aldo135

The MOT on the Insight was coming up so a bit of a look over the car and put a few miles on it were required. It hadn't really been used since the start of November due to the Clio's arrival.
Just over 300 miles were put on it over the last few days and the MOT was first thing this morning.

Happy with that. Now time to spend some money on it.

I gave up on threads a while ago but I have wanted one of these cars since they were brand new, plus I think things might get interesting*. So here goes.
So far I count myself as the EIGHTH AS member who has owned this, including the chap who posted it for sale in behalf of the then owner. I think that's pretty great. I hope when I die I return as a car that goes around the country bringing joy to a whole range of different owners.

So far we've had 
Jon.k
Northernmonkey
Robson3022
Paulplom
Kiltox
83C
Schaefft 
Yours truly. 
The first didn't technically own it, he simply posted it for sale on behalf of the owner who had originally wanted to scrap it because of a pulley on the engine which had come adrift. So kudos to John.k for saving what certainly feels like a car which had plenty of life left.
In short (because it is documented elsewhere) it was owned by Westley Richards gunsmiths manufacturer in the West Midlands. It was a personal car to the directly and then used to chauffeur some very wealthy (like Arab Royalty wealthy) to and from the premises. 
After Jon.k's arm was bitten off by NorthernMonkey, it passed through varioous members' hands and gave generally good service along the way.
I promised myself I'd own it one day.

Sorry, but these people @wuvvum and @sierraman 's brother are surely winning at life?
Escort to Allegro VDP = win. You'd be beating the girls off with a shitty stick. "Can I try out the picnic tables, oh PLEEAAASE" 
Escort to Lada = win. You've gone from decadent Western frippery to robust Eastern common sense. You're advertising your socialist credentials and again, the knicker elastic should be snapping on every street corner. 

I remember my brother having a 1.6 Sport, peco back box on it, it seemed much cooler than an XR3 at the time. Like a fool he swapped it for a Lada, probably from reading this you’d be a good judge to say he is not a rich man these days. 

1.3 GL is a nice spec - a mate had one about 20 years ago, in navy blue with a red interior.  
My last Mk2 was a red R-reg 1.6 Ghia - lovely car until I melted a piston cruising at 100mph on a private section of the A47.  I swapped it for a Vanden Plas Allegro - with hindsight not one of my smartest financial moves.

I love that! Very well bought. Pretty much exactly what a mk1 or 2 Escort should look like.
If it was mine, the badges and spoiler would go in the bin, and I’d sell the Capri alloys in favour of a set of dartboard steels… but that’s just me!
Well done👍

Growing up there was one of these down my street. a 1.3 GL 4 door. Aged 10 you could keep your ferraris etc, what i really wanted was one of these. I absolutely loved them.
Back then they were cheap first cars (around 1990) couple of hundred quid and scrap it when the mot was up. That is assuming it hadnt dissolved already, or been crashed.
Then a strange thing happened. They vanished overnight and then slowly they started getting expensive. By the time i started driving they were not mega expensive, but just hard to find.
My route to a mk2 escort was avoid 2 door (££££££) avoid uk RHD (££££££ plus most heavily welded or rotten)
So here we have a solid LHD import 1.3GL which is being delivered next week…

 



 

 

 

 

Did the front discs and pads on my father’s i20 today finally. The bottom slider pin on both caliper brackets had seized so I sent it off to Bigg Red who returned it looking perfect. However my suspicions about binding at the rear have been confirmed. It’s going to be the same story, I can sense the bracket will be a nightmare again so to save time waiting around I’ve ordered up second hand calipers with the brackets that aren’t seized. New discs and pads on the way too and I have a feeling this has shoes inside? Perhaps someone knows. No idea.

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Yes it is. And if they dont address the rampant rust and poor quality repairs to the sills, it will be extinct. This is exactly the reason old stuff should still be subject to MOT test

Spotted this today. Probably one for the didnt know they existed thread...avon tuning triumph acclaim...it looked absolutely hanging, no doubt it doesnt need an MOT now....

Went out for a drive in The Forest this morning and the whole area is as waterlogged as I've ever seen it. No chance of taking the dog off the major paths and even some of those were impassable. On the plus side , the place was deserted. We had one of the New Forests major car parks entirely to ourselves at 9 o'clock on a bank holiday morning which is unheard of.

Great thread, this light is forgiving to the standard of most of my cars!  My current Daily is this S70 TDI, This is Cammo, Edinburgh a few weeks ago.
 
Some old pictures off my phone.  9-5 Aero December ‘19 in Bridge of Cally, Perth and Kinross
 
June ‘19 this time. Blackness, West Lothian by the Firth of Forth. Was out for a rare drive just for the sake of it in this BINI of many shiters, great wee car  

@MrsJuular found a low profile USB adapter for the cigarette lighter that blends in really nicely, check it out below left. It's so discreet and easy to add/remove that I don't know if I will bother adding any USB ports.

It got later and I annoyed everyone.
Feels like it's added 30bhp, breathes so much more freely.  Not noisy either.
Then it tried to chuck an air filter off on the motorway.
Better bolts enroute. You'd think for 50 odd quid they'd include fixings..

Homeward journey in the Amazon went well. It absolutely tanned the M6 north. Without the pressure to get to a destination intact, we both opened it right up and enjoyed it. @Ronkey wanted inspiration to get his finished. Get stuck in, because it'll be worth it!


A couple of stops for coffee, but mainly to tip jerry cans into the frustratingly small fuel tank. That fuel tank seemed increasingly small on the way back as with the car being pushed hard, let's just say the earlier 34mpg was a distant fantasy. But who cares!

Stopped off at @warninglights place for a cup of tea, and to poke round his collection of really interesting Volvo projects. The Laplander is something to behold and is already looking like a completely different beast to when he got it. I won't give away anything, but this is going to be brilliant.
Lolvo meets Volvo.

And home.

I enjoyed every minute of driving this.
It was comfortable, surprisingly rapid, and with very few modern touches, totally capable. With the longer diff installed the speedo no longer over-reads like most cars, and a 70 on the needle is a true GPS 70.
As such it felt like we were flying past the traffic.  It was keen for more, and without trying you'd notice you'd drifted up to GPS 80 and it had plenty left without being remotely loud. And that's before you flick the overdrive off, where you get a surprising burst of power available. 
The K cam and overdrive puts this right in the sweet spot for motorway driving as it's at the foot of the powerband. Having that at the flick of a stalk means you can really piss off middle lane drivers who don't want to move, but don't like being overtaken by a 60 year old shack.  Tough!
I am surprised Volvo never offered the M41+OD+1.41 axle combo in production cars, because it's just so right. It does rob a fair bit of your 0-60 and standing starts aren't as lively, but the K cam more than makes up for that, you just hold the gears a little longer.
Rustival was fun and I would do it again. The very best part of it was seeing people, @Talbot, @chaseracer, @mat_the_cat, @Puglet @Sunny Jim, @Six-cylinder, @Mrs6C, @Andyrew.  Thank you all for such a brilliant weekend. What a great bunch of lads.
Enjoyed the autojumbles, perhaps a little too much as we came home with a set of four Lucas driving lights.
 
The enjoyment of the trip spurred me into getting some more things sorted on the car, so I have now spaffed the best part of a grand on a branched manifold, sports exhaust, a better intake, and a full set of polybushes, plus a load of electrical parts to try and fix niggles and improve the (still bodged) lighting.
To round things off, when I got home I had a nice surprise waiting in the form of a Professional Prat.

More fish in the sea - £7k though imported before fees and shit*. Then again only 33,000kms
https://carfromjapan.com/cheap-used-toyota-estima-lucida-1995-for-sale-65578f63348a055874bd6204


*Houti attacks

Must admit the location looks pure dead good like.

Rightio, the nagging has paid off and I've got it booked.  Location is my mates field/woods/campsite near Bridgnorth in Shropshire.  Should be quite reasonably priced so long as we tidy up afterwards.






https://www.powkesmoreholding.co.uk/

Edit #1
Lets make the location easy to find.
What3 words to the entrance.  ///bungalows.next.windmills
Which looks like this

The open one on the left.
From above.

Access is from Ashfield Road, the track marked on Google heading South East doesn't exist as far as I know.
Further out.

This would be the obvious* rebound purchase to replace old faithful. 
Supercharged!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404820491381?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=vck3l6njtvc&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=FV05_6LQQo2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

Much sadness.  It deserves the AS equivalent of a state funeral, or an erection somewhere.  RIP PW.

The only possible way to make this better is if @KruJoe walks round his garden 4,000 times to raise money for PWA (pleasure wagon awareness) then mysteriously ends up with a big fuck off conservatory on the side of his house. 

Should we hold out hopes for a Pleasurewagon Charity HQ to be funded, before turning into a luxury spa/Wills WVO emporium? 

RIP, it's gone to heaven with Diana and all the angles. Let it be her Maj's and Sir Captain Tom's passion wagon now.

A huge thank you from me for all the hard work you put in to keep the site safe and up to date.