holbeck

Start of the year:
Non mover - the Arnage did very little, but required a replacement alternator. Tucked away for winter.

 
Out - the Fabia vRS. Great little machine, went very well. 

 
Non mover - the Range Rover. Plods on, had a load of front suspension bits, needs a few small jobs and a lot of cosmetic support really, maybe next year. Can’t see any reason to sell, it’s a dependable machine.

 
In & Out - the ex-HMC Boxster. Loved driving it, completely changed my opinions on Boxsters and Porsche in general. Would really like to try a 3.2S one day.

In - Tiger 955. Barely ridden it, need to get out more on it.

Out - ZZR 1400. Sold because I’d done 50 miles on it the previous year and I was offered a fair price.

In - the ex-HubNut 106. Currently parked out of the way awaiting the myriad issues to be sorted.

In & Out - C5. Mrs. 83C’s Mini shat itself, so this was the quick, cheap answer to get her mobile, except it was neither quick, nor cheap. Brake judder traced to knackered rear discs, which led to knackered rear calipers, which led to knackered rear brake pipes and then the need to buy a Citroen Lexia unit to bleed the brakes. Still, it only cost me more than the purchase price to put right. Sold when the Min was fixed, but once sorted was actually a nice old bus to drive.

In & Out - MG ZT 1.8T. Acquired from RichardK with a shot turbo, fixed, got running right then sold. Regret selling it to be honest.

In - Kia Rio (no picture). Replacement for MiL’s Jazz but I’ve ended up owning it on a shared arrangement with her.
Out - Leyland Tiger. The bus was sold to someone who has been after it for a while. Letting go was a bit of a wrench but it’s hopefully in safe hands and should see a quicker return to the road than I’d be able to manage. 
In (& not Out, yet!) - ex-Kiltox A8. Bought to be the long distance family barge while the Range Rover was having its front suspension replaced. Incredibly competent, reasonably quick, comfortable barge that does 45mpg on the run and apparently also completely unsaleable.

In - VXR8. Not a planned purchase but couldn’t say no. Needs a lot of work but is great fun to drive. 

 
Can’t see any more acquisitions coming this way before the year end, unless I get offered a p/x for the Audi that fits what I need. At the end of this year I’m up to something like 170 different vehicles owned, with 6 currently in fleet.

Christmas was a little late at holbeck towers.  
Action shot of Mrs h  intercepting a mystery package. 
 
The sender gave away their  identity  (or just that they listen to Radio 4).

 
Finally,  the  reveal!

Thank you ASSS. 
 

Christmas was a little late at holbeck towers.  
Action shot of Mrs h  intercepting a mystery package. 
 
The sender gave away their  identity  (or just that they listen to Radio 4).

 
Finally,  the  reveal!

Thank you ASSS. 
 

Christmas was a little late at holbeck towers.  
Action shot of Mrs h  intercepting a mystery package. 
 
The sender gave away their  identity  (or just that they listen to Radio 4).

 
Finally,  the  reveal!

Thank you ASSS. 
 

Yes, some great sleuthing there, it is indeed Slim Borgudd’s own Rover 620i. He scored one point for F1 backmarkers ATS in F1, did truck racing and some saloons too. Oh, and he was a session musician who played drums for ABBA. 
 
I worked on both the Accord and 620 (insert plug for my Quality control book here), and love them. I also brought my daughter home from hospital when she was born, in a near-identical car. Strange sensation when I got in and drove this one when loading it.
The plan, if we can finance it, is to build a car in tribute to him, ship it to USA, and race it in 24 hours of Lemons.
 

The curved high pressure steam pipes on a locomotive are known as aiton pipes.  I didn't realise it was the name of a manufacturer. 

I found a better photo whilst looking for something completely different. The company was Aiton in Derby, looks like they were a pipe manufacturer.

Anyway, first impressions.
It sounds mega. This is largely thanks to the Walkinshaw exhaust. However at idle there is a definite rasp from the drivers side rear, so a blow to be investigated. 
Outside is pretty good, a few different shades of red obviously but it’ll do. Inside is fairly tidy. 
Suspension and possibly brakes are the problem areas. The front droplinks are shagged, as are some of the bushes. There is some vibration under braking but the discs and pads appear new, so either track rod ends or bushes are the prime suspects for that. The ride is firm, which is expected but there are a good few rattles and clonks from underneath. 
Electrics: ABS light on. Previous owner reckoned it was the front o/s ABS sensor as that was what his garage had told him. Quick session on the diagnostics reader in live data mode gave the result that the rear o/s ABS sensor has failed, the other three showing identical speeds whilst being driven. 
The clutch has a bit of vibration, so that might need sorting. 
To begin with a new ABS sensor and droplinks are on their way from MWP in Chester, and I’ll see what it needs over the next few weeks. I’m quite prepared to put some money into it, my guess is most of the bushes are shot. I’d like to have the alloys refurbished in silver, put some decent tyres on it and then maybe look at a few improvements.

Another day, another collection. Off down the well-trodden path of getting a lift to the railway station and boarding a train with nothing more than my phone, wallet, a drink, the clothes I’m in and a combination of optimism and trepidation. 
Currently waiting outside Crewe on 1W61 for a path into the station. Change here for…

So, off we go again:

It's a happy ending with this one. Picked it back up after leaving it with a grown up and it's totally transformed.
New wheel bearing OSF brake line both front calipers both rear wheel cylinders new NS handbrake cable all fully adjusted and bled-up oil change welded-up at OSF rusty bits treated with Vactan, quick blast over with lanolin rustproofing etc wheel alignment Incredibly slow. Handling is bizarre after driving a 205. Sunroof was a bad idea for whoever specced it. Pedals are for children's feet.
BUT....
it rides really well. It will drive for miles just on a whiff of diesel. It fits big lads ™. It works.
Very hard to argue with 70+mpg, £300 insurance, LEZ compliance, mechanically simple, marginally interesting. 

Just took it for an 8 mile round trip to the shops and I'm absolutely in love. It's fucking brilliant. I'm not sure what it is but I've not been this excited about a car in a long time.
Loads of character. It eats shit roads, potholes and camber for breakfast. 
Takes real concentration to maintain speed on the corner before a motorway slip road. If you fuck it up then you're joining the slow lane at 45mph. 
The steering is so bizarrely heavy and you're so much smaller than everything else on the road. I'm shocked at how much of a departure it is from the 205. 
I had a gander at the fusebox because Peugeot barely bothered hiding it and there are like 8 fuses total. No rev counter. Exposed metal on the doors. Windscreen wipers are on or off. Nothing in-between. The interior bonnet latch looks like I installed it. 

On Sunday I visited a small local motor race:

First, a couple of older motors on display:


And some of the on track action:





Bathurst is incredible. If anyone is thinking about going, JFDI. I could write loads on the whole experience, but the best thing to do is book a ticket and go. The campsite at the top of the mountain is something to behold, it’s a proper temporary village with people clearly so well kitted out they’ve been going for years. There was also this:

It looked absolutely mint.  Climate obviously helps with holding the tin worm at bay.
Meanwhile I’ve been taxied around in this:

Its a GWM Ute, or Great Wall Motors. They tried in the U.K. a few years ago with the rather outdated ‘Steed’ which made such an impact that nobody remembers them. This however is clearly a big step forward, it seems (from the passenger seat) to go and stop ok, has an 8speed ZF box, interior is alright, loadspace is decent and the touchscreen with Google is quite neat. Would I have one in the U.K.? Probably not unless I needed something very cheap as a work hack. Would I have one in Australia? At an equivalent £25k for the top-spec model I’d be looking pretty closely at one. There’s a few niggles, the alloys don’t look particularly chunky/durable and the radio volume control locks out if reverse is selected, but otherwise it seemed pretty competent and well screwed together. 

Here's the full story, I hope @HMC does not mind a brief thread highjack...
 
As mentioned earlier on in the thread, I've wanted a post-war Lanchester Fourteen for ages. But they'd always been outside my budget, and I've also been a bit unsure that I would like the 1950s driving experience they offer. The Conquest is, of course, a facelifted Fourteen and the Century model comes with an engine which allows it to (just about) keep up with modern traffic.
So when HMC's Daimler came up for sale at an affordable price, it was impossible for me to resist. Messages were exchanged and a swap with his/my ADO16 was agreed.
HMC forewarned me that the Daimler had been temperamental, and suggested it would be wise to transport rather than drive her back to Chez Fraud. Being a complete idiot, I ignored his warnings, and this morning set off for Tavistock in the ADO16 with a plan to drive the Daimler back to base.
After a most pleasant chat, meeting Duggy_HMC, and an exchange of keys and V5s, I set off. Three miles later, breakdown number 1 occurred :

The Daimler began misfiring heavily under load, the engine stopped, and couldn't be restarted. A prolonged and incredibly frustrating call to my breakdown assistance provider followed, when I was basically told that they would be doing me a favour to send someone out, and it would take at least 2-3 hours for them to come and "assess" the car.
Having nothing better to do, and with a full toolkit and some consumables in the boot, I made my own assessment and replaced the condenser with a spare. I turned the key and the Daimler fired into life instantly. I did a little dance, cancelled the breakdown call out, and set off again.
The car ran nicely and I made good progress until I somehow managed to make a wrong turn and ended up in stop-start traffic in the centre of Exeter. The Daimler performed admirably for a good half hour, then the misfire returned and I just about managed to limp it onto the pavement before it died and wouldn't restart. Splendid, breakdown number 2.
This time I rang my classic insurer, who offer their own breakdown assistance. It was a totally different experience to my "mainstream" provider, I got a most helpful call handler and 45 minutes later an AA patrol van (sub-contracted, naturally) turned up. Typically, in the AA man's presence, the Daimler started first turn of the key and settled to a nice, steady idle. Bloody thing !
I was now suspecting a failing coil, but AA man told me he was not carrying a spare (outrageous !), and by this time all local motor factors had shut. So I set off again, resigned to the fact that breakdown number 3 could well occur. Only it didn't, and the old beast got me back to base without any further issue :

Hooray ! Now time to start fixing things...

Breaking News : Idiot manages 120 mile Daimler collection return trip with only two breakdowns.
Full report to follow !

Err. because Job 1  (Or SOP as Rover called it) is the start of mass production build.
They will have already done methods builds of all the launch variants prior to prove that they can build / achieve quality /  assembly fault snagging.

Hi guys, its me. I pressed the nuclear button a few days ago, Its got nothing to to with any posts on this thread, but for me its a place to share our love of chod, and its a hobby. I aim to have fun, and share in your enjoyment of your cars too. Lifes short, eh?
Whats been going on chez HMC?
The limo collection has been arranged by the buyer. I wont say any more but its going to be an epic road trip!
The mexican beetle. 

Its got actual patina (aka knackered paint, damage , etc) but i felt immediately that the sprayed up duotone steels were trying too hard; so i painted them silver.

After filling up it was smelling very fuelly. I found out the petrol rank sender wasnt sealed properly so i got out the blue hylomar and that sorted it.
And the front plate had to go….


 
To celebrate i went for a drive….


 

 
 

Works car park. 70 year old daimler photobomb 

Another happy @HMC customer! Top geezer, thanks again 👍

Collected this morning, and looks like it will scrub up well

Its a bit peculiar as the quoted address is the  rear entrance, only after we arrived did the penny drop…

Thanks for looking at my holiday slides.  The end.