The new news 24 thread

[gm]

I decided to celebrate the first day of my new mazda being road legal (been on sorn since I bought it while I swapped over the good bits off my old one) by taking it on a 100 mile round trip and doing an autotest in it. What could possibly go wrong, as the saying goes ?

 

I did some timed runs

 

 

My mate Paul did some timed runs

 

 

A lunatic in a micra did some timed runs

 

 

Then when Paul parked up after his final run, the little mazda decided to show us who is boss and pissed its coolant on the floor !

 

Many knowledgeable onlookers decreed that "it'll probably be alright if you nurse it home" so I topped it up with highland spring and we set off on our way. Rightly enough, there was only a small drop in the coolant level on the 50 mile return journey, I suspect it may be one of the hose clips just couldn't handle the abuse, I'll replace them with proper jubilees next week.

 

Otherwise, what a flipping hoot autotesting is

 

Except my so called mate Paul beat me again !

[wuvvum]

I bought a Kia Picanto today.

 

No, I'm not particularly excited either.

[dome]

I decided to celebrate the first day of my new mazda being road legal (been on sorn since I bought it while I swapped over the good bits off my old one) by taking it on a 100 mile round trip and doing an autotest in it. What could possibly go wrong, as the saying goes ?

 

I did some timed runs

 

image.jpeg

 

My mate Paul did some timed runs

 

image.jpeg

 

A lunatic in a micra did some timed runs

 

image.jpeg

 

Then when Paul parked up after his final run, the little mazda decided to show us who is boss and pissed its coolant on the floor !

 

Many knowledgeable onlookers decreed that "it'll probably be alright if you nurse it home" so I topped it up with highland spring and we set off on our way. Rightly enough, there was only a small drop in the coolant level on the 50 mile return journey, I suspect it may be one of the hose clips just couldn't handle the abuse, I'll replace them with proper jubilees next week.

 

Otherwise, what a flipping hoot autotesting is

 

Except my so called mate Paul beat me again !

 

I used to love autotesting, although I quite often got lost half way round... Where did you go for this? A Scotosite Autotest would be fun...

[eddyramrod]

Yes it would!  I did a little in Cyprus, having never done it before, and have two trophies to show for it, from four events.  In four different cars, ranging from my X1/9 to my knackered diesel pickup!

 

Round the cones in Huggy could be exciting...

[captain_70s]

There's a guy on the Triumph Spitfire Facebook page who is fitting a pop-up sunroof to his Spittie's removable hard-top roof.

 

I'm baffled.

[vulgalour]

^ That is the most British thing I've read today.  Possibly even all year.

[Parky]

I bought a Kia Picanto today.

 

No, I'm not particularly excited either.

I had one about ten years ago. They're not that bad!

[gm]

The autotest was organised by the Scottish sporting car club and held at the former Nobel explosives plant in Ardeer, Irvine. The entry fee of £15 included annual membership to the club and a free lunch

 

https://scottishsportingcc.wordpress.com

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScottishSportingCC/

 

It's certainly quite a challenge trying to figure out the course from the map

 

 

We had enough time to walk the course once then the timed runs began

 

Your best two of three runs count to your score then the course is rearranged and you have to re-learn it again - definitely tricky and a lot of fun. Everyone was very friendly and made us feel very welcome, I will be back for more next time

 

A right good mix of cars, some really good drivers and some total novices.

[dollywobbler]

I used to love autotesting, although I quite often got lost half way round...

 

 

Aye, did one once in the 2CV, though spectacularly failed to get any photos of the event. Huge fun. I even beat a Golf GTi! The lack of a rear wheel handbrake certainly wasn't ideal, but the suspension was helpful during one spectacular "wrong way" moment...

[Lord Sterling]

Now in the Isle of Wight. Got up this morning late because of getting home from work at 10pm on Friday night. Bus this morning took it's time and train was cancelled, then the second train took the piss. I eventually arrived in Moor Street Station and got in to the heavily packed Micra to drive Ma down to the IoW.

 

Micra took the hard driving I chucked at it in it's stride and is now in its new home here in the IoW, glad to finally get it away from chav kids kicking footballs and whatever at it.

 

Gave the Micra a quick mini valet and now it's due for a nice rest as Ma will be living on site at her new job here. This also means that I will be (hopefully) a more frequent visitor to tha 'Wight.

 

BMW needs starting and running because it's been sat for a while and Rovers will continue to be ignored for a while longer until I can sort out the wife/finances. Also, starting with a new firm on Monday. Same job but more money, less hotel stays/sleeping in cars so hopefully a bit more money and hopefully less stress.

[ruffgeezer]

Daily driver modern 307 is being all French today. Temperature gauge randomly shoots up from middle to max, STOP illuminates on dash, central display reads "engine coolant temperature too high"

Turn off and on again and it's instantly fine again. Sometimes fixes itself as you drive along. No coolant leaks or anything untoward.

Also the central display randomly tells you the auto lights are activated, the auto locking is activated etc etc etc.

 

Digital heater control occasionally just blows cold air when you have it at max temperature. Turning off and on again fixes this too.

 

As long as it still runs I'm just keeping an eye on the coolant levels etc and ignoring all of the messages of doom.

 

It done this for a while a few months ago and has been fine ever since. Until now.

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

Is it an HDI? they are quite prone to the coolant temperature senders going befuckety.

[SiC]

Astra going tomorrow! Glad to see it go to a good home. We've owned it for pretty much a year and half, before that it was owned by my wife's Grandad for 10 years.

 

After all the scare stories about Laguna II, I kept it as a reliable fall back incase the Laguna shat itself. However so far it's not been needed! Pretty certain that'll mean the Laguna craps itself now...

 

The last time I drove it was last week to the MOT station, where it was rewarded with a straight pass and no advisories.

 

I never gelled it with that much, but it never let us or Liz's grandad down (except a dead battery - but that was from only doing 1k p/a). When we had it, it had a few age related foibles that I had to fix such as - leaking rear struts, weeping radiator (I replaced it properly and didn't use radweld - glad that I did) and perished back tyres (were original to the car ). Stuff that only came around because we did its annual mileage every a month! Seems pretty much a sorted car. I wouldn't hesitate going to the other end of the country in it if I needed to.

 

I feel kind of a bit sad.

 

The upside is that it clears the drive, so I can get the Saab on the road!

 

Here she is in all her bland silver glory:

[fordperv]

i think i am going through a midlife crisis (is that even possible at 32?) i have been having silly ideas regressing to my youth, tonight after a near 13 hour shift i have been driving around country lanes at warp factor 7 with hardcore dance music thumping away, i ended up in Shrewsbury at one point where i found myself travelling down a cobbled street

 

[Lord Sterling]

"BT" so a Birmingham registered car from new. I really like these Astras. Where is going to?

[fatharris]

Two and three quarter hour wait for our Chinese to get here.

 

The takeaway is less than a mile away, for fucks sake.

 

Their apology came in the form of waiving the £1.50 delivery charge, so I paid them their money and gave them back their menu - I won't be needing it again.

 

Food wasn't even that good.

[SiC]

"BT" so a Birmingham registered car from new. I really like these Astras. Where is going to?

First owner was Inchscape Vehicle Solutions in Portsmouth (I suspect a lease company?), then ended up in Newbury Vauxhall dealer (I think then owned by Inchscape) at 3 years old. This is when my wife's Grandad bought it.

 

We bought it off him last year, when we sold Liz's Mx5 mk3 to free up cash to buy a house and also to get her Grandad off the road.

 

Giffer owned, so a few light grazes but also it's done less than 65k and been garaged for 10 years! What's nice about that is all the rubbery bits haven't dissolved and the fasteners haven't gone unremovably crusty.

 

It been sold to someone off here, I don't want to mention names incase they don't want to say.

[SiC]

Oh and it not only has 2 working keys, no warning lights on and also working aircon!! Very rare thing for an Astra G at this age...

[Ghosty]

Inchcape is a dealer franchise, go figure perhaps?

[Petrolize]

My parents have been offered an early Focus mk1 (t or v reg) through a friend for £800. Is this a fair price ? I've no idea, I know they are wanting rid as it belonged to a distant and elderly relative beforehand who went into care.

It's a 2.0 petrol 5dr hatchback, manual, 1/2 a years MOT to run. Ghia spec, nice dark green colour with no rust and just under 20,000 miles! No evidence of any belt' change mind

[Ghosty]

Is the mileage warranted/verified? 

 

The LCD element in the clocks (clock/mileage) on the mk1 Focus commonly fails, and if it's had a replacement (IIRC you need to replace the whole clock set) then the mileage resets to 0. I've been in a 52 plate Ghia with 2000 miles on it last year for that reason.

 

Assuming the mileage is legit the price is OK considering it's a 2.0 Ghia (130bhp Zetec) in a decent colour, but I'd want to be sure it really was a 20k car, and I don't think I'd be paying much more than that. Depends how much you like it really - it's top end for an early Focus, but there aren't many that good out there.

[Petrolize]

Thanks Ghostly

 

The mileage seems to be true, it had just one or two owners and the early service history and more recent MOTs stack up about right.

 

It's not quite what they're after, something a little more tatty to run over the winter or a more practical car would suit their needs. It's just cropped up locally and the owner doesn't seem to be too greedy in terms of price considering the miles', hence giving it a bit of consideration

[phil_lihp]

First owner was Inchscape Vehicle Solutions in Portsmouth (I suspect a lease company?), then ended up in Newbury Vauxhall dealer (I think then owned by Inchscape) at 3 years old. This is when my wife's Grandad bought it.

 

We bought it off him last year, when we sold Liz's Mx5 mk3 to free up cash to buy a house and also to get her Grandad off the road.

 

Giffer owned, so a few light grazes but also it's done less than 65k and been garaged for 10 years! What's nice about that is all the rubbery bits haven't dissolved and the fasteners haven't gone unremovably crusty.

 

It been sold to someone off here, I don't want to mention names incase they don't want to say.

'Tis me. It's not actually for me, it's for one of our employees to use to visit clients around North Devon, his battered Clio is too small and a bit broken, plus it doesn't look very professional. The Astra will be a nice upgrade for him and will be getting signwritten very soon.

 

Currently say on a coach waiting for departure to Tiverton. It's a beautiful day so nice to have an excuse for a little trip.

[twosmoke300]

Well , that's the Saab officially gone ! Can get rid of the spares car now 😄

Bought a minty 306 hdi yesterday which is smoky in traffic . A garage told the owner it needed 800 quids worth of injectors but I'm not convinced as it starts / runs perfectly . My first thoughts are egr stuck slightly open or a maf over reading .

This will prob be the wife's car for a bit so we can sell her grande punti as soon as poss ( had it valeted last month )

[Supernaut]

306 HDi!

 

Jellus. I had one a few years back, it had a cheeky remap and went like fuckery and seemed to run on thin air. I only put fuel in it about once a month.

[phil_lihp]

Tiverton Parkway achieved via coach and a rather expensive taxi. Train due in 45 minutes and it looks like the shop is about to open so I can get a cup of tea. Stay tuned for further thrilling updates!

 

This may be the dullest collection ever but if it makes it the 70 or so miles home under its own power it will be one of my more successful ones this year.

[stillOrange]

Today I'm taking Terry the Triumph to my work car club meet up.

 

I hope to win the most tatty ribbon. Certain Peugeot 309 and 2CV are going to be my main competitors.  

[dollywobbler]

I need to get off my arse and complete 2CV chassis fettling. This is as difficult as fitting a new engine breather and fitting a pair of rear shock absorbers. I could also do with refurbing the replacement headlamp bar. It's had a coat of Vactan so far, and now looks dreadful. 

[stillOrange]

Well, I didn't get there.

 

I'll get pictures uploaded later today.

 

They will actually amuse many shiters

[Kiltox]

I bought a Kia Picanto today.

 

No, I'm not particularly excited either.

I had one brand new on a 2011/11 - loved it!

[SiC]

Tiverton Parkway achieved via coach and a rather expensive taxi. Train due in 45 minutes and it looks like the shop is about to open so I can get a cup of tea. Stay tuned for further thrilling updates!

 

This may be the dullest collection ever but if it makes it the 70 or so miles home under its own power it will be one of my more successful ones this year.

Astra now gone with Phil on his merry way with it.

 

I just hope he remembers the pez station shot.