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1

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 25 August 2025, 20:30:13 »

No bloody point watering here. The kids play out there year round. Which is great as they're not parked in front of screens but the lawn's so tiny we have no sodding grass left.

Artificial lawn next year I think.

2

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 25 August 2025, 16:35:05 »

Changed the OSR radius arm bush on the galaxy, did the NSR last year but the MOT looms so had to get my ar§e in gear. Not a bad job, but definitely requires a third weetabix prior to starting.

3

General Discussion Area / Re: I'm lost.

« on: 24 August 2025, 11:17:27 »

Sorry to hear that Al, coming on a year since my OH lost her Pug, it is a very hard thing. 

4

General Car Chat / Re: MG

« on: 22 August 2025, 23:24:18 »

You'd break all the crockery in the tin tent 

5

General Car Chat / Re: Cam belt query.

« on: 22 August 2025, 20:11:03 »

I believe this was the lump in my escort way back when. Mated to a 4spd manual and lugging around a 3 door estate. Didn't even have a radio until I fitted one 

Upgraded to a 1.6 5 speeder I took out of a very rusty donor when the 1.3 dipped under 100 miles to the pint of engine oil 

6

General Car Chat / Re: MG

« on: 22 August 2025, 11:37:14 »

Loads of all variants of the new MGs round my way , even the taxi firms have them all supplied by the same local dealership WH Brand family firm with a very good reputation in our area, used to be a BL dealership many years ago, I've used the taxi firms on occasions and they're very comfortable vehicles , I wouldn't buy one though but for a new vehicle they seem reasonable in price.

There are a few people on Youtube talking about them and their reliability. One guy runs a mobile EV servicing business and has a small fleet of them (5 maybe) and they are very impressive compared to equivalent ICE vehicles. He's taken them to c200-230,000 miles and they still retain more than 80% battery capacity despite a regular use of rapid chargers. They need basically no regular maintenance other than cabin filters and tyres. Brake pads last 80-100k or so, rear springs/shocks c120k and he hasn't bothered to change the gearbox oil or coolant. Bearing in mind they spend all their lives with the whole rear full of commercial van racking and mechanics' tools, they live about the hardest life you could reasonably imagine for a car of that type.

Clearly not a drivers' car, but to deliver all that at such a comparatively low price point is very impressive and will no doubt be a cause for concern amongst the likes of stellantis & VW.

The new chinky MG IM5 Performance holds a certain appeal.....

750BHP
4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steer
7 year warranty
Overflowing with tech.....although I'm not sure that is a plus point.
£48,000....but will depreciate few other things.

I certainly hope so, I'm due a midlife crisis shortly 

7

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 21 August 2025, 14:23:27 »

Some of the kits are incredibly faithful reproductions, particularly the ally bodied ones, they are costly though!

8

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 21 August 2025, 10:12:33 »

https://youtu.be/6XTZLcywhwI?feature=shared

This one please. Pretty please.

I've never seen this vid, thank you Opti. Apparently GTM 777F was owned by John Woolfe, along with its sister competition car GTM 700F, some heritage! Interesting that they were almost exactly twice the cost of an E-type when new. But still less than 1/3 of the cost of a 250 GTO. 

9

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 19 August 2025, 17:29:56 »

If real, I suspect the fortune would be not so small! Given that some good kits (like the one Aaronjb was builder) can run north of £50k these days.

10

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 19 August 2025, 16:01:14 »

Macca F1 weighs around 1100KG and sports 627BHP. Owning one may be a financial stretch even for a wealthy man such as you.

This the Bugatti EB110 and AC Cobra 427 were the cars on my bedroom wall growing up. Along with the usual scantily clad ladies, obviously  . Sadly I doubt I'll be buying any of those three in original guise, unless my numbers on the Euros come up obviously! On the subject of the kit, a 4.2 supercharged Jag lump would give roughly the same power and torque as the 427cu of the original, which is tempting and no more expensive than a 300bhp build, but I am slightly concerned it would turn the chassis into a pretzel.

If the aim is to scare oneself silly, £40k on an aeriel atom, and £5-10k to take it up to 500bhp would suffice. c750 bhp/tonne ought to be enough to pucker anyone's cheeks I would have thought. 

11

General Car Chat / Re: Cam belt query.

« on: 18 August 2025, 16:36:50 »

FWIW it was 10yrs or 100k on the Fraud Galaxy, due to circumstances beyond my control (and being too tight to pay someone to do it) I left it 101k and 10yrs 6 months. When it came off the timing belt still looked good, no signs of cracking or flaking etc. The aux belt on the other hand...

At the end of the day its all down to personal opinion. My view is that unless the engine has a reputation for snapping belts, I let them go to the manufacturer's specified intervals. But if its playing on your mind, get it changed 

12

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 18 August 2025, 16:32:39 »

Left it at home to suffer 2 hours on a train. The drive home should be less stressful.

I mean as less stressful as a £600 204k mile Merc ML can be

I'm sure it will drive impeccably 

Or if not, at least its a comfy place to sit and await the boys in the orange van 

13

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 18 August 2025, 00:15:22 »

How many " driver aids" come into play with the 600bhp though ?
My ideal car for the imaginary empty B roads I would like to drive along would weigh around 700kgs and have around 300bhp, with rear wheel drive, LSD,  and no electronics to interfere with things.

That would indeed be a fearsome thing. Ariel atom perhaps.if I have my way the kit car will be over 300bhp but a portly 1100kg  . Not sure the chassis can be made suitable however 

14

General Car Chat / Re: Lotus Carlton coming to auction

« on: 13 August 2025, 20:46:46 »

I do wonder, when 350bhp.is hot hatch territory today if some cars are a case of 'dont meet your heroes'.

I understand a massive chunk of value is tied up in nostalgia and image but I do wonder if it would be 'worth it'. I struggle with quite a lot of classic car pricing today. When a Ford Sierra (and not even the really quick ones) will set you back more than an Aston, I feel like I've missed something somewhere.

15

General Car Chat / Re: Tesla Self Service Test Drive

« on: 13 August 2025, 16:37:04 »

but with a home charger this is not a problem unless you drive more than 220-240 miles each day.

Assuming you need to use it on consecutive days, you're probably in the realms of a max of 60-80 miles a day, if you want to use cheap rate home charging only.

From my experience, that's possibly a bit pessimistic. My lifetime average according to the app (which is close enough that I CBA to work out the actuals after the first 3 months of ownership) is apparently 3.1 miles per kwh, which means 217 miles per 'tank'. On a miles basis >90% of its work is motorway; either Telford -> Warwick (me), Telford -> Northampton (her) or 3 junctions up the M54 (School run). She drives everywhere on the speed limit, I drive at around 80 leptons when traffic permits, but given we commute, there's a fair bit of stop-start involved along with the poxy variable speed limits around Brummie land. If I have late meetings, speed goes up, range comes down, 1.7 miles per kwh is the worst I've seen iirc. 

Octopus gives me 6hrs per day at 7p (down from 7.5p earlier this year) so that's a theoretical 42kwh per day, although admittedly its probably closer to 35 ish. Even so, the tesla would be more efficient (3.5+ miles per kwh at least) so should be able to maintain 120+ miles per day. Also, in fairness to Octopus, if I plug in when I get home at 7pm, they usually find more than 6hrs of cheap electricity between then and my usual leave time of around 5-5.30am.