merry xmas -

yes I know its a little late but with all the eating and drinking I have been doing lately I've only just fully recovered enough to use a keyboard.

There has been some



loads of


and of course


but sadly no women. Yes indeed I was looking and though I met some lovely ladies ( at different times mind ) it turned out they were up from london just for christmas staying with some friends. Darn it! But I still got some xmas kisses and dancing from it so still a good time was had by all.

Also got a text from a drunken one dater but thats another story for sure

Car news? Well the roads are well dangerous out there so be careful folks.

fog lights

people, fog lights are for foggy times when visibility is below 50 metres. They are not for making your car look good ffs!!

On another note, straight line + 2nd gear = huge wheelspin + silly grin on drivers face.

Childish but it did amuse me. I did drive very slow and careful the rest of the time though being fair I wasn't actually speeding in 2nd gear. The rear wheels were going faster than the speed limit but the rest of the car was still only doing about 20mph.

Is it spring yet?

it's that time of year

when the christmas madness is apon us. People rushing around like mad zombies trying to buy their loved ones that special gift. Pah humbug!

Now don't get me wrong, I love the festive season as the party atmosphere in Glasgow is awesome = loads of which is brilliant but the whole commercial side of it just annoys me.

I'm not religious in any way but I do know that Christmas shouldn't be about just giving pressies. Maybe for kids yes, adults well I'm kinda over that stage by a long distance.

Of course maybe its because my car insurance renewal date is the 21st of december, that tends to knock the wind out of my sails. Still its done and can't be helped so life goes on.

Anyhow I'm off to prepare myself for the weekly 5-aside footy.

Take care out there in shopping land.

belts tightened and odd idling problem -

indeed this morning I got up bright and early to get the alternator belt and as it turned out the air con belts re-tightened. Turned out both had slackened off after being replaced last month. Has it done the job, find out on the next cold start but I reckon it will be fine.

To save time this morning I went out last night and got petrol and the car had this really bad cold idle, it was trying to idle at about 500rpm. It managed it after a minute or two but it never really felt like it could sustain it. One the way back from getting petrol it was idling around 400rpm. Now I was impressed that it was even holding an idle at that speed, hardly any sound from the engine just a light purring.

So this morning I was all ready to adjust the idle and yet it was just fine. Idled at a steady 1200rpm when cold and when warm an easy 750. Just like it should. Weird but I reckon more to do with the cold spell we've been having and sitting for week in that weather doing hee haw.

Must also get brake fluid to top it up. Time for new discs and pads for the front/ More money, sigh

alternator belt - still screams like a beeetch

yup going to get it looked at again. Now this belt has always sqeaked since the new one was put on so I'm not expecting to pay for this but no doubt there will be some complication.

Grrrrr

de-cat complete -

indeed the cat has been removed as I do not need this for the MOT. Mega thanks to Calum for doing this esp considering how cold it was and he was doing this in the eve after his work.

Does the car feel any different? Dunno, tried booting it in 2nd gear = huge wheelspin so tried again in 3rd = huge wheelspin so guess I'll wait til spring time to try that lol.

Calum also commented on how sh1t the brakes were and driving back to back with another tubby, yup my brakes are sh1t of the highest order. They work yes but the pedal travel is farily huge and the feel is soft. On checking the pads / discs we know the pads are low ( the fluid level warning light comes on under hard acceleration ) but the discs have a fair size wear ridge on them :-(

Now I've always thought the brakes had too much travel on them and on 2nd application they do seem a good bit harder but not altogether brilliant. So some new discs and pads will be ordered in the new year which will be accompanied by new tyres.

Another fecking clifford alarm problem. The turbo timer was been de-activated when the wiring for the alarm ( and the correct number of sensors wired in grrr) was fixed. Now I don't use the turbo timer but the fecking thing is there so it SHOULD bl00dy work. However, its not worth the hassle getting it fixed especially after the time since the wiring was fixed and me noticing the darned thing don't work.

Ho hum

bye bye CAT -

indeed the CAT is going but not without a HUGE fight. Darned thing was soo loose in the exhaust that everytime it got hit with a cold chisel, it flew up the exhaust lol.

So the whole downpipe is getting removed and then the CAT will literally just fall out. Which it just has done. Now its just putting everything back together again ho ho.

Many thanks to Calum for doing this, I guess more profiteroles on order eh? Might need something else lol


cheers bud

no Goodyear F1 tyres -

yup the crappy rear tyre size of 225x50x15 has mucked things up again. I'm going to have to take the plunge and for a new tyre type. Dont like this but if the prefered choice is no longer made then changes are afoot.

My current thinking is the Dunlop SP9000 which when changing the fronts too is going to be 400GBpounds. Ouch, but thats still cheaper than new wings or a written off car.

Buy them in the new year I reckon

MOT -

its a pass. Straight through with only missings fins from the radiators ( no leaks though ) and a bit of bending required to some support. Advisory but no fails. Very happy. Going to have some beers to celebrate though not too many since playing footy tomorrow as usual

MOT booked -

sadly not at my usual garage so I'm hoping not to have a fight over the emission CAT / NON CAT arguement. The turbo being an import on an M plate and not matching the DVLC MOT testers book ie SW20 chassis and 3S-GTE engine means its a NON CAT test but most garages just put it through as the UK model which of course does not exist.

I am however hoping that's the only issue. The tyres all look legal with the wear indicators still below the tread blocks indicating life left but to be honest with the weather closing in on us the tyres are beyond the safety margin of not binning it. The small matter of £350 a set however does stop it being an instant decision.

All the lights work as far as I know so I'll maybe give it a jet wash on Friday eve to make it look cleaner. Esp after the sunday drive to pitlochry, its looking a bit dirty now.

nice drive in the scottish highlands -

went out for a club run up near Pitlochry today, Weather was not so good, mostly wet and loads of wet leaves on the road. Just perfect for a mid engined turbo charged rear wheel drive motor.

I drove up through milngavie, aberfoyle, callender, Killin then onto Aberfeldy then Pitlochry itself.

I drove sensibly but still had some moments. Front end slides and a couple of rear end movements. Slowing right down for the corners and just balancing the car through the throttle helped greatly but some corners had leaves and some didn't. Some of the road surfaces were just rubbish and offered about as much grip as a greasy block of ice. I was really careful just to be smooth and really quite slow round the corners and then slowly accelerate back up to sensible speed. Although the speeds were slower than I'd normally drive at I still had some fun as I was thinking more about what I was doing rather than just hooning from one corner to the next. Turning onto the main road on the last 4 miles of the journey I got wheelspin in a straight line in 2nd gear. Damn it just lit up the rears.

Unfortunately we lost a mk1 on route due to engine failure so one down already.

After meeting up at Pitlochry we then drove around the route and we were real easy and slow, only one guy knew the road and he lead us off down the winding road. Again we were fairly slow not doing anything daft but the roads being so slippy I still had a couple of moments.

Then it happened.

Driving into a very slow left hander the lead car hit some diesel and round he went. It being such a slow corner we had all bunched up and some how we all stopped without incident / running into anybody. Me having ABS stopped no fuss but the mk1 behind me locked up and had to straight line the corner and then re apply the brakes. Colin managed fine and missed me ok. Luckyily the escort that was following Colin managed to miss him also.

The damage to Peter's car is bumper damaged, needing replaced, fog lights needing replaced, rear right alloy rim busted so needing replacement too. Nobody got hurt so we called a halt to everything and just headed off home.

The weather was now constant rain and really unpleasant to be out it. Pulling onto the A9 from Pitlochry and coming off the Broxburn runabout again I got wheelspin in 2nd gear in a straight line which certainly keeps you honest.

I've checked the tyres and they have more than the legal tread but really they could do with being replaced as they aint so good in the wet.

MR2's are completely different animals in the wet in comparison to the sure foot nature of the dry. Just have to respect the layout and not over drive it.

Take it easy out there

t-bar guides -

seem to have cured the leaks. Result. Its been raining here for a couple of days now and having checked the car it all seems nice and dry. I have now put the covers back on the mechanism as further adjustment of the guides does not seem to be required.

Other news - my prefered garage for MOT's has closed so I've moved to another that's even closer to home. They seem to know about imports so hopefully no emission hassles during the test but time will tell.

Also been bike looking and some nice bikes out there. Will wait and see what develops since its a buyers market and I have time on my side, like about 4 months lol.

Bit of a drive planned for tomorrow through some stunning scenery in the highlands so hopefully the weather will stay dry so we can have fun out there.

t bar eccentric guides fitted -

indeed and oddly enough it hasn't rained for me to check whether or not it all works. That's just fine with me.

Did not take too long to do either but I did have the help of a tidy guide from this guys website

I recommend anyone with a t-bar mr2 to do this if you find the roof is leaking. Of course if you park your t-bar in a garage then remove the t-roofs as soon as you get home. This will prevent the seals from being squashed and thus they won't leak with age. I however do not have this option so my t-roofs are in situ 364 days a year lol

Be safe out there

no more squeaking alt belt -

indeed the alternator and air con belts have been replaced and my how quiet the car is now. Turns out the alternator belt was actually in three pieces and from the sound of the squealing on start up none of them were running the same speed lol.

Car feels likes it driving better too but I suspect thats just a trick of the mind, don't take much to trick mine these days sadly.

Always nice when a repair goes according to plan

new belts please -

indeed I am getting a new alternator and aircon belt fitted in time for the winter, well sale also.

The air con is getting changed since it has to come off to get to the alternator belt. Knowing my luck the alternator will be duffed also :-((

Also noticed last nice that when lifting off during hard acceleration has the brake fluid light coming on. That would be worn brake pads then. More ££ more hassle. Darned cars~!

not a good car day -

was supposed to be getting the air con fixed on the car BUT life got in the way. Both seals on the condensor are leaking which isn't that bad a deal BUT the second seal is in such a cramped place that getting the nut undone is a job in itself.

The actual pipe that the deal sits in does not have the space to be removed from the condensor as the cooling radiator sits directly behind the condensor.

That means the nose cone for the car has to be removed and that aint a pretty job. Just to make things better the actual condensor is sagging a little which indicates the darned thing is on its own last legs. Now if the bumper / nosecone has to be removed to get the condensor seals replaced and the condensor itself is kaput what would you do?? Yup change the condensor. This could be an expensive fix and all I want to do is sell the car to finance a bike. Nothing is simple :(

the car aint happy -

went for drive last night while out at my parents and the car feels horrible. The brakes are rubbish the whole feel of the car is just yeuch!

So either the car gets used more often or it goes. A waste of a perfectly good car just to sit there days on end, plus is darned expensive to insure for doing nothing.

As a last resort I'll check how much I save knocking the mileage down but I have me doubts it'll make a noticable difference.

Time to move on methinks

been a while so an update -

car news

yep I still have the tubby and loving it although there have been a couple of moments where it wasn't so nice. Let me explain

Driving up to Inverary one day for a short break away from city life I was having fun driving on some real roads. Nothing daft like but having fun nevertheless. it started to rain so knowing how crap the roads are after a spot of rain during a dry spell, I was extra careful going round the corners.

Well the corner northbound at the bottom of the Rest and Be Thankful is a real git of a corner, long left hander off camber and slippy so I braked a lot for it and kinda tip toed into it. Not slow enough, heard that familar drumming noise from the tyres as the front was fighting to track round on the surface then it happened

the front gave a big slip and started understeering quite badly
the rear deciding it wanted to play gave a huge step sideways
I kinda slightly countersteer to correct the slide, caught it
tried steering round the corner half on my side half on the other side
made it round but needing a change of underwear

Clearly I had not slowed down enough but I really thought I had done. Physics however told me otherwise.

The rest of the holiday up north was grand. The weather varied from brilliant sunshine to heavy hail 2 or 3 times an hour and I didn't care one jot. Still had a fab time.

I drove to Oban on some sublime roads but again since it was raining / not raining I was driving like a real woss round the corners. Not point binning the car, it hurts too much.

Also on the car front I have returned my V5 to the DVLA to get the make of the car corrected. Now it has never been right since day one but I figured might as well get it sorted once and for all. It has gone in and hopefully will return in time for the road tax to get purchased / parking permit too. Oops might have mucked up there methinks.

Also on the car front the exhaust has been making some wonderful sounds. Absolutely barks when I nail it. Smooth ;-))

moffat -

yeah went for a run on Monday night with a mate as a passenger and John on his bike. Boring run to edinburgh but then a sublime run down to Moffat. Darned good.

The only problem is that round corners I cant see I stick to my side of the road alas one BMW didn't follow that line of thought and nearly hit me going south. Some 2 minutes later he nearly hit John, again Mr BMW was on the wrong side of the road. Some folk eh?

Good run down there and good run back up. I collected a HUGE number of bugs on the windscreen and headlights. Had to clean the car on Tuesday night, took me a while but the car was looking mighty fine.

A

so what's faster? mr2 turbo or CBR600RR....

it wasn't even a close fight.

Decided yesterday with the fine evening weather to go visit my parents at their caravan in Invarary. Thought John might like to head up there too so I sakde if he wanted to bring his bike for a run up the coast.

Well, apart from a stupid muppet in a white van not knowing the Highway code and various other road users not paying attention it was a fun run.

I may have a quick car but that aint no use when there is oncoming traffic and I'm stuck behind 6 cars doing 45mph in a 60 zone. A bike however can just breeze on by at 50 and have loads of space to make it comfortable. Which of course he did. Shame he had to keep stopping in laybys waiting for me to catch up. ho ho

Anyhow's, saw the parents, had a light non alcoholic refreshment and then we headed back down to sunny glasgow.

Of course, had to take some pics on the shores of Loch Lomond. Just had to be done

lovely weather -

took the car for a drive. Ah beautiful feeling, lovely car to drive. I think either the CAT or the exhaust itself is giving up cause the car has a lovely bark to it when gunning it. Maybe its been a while since I gunned like that but either way sounds great ;-)))

air con no more -

indeed the seal that was fixed would have appear to have failed under pressure. I will need to get the guy to check the car out with the UV light and goggles to check where the dye can can be found. More hassles.......

On the up side the car passed its service ok, the spark plugs were expensive but they are only changed every 45k miles so not such an issue I guess.

The car needs a darned good drive to get everything back to normal as it now spends most days doing nothing but sitting on the road. Hopefully some decent weather will allow me to have some fun in the coming weeks.

car goes for service -

nothing else to report. Haven't used the car in almost 2 weeks. Must give it a good thrap tomorrow night before the service on Thursday

ah - the joys of air con -

indeed while the typical scottish weather managed four seasons in one day I was happily sitting in my air conned bubble. Very nice indeed.

I also managed to leave my stereo in the dash since wednesday night and amazingly this this afternoon a full 4 days later it was still there. As was the side windows. What luck, something I have no intention of repeating. Have removed stereo now

air con -

indeed I now have functioning air con in the car. Nice to have it back. While doing a pressure check on the system the guy found a leak on the pipe going into the condensing radiator.

He had a look and it turned out the seal was dry and slightly corroding. Not having a std seal size, thanks Toyota, it was cleaned up and refitted and the pipe reattached. Pressure tested again and no more leaks, in that area at least.

Refilled the system, added the dye in and now it runs pretty good. We don't know how long it will last for but at least with the dye its gonna leave a mark where and when it does leak out.

air con re-fil time -

indeed I have decided now the better weather is coming in that I should get the air con refilled. Only taken me 8 months to get round to it. ho hum. Should be getting done on Wednesday eve.

No much been happening. I am still using the train to get to work and what a difference it makes. No more sitting in rush hour traffic at night on the way home, no more dealing with dozy fokkers pottling along the middle lane at 50mph and I get some exercise too!

Wonder why it took me over a year to decide to do that. I'm a dumpling ;-)

mmm nice weather -

not much been happening recently. I have started using the train to get to work so the car is parked up during the week. However this means I get to have fun at the weekend which leads nicely to today.

A sandwich, can of irn bru, full tank of gas its brilliant sunshine and I'm wearing shades - hit it. Heh heh.

Lovely drive, car felt awesome and sounded darned good as well. All this on a standard CAT exhaust and boost controller. Car was just amazing, a bit slidy through some of the corners but likely just me being rough with the steering as I corrected my line.

This is why I bought this car. Of course with a bike..........

great start to saturday eve -

been a while since I felt the roads were good enough for a wee blat. Well the weather this evening was very fine so I went out for a wee drive. Nothing heavy like, just good fun.

My goodness what fun. I'm sitting here and the rush and feeling after the drive is really really good. Damn I love the feeling that car gives when you drive it hard.

The brakes obviously needed a good duffing after a winter of pouncing around cause they got really really good after a bit of a beating.

In fact the wheels were still hot to the touch after I parked up, even after a 25 minute drive through toysville to get to the flat. Ho hum must check that tomorrow.

Damn that car handles real good on the road. Love the feeling as it digs into the bend and grips up and shots round the corner.

Bloody brill but as ever folks keep it safe

A

thanks a fuking lot ya to$$er -

indeed it would seem some fecking nobend bashed their door open against my passenger door and then left without so much as leaving a note with their details. Paint work is not broken but the door skin has a dent in it. Now I know why my car siren blipped when I turned the alarm off the other day when normally its silent

What is it with people just not caring?? Its my property and you should darned well respect it better than your own.

if I catch you I'm gonna give you a dent that no fecking band aid is gonna heal.

Rant over, have a good fecking day

warm weather + sunshine = T-tops off -

indeed. Went for a little drive yesterday as the sun was shining and it was perfect weather for taking the roof panels out. Shame the car hadn't been washed and was very dirty. Ooops

I have washed the car tonight and its looking right nice. Bliss

octane booster -

yes indeedy it does work rather well. Won't use it all the time but good for dynos or going for hot runs. Can't wait for summer

oil change done -

and darned cold it was too. Off to inspect my parents damaged car and then some rocket fuel testing. Could be an entertaining day after all.

oil change looms -

yes indeed I have a new sump plug and washer, fresh carton of oil and loads of enthusiasm to change the oil at the weekend. Might even wash the car, actually I need to wash the car as its totally filthy.

Oil filter??? well actually no but its getting serviced soon anyway so the filter will get changed then. It does need fresh oil though so its getting done this weekend even if I have to do it in the darned snow. prays quietly it will be fine

washed the car last thursday -

it looked fantastic. Reminds me why I keep the car to be honest.

On the way home somebody if a black curvy hatchback type thingy, you know the kind

loud stereo pumping out the latest tunes
blacked out windows though rolled down slightly to let the noise out
driver and passenger with baseball caps
engine being revved to make even more noise

Been a while thought I so lights changed and I went for it. 1st man to 30mph wins

I was first there then popped the car into 3rd gear and pottled up the road.

Sad - yes, stupid - could easily be described as that. Fun - it was actually

Be careful out there folks

its a sad time for us all -

for those of us that know our hearts are heavy with sadness and for those that don’t know they have their own problems to contend with.

Words are not enough but the effort we spend searching for the right words to convey our feelings are appreciated by those who need it most.

I don’t believe the coming loss will go quickly but neither will the memories nor the feelings nor the fondness. They will live on as long as we do.

In all of this turmoil it makes you realise that nothing is that important in life and yet at the same time everything is so important that we must try to find some happiness in every day and embrace every opportunity that we are presented with. To do anything else could be considered a lost opportunity as you may never get another chance.

My thoughts are with you bud, even if the words are sadly lacking

not much happening -

roads are pretty rubbish. Loads of grit has been put down which covers the road in little pebble like crap and makes driving kinda interesting.

However on the very few moments where the roads have offered some grip I have been reminded why I run the car instead of getting a bus or train pass.

Fantastic feeling as the car digs into the corner and then pulls through the other side. Wonderful, though sadly rare this time of year. Still spring will be here soon and then the fun will begin.

Keep it safe out there folks

so car change idea then? -

seems like the real world is going to make it difficult to do my prefered car change. Not only will I not get as much for mine as I had hoped but I will have to pay more for the mk1 s/c than first thought. Looks like I'll be keeping the same car for another year now.

Lucky I still like the car but, I still hanker after a mk1

car change looms : -

indeed the blue dolphin has just about wiped me out and I'm fast running out of pennies to keep it running. Timing belt change and service coming up along with new front tyres. Yes they all need done before I could consider selling the car but what to do afterwards.

If I sell it the options are to get another MK1 MR2 but a supercharged version. Std this comes in about 140BHP / 140ftlb but a £300 pulley conversion takes it too 180/180 which is darned nice.

i like the shape of the mk1 it just rusted on our shores and didn't have the grunt of the modern traffic. Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars have no rust on them and a supercharged mk1 is not slow. Not as fast as a turbo version but not slow either.

If I import a s/c version I need to get one for way less than I can sell the turbo. That is the sticking point right now.

Life, go figure

another year -

indeed on the 24th this month I passed yet another birthday, somewhat older but no more wiser. On the up side I had the day off so I'm quite please about that.

snow fun -

indeed it was. Went to bed on monday eve with snow all around. Woke up 430am tuesday morning and checked the road outside. Covered in snow, fun drive to work this morning I though and went back to bed. Couldn't sleep so.............

530am got up and dug the car out of its snow mountain. Drove to a nice flat open carpark I know nearby and............


doughnut time! 30 minutes of throwing the car around at like 15 mph doing doughnuts and spin turns. Just fabby ;¬)

I liken it to public service, when I left the car park had almost no snow on it. I on the other hand had hard packed snow filling the rear wheel arches right down to the wheel so every bump caused a crunch as the snow / ice was thumped by the wheel. Had to knock it off using my scraper. Good to know I am still a kid at heart.

made breakfast and then went to work. Seemed kinda boring after that to be honest. Need to clean the car now with all the salt from the road. Boo hoo

um - we're leaking fluid and a serious amount at that

indeed after pickingup the car I had noticed when I got home there was a burst of coolant that flew out from the engine cover. Now thinking that it was just an airlock I 3/4 filled an empty bottle with water and added that to the cooling system.

After adding the full amount I though mmmm not so good. This morning I added about 3/4 litre of anti freeze and thought not much more about it. Going to an mr2 meet out at Edinburgh I stopped at Harthill Services to meet up with the rest of the crazy gang. More coolant came bursting out of the car. Very bad

So I had a look and bugger me with a slice of lemon was there not a pipe with the clip sitting off the joint! The car is stinking hot and pishing coolant like it was going out of fashion. Lucky Paul turned up with a complete tool kit in his car and we (well he) got the clip back on to the joint. Mmmm not so clever methinks.

Anyhow its looking sorted now so I'll add some more coolant tomorrow and that should be it topped up for the final time.

Goodyear F1 tyres 195x55x15 have been priced at £62 each including fitting so hopefully next month will see then fitted.

I have done some figures calculating costs v miles and costs per month. Time to start taking the train I reckon as the figures are just too frightening to print here.

its fixed -

indeed Marc at The Garage kicked that thermostat into touch and hey presto a working cooling system.

All that's needed now is a complete belt change, timing - alternator and air con. Gonna hurt that one for sure

grrrrr bleeding thermostat -

indeedy it didn't come off. More annoyingly the bolt from hell got a little rounded into the bargin. Ho hum to the garage we go.

I'm not happy and hindsight is a wonderful thing but no point getting upset about it, again.

lovely weather -

standing water on a roundabout aint much fun it has to be said. Lucky I know the road very well and reckoned with all the recent rain there would be water on the inside of the roundabout and just kept it nice and slow with a balanced throttle.

Sure enough a large puddle just at the apex that reached out about halfway across the lane, front drivers wheel catches this puddle and the steering gets tugged into it further. As I hold the wheel steady the back end starts to drift slightly and now the front is beginning to drift out from the apex. Of course it straightens itself out and we carry on as normal but not through any skill on my part. Well ok, I didn't actually do anything but I didn't need to do anything except keep it smooth.

Ho hum roll on spring and the warm weather