CIH

Seeing all those nothing motors with massive mark-ups reminds me of an white Opel Manta GTE Hatch back in ~1999 that was on a forecourt in Glossop @ £2.5k for several years. Probably still is. They barely made £500 back then.

The bulkhead can crack around where the steering passes through on it's way to the rack. It'll feel like the trackings out or a bad ball joint ie; tramlining. You will be able to see if you look down at the bulkhead in the engine bay while someone moves the steering wheel side to side. GM issued a repair section but refused to treat it as a warranty issue.

I'd be more worried about the rampant sill and strut-top rot hidden behind bodykit and boot trim. t

When I was insured with them last year if the car were parked outside between the hours of 1am and 6am (IIRC), within 1 mile of either home address or garage address, any loss from theft wasn't covered. My cars have never been worth a great deal so it wasn't always garaged.

What, literally ?

Break the beads, pop the valve out from the whole in the wheel (just push it back into the tyre) then yank the tube out. Refitting is the reverse of removal but leave the valve core out untill it's all mounted and sweet and it'll be much easier if you have a valve puller to hold the valve so it doesn't keep poping back into the tyre.

I think BolX linked to this a little while ago but I just noticed it's probably about 8 miles away so may be worth a look. Granted it's an Audi and not an estate which makes me dislike it already......but it is cheap.....

That Manta looks immense. Hope it isn't relisted in a few weeks with no engine or 'box....

Like late escorts they almost always seem to need discs and pads and wishbones. Some had absurdly contrived exhausts with two back boxes and several feet of exhange piping lol. I think cdlutches are supposed to be an absolute arse too ? I've been giving that brown mk1 estate the eye for a little while now.

I imagine even more rarer GpB motors like 205s and RS200s would be worth more.

LUSH!

Okay okay maybe that was a little facetious so here's some proper advice; Front compliance bushes fail, cheap replacements in like 6 months Steering idler arms fail There's about a half dozen balljoints in the steering linkages Front tie rods seize Rear tie rods seize and I mean really seize and they're ~£80 each side from GM Rear cross member bushes fail Rear coil springs snap Extreme Inner tyre wear on the front isn't unusual. Camber can be adjusted. despite what GM say to eliminate the problem. So basically any odd tyre wear or steering/handling issues can be fixed but can get expensive. Or maybe I should insist he just buy one so he can post up an interesting story 'n' stuff

Don't do it!

None. Use to get the odd Banzai as I liked the "blog" by the Australian dude in Japan (I forget his name) and some others but seems pretty pointless now. You're right, it's not bad at all. The worst mag has to be Evo. Cringingly awful. I blame the self appointed driving Gods therein to be responsible for the overuse of the word 'focussed'. I use to subscribe to Evo, probably ten years ago. I see occasional editions at work and I imagine it's much like TopGear.

Re; hydrogen vs leccy IMO what we need is for the Govenments to get together with the auto manufacturers and for someone to make a decision. While everyone pulls in different directions nothing will get done. Politicans like to talk about leadership - this is the perfect example where genuine leadership can make a difference but it will never happen ofcourse. How does common rail petrol differ from multi point injection? I can't recall the specifics but the main difference for CRD was moving the metering of fuel delivery from the pump to the injectors themselves, as it allows for much more precise control. Alot of the development and principles put into making a common rail diesels work can be applied to petrol but all the development was going into derv-untill recently.

Here's another, slightly more miserable 1.4;

Look at this absolute honey. Sixty thousand miles, full test with no advisorys! 1.6 16v & two tone. My personal perfect escort.

Mute point, though I appreciate the sentiment. The basic dirtyness of diesel, the higher cost of the fuel specifically, common rail petrol injection and trick turbos means diesel has had it's day already.

Ravs are bastards for seized bushes.

I don't even want to think how cold it will be at 5am! Insurance. Well, a semi-grin anyway. Having made a "bit" of a mess of a Mercedes 18 months ago or so, I was expecting a proper ass ramming when checking the prices for a soon-to-be daily. Haven't checked the T&Cs but a casual price comparision trawl has given almost the same prices I was paying about 3 years ago for my Bluebird. Granted, I'm no longer in Manchester.... edit: that was for a 1.8LX Peugeot 405 and Escort 1.8 16v LX Estates and with a soon to expire TS10. That means, if I can get £1200 or so for my Drift innit silvia I'll be well set for a years autoshiting

Shades of early 80s Nissans, Toyotas and the other Japanese "upstarts" ?

0.01% That's about as basic as it gets. There's no special information in there ?

Seems pretty simple to me; enthusiam > skill, and no interest in learning to do something that takes time. Anyone can sticker-bomb a wing, FFS.

Anybody who knows a thing or two about turbo motors will tell you; oil in the intake tract = oil getting past the turbo seals = fooked turbo.

Wow I actually really like the look of that. Could be a nice little fixer-upper. "Just like a Golf", I imagine ?