Be Excellent To Each Other

Fords always had notoriously rubbish paint. Last time we bought one was 2000 and it had paint blisters all over the place after only two years.

Meanwhile my dented, scratched and never washed 10 year old Citroen van has no rust developing on it, even where it's scraped down to the bare metal. Bizzare.

Would that have been non-interference? This one is very interfering - the tech I spoke to was of the opinion that if it's a tooth or less, I'll be okay, but any more and we'll be looking at (at least) scratching on the piston faces. Which presumably implies slightly bent and/or leaky valves. I'm hoping that its intermitancy and lack of dash light means the former.

I'm still really tempted to flog the M3 and get a 4x4 Octy Elegance, though. My dad's pretty confident with attacking things he can get a spanner onto, and has a driveway (and lots of spanners). As I PM'd to Grim... earlier, I don't have the balls or space to do anything but the lightest of work on a car myself, never mind attacking engine ancillaries, brakes and so on.

Yes, it was. The chain was apparently meant to last "the service life of the engine" and not need changing. However, they tended to snap around the 150-200,000 mile range.

I think you'll be OK. If it was really making contact it'd have blown up - 'scratching' doesn't tend to come into it IMHO.

Funnily enough, my friend bought a Mazda3 from a dealer that when he got it home he found there were patches of rust all over the roof.

It went back the same day, funnily enough.

I saw one of those new Sirrocos yesterday. Not quite as cool as the originals looked when new.

I would also like to say hello to the (person of restricted learning - Ed) on the M27 who got very irate regarding me filtering in, in front of him down near Portsmouth. I had nowhere to go (he seemed to think I should have been in the left hand lane). If I'd been in his position I would have anticipated the junction and slowed down. He furiously kept on pointing at me while I indicated to him he was mistaken.

We exchanged hand gestures for about a mile until a Golf pulled in front of him without indicating, sending him into a comically furious rage while I pissed myself laughing. He then started exchanging the same hand gestures with that driver.

Forgot to mention what happened the other day!

Miss Malabar and myself were leaving a retail park and reached the exit roundabout. We were third in the queue and pointing slightly uphill. The first car moved off, leaving only the girl in the Ka in front to move forward. Except she stalled and started rolling back.

Slghtly panicked, Miss Malabar rolled back to take up the gap behind her to give this girl some room. On went the girl's handbrake, and she started again. Once more the car jutted forward then started rolling backward. On with the handbrake, start again, same thing. By this point the girl was looking very nervous in her rear mirror, and she only had an inch between us, with Miss Malabar unable to give her any more room. Both our hearts felt like they'd stopped with he inevitable impending doom.

Hanbrake off, jolt forward, stalled. But this time she'd managed to be quick with the handbrake. The girl was so annoyed with herself now she took to punching her own ceiling!

Try again. This time we saw her actually pull away! But she was so angry and upset she screamed around the roundabout without indicating, nearly smashing into an oncoming car.

Fucking useless.

Grimster!

I had an idea.

I could take 205, then make it sit up higher by jacking the springs up on it, and fit bigger wheels with knobbly tires and attach a winch to the front, and cut the back from it, so you and the Grimlet can have an offroad car each.

And that would be awesome.

For some reason quotes for me to drive my stock Octavia RS barely come out barely any cheaper than Charl is paying - she's paid £770 (inc 10% multicar discount), versus £780. I've paid £980 on the M3 this year (again, 10% discount). What the jiggery? Even my fault claim just under 3 years ago doesn't explain it, with the "cheap" M3 premium.

So no point buying up a 4x4 and modifying it - hypothetical first step is a 60% power increase to 240bhp, plus brakes and handling; I'd be out of pocket on purchase/modifying, running, insurance *and* tax almost immediately, with only fuel being a saving.

Continuing to funnel money into the rusting lump it is then, until I stop having to declare the prang. This annoys me.

Unless you Celica owners have some revelations regarding premium loading for extensively modified cars; I'm seriously expecting it to be at least an equal percentage rise (1% premium per % power)

That made me anxious just reading it.

If you haven't already, call Sky Insurance or Adrian Flux, they specialise in modified cars and the like.

Also, join one of the M3 Owner's Clubs if you can, Sky and Adrian Flux give a 20% discount to me for being a GT4OC member, they probably do a similar thing for the M3 Owner's Clubs.

Know what else Adrian Flux specialise in? Caravan insurance, that's who I'm with. So I suppose if you are towing a van with an M3 they can offer you the full package!

Adrian Flux couldn't get anywhere near the best prices for the M3*. I didn't hear from them this time around though. I think, like most specialist insurers, they hate L postcodes**. Chris Knott, who do amazing deals for Briskoda members, won't go near them with your dick.

Cheers though.

* They also pissed me off by charging £25 for any and every change to my policy, when I used them for my CTR.
** Also, my claim.

Why not move to somewhere in Cheshire?

Fuck knows. Ask my missus.

A good idea, but I'm already building him a little off-road gocart driven by a scooter engine with a locking rear diff.
I did some more work on the Tomcat last weekend, I must write it up. Finishing off the bodywork on Sunday.

You know what? Today, I didn't mind the BMW one bit.

The dual battery / split charge system arrived for the Tomcat today, with a button you can press to join the batteries together for MAXIMUM WINCHING POWA!!!!1
I love that sort of thing

Does that let you do 100mph down the M62 whilst getting a sunburnt forehead? Cos if not.. well. I win.

Until you're actually pulling yourself up trees and that, I mean.

Pfft. 100mph is my "hmm, I'm never going to get there at this pace" speed*. And, well, yes - it will be pulling itself up trees. It has two winches, so it'll happily lift itself up off the ground, level

[edit]Wait, that makes me sound irresponsible. Er... Craster! Bobby! Tell them how sensibly I drove to Nottingham!

Citroen C2s. Tell me about them. Or other alternatives for £3,000 ish. Preferably with low insurance.

Nothing especially wrong with a C2, it's not a marque I'm massively fond of though.

As for alternatives, what is it you need? What about the C2's made you suggest that first?

C2s seem very dull compared to the C1..

My mate has one for sale as he's moving to NaziJewGoldLand.

Ah.

Well, theoretically it'd let me do 155mph without hacking the limiter. But 100 will do me, usually. Hell, how often do i get to do that anyway? Not much because of spackers sitting in the wrong lanes.

Today was "spend 4 hours blitting around North Wales with the roof down" day. Whee!

Ah, now. The Mazda was limited to 155mph, but according to several other sources (TomTom and phone satnavs mainly) it only actually did 149. MAZDA STOLE 6mph FROM ME, THE BUGGERS!

Well yeah, surely that's expected? It'll be limited to 155 of the car's internal speedometer, which is always going to over-read because that's less controversial than over-reading (and any mechanical speedo will never be that accurate).

STOLE!

Internal speedometers are accurate (well, based on "correct wheels, tyres, pressure and tread depth), because otherwise the recorded mileage would be hugely fraudulent. They just lie to the user.

Someone "proved" it on the Civic Type-R, at least, by doing Some Indicated Speed for Some Time and then looking at the difference on the mileage difference and possibly the GPS speed. Or something. I don't know, it was a few years ago, but the SCIENCE seemed reasonably sound (and proved that the car knew how fast it was going, it just chose to lie on the speedometer).

More Tomcattery: http://www.mattbuildsatomcat.co.uk/runn ... f-time/161

Look at it now!

You need to cut some holes out for the headlights.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Chinners!

I notice "Rad pipes" are on your to do list. Make sure you get some wicked alloys on there as well. Bodacious!

Fuckin' A!!!!

£5200 payout from Admiral. Considering Parkers only reckons it's worth £4800 in mint condition, I'm well chuffed.

Nice one. Can you come and write my car off for me now?

You should have said when I was up there.

I didn't know you were so goddamned good at it, then.

Score. What are you going to spend the cash on?

Wiping out some debts that are currently being 'managed', then using the saved monthly outgoings to lease a new car.

FTFY.

Find me a tractor, and I'll do it for you. I wouldn't mind some more time off work.

Maybe if you both colluded somehow, I could double my money and we could all get some time off work.

We could get a life insurance policy out on you and make sure your in it when it gets torched.

PM if interested.

I filled in life insurance papers for work on the exact day I had my crash. I hadn't posted them off, though!

It says your inbox is full.

The painfully slow speed limit on the M4 through Newport is likely to stay, it seems, or at least pending the arrival of an M25-style 'variable' limit, says raving nutcase (and certified cuntwad) Mad Mullah Brunstrom here.

Twat.

Wait, really?
The inbox limits are huge.
/goes to check

No.

Pretty sure that wasn't a serious response.