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