What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Lord Sterling]

The manager at work had a rover 800 as a company car, probably 6 months old at the time , I had to drive it to Manchester airport to pick somebody up , at the time I had a Toyota Celica, this rover was a terrible drive , just everything about it was bad , the other manager had a rover 600 which was great but 800 guy wouldn't have the 600 because he was the senior manager , and yes he was as big a knob as he sounds

The Rover 800, in my opinion, is not a bad car to drive if it's used for what it was built for. I've owned most of the models except for the 820 Vitesse Turbo. The 827 is a little more coarse than the later 825 KV6 which was a step up drivewise in my opinion, but again, no race car. The 820 is a bit shit, looks nice but drivewise feels like a Montego that's ready for the scrapyard. Even worse, they shoved the 2.0 non-turbo engine into the Coupe, what the hell were they thinking? Rove ri suppose, like the Government, lots of shit ideas that don't really work.

 

I'll be honest, I'd much rather an 825 Sterling over a Celica, I like my comfort.

[dollywobbler]

Am I the only one who thinks the wheels on that MG thing are far too big? It's the stupid tyres that make it look like a toy car.

 

Yes, you are. The rear styling is seriously out of proportion with the wheel size. Shrink-wrapped rubber certainly doesn't help, but it's not often I think a car needs bigger wheels. This is one of those times.

[Ghosty]

Do you mean Beckenham, Mr Fowler? 

[richardmorris]

IMG_20171031_135435.jpg

Just got this in the post for £5.80 delivered Looks interesting but no estates in it sadly as it was printed in 1989 before they had introduced an estate.

I sold my copy a few years ago after realising I wouldn't be buying an xm. I think I broke even - amazing for an xm purchase!

[eddyramrod]

JAKOB1, "I Am Rolling" by The Volvo Car Corporation. Because what else?

 

The SVM has it's own theme tune now?????

[bramz7]

Landed in Palermo today, we'd found tons of Euros this morning in a jar so decided to blow most of it on a taxi.

The taxi we got was a Dacia Solenza. With 453k on it. To be fair, the rear seats weren't bad. Clonking suspension aside it wasn't an utter wreck.

[Des]

MG badge too big and wheels too smoll.

Car too big.

[clayts450]

It's a long way from a souped up 45, that's for sure.

 

I've read that MG Motors (the Chinese company who decided Longbridge weren't even capable of bolting together their Airfix MG3 models and shut the factory down) genuinely believe this will be the car that makes them some mega-moolah in Britland. Let's face it the MG3, 6 and GS haven't exactly set the world on fire.

 

Price wise they're competitive, give them that, and the early reviews I've read (the car launches tomorrow) do say they seem to be much better bolted together than the 3.

 

Sadly, the ZS (originally was to have been called the XS) looks identical to every other quasi-SUV on the road - a reverse Tardis - big on the outside, tight squeeze on the inside.

 

Old ZS - would. New ZS - not different enough, must try harder.

[fordperv]

Just scared my mates little girls dressed as a pirate when him and his mrs popped around with them trick or treating, their reactions were brilliant, I ran around from the back of the house while they were at the door

[eddyramrod]

For the second time in the space of a week, I've been out viewing and driving cars for magazine pages.  Ticked a lot of boxes on my bucket list!

[Cavcraft]

That MG looks ace, defo needs bigger wheels though.

[beko1987]

Putting pictures of clowns up on the telly randomly whilst Amy watches release the hounds...

 

She hates clowns, but so far thinks it's part of the show!

[robinmasters]

Spudgun off Bottom appears to have been a Talbot enthusiast.

 

[PhilA]

Random model car shelf at the store. The usual Corvettes and Mustangs, a Crown Vic taxi cab.. and hiding in amongst it, this.

 

 

Yup, an un-pineapple'd VW Santana.

 

Phil

[Roobarb]

Coming back on the plane Saturday from 'Amsterdam, I was peering over an Indian blokes shoulder who was sat down, while I was waiting for the plane karzi to become unoccupied. (To clarify, he wasn't sitting on the karzi).

 

He had a ton of MG presentations on his laptop that he was filing away in different locations. Lots of stuff that only someone in the company would care about.

 

The most amazing thing I saw, was a set of power points for a new range of vehicles using an old British motorbike company name (which is sadly evading my poor age stricken brain). Something like litchfield or... grrrrr!

 

If I hadn't seen this thread, I would have totally forgotten about it.

 

Edit: Royal Enfield!

I wonder if they are going to make a modern comeback!

[Ghosty]

Enfield are an Indian company.

 

https://royalenfield.com/uk/

[Guest Hooli]

Indeed, Royal Oilfield has never gone away & have some quite nice new models.

[Eddie Honda]

My mate was trying to tell me that his old Iphone 4S Wi-Fi was jiggered. He'd already tried the freezer trick and it would only work for a minute or two and not long enough for anything useful, tried everything, etc.

 

So a quick Google later and I say "you need the opposite of cold" and has he got a hairdryer handy? Next I'm heating the phone on the ceramic hob, but ducked down next to the cooker to avoid any exploding batteries. After five minutes of full-heat hairdryer action and it was working again... and still is. To be honest, I was only expecting it to half-work or work for a much shorter time.

[Guest Hooli]

Dry joint I bet & you've warmed it enough for the solder to reflow.

[Eddie Honda]

Yes, it seems common enough. I don't know why folk would freeze them (apart from being easier less dangerous).

 

I would have thought it a bit difficult to reflow properly when stuck inside a case, but I thought it was worth a shot than sit about moping around.

[Guest Hooli]

No idea why people would think freezing would help either.

[Guest Hooli]

Sadly, the inventor of the raffle draw has passed away. RIP Tom Bowler.

[Tickman]

Thanks to Bucketeer for these and Will for delivery.

They have been given a clean up and shall be put to use.

 

 

[nebuchenezer]

On the way to pick up a prescription today I saw this:

 

 

Which reminded of the time I spent navigating in this in the early '80's:

 

 

So the I spent some time digging up pics of my early cars:

 

 

Sitting here with a great big grin now                 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

What is/was that red thing?

[M'coli]

Clan Crusader - available fully built or as a kit with new Imp Sport engine, gearbox, and suspension assemblies straight from Rootes. Built in Co. Durham and designed by two ex-Lotus engineers.

 

I'm off for a bit of a lie down.

[Guest Hooli]

Thanks, I should have known one of them!

[oldcars]

What is/was that red thing?

A Clan Crusader.

[nebuchenezer]

It is a Clan Crusader: Looks like it has been restored as I am fairly sure they have not been made for years. 

 

Fibreglass body filled with hilman imp bits that weighs around 600 kg with driver on board

 

The rally car was much modified and went like shit off a shovel - 100 mph at 10,000 rpm, 0-60 sub 5 seconds. I think that picture (note the white smoke) was taken just after Ian (the owner and driver) missed third under hard acceleration, hit 12,000 rpm and threw a piston and rod out of the block - it still ran to the end of the stage though......

[Guest Hooli]

Sounds like a lot of fun, I knew Imp bits were good if you could keep them inside the block.