The new news 24 thread

[Christine]

11 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Nothing remotely exciting, but got four new tyres on the TIPO today. F1 auto centres at camberley were efficient and I now have Goodyear efficient grip performance all round after 29,000miles on the original falkens. Tread still legal but cracking was becoming noticeable and an advisory in Feb for the mot. 

dot codes are 1025 so quite recent.

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

[Dave_Q]

3 minutes ago, Christine said:

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

Week 10, not month 10

[Christine]

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

[Lord Sterling]

On 03/05/2025 at 18:03, bramz7 said:

Went to Brooklands today, as it was Auto Italia day....

Lots of memories of these cars for me

I've always loved the Quattroporte, they are, by far, my most favourite of Italian cars. Fast, classy and a saloon.

The first one reminds me of the James Bond 'Licence to Kill' bad guys' Quattroporte. Same colour too.

The second later Quattroporte reminds me of a late 90s/early 00s Syrian TV comedy series called "Four Seasons" the head of the family, a wealthy successful businessman drove one of these around quite extensively, his son initially had a Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, but later that changed to a late 90s black Alfa Romeo Spider TS.

I remember the 156 estate that I collected from London from @purplebargeken and delivered to @Cavcraft. A really nice thing to cruise about in, it had a lovely 5-pot burble to it.

I used to to see a lot of Alfa 33s in Brussels. One thing I remember about them is that distinct acceleration sound they made, they sounded an awful lot like a 1.6 or 2.0 Montego.

I had an uncle who lived in London in the late 90s, he had an Alfa 164 and let me drive it one time when he came up to Birmingham.

I'd honestly considered one of these as one of my first cars (well, I wasn't going down the usual small car route)

The Lancia Kappa was something seen in Brussels/mainland Europe but rarely if ever seen on British roads.

Toyota Avensis - Last year I stuck up a pic of one of my uncles' latest acquisition; a Toyota Mirai:

Back in the day, his first brand-new car was a Toyota Avensis. 

Despite the lack of Italian cars in the UK, especially around the Midlands, the original Fiat Tipo wasn't a rare car around there.

Years ago in Telford, where I used to walk to school along a busy thoroughfare, there used to be Lancia Delta parked on the side of the road there. One day as I was passing, I remember seeing it had been smashed into.

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Christine said:

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

I think there must be a mix of 09 and 10 then. Will check this evening - am in the 2CV today.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

[richardmorris]

[IronStar]

26 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

 

 

I can highly recommend these for tidying up the boot

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkside-Ultimate-Speed-Boot-Compact/dp/B0CTTWPJN8

They cost a few quid equivalent in Lidl when available. Much tidier than random boxes, and have the velcro thingy to stick to the carpets.

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

[Lord Sterling]

 Cheers. They look nice those bags, there are/was some on eBay that also carried a manufacturer's logo if you wished. I will be considering them, but for now I like the random boxes.

19 minutes ago, IronStar said:

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

It depends where you go. The closed place I went to (if they were open) would patch up a tyre for £10. The place I went to charged £20. Both non-chains as there are many non-chain tyre suppliers here.

[chadders]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

"Charity shops cannot accept upholstered furniture for resale unless it has a valid fire safety label attached. This is a legal requirement under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988."

We've scrapped a few suites because of this.

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, richardmorris said:

2cv was because my mechanic was coming over after work as I thought the clutch was getting progressively noisier over the last few long journeys.  Good news- he doesn’t think it’s the clutch ( replaced 2007 30,000miles). Bad news, he thinks it’s the gearbox bearing. 
it’s growling in neutral, and particularly 4th gear. 
he’s meeting rick pembro next week at the 2cv racing so will talk to him about it.

 

[Lord Sterling]

On 05/05/2025 at 19:45, Dave_Q said:

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

Je suis aussi en train de regarder un documentaire qui s'appelle "Arnaque Auto" or "Scam Autos". Je suis watching this on YouTube rather than terrestrial TV (I no longer watch) 

It's actually a long collection of French car/road documentaries put together (different voice overs) that looks at different aspects of motoring, such as illegal car race meets, badly repaired cars that are sold through the trade by unscrupulous people, dangerous roads and my most fave, street mechanics, in which a bunch of (mainly immigrant) clandestine car mechanics of whom have their own specialities (everything from changing brake pads to head gasket work and body work) are all done on the side of the road.

It is apparently illegal to punt out work like this on the street. (these documentaries were made around the mid 00s) I love the fact that they use public carparks and high-rise flats carparks and sometimes underground 'box' garages (or 'lock-ups' as we sometimes call them here) to punt their trade around. It's a bit like going to a prostitute. Go up to a mechanic, ask how much for whatever work is required, and as long as you can supply the bits (sometimes the mechanic will come with you to the shop if you don't know much about what you're looking for) they'll do the work for less than half of what it costs in a normal or even back-street garage who'll have overheads.