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Post by Blarno on Mar 27, 2024 20:13:54 GMT
They're still relatively cheap, even cheaper for barn find basket cases. The hardest decision will be the engine/gearbox choice. Dead easy - the underpinnings and drivetrain from a BAC Mono...... I might struggle with £30k plus for an engine...
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Post by Blarno on Mar 27, 2024 20:12:35 GMT
I have one on watch in Aberystwyth. No engine or box and a few other bits missing, sat in a barn. £350.
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Post by Blarno on Mar 27, 2024 15:49:50 GMT
I was actually contemplating one a while back as a bit of simple fun - I really like the shape. BMW 3.0L straight six petrol engine and manual gearbox would be obvious choice unless it's too long. V6 Jag engine and gearbox from S Type is another. A TVR mate put that combo in his S Series to replace the Ford running gear. A BMW six/6 speed box is on the list of possibles.
They have a long engine bay so no reason why a straight six won't fit - the space normally in front of the V6 is filled with the spare wheel.
There is also the consideration of a Mercedes M113 V8, either 4.3 or 5.0, but Merc's manual gearboxes are generally considered to be dogshit, so a conversion kit will be needed. M113s are reasonably cheap right now - £300 will get a 4.3, £500 will get a 5.0.
The Jag V6 is a good idea that I hadn't thought of - I'd jumped straight to the V8 idea.
I have somewhere to keep it, a workshop to work on it, I just need HMRC to hurry up and pay me the tax refund they owe me before I can commit.
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Post by Blarno on Mar 27, 2024 15:01:24 GMT
They're still relatively cheap, even cheaper for barn find basket cases. The hardest decision will be the engine/gearbox choice.
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Post by Blarno on Mar 27, 2024 14:11:08 GMT
I'm currently looking into getting a Reliant Scimitar GTE as a project. The idea being it gets restomodded and kept for the forseeable. The 330d is being kept for as long as is necessary, I can't think of anything that I would replace it with other than a newer version of the same or maybe a 335i, but as long as it keeps running and passing MOTs, getting rid is not needed.
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Post by Blarno on Mar 26, 2024 13:43:48 GMT
He would have to refer to me by my given name sadly!
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Post by Blarno on Mar 25, 2024 20:27:06 GMT
I have a couple of good contacts for shipping if they are of any use to you? Might be yes. The backdrop is that we were thinking of doing a road trip in Norway, but the car hire for two weeks is extortionate. So Mrs RT was wondering about road tripping there in the Macan from London and then shipping the car back. I suspect it’s an insane idea but promised to look into it. Benco Freight in Hounslow, the main chap is called Mick Notter. I worked with him whilst I was at BAC from 2015 until I left in 2022. Very experienced in shipping of high value and rare cars. He and I developed the method for shipping Monos to the USA without sending them as individual components. They don't have a website, but give him a call if you need and tell him I put you on to him. 01753 686699.
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Post by Blarno on Mar 13, 2024 21:20:42 GMT
I have a couple of good contacts for shipping if they are of any use to you?
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24 plates
Mar 4, 2024 20:32:02 GMT
via mobile
Post by Blarno on Mar 4, 2024 20:32:02 GMT
Saw 3 today. Peugeot 5008, Honda somethingorother and a Skoda Labia. All on the M56 between Chester and Manchester Airport.
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Post by Blarno on Feb 1, 2024 6:55:03 GMT
As soon as someone figures how to get ad blockers working on TVs, the better. I have Ublock on my laptop so I can watch Youtube in peace and a hacked version on mobile that tricks it into thinking I have Premium membership, but no such thing exists for the TV yet, which is where I watch the most Youtube. We have Netflix and Prime subscriptions, but have yet to notice any ads.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 26, 2024 9:33:38 GMT
Very nice, a good mate of mine has a grey M Sport equipped 330e wagon and he loves it. I keep looking at M340i's and M340d's and dreaming.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 16, 2024 13:34:01 GMT
This is precisely why I ride in forests and on exclusive trails - my only enemies there are gravity, trees and rocks. If I crash, it's my fault.
I'm also not a self-important fucknut, so no chance of me being a road cyclist. I've recently stealthily joined a couple of roadbike pages on Facebook, aided and abetted by a friendly insider, and it's no better on there.
The internet has done strange things to humanity - it now seems that we are being overtaken by a breed of people whose level of self belief is inversely proportional to their self awareness.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 10, 2024 21:31:31 GMT
My yearly holiday availability doesn't start until April, so nothing booked yet. Probably doing the usual of Wales in May half term and Scotland in the summer. Both a week each time, that's more than enough time off for me. I get bored and want to get back to work.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 9, 2024 21:42:01 GMT
Fly by wire brakes? Are they legal now? Seems odd to have separate left and right circuits, normally they are opposite corners.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 9, 2024 14:24:36 GMT
Home spannering, no matter how little, is always satisfying.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 9, 2024 14:23:32 GMT
Manufacturers really are insufferable aren't they?
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Post by Blarno on Jan 9, 2024 12:12:22 GMT
I've been wondering for ages what the IV refers to.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 8, 2024 11:37:28 GMT
Glad that Jo is Ok, and that damage looks very minor to write a car off. Does it need new panels? Could the wing pull back into shape and most of the scuffs polish out? It could pull back in theory, but it is contacting the door quite badly, so a replacement is better.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 7, 2024 22:08:57 GMT
Firstly, I presume Jo is OK? (always the first question, and I try never to assume!) Secondly .. .. how old is the Pug to be getting written off? The damage doesn't look all that bad at all, to my untrained eye. She's fine, it was low speed. I think she's more gutted that it was her Mum's car that she inherited after she died 4 years back. Hence why I want to keep it for Phoebe. It's a 2014 Fiesta with 70k on the clock. No mechanical damage that I can see, just cosmetic.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 7, 2024 21:24:57 GMT
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Post by Blarno on Jan 4, 2024 13:01:34 GMT
I hit a pothole near my house at the end of October whist pulling out of a junction. Put a 5p sized hole in the sidewall of one of my rear tyres on the 330. I went past the following day in the van, stopped and sprayed a big fuck-off blue ring around it with my marking paint. A few days later it was filled in. As of then, if I see a pothole and it's safe to stop, I stop and paint around it. I'm even thinking about carrying a few rogue cones in the van to pop on top of the smaller ones.
Edited to add:
My youngest asked me if I was breaking the law doing it. I said I don't care, nobody will report a signwritten Highway Maintenance van with a hi-viz clad berk spraying holes in the road. As long as I refrain from painting massive cock and balls over them.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 3, 2024 10:38:33 GMT
I used to regularly collect trade plate drivers - there was a delivery depot near my house at the time, so I would often drop drivers there directly. Never picked up a hitch hiker though.
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Post by Blarno on Jan 3, 2024 10:36:45 GMT
I live and work on the Welsh border, so am very used to these by now. Not such am issue in the tipper, which is low geared, but can be a proper dick when towing a small digger.
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Post by Blarno on Dec 22, 2023 21:21:38 GMT
As little as possible, I struggle to think of a more tedious task. I last washed the car in September, but to be fair it's done about 100 miles since then.
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Post by Blarno on Dec 22, 2023 21:19:33 GMT
I set off for work at 6am and the heating in the house has only just come one, so I'm fully layered up. My van doesn't warm up until a few miles into the journey, so the layers stay on. In the 330, I just whack the heated seats on and jump in.
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VW ID2
Dec 22, 2023 21:15:12 GMT
Post by Blarno on Dec 22, 2023 21:15:12 GMT
I just don’t want a car called an ID anything. Silly name and change for change’s sake.
ID3 will be the new Golf. ID2 will be the Polo.
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Post by Blarno on Nov 4, 2023 21:02:43 GMT
Definitely battery. By all means check with a multimeter - if it has less than 10v in it, it's generally toast.
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Post by Blarno on Oct 13, 2023 18:41:13 GMT
Try setting diesel on fire - nothing happens. Plus, to get the ultra high pressure required to atomise the fuel, the engine would have to be running at the time.
I too am not a gambling man, but I am willing to hedge a considerable "bet" that the fire is a result of electrical malfunction or battery fault from a high voltage system (hybrid, etc)
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Post by Blarno on Sept 25, 2023 16:14:54 GMT
All of them, with the exception of the 4 speed wheezers - Mk1 Fiesta, Mk2 Escort. Even my non turbo Renault Extra 1.6d got wound up to an indicated 105.
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73 Plates
Sept 10, 2023 10:07:49 GMT
via mobile
Post by Blarno on Sept 10, 2023 10:07:49 GMT
Nothing interesting so far:
Ford Kuga Hyundai thing Several Transits
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