, or sweets, or a second drink for the passenger, actually this was the worst one although it never directly bothered me but if you've got a drink in the cupholder there's literally nowhere for the passenger to put theirs down, not even a flat surface. A Land Rover Freelander was the exact opposite, huge door bins, cubbies and shelves everywhere, rubber mats on the dash top, more space than I ever had shite to fill.
  14. I find you need to be a certain shape for some cars. In my experience German cars require you to have legs of at least average length and can easily accommodate someone well over 6 foot but since I conform to neither of those things I've often found BMWs in particular and to a lesser extent Mercedes as well to be slightly awkward. In this I wish the wheel went further away from the seat and up a bit (there's no up/down adjustment in these) so I didn't have to sit so close to operate the throttle pedal comfortably. Being floor hinged doesn't help it either but I've found a decent compromise and it was very comfortable during the 170 mile journey home, probably the longest run I'll ever do in it. It has the usual couple of little blisters round the rear arch and on the door bottom but of course the usual "The MOT tester commented on how clean it was underneath" quote was fired at me by the seller. I heard the same thing about the Saab and look how that turned out. It's been a south of England car most of its life so here's hoping, if it looks like being any kind of a keeper I'm going to fire it into the garage maybe February/March for a check up, it's MOT'd till November but I want the steering looked at. I understand it's an old fashioned box rather than the more modern rat and pigeon and it's been so many decades since I had something with a steering box that I can't remember if the slight vagueness is normal.
  15. Up until a few weeks ago I had a Saab 95 Aero I was rather fond of and kept it for longer than I've kept any car for over 10 years. Sadly the MOT threw up some challenging crispyness issues those familiar with the breed will recognise, and I was faced with the all too common choice between spending £££s and fixing a car I was planning to sell in the new year anyway, probably for no more than the scrap price plus what I'd have to spend on repairs, or getting something new* and letting someone else have the joy of crawling about underneath a rusty Swede, and for once the pieces dropped neatly into place as I spotted this on eBay and sold the Saab to a chap on the Scottish Saabs Facebook page almost on the same day. So, I now have a Mercedes SLK. If I'm honest I've fancied one of these for a while, and almost bought one on here last year. They seem an ideal compromise for someone with no garage who wants a convertible for the summer to keep outside, so what better time to buy than December when it's freezing cold and pissing down? What collection thread there was got tacked onto a Car Wanted ad on here but the short version was I picked it up from a bloke in Cramlington two Saturdays ago and drove home in what has become the default weather for my first ever convertible. Pissing rain. First impressions were good, everything worked including the roof (& the wipers!) and my biggest annoyance on the way home was the rather sticky steering wheel and only being able to get Radio 2 on the stereo. It's been pissing down since I got it so I haven't done anything to it other than press it into regular car duties, which it's accepted without any trouble. Anyway, some pics. the ones taken in the sunshine are from the eBay ad. The ones in Glasgow's dreich December depression are mine.
  16. Maybe not a direct comparison because I've switched cars but a year's cover on a 2004 Mercedes SLK230 has just cost me £40 more than last year's price on a 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero. Don't know if the increase is down to the car or just general inflation, FWIW I've always found Saabs were pretty cheap to insure for what they were.
  17. Maybe this has been on here already and I wasn't paying attention but I was today years old when I discovered there was such a thing as a Tatra T613 coupe. I love the old aero Tatras and this looks so much better to me than the rather gawky 4 door saloon version.
  18. What do you think the chances are of you actually getting an MOT if you're stupid enough to give these cunts any money? Does anyone know anyone who ever did? What are you going to do about it if they just keep the cash and tell you to fuck off, go to the Police? If you're dumb enough to fall for these scams, or the Driving test pass ones you see of arsebook, hell mend you.
  19. One of my K11 Micras did the same, to the extent that for a few days I had to park it with the key in the ignition and a woolly hat casually draped over the steering wheel so people couldn't see! Cured it by squirting lots of electrical contact cleaner down the slot, then used clock oil (3 in 1 would probably do but never WD40) on the key, stick it in, pull it out, wipe the crud off it over and over (OOO-ERRR missus!!) until it comes out clean and it was no bother after that.
  20. So glad this was nothing more than a brown trousers moment after all the good work you've put into this old girl.
  21. I asked that question in the site help topic and was suggested to clear cookies. Didn't work, still does it. Quite annoying given the length of some of the pages on here and the time it takes to scroll up to the top of a pic heavy post, even on a fast fibre connection.
  22. All my driving life I've been on the wrong end of 'headlamp wars'. First cars I had were fitted with feeble tungsten bulbs when all the newer stuff had halogena. Then when I started getting more up to date old shitters with halogen lights all the BMWs and Aldis had upgraded to Xenon which were pretty blinding in the mirror or worse, coming towards you, and when I got my first car with weapons grade xenons a couple of years ago everyone else on the road has graduated to billion watt LEDs which automatically home in on my retinas when they're coming towards me. I can't win.
  23. DRLs are dangerous. It's been noted before but the number of fannies driving round in the dark in cars with no rear lights has never been greater than it is now. Every time I'm out in the dark I see a couple, including one on the M6 in the pissing rain last night.
  24. I've got a couple of newer ones I could fit including a fancy Pioneer Bluetooth/USB thing that already has a tiny 64Gb drive in it, I might ft that eventually. It won't look as god as the proper Mercedes unit and it's not as if I've not got hundreds of CDs to use, I just like making 'mix tapes' of various stuff for the car.
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