The new news 24 thread

[reb]

25 minutes ago, HMC said:

Been a reflective day here. Pottering about in a polo not too dissimilar to the first car I drove after passing my test- a then new 1.6glx auto that was my mums. It had one of those Sony stereos that would annoyingly bleep at you if you didn’t remove the face off radio cassette. It was also the first car I drove (on a private test road) at over 100 which gave me palpitations for the rest of the day pretty much.

My 1.9D polo did an indicated 105 on a similar private test road in Shetland, with quite a lot of clag spewing out of it.

[vulgalour]

Unusual alloys too, haven't seen many of those sets out in the wild.

[Pillock]

Saturday and Sunday we went on road trips, covered about 600 miles. We were home Saturday night though to save booking a hotel last minute but as usual we really enjoyed the drive and found it a shame to have to head back. 

Then the previous conversation with brownnova about campers came up. Think we're gonna do it over the winter and have one ready for camping early next year. So much so I passed a Vivaro for sale at the side of the road, turned round and went back. Sadly it was £10k and more than that, a young lad on a bike came over and told me it was his dad's, and gave me a different phone number to the advert. Dodgy as. 

So, now have ebay searches saved for campers and will see how it goes! 

[gm]

2 hours ago, 320touring said:

My GSA features early on in this video - between a Lotus Cortina and an Escort Cosworth #illustriouscompany

 

 

Larkhall circuit ? Never heard of it - is it karting ? Looks nice and tight, a bit like teeside - do they do car track days ? 

[320touring]

2 minutes ago, gm said:

Larkhall circuit ? Never heard of it - is it karting ? Looks nice and tight, a bit like teeside - do they do car track days ? 

It's a karting track, aye. Too small for cars I reckon

[gm]

shame, I just googled it and the track is long in karting terms at 1100m but even in the mazda, that is a bit short 

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Mad I may be, but I'm not suicidal.

Same here. I decided to ignore traffic and go out on my mountain bike rather than take the fiat out and go for a walk in the Surrey hills. Gridlock round here yesterday after a crash on the m3.

[egg]

1 hour ago, xtriple said:

So BH starts for locals tomorrow.   

As a coastal town resident myself, albeit one a bit less genteel, I love September when the weather is good but everyone has gone

[brownnova]

Every man and his Citroen may not have been out and about, but This man and his Citroen was out on the roads... but no more than 4 miles from my house. 

Today I tackled the garage and having emptied it I put the stuff I actually wanted back in. 

And promptly put the Mazda in, in order to diagnose the oil leak and change the oil and filter. 

Which was fine until I realised that the filter I thought was for the Mazda was in fact for the camper. Balls! Whereupon I went out to the motor factors in the Citroen... only to find they didn’t have it in stock. 

So I looked at the random stuff I have found in the garage. 

Random alternator... off what? Who knows! 

A thing... maybe a mulcher? Not a clue, but it’s heavy. 

Sewing machine... this is staying. I might try and tart it up a bit. 

Ancient heater... very cool

VW Beetle back windows. Anyone wants these just shout! 

[Dannyk]

Today i Spent  some time trying to figure out why my polo sounds like when i was 18 and i had a nova with a cherry bomb. Whilst under there i thought id take some pics as it's mintier than danthecaprimans capri.

 

[wuvvum]

On Saturday I spent nearly 10 hours sitting on a bus (two buses to be pedantic) to Plymouth, to pick up this beast from HMC's Pukka Motor Sales Ltd. Inc.:

Then I dropped HMC off at simon8201's to pick up the Polo, and then hooned up to my parents' new house in Portishead to spend the weekend.  Drove back to Norfolk this afternoon.

It's an interesting thing to drive - it has ZR suspension and silly 17" alloys with rubber band tyres, so the ride is a bit sudden, but it turns in to corners very well for something so nose-heavy.  Seats feel a bit odd to start with but they were comfy enough on the 250-mile drive home this afternoon.  Brakes are definitely better than the 200's, and the steering is noticeably quicker too.

It needs a few jobs doing - it's definitely down on power, feels like it's losing boost from somewhere so that will be investigated at the weekend.  It still keeps up with traffic OK, and I managed to shave 23 minutes off the sat nav ETA between Simon's and my parents', but it definitely doesn't accelerate as well as it should and doesn't seem to have much oomph up motorway hills.  The only other issue needing immediate attention is that the screen wash and rear wiper don't work - I suspect the stalk as it's rather floppy.  I might borrow the one from the Rover of Doom and see if that sorts it.

Other than that it's a great wee thing, and once it's got its full complement of horses back it'll be great fun to roar around in.  Thanks to HMC for picking me up from Plymouth, and to Kiltox for facilitating the transaction.

Here's a pic of the MG and HMC's Horsey Horseless Volvo 940 together:

[Fat_Pirate]

I'm in the USA, and yet this is the sort of thing I photograph:

 

 

[reb]

I'm on the banks of loch Lomond.

Eating McDonald's cheeseburgers.

 

They're still hot.

 

Isn't rampant consumerism just the thing?

[Ghosty]

Viewing another car on Thursday. The seller's address is on a new build estate, on the grounds of the factory where the car was built. 

Locally registered too, and in one of the 'right' specs.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

23 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Viewing another car on Thursday. The seller's address is on a new build estate, on the grounds of the factory where the car was built. 

Locally registered too, and in one of the 'right' specs.

Peugeot?

[paulplom]

That paraffin heater you have will be worth a few quid to someone with a greenhouse. I used to grow show leeks and a dual heater like that would be the mutts nuts as it were.

[MorrisItalSLX]

5 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Viewing another car on Thursday. The seller's address is on a new build estate, on the grounds of the factory where the car was built. 

Locally registered too, and in one of the 'right' specs.

Longbridge?

[dollywobbler]

Today, I drive over 200 miles in the Matiz. Yesterday, I found a split in the air intake pipe which may well explain why it's been feeling a bit tardy lately. I fixed* it with gaffer tape. Have a poorly composed photograph.

That was a distraction while I was fitting a new radiator to the Fox, when what the Fox actually needs is a new temp sender. 

[wuvvum]

8 hours ago, reb said:

I'm on the banks of loch Lomond.

Are they as bonnie as the adverts would have us believe?

[reb]

7 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Are they as bonnie as the adverts would have us believe?

I don't know, it was dark and there was a lot of lorries.

I slept in the car and headed further west as soon as I woke up. I was too early to buy coffee anywhere that wasn't McDonald's, so I just kept driving. More than two hours later and a fair bit of not actually knowing where I was, I'm in Dunoon drinking lovely coffee.

This is neither Loch Lomond nor Dunoon, but the views were lovely despite the fog.

[davehedgehog31]

8 hours ago, reb said:

I'm on the banks of loch Lomond.

Eating McDonald's cheeseburgers.

 

They're still hot.

 

Isn't rampant consumerism just the thing?

McQuacks in Balloch? Always thought it was oddly placed.

[reb]

8 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

McQuacks in Balloch? Always thought it was oddly placed.

The car park was designed by a blind man who didn't know what a car was. The location was obviously chosen to maximise trade from passing Americans and other foreigns, right on the west road up the loch.

Considerably more people have left the shop I'm parked outside than have entered, is this some sort of west coast voodoo?

[BorniteIdentity]

20 minutes ago, reb said:

I don't know, it was dark and there was a lot of lorries.

I slept in the car and headed further west as soon as I woke up. I was too early to buy coffee anywhere that wasn't McDonald's, so I just kept driving. More than two hours later and a fair bit of not actually knowing where I was, I'm in Dunoon drinking lovely coffee.

This is neither Loch Lomond nor Dunoon, but the views were lovely despite the fog.

McDonalds’ coffee is genuinely very good to my relatively trained palette.

I’m never going to get into any arguments about takeaway coffee, no will I win any competitions with my tastebuds. But it’s far more appealing than some of the shite I’ve suffered whilst on the road. 

Happy travels!

[davehedgehog31]

2 minutes ago, reb said:

The car park was designed by a blind man who didn't know what a car was. The location was obviously chosen to maximise trade from passing Americans and other foreigns, right on the west road up the loch.

Considerably more people have left the shop I'm parked outside than have entered, is this some sort of west coast voodoo?

Balloch is where driving went to die. That Mcdonalds is stow full in the summer, then deserted for the other 9 months of the year. 

Sounds like a drugs front to me. Enquire within.

[brownnova]

5 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

McDonalds’ coffee is genuinely very good to my relatively trained palette.

I’m never going to get into any arguments about takeaway coffee, no will I win any competitions with my tastebuds. But it’s far more appealing than some of the shite I’ve suffered whilst on the road. 

Happy travels!

Got to say I agree, McDonalds coffee is fairly good for the price. Plus every 7th one is free if you keep the stickers (which being a cheapskate I do religiously) 

That, Apple pies, breakfast pancakes and McFlurries are good. The rest can get in the sea*

 

 

*unless I’m really hungry

[Asimo]

9 hours ago, reb said:

I'm on the banks of loch Lomond.

Eating McDonald's cheeseburgers.

 

They're still hot.

 

Isn't rampant consumerism just the thing?

You are right in the crumple-zone there, where southern Scotland crashed into Northern Scotland.

(Half a billion years ago) 

https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst7728.html

[reb]

My distaste for McDonald's coffee isn't based on the quality or lack thereof, mostly just because I drank my weight in it when I worked there doing nights.

Due to a minor* change in travel plans of Keith (who I was meant to meet off the ferry) I'm not 40 miles further south than I needed to be. At least it's a nice day.

Revvy 1.6 + shite Halfords cone filter + nice twisties = big grin

[gm]

I live in a rented flat so it's not unusual for mail addressed to previous tenants to drop through the door. A couple of months back, an envelope containing what was obviously a bank/ credit card dropped onto the door mat addressed to one such former resident. I "return to sender"ed it, guess what has just landed this morning ? Another replacement card, no wonder there is so much card fraud going on

googling the return address suggests Santander are to blame 

[Kiltox]

Just had word that some prime* shite has been delivered to my unit.  

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, gm said:

...... an envelope containing what was obviously a bank/ credit card dropped onto the door mat addressed to one such former resident. I "return to sender"ed it, guess what has just landed this morning ? Another replacement card, no wonder there is so much card fraud going on

googling the return address suggests Santander are to blame 

Why am I not surprised at the mention of the name Santander?