The new news 24 thread

[hairnet]

22 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Great success. 
 

Now stuck in roadworks on the A17

starship enterprise

[chadders]

36 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Great success. 
 

Now stuck in roadworks on the A17

Imagine if it was in the holidays though.

[wuvvum]

It must be nearly spring. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I still have over half a meter of snow on the ground.

[comfortablynumb]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I still have over half a meter of snow on the ground.

What you need is a tractor.

Oh......😁

[stuboy]

Fresh and frosty morning car meet with hazzard apparantly over 100 vehicles..

Sorry it's mix of old.. new..and a shitty mondeo of mine..

 

 

 

please excuse the flowers... my app now watermarks unless I pay them moneys.

 

 

 

[brownnova]

7 hours ago, beko1987 said:

@brownnova you've been papped 😂

So I was!!

I got parked next to a similar vehicle: 

The Fiat Uno was a highlight… 

And this Thunderbird 

On the way the road was closed and a diversion through a housing estate was forced upon me. Totally worth it for this spot though… 

[alcyonecorporation]

Tis a Falcon m9.
Looked a great show. 

[wuvvum]

Is that a Thunderbird?  Looks more like a Falcon to me.

[wuvvum]

Jinx.

[EightMegs]

Well, I found the most cost effective way of getting a replacement camshaft.

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, reb said:

The graphic designer in me is screaming at me that they should have put "range rover" across two lines instead of one on the steering wheel

That's to remind you how wide it is!

[Tayne]

6 hours ago, reb said:

The graphic designer in me is screaming at me that they should have put "range rover" across two lines instead of one on the steering wheel

It’s traditional 

 

 

[reb]

1 minute ago, Tayne said:

It’s traditional 

 

 

That works a bit better because it's in proportion with the wheel hub, and doesn't look like an afterthought 

[MorrisItalSLX]

[Metal Guru]

9 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

That’s the worst one of the lot. Anything off centre on a steering wheel looks wrong.

[lesapandre]

25 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

That’s the worst one of the lot. Anything off centre on a steering wheel looks wrong.

Looks like Rangs Roveo.😂

Interesting that RANGE ROVER have never produced a non-text logo?

Be nice to see the Viking make a return on a Rover product.

[Markeh]

11 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Be nice to see the Viking make a return on a Rover product.

I don't know who has the rights to it any more - I assume SAIC?

[lesapandre]

Who know who holds the right to use this early iconography - if anyone - maybe JLR have a deal with SAIC not to confuse things using the Rover name itself?

Lovely branding - the ROVER is set out in beautiful Art-Deco typeface and the sculpture so well done.

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

All the rights to the Rover Car Co Ltd would have been transferred to Leyland when Leyland bought it in 1967.

Rights will have continued through the various iterations  up to the break up of Rover Group by BMW in 2000.

Wiki says "Currently, the Rover marque is the dormant property of the Rover Company's de facto successor – Jaguar Land Rover (owned by Tata Motors), which still operates out of Rover's Solihull plant. "

Wiki Rover page

 

[wuvvum]

Yeah, I seem to recall SAIC were quite pissed off when they found they didn't get the Rover name as part of the deal - that's why they badge their Chinese market cars as Roewe.

[lesapandre]

No more pot-holes apparently...🌳

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/03/farewell-potholes-uk-team-invents-self-healing-road-surface

[mercedade]

Well then

Pulling away from a junction yesterday, changed up into second gear, foot on accelerator and..... BANG.... mega chuff noise, lack of power. 

Pretty obvious that the plug on cylinder 2 had launched itself into orbit the underside of the bonnet.

I now see that this is a relatively common R53 issue. 

I may have got lucky and the plug has slowly unwound, or it may have stripped the thread. 

In the positive corner, we have the fact that for the last couple of weeks I've detected a bit of a fuel smell and a quite ticking - I'd assumed I'd be dealing with a dodgy injector somewhere (I don't drive this car a lot, so haven't rushed to get around to it), but it seems like I was probably dealing with a spark plug working itself loose. And even if it has stripped the thread, it seems common enough that repairs can be achieved more easily than with some engines. 

In the negative corner, we have the fact it exited pretty swiftly, some may say explosively, and I would expect a bit of damage to at least the top few threads. 

The plug itself was nowhere to be seen, and you can see the cap on the lead itself is pretty shredded by the experience, so as well as the plugs I'm picking up later I'll have to grab a set of HT leads too.

Exhilarating stuff

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

No more pot-holes apparently...🌳

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/03/farewell-potholes-uk-team-invents-self-healing-road-surface

Might take a while...

[Split_Pin]

Some changes at the back.

New plates courtesy of @Kiltox, an absolute fucking bargain at £12 delivered. 

The car also came with replacement '95' and 'Aero' badges so on they went. I'm not a fan of the debadged look and metal pressed plates even less so, so I am happy with this.

Also included with the car were a pair of brand new 'Saab Scania' badges which I'd love to fit but the ones on the car are new and look nice so I'll leave them for now.

Just need to remember to do the admin side of things before I drive it again!

[wuvvum]

Ampera update: I ran it down to Yarmouth for the repair place to assess the damage.  The chap's initial impression was that it was probably going to be a write off, although he did say that he couldn't tell for sure until he strips the back bumper off but he reckons the rear panel has definitely taken a hit.

He did offer me to leave it there and he'd give me a lift home but I've got quite a lot of crap in the car that I need to clear out so I drove home in it and they're going to come and collect it tomorrow.

Now to see what the insurance offers me for it.  There is a comically large gap between what Auto Trader valued the car at and what it's actually possible to buy a roadworthy Ampera for, so I might have a bit of a fight on my hands...

[artdjones]

45 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Ampera update: I ran it down to Yarmouth for the repair place to assess the damage.  The chap's initial impression was that it was probably going to be a write off, although he did say that he couldn't tell for sure until he strips the back bumper off but he reckons the rear panel has definitely taken a hit.

He did offer me to leave it there and he'd give me a lift home but I've got quite a lot of crap in the car that I need to clear out so I drove home in it and they're going to come and collect it tomorrow.

Now to see what the insurance offers me for it.  There is a comically large gap between what Auto Trader valued the car at and what it's actually possible to buy a roadworthy Ampera for, so I might have a bit of a fight on my hands...

Save some screenshots of ads now, for bargaining ammunition.

[chadders]

My eldest son had the same thing with his Pluriel when it was back ended.

He got the write off amount less a few hundred quid to have it as salvage and then used it for about another 3 years until the front suspension went and it wasn't worth repairing

 

[wuvvum]

I am definitely going to ask about keeping the salvage if it comes to that.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Save some screenshots of ads now, for bargaining ammunition.

Well the only Ampera for sale locally is £9,000.  It's an immaculate late low-miler from a dealer though so I might* be pushing my luck a bit with that one.

Cheapest one on Autotrader is £3,750, although that is miles away.