Bolly Dolly - Now boringly reliable - snoooooooooze

[Skizzer]

Blessedly, there isn't a lot of space on the rump of a Dolomite for a 'Powered by Fairy Dust' sticker.

 

Lovely pic. Fab car.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Have anuvva:-

 

 

The gates in the background belong to a grand estate called Thame Park.  One of the Pink Floyds lived there in rock star stylee back in the day, but these days the estate is owned by some Far Eastern investment outfit that has apparently allowed the big house to fall into a state of grot, and some of the land has already been sold off to facilitate the seemlessly endless expansion of Thame (a formerly quaint market town that is becoming more and more of an urban sprawl).

 

The car still has a flat spot most noticeable when accelerating in third gear, but in other respects is flying along.  

[beko1987]

It's a gr9 place for breaking down too, see cars regularly there, I nearly joined them in the xantia once but it restarted and I drove home!

 

Its also a sharp corner, and I regularly get cars up my arse as I slow down for it, only to see them out brake me when they realise why I'm slowing down. By then I'm gone again though!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Mark the Mobile Mech has finished his work for now, and has made repairs, adjustments and improvements too numerous to list.  This car has not been quite right, for as long as I have owned it, but as of now it is the flying machine that 70s legend suggests that it should be.  

 

'Kinnel, what a blast!  Smooth but rorty, fast fasty fast fast, and handly as well.  I now need to sharpen up my DRIVAN SKILLZ YO.  I overcooked it on one corner today, and had a bit of a wah woo moment, but I avoided the ditch, and resolved to be less of a wazzock in future. 

 

OK, but not just yet.  On a straight bit I (safely and legally) overtook a modern Jag who was tootling along at 50.  The Jag bloke was peeved by this and flashed his lights a lot.  He then sped up and tailgated me for a bit, but I started to get away from him, and he then seemed to recall that he was a 50 mph max type, and faded away in the rear view mirror.   I cannot recall if I gave him some Gareth Hunt coffee beans.  OK, I did, which was wrong, I know, but we can't all be good people.

 

At the pez station a cheery chap and his pretty and car-liking wife/girlfriend came over to chat and admire the Dolly.  They were in a shiny red W reg Saab 9-3 Convertible, a currently beloved Autoshite shed, but the bloke had once had an 1850.

 

TL/DR: Car is Fasty McFastface.

[Guest Breadvan72]

It's a gr9 place for breaking down too, see cars regularly there, I nearly joined them in the xantia once but it restarted and I drove home!

 

Its also a sharp corner, and I regularly get cars up my arse as I slow down for it, only to see them out brake me when they realise why I'm slowing down. By then I'm gone again though!

 

 

I don't think that all those dudes are broken down. They have stopped to phone their mistresses. or something. 

 

That corner is about 90 degrees, I reckon, and calls for second gear in ye olde jalopes. That long right hander (the next corner when going in the Thame direction) is the one that I almost invariably get wrong.

[Guest Breadvan72]

NB: stub stacks!
 

 

No, I don't know what they are, either. 

 

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

A yellow dolly sprint is Mrs Crabs favorite old car, she was on about buying one (maybe not a sprint though). Can I bring her round and have her taken for a spin in it? She even lives in Oxford.

 

 

Yo, Boll! Standing invite to do this very thing.

[Junkman]

That car would make such a pig at the wheel, I'd just have to run it on .at plates in a country where there is a fucking speed camera every 30 yards.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

NB: stub stacks!

 

 

No, I don't know what they are, either. 

 

 

WP_20170330_12_58_48_Pro.jpg

I have a book about engine tuning. The chapter on stub stacks contains so many words, diagrams and graphs I gather they're super important. 

 

I only looked at the pictures, but I think you lose power if your intake air is too pointy.

[Junkman]

I can actually explain that, because engineer, but what a waste.

Put that original air box back in, for God's sake.

[Noel Tidybeard]

I can actually explain that, because engineer, but what a waste.

Put that original air box back in, for God's sake.

 

i think from looking at an earlier pic it has std airbox and k&n but methinks our learned friend is showboating a touch

[Guest Breadvan72]

The airbox is standard, the filter is K and N, the air is definitely now roundy and not pointy. Thus OMGBHP.  

 

It's Showtime, folks!

[Guest Breadvan72]

That car would make such a pig at the wheel, I'd just have to run it on .at plates in a country where there is a fucking speed camera every 30 yards.

 

 

[beko1987]

Yo, Boll! Standing invite to do this very thing.

Let me know if this happens and I'll have a lovely Dyson waiting at chez breadvan for you boll, that'll save postage!

[Guest Hooli]

Sounds excellent fun now BV, glad it's running right.

 

Years ago I tried all the silly 'make it noisey etc' filters on a Midget, that never run as well as it did on the standard airbox either.

[UltraWomble]

I am so jealous of this.

Such a lovely car yellow the best colour too ( followed by brown).

[Guest Breadvan72]

Magenta also mighty fine.

 

Beko, fancy a blat in the yellow scary crashy pointy spiky death machine? I am heading over to that Thame in a bit.

[Skizzer]

I wanna nuther go!

 

Will have to make a plan to bunk off and come over to yours on the way home some time, for Yellowmite drooling and Granada sharing purposes.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Biff out of office, get train to Risborough, have a go on my Doll, then take your gopping Ford shonkmobile off my premises. Excellent plan is excellent.

[beko1987]

Magenta also mighty fine.

 

Beko, fancy a blat in the yellow scary crashy pointy spiky death machine? I am heading over to that Thame in a bit.

I've been in Taunton all day and in bristol now, certainly will another day though!

[Guest Breadvan72]

I can haz never had an Esprit,  I have had two Excels and one Eclat.  Des of this parish currently has a late Excel SE that I used to have.  My old Eclat is with a bloke in Northland somewhere.  I also had an earlyish Excel that I sold last year.  The buyer did some work on it and sold it to a dealer, who has been asking a fair chunk for it on the electronets recently, despite its somewhat kershaggered interior.  I am currently sans Lotus.  This situation is discomforting, and may not continue indefinitely.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Fast though the Dolomite is, I struggled to keep up with this TR8 that I spotted on the M40 today.  He stopped at Oxford services, so I grabbed some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

I considered buying a TR7 once, it had seats very like that TR8. The best thing about them is you can't see them if your sat on them..

[Junkman]

Fast though the Dolomite is, I struggled to keep up with this TR8 that I spotted on the M40 today.  He stopped at Oxford services, so I grabbed some photos.

 

 

WP_20170402_12_29_46_Pro.jpg

 

Terribly newfangled cellulose based satnav, what with already displaying those horrible motorways only Hitler could invent.

[Guest Breadvan72]

The car may be a TR7 with an engine swap, if internet checkage is anything to go by.  I quite like the seats!

[Guest Hooli]

I quite liked the car I nearly bought, but they didn't allow test drives so I went else where.

[PhilA]

Very nice, and good job on he non-pointy air. My old man found that adding nice oiled mesh pancake filters to his Midget made it difficult to tune, and rather "peaky" at certain RPM. He said it was much better overall with the bigger "trumpet/drum" Cooper style filter housings, more torque and a flatter response.

 

I agree with the Engineers on this one. Usually the cheapest, simplest pressed-tin box was good enough for BL, but it appears the did actually put some work and/or science into the designs.

 

--Phil

[Guest Breadvan72]

In terms of farty gas flows and all that, there isn't a lot wrong with the air intake side of a Sprint, as I (don't) understand it, but the exhaust side is, I gather, a bit limited, I presume by the space available (the engine is canted over, and leaves not much room for fancy-ass exhaust fandangos).  My car has some allegedly swanky customised exhaust, but whether this is anything other than some drainpipes glued together by a shed-bloke I am not sure. 

 

I occasionally try to understand how cars actually work, but after a few minutes of reading, my head goes wibble and explodes, so I still assume that it's all something to do with tiny badgers that live in the cylinders.

[somewhatfoolish]

OK, but not just yet.  On a straight bit I (safely and legally) overtook a modern Jag who was tootling along at 50.  The Jag bloke was peeved by this and flashed his lights a lot.  He then sped up and tailgated me for a bit, but I started to get away from him, and he then seemed to recall that he was a 50 mph max type, and faded away in the rear view mirror.   I cannot recall if I gave him some Gareth Hunt coffee beans.  OK, I did, which was wrong, I know, but we can't all be good people.

 

Super appropriate as did not Mr Beans drive a Dolly Sprint in the cheezefest New Avengers?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Negatory!  Ray Doyle drove a white Dolomite Sprint in the first series of The Professionals  (later he drove Capris and Escorts), but in the New Cheesevengers Mike Gambit drove an XJ-S whenever not trying but failing to get into Purdey's knickaz.  Those were probably La Perla, BTW.  The flouncy frocks were by Chloe and the strappy heels (ace for kicking bad guys in the chin and nadgers) were Cavalli, IIRC.