Be Excellent To Each Other

The Mustang 'vert that I rented in Vegas was an EcoBoost, not the V8 as I first thought.

Was still a real pleasure to drive - although admittedly American roads and traffic are very different to here.

There's no denying the EcoBoost is a lovely engine.

Who wants to guess what a better engine might be?

The one I rented was not an ecoboost, and man was it fun. Big fucking roads with no other cars? Yes please.

The soft top was pointless though, because Arizona is a dustbowl.

Seriously man, what's lovely about it? In my view it's just yet another tedious, blown 4-pot that's fine in a little family hatch like a Focus, but a Mustang...? Pur-lease.

If you're going to go to all the trouble and expense of getting an (IMO lovely) car like a Muzzie, don't emasculate it with some crappy little eco-box mill. I'm sure it does make good power, torque or whatever but it's just wrong for this kinda car. It'd be like shoving a CBR600 transverse four into my Harley.

Woofly, atmo OHV V8 or nothing.

Oh, and fixed head too, not convertible.

I can understand it to an extent. The V8 sounds amazing but 17 mpg is not so good. And it still looks the same.

Read more than the first line, Cavester

It's what's inside that counts

I'd take the Focus RS over a Eco 'Stang, though.

Yep, it would be brisk enough to keep me happy and would make it just about affordable instead of too much.
I'll probably buy a diesel E Class convertible instead though.

I can definitely see the appeal of having 'sensible' versions of high performance/muscle cars. (If you can accept the slight contradiction in terms.) The problem with big V8s is they're always going to be fucking abominable on fuel, I was sniffing around Merc C63s as an alternative to the S4 but real-world I'd be getting through two gallons of petrol a day just to drive to work and back in an entirely sensible manner, and you have to think about how those costs will mount up over time.

Indeed, one of the reasons I went for the S4 is that they dropped the old (mega-thirsty) V8 for a supercharged V6 for the 2010 model, which added a fair chunk of extra miles per gallon onto its fuel efficiency.

If I were choosing one of these two Mustangs for a daily use car, I'd go for the EcoBoost I think. Looks the same, goes mostly the same, doubtless it's missing some 'character' that some folks would consider borderline heretical to drop from the package, but I'd have no problem with it.

http://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/trim/ecoboostfastback/

http://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/trim/gtfastback/

Sheep in wolf's clothing is the worst.

313bhp, 0-60 in 5.8 seconds, top speed of 148mph - it's not exactly a slow car, and according to Ford's figures it does nearly twice the mpg of the V8 engined model, which isn't actually that much faster.

The V8 is still there for people who'd prefer that, so everyone's happy

Whereas wolf in sheep's clothing is exactly what I like in a car

Sleepers

I like Q-Cars.

Topped off the coolant in the S4 yesterday, but of course you have to put 'special' coolant in it so I went to the local dealer that handles VAG cars and they had the required 'G13' coolant in their parts department. It's £12 for 1.5L which is sort of OK I suppose (is it? I don't know, everything is so fucking expensive for cars these days), it needs to be mixed in a 2:3 ratio with distilled water (you can't use tap water.....), which I got 1.5L of for £1.50.

It only took about 200ml to get the expansion tank about halfway between the MIN and MAX lines, but I'll need to keep an eye on it from now on, as it shouldn't really be losing any coolant.

I did notice after I got it that the coolant was showing as just below the MIN line when the engine was cold, but it expanded out when the engine was hot to be between MIN and MAX.

Apparently the proper state for it to be in is between MIN and MAX when completely cold, and it'll then expand out to a bit above MAX when hot, which is what it's doing now.

This is how it looks now when completely cold, so I shall check the level again in a few hundred miles.

Pretty sure I got flashed by the average speed cameras on the M62 on the way home this afternoon. There was a rather abrupt change from 60 down to 40 near the big IKEA in Huddersfield.

Bum holes!

An abrupt speed limit change shouldn't have been an issue if they were average speed cameras. Also average speed cameras don't flash you.

Yeah, they use video, not stills, so no flashes.

#title.

Do you mean J27, Batley?

Treated myself to* a new car battery with 760 cold hard cranks for £57.88.

An Exide premium one too.

*Had to replace the 13 year old original.

That's what I thought, but this is a new smart motorway. And something definitely flashed. A lot.

Oh, yeah, they have them turned on nowadays. On M1 as well through tbe variables.

EXCITING ROVER UPDATE!!!

It really, really, does not like the cold. A few freezing nights and it showed its displeasure by flicking all the solenoids on and off before going quiet. For a few hours. Then, annoyed at its sorry lot in life, it set off its under bonnet alarm. For 45 minutes. After 45 minutes i had found the extension lead to plug the charger in. Started first time this morning. I worry it is unkillable.

It's a bit 1980s having a car that won't start on cold mornings, very retro.

Memories of helping my dad bump start a knackered old Ford Escort down the backings.....

BUT THAT WAS MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS AGO.

Can't you at least get a cheap Japanese car?

Or park on a hill.

I could. But, I won't until MrsA concedes soft top Saabs are not embaressing, but really cool.

So, when she concedes this, you will buy a Japanese car?

You've met her.

Hmm. Hmmmmm.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... obcid=soc3

That's probably a fairly decent investment.

Yep.

Oooh. Tempting

Do it.

Nice enough car but they're not massively fast, they are very thirsty, and it's a couple of generations behind on the tech front to say the least.

What's the intended usage? Day to day transportation or a fun track day car or something else?

In many regards it's a 'lot of car' for £3500 (and those Duratec engines are really good), but it depends what you're planning to do with it.

Whilst crossing a completely empty road last night a P-reg BMW sped out of nowhere (ie from round a corner a good 200 yards or so from the junction I was at), stopped, and started tooting his horn at me. I flicked him the bird as I carried on my way. I suppose the mature reaction would have been to switch to a far slower walking pace than my usual one, but it felt like the correct response in the circumstances.

See kermit the frog was one day daydreaming
Thinking about himself at a red light
With that it-ain't-easy-being-greenin'
And the cars behind him kept honking and honking
And kermit's last words as he flipped the bird
Was, damn you muppets just keep on taking!
See I've got my own things now so stop tooting
I do my lily pad jumping
Miss piggy bumping
Lotta miss piggys and that's all good
And I'm gonna turn this red light
Into a block party
So we can get down in basics of what?

Seriously, though, be careful.

You're so hopped up on adrenaline that you forget to do anything though, even as simple as taking out your phone to snap a photo.

I'm street, boy-o.

New dipped headlight bulbs get! I think my new batteries made my previous Osram Night Breakers go pop.

Gone for Phillips X-tremeVision!!!!!!! bulbs, on offer on Amazon atm. Really bright.

I saw a Chrysler 300C that had an overlay on the front grille - it was a giant set of chrome pointy fangs. I hadn't seen anything like that before, I thought it was pretty funny and kinda cool and I even did an actual, real life, little laugh.... as a one off, not sure I'd want to do that myself (if I had one of those cars).

Kinda like this:


(edit - I noticed the Bentley emblem and have now found froma a quick search that it's a 'thing' to make 300C s look like Bentleys. I remember when that was possible with MR2s [the curvy mk2 model] and a Ferrari [the 355 perhaps]...)

Designed to go with the new shoes.

Hmm might be a spendy week this week. Car's in for it's MOT (which it should pass, hopefully) but it's losing coolant like mad (happened before with a badly fitted temp gauge) so the leak needs finding and it's started going into limp mode again (had the MAF sensor replaced about 18 months ago which fixed that the first time). Fingers crossed.

And all that on top of the Mini Talon you need to buy.

Actually my car had advisories for brakes and tyres too. I think the rear tyres I bought about 9000 miles ago must have been defective.

Got my Mini Sky Hunter almost ready to crash again now. Rudder servos and cables out, holes covered in fins, wing glued (and taped). Booms are loose where they connect to the wing so still that to fix (and maybe move the VTX from out on the wing back to the fuselage). I'll give it another chance before I kick fuck out of it and buy a Mini Talon.

Wrong thread but you weren't holding in lots of back elevator in were you? It's hard not to instinctively but you need to let it lose height initially because that usually means that it's gaining speed.

Wrong thread reply: I did have a touch of elevator on, not loads though. I really think that the extra weight on the left side of the wing is a big factor, after the overall weight. Not sure wether to move it in, like I said before or add a little weight to the right wing where the small GPS module is.