sierraman

There were 2 or 3 recovery wagons I think in SYPTE?

Some engines it’s recommended you don’t use the vacuum method, notably Ford forbid it with the 1.6 TDCI.

They’re driven in a lethal enough manner with a 2.0 diesel in them, you can imagine mating a 310 Bhp engine to it would result in some fairly furious driving.

Like a lot of the custom projects from the seventies they’ll have been done by a young man about town, family and other commitments get in the way and it ends up in a shed. Occasionally you see on eBay where an old Cortina with a jacked up back end and a 3.0 V6 in that was done back in the day getting dragged out of a council lock up after 40 years.

Aren’t American tyres supposed to be rock hard compared to European ones? I read a while back that longevity is valued way above grip.

Any of the 2021 Matchbox in Tesco yet?

Probably but then a few roubles thrust in the right direction makes most things possible.

I find the lack of power thing difficult to understand when they used to sell the 2.3 in the Tempo. Weren’t the 80’s Pontiacs stupidly fast to 60 topped out and something a bit lame like 105mph.

I don’t do much ‘haulin ass’ up 1 in 3 gradients with 6 people on board so a 2.0 diesel does ok, it’ll sit at 90 all day and do 42mpg round the houses. The 2.0 petrol is ok but it’s slower in the real world and does about 32mpg in similar circumstances. Ok the diesel can blow up and suffer all manner of problems but that’s the chance you take I guess. It’s maintained properly which I guess hedges your bets. The oil is dropped every six months but it costs something like £15 to change the oil when you are buying oil in bulk.

I remember years ago on the old top gear they ran an article on buying a used car in America, like £4-5000 got you a really nice 70’s tank and new cars were dirt cheap. Seems things have changed for the worse. Are scrapyards, car spares shops and DIY a thing in the USA to save a few $? Its not somewhere I’d want to live, certified lunatics in charge and a system that effectively bankrupts you if you have the misfortune to suffer a serious health condition.

I’d been told (by an American...) that garage Bills in the US were extremely expensive so most people just ran them into the ground unless they could fix it themselves

Imagine picking an imported one up used and going to Halfords and asking for an indicator or something and trying to make the European Escort bits fit.

Could be the servo vac pump.

So I’ve read a lot of labels were left over when the hackney wick factory wound up many falling into the hands of collectors to make a special if you like. It’s difficult to find much in the way of actual facts on this but supposedly the big factory at Hackney closed in 1982, then the original diecasting industrial business moved in, all toy manufacturing moving to Rochford until the late 80’s. There’s some footage and a report on 28 days later on the factory it looks to have been derelict for a number of years before it’s demolition a few years ago. No hidden stock rooms full of unused parts

Looking superb. Is that a steel garage you’ve got there in the background?