The new news 24 thread

[gm]

The mazda disgraced itself today

 

 

that is the remains of the alternator belt which decided to shred itself half an hour into my trackday

 

I had a spare belt but suspect there may be damage to the radiator when it pinged off into many bits. I wasn't confident taking it back out on track so had to watch everyone else having fun

 

the weather had turned 'scottish' so there was a lot of childish sliding around going on down at the hairpin, I really wish I'd been able to join in.

[cort16]

I like that Volvo but I recon you'd need to run it as a snotter for a bit while trying to convince yourself it's worth the effort to fix properly .

 

Shame about the civc but if your fleet rather that than the cortina . Have you got the replacement pegged yet ?

[trigger]

I thought about it buying it and running it about as it is, but the lad selling it seems a little hormonal so I didn't know if i could be that bothered with it all!, I'm genuinely sad to see it go, especially after all the "You twat" comments i've been getting from friends but I enjoy change and i can't own everything.

 

As for a replacement, I'm pretty open minded, I have the Retro Rides Gathering in August to drive to so i fancied a bit of a cruiser but i am fitting a 5 speed to the Cortina so really i could take that, Mrs T likes the sound of a Morris Minor/Ford 100E/Austin A35 to use but I don't know if they are a bit slow, I'd like almost anything although a Dolomite 1850/Rover SD1/Mk2 Granada all rate highly at the moment.

 

I've got up to £2500 to spend and there's no rush so i'll see what come up and takes my fancy for the right price i guess.

[vulgalour]

Minor, 100E and A35 are definitely slow and not as peppy as the little Honda.  Treat it like a rescue dog, wait for the right car to find you and hopefully you'll be happy with it.

[cort16]

I always fall down with patience. The money burns a hole in my pocket and I can't sleep until I've spent it.

My suggestion is a 3 door xr4i. Still doable for that budget, quick and interesting. Why did I ever sell mine?

[skattrd]

Trigger, why not go a bit more exotic?

For that budget you can have a choice of Lancias, my Beta Spyder was £900 with T&T, but less shit ones can be had for £1500-2500.

I've seen some tempting* Lotus for that sort of money as well as TVR wedge or if you're lucky an early "s"

[cms206]

The interior is faded?!

 

ALL THE PANELS MATCH AND IT'S GOT A FUCKING HEADLINING TRIGGER!

 

I'm not even running a full set of 14in wheels any more. If I had £2500 I'd blow the lot on Volvos, that 244 is LUSH.

[captain_70s]

Bread and butter cars of the 50s and 60s are fun, but even a steady 60mph is asking a fair bit from them. Only buy if you are content to bumble around at 45-50mph while wearing your finest flat cap and tweed jacket.

 

 

The Dolly 1850 is a damn good motor, not like I'm biased or anything... It's a thinking man's Sprint, you've still got the grunt of a torquey engine and 91bhp to play with while having the ability to get 30-35mpg even if you don't have an overdrive. You can happily nip around while never going above 3,500rpm but if you want to make some real progress it'll happily sit at 80mph+ although admittedly it gets a bit skittish due to the low weight at those sort of speeds.

Personally I'd wait to find a car with overdrive, at 60mph you're doing around 3,450rpm which can sometimes feel a bit busy although it does mean overtaking is simply a matter of sinking your right foot into the (rather plush) carpets as you're just at the start of the power band!

 

£2.5k should get you a pretty nice one, mine was MOT'd and on the road for £850 and it's still going strong over 5,000 miles later. It clocked 90,000 miles yesterday!  One thing is for certain, they are going up in price rapidly. Early cars are arguably better built and feature better steelwork while also benefiting from not having suffered the 1976 facelift which was done in the usual BL fashion of sticking on more side trims (rust traps), pin stripes (tacky), and the hideous plastic wheel trims...

[cort16]

It wasn't that long ago you could get a really nice sprint for that money.

[trigger]

ALL THE PANELS MATCH AND IT'S GOT A FUCKING HEADLINING TRIGGER!

 

Would you believe that he'd take under £500 for it too?! If i had the SKILLZ or was happy with drive a proper Autoshite car then it would be a good buy but I'm that sunroof just freaked me out and then the seller got all grumpy saying how people keep running his car down so he's going to rip the interior out and fit a T5 in it...

[cms206]

Would you believe that he'd take under £500 for it too?! If i had the SKILLZ or was happy with drive a proper Autoshite car then it would be a good buy but I'm that sunroof just freaked me out and then the seller got all grumpy saying how people keep running his car down so he's going to rip the interior out and fit a T5 in it...

Show him a picture of mine and say I'll give him £250.

 

If he accepts you can explain to my missus whilst she sharpens her favourite scalpel to remove my testes.

[320touring]

Show him a picture of mine and say I'll give him £250.

 

If he accepts you can explain to my missus whilst she sharpens her favourite scalpel to remove my testes.

Surely she could just undo the clasp on her handbag to git ra baws oot?

[vulgalour]

That Volvo is silver which is the same colour as gaffer tape, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

[ruffgeezer]

Were I not on a 12 month car new car ban, I think I'd have me a bit of that filthy swede. 

 

Trigger, you should be a temporary custodian, it's not going to dent your budget massively to have it, and you might find yourself on the right side of the coin this time!

[trigger]

The chaps decided not to sell it now and has told me he's dumping the interior for a leather one and is going to fit a T5, I'll just let him get on with it I think.

[vulgalour]

Yep, he popped up on the blue forum a few hours ago: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/176347/1977-volvo-244dl

[JohnK]

Left the house at 12.30pm with this:

 

 

And returned about an hour ago with this -

 

 

Had a nightmare of a time mind but happy with the new purchase.

[Ghosty]

I'd be buying an 1850 if I could. If not, an E28 5 series or something.

[fordperv]

JohnK that doesn't look a fair swap to me at all, looks a nice mk3 in the picture

[JohnK]

I sold the MK3 for cash and met the buyer half way, I then spent a small portion of the income on the E36 to 'get me home' - great mentality ...

[trigger]

Your Mk3 was rather sexy.

[JohnK]

It will be sadly missed and no doubt I will regret the sale, but for the time being it didn't fit in with the longer term plan. I'm intending to throw some cash at my E23 7 series this year and also need to get the 190E Into regular use (and also garaged now that the Escort has gone).

 

Hopefully the new owner will look after it!

[cort16]

I was meant to be meeting someone in Glasgow at 2 so we could discuss a swap on the CL with something even more vulgar but it's totally pishing down.

I don't have a number for them so I've messaged them trying to cancel. I hope they come back as I can't be arsed going up there in the rain and cold. We can't even do the deal there and then because the other car is in mid reg transfer.

[dollywobbler]

 

2CV found a friend in Lewes today. Mileage now 199,850. Homeward bound tomorrow.

[fordperv]

I sold the MK3 for cash and met the buyer half way, I then spent a small portion of the income on the E36 to 'get me home' - great mentality ...

 

 

thats ok then i was thinking you swapped for the e36, i was going to send the men with the lovely jackets that the sleeves fasten at the back, around to you to take you to the bouncy room

 

[trigger]

I had one of my East Coast Retros car meets today and as I've sold my Civic it meant turning up at my own car meet in a modern Starlet, I wasn't having that so i went online this morning and signed the Cortina up for direct debit to get it taxed (It goes tax exempt next month), Then i shot down to Colchester, drove it out of the inlaws garage after 6 months and drove it straight back again for this meet.

 

It was nice to be behind the wheel again, especially on a nice day like today, I forgot how bumpy the Gaz shocks are though and the tyres had gone a bit square as the dash vibrated but after a few miles it all settled down again.

 

The meet it's self was very good, 70+ cars came along again as well as a photographer for Retro Cars magazine who hopes to come back when the weather gets nicer for a proper feature. My camera died after the first photo but I'll chuck up some photos that others have taken in a moment.

 

 

[fordperv]

I do like a nice mk3, I've been working on a 1.6 mk3 today and have a major want for one now, in typical fashion someone has replaced the made of unobtanium in dash wiper switch with a 2 position rocker switch so the bloody wipers won't park when switched off, he told me they stopped parking when this switch was put on after I had investigated the contacts in the motor and checked everything else possible, I've told him he will probably have to live with it unless he can find me a proper switch, i did find a few other minor faults mechanically so it wasn't a complete waste of time, a lovely motor though

 

This is it

 

 

[myglaren]

 

2CV found a friend in Lewes today. Mileage now 199,850. Homeward bound tomorrow.

This was also posted on the FCF earlier by the bloke with the XM

[Six-cylinder]

I helped my friend Derek take his MG TF and his daughters MG ZR to Stoneleigh Warwickshire today to put them up for sale at the MG/Triumph spares day. Neither sold but I had a nice day there with lots of cars. 

 

 

[FakeConcern]

This was also posted on the FCF earlier by the bloke with the XM

I am that bloke! I tracked this down & joined up. I also put together that the writer of this blog https://classichub.wordpress.com/ (I'm a follower!) is  Dollywobbler! I really wish I'd met him!