Your fleet running reports

[speedingfine]

grand news

More photos too please Matty. As previously mentioned, I'm deeply jealous you swine

[mik]

Hoorah!

Edit: I didn’t realise ‘til you mentioned it last week that you had the “LR” box.

[Marv]

Thankfully that wasn't me

5.5 hours and 300 miles later, Evora is finally on the driveway. Unlike the Elise, I got back feeling pretty fresh - it's actually a very refined car at speed, helps that I've got the long box, so 75mph is only 2k RPM.

Quick feelings on it - the steering/ride/suspension is incredible. It just glides along the A-roads, seriously, seriously impressed by this. There's more than enough power to make decent progress for 95% of road situations, but IMO the box is toooo long. Obvious benefits mentioned above, but otherwise they're just too far apart. The 2bular exhaust sounds fantastic - doesn't drone, yet makes a glorious noise at higher RPM's and pop's and crackles when needed. It's a lovely thing. Seats are great, car itself looks awesome, and gets lots and lots of attention (that's either good or bad, depending on your vanity).

The transmission still lets it down though. It can't be rushed, I keep fluffing gears - it's something I'll get used to. I also forgot how damn noisy it is - I know it's from a diesel car and it's meant to have a DMF, hence the noise, but it sounds fucking awful. Other (very) minor points. Stereo is shit, and I keep forgetting how big the damn doors are, tight spaces are a bit no-no.

Looking forward to getting some proper, not-tired, non-motorway miles behind it.

Bloody lovely cars Matty, good to hear it's finally on your driveway.

I guess it's too late to say now, that only a Lotus would give you grief with its shonkiness, before you even own it

[duncs500]

Excellent Matty.

What is it with Lotus and aircon? I recall it being one of the biggest weak points / bills to look out for when buying my 'xige.

[davejevons]

Motorhome - having solar panels fitted. Otherwise not going anywhere.

Mini Clubman S - We came home one night and it had been possessed. Lights turning on and off. Windows opening and closing randomly. Nothing seemed to stop it. 2 Days of diagnostics and it turned out that when the windscreen was changed, the seal wasn't good and water had slowly been collecting where one of the ECUs sits. Eventually it had fried the ECU and the wiring down one side of the car was slowly frying itself This was meant to be our reliable car. Top be fair Mini fixed it for less than they initially quoted but it was still expensive at £1500.

Range Rover - Continues to scare us. Kept going into limp home mode which turned out to be split turbo hoses. About as cheap as it could be. DIY repaired the DVD player. God bless helpful owners forums.

Elise - Continues to be our most economical car. Did the trackday at Abingdon with no fuss. It's great to have a car that can do trackways with little to worry about other than checking tyre pressures.

[mik]

Winter tyres fitted to the F-Pace.

Disco's ran Pirelli Scorpions which were M&S marked, but not snowflaked. Good enough. These are the first proper winters I have ever fitted to one of our own cars....

Got 275/40/22's in place of stoopid oem 265/40/22. Saved £500 in doing so.

Now - do I colour in just the "Vredstein" or the "Wintrac" too?

[NotoriousREV]

You should paint in between the tread.

[integrale_evo]

Compact updates.

Last weekend mr Sundayjumper very generously let me steal some bits from his spare compact in exchange for some rusty bits and some basemodel spec bits, I fitted the rear seats while I was there, on the Monday I swapped the seatbelt pretensioners over and bolted the sport seats in.

More adjustable, more supportive, more comfortable, sit lower and better looking than the boggo flat seats.

Today I swapped my 25mm arb for a sport spec 26mm and added some new meyle hd droplinks and my 14mm rear arb for a sport spec 16mm one, again with new links.

[Sundayjumper]

Drop links - you can apparently use Volvo drop links as an upgrade on the front, they have a ball joint at each end so you eliminate the rubber bush from the BMW link.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLVO-V40-An ... SwpudcCp8a

[Sundayjumper]

And my Compact now has plain black cloth door cards & rear seats, thanks to Mr Harry The original black/grey interior was not black enough for me.

[integrale_evo]

Drop links - you can apparently use Volvo drop links as an upgrade on the front, they have a ball joint at each end so you eliminate the rubber bush from the BMW link.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLVO-V40-An ... SwpudcCp8a

I used mondeo estate rear droplinks on the old one which are a similar double ball joint design, but had two pairs from different manufacturers and both sets the rubber boots were knackered within 6 months. Probably just the brands I used.

[Sundayjumper]

Ford, Volvo, same parts bin

Which brands failed on you ? I normally try to stick to Meyle or Lemforder.

[Rich B]

And my Compact now has plain black cloth door cards & rear seats, thanks to Mr Harry The original black/grey interior was not black enough for me.

why do you have rear seats?

[Sundayjumper]

why do you have rear seats?

It's THE LAW.

From MSA (or, MUK, as they are now) regs Section R:

18. In addition to complying with Section J all cars competing in Road Rallies must comply with the appropriate part of the following:

<snip>

18.1.4. All major internal trim as fitted to the body type by its original manufacturer when offering it for sale must be retained. This trim will include headlinings, inside door panels, carpets and rear seats.

Stage rallying is different, but is also an order of magnitude more expensive !

[Rich B]

[Sundayjumper]

I know it seems a bit silly, but that - and all the other regs - are in the interest of keeping it accessible to "normal" people using their "normal" "everyday" road cars.

There's lots of other stuff you can do while staying inside the regs

[Rich B]

I know it seems a bit silly, but that - and all the other regs - are in the interest of keeping it accessible to "normal" people using their "normal" "everyday" road cars.

There's lots of other stuff you can do while staying inside the regs

i quite like it - it sets a pretty clear message that it’s for road cars.

[JonMad]

Started off trying to do the oil change. First challenge, little jack didn't lift the car high enough. Handily a friend round the corner (R26 Megane track car driver) had a decent trolley jack so we soon had the car onto 4 axle stands, though we only went to the first hole in the uprights. Started looking at the under tray and undid a few bolts but it was really awkward with not so much room under there and I wasn't confident that even if I got the under tray off that I'd have the room to get it back on again. I didn't fancy putting the car much higher on the axle stands as they didn't have particularly wide bases. So gave up/timed out (kids had had enough on their own by this point) and lowered it all back down. I'll get my local garage to do the oil change. If I had some ramps they maybe I'd feel happier spending longer under the car and certainly it wouldn't be as awkward. Another time maybe.

Oh, and it's quite stiff then.

[mik]

Pela pump.

[Rich B]

Just take it to a garage, get a nice little stamp in your book and your afternoon back!