Your fleet running reports

[Rich B]

I agree with the Milton Keynes racers - all I get is a lot of middle aged men in Passats/A4s/3-series who must be bored with Milton Keynes .

EFA

[Explosive Newt]

I agree with the Milton Keynes racers - all I get is a lot of middle aged men in Passats/A4s/3-series who must be pushed to suicide by Milton Keynes .

EFA

EFA

[V8Granite]

First roll out with the Falcon in Spa-Francorchamps went well. Car feels solid and fast (2'58"411). A few minor adjustments (bigger tank, second pump) and it'll be ready for the Six Hours.

What surprised me most is the sheer grunt of the engine and the effortless way it pulls right through the rev range. It was always going to have more go than the little 4 cylinder Alfa, but I wasn't expecting to keep up with a 991 Turbo up Kemmel straight.

That’s utterly wonderful!!

It’s so much fun watching these race smaller engined cars. Normally struggling on the tighter sections but then arriving at the next corner 20mph quicker and trying to control 2 tons of steel.

Very very jealous.

Dave!

[integrale_evo]

Turns out there is some deer damage, it's crazed the paint under the numberplate, and cracked the grille frame as well as the return lip on the grille opening of the bumper skin.

I've ordered a 2013 onwards grille which has a chrome trim strip around the outside which should hide the vast majority of the damage.



Still, could have been a lot worse.

Glad I wasn't in the compact, the low nose probably would have taken out its legs and toppled it onto the bonnet instead of nudging it forwards.

[Mito Man]

They’re quite tough, my mum started mine in gear and launched it into a concrete wall which only scratched the Alfa badge. She said it was my fault for leaving my car parked in gear with the handbrake off - typical woman

[integrale_evo]

I think the plastic grille is sacrificial and designed to break first if I squeeze that back together it closes the crack in the skin up, so when the new grille arrives it will pull it back where it's supposed to be and I can add some glue to the back of the crack.

It needed a new front badge anyway.

Certainly sounded like a big hit at the time which is why I was surprised there wasn't anything obvious when I first stopped and looked.

[integrale_evo]

Also used the plug in tomtom thing for directions today. It's surprisingly good, I thought it was just a socketed power supply but it properly integrates with the rest of the car, repeating the next direction instruction and road name in the display in the instrument cluster, connects to Bluetooth for traffic updates as well as media player stuff.

And when the fuel light comes on it asks if you want directions to the nearest petrol station.

I was quite impressed given that it's pretty old tech now.

[McSwede]

They’re quite tough, my mum started mine in gear and launched it into a concrete wall which only scratched the Alfa badge. She said it was my fault for leaving my car parked in gear with the handbrake off - typical woman

Yep. My missus plays hell with me if I leave her car parked up and in gear. Spastic the lot of them

[Sundayjumper]

I was all set to finally fit my Gaz coilovers to the Porsche today, a year after buying them (!), but quickly hit a snag. They don’t come with their own top mounts, and they don’t fit the stock mounts either. I should have researched that earlier. I wanted them on in time for Brands on the 8th. D’oh.

Looks like I’m suddenly upgrading to monoball mounts all round. In for a penny, in for a pound* !

AB5A754C-C29D-4216-B58C-A6931398DE48.jpeg (139.63 KiB) Viewed 4008 times

* a lot more than “a” pound...

[Mito Man]

I was going to sand and repaint the rear subframe on the Defender as it was meant to be cooler today but it’s 25 fecking degrees right now and rising so I’m tackling a smaller job on the F150. The exhausts have tarnished and need a repaint.

And after much masturbation muscle memory skills

My dad prefers the stainless steel finish so I won’t be painting it I guess.

[Mito Man]

You know how sometimes you get fluff in your iPhone lightning port and it doesn’t charge properly? Well the same thing has happened with the i3 but I’m a bit apprehensive about sticking a cocktail stick in the charging port to clean it out for obvious reasons

[Sundayjumper]

Interesting result from the CCTV - this morning, just before 1am, my Touareg turned on its headlights (just the headlights, not tail lights or indicators) for about 40 seconds. Very odd.

It's had an irregular battery drain for a while but I had no idea why. My first guess will have to be a slowly dying battery throwing the electrics out of whack.

[Jobbo]

I had to nip into town yesterday but the weather was nice and there were a couple of green lanes locally I hadn't tried yet. One was impassable, but the other was utterly lovely:






The Volvo is having its first service on Wednesday. It feels like it's way too early; it's not quite reached 9000 miles yet. Finally had some thoughts yesterday about wanting to keep it at the end of the lease; it is a genuinely good car. I just wish it had a 6-cyl engine and a proper (non-Haldex) 4wd system. The 4wd works fine when green laning, but on tarmac pulling swiftly out of a wet T-junction it spins the fronts slightly before transferring power to the rear, and I absolutely hate that.

[JonMad]

Looks a nice route. Remind me the model/spec of the Volvo.

[JLv3.0]

Looking forward to seeing that scenery next month, I must admit.

Jobbo - are you not concerned that the long grass will ignite on something hot underneath the car?

[Mito Man]

One would hope that Jobbo keeps his undercarriage neatly trimmed with guards protecting his hot bits from combusting nearby items.

[JLv3.0]

I concur. However, the question needed to be asked.

[Jobbo]

Looking forward to seeing that scenery next month, I must admit.

Jobbo - are you not concerned that the long grass will ignite on something hot underneath the car?

No, not really. It's insured and there is an undertray under the engine bay. And isn't it designed to do this sort of stuff?

Jon, it's a V90 Cross Country T6, so the turbo and supercharged petrol engine with 310bhp.

[JLv3.0]

No, not really. It's insured and there is an undertray under the engine bay. And isn't it designed to do this sort of stuff?

Can't really argue with any of that

[Sundayjumper]

...they don’t fit the stock mounts either.

I've just spoken to Brian at Gaz. Very helpful chap. It transpires they made a mistake and sent me the "race" kit rather than the "road" kit. The road kit comes with springs that fit the factory mounts, the race kit comes with regular 2.5" & 2.25" id springs so you can easily change your setup. And it's stiffer, obvs.

Even though it's over a year since I bought them he immediately said to send them back and they'll swap them for a road set. I explained I have a track day coming up next week, and he said to give them a try on track and after that decide if I want to change them. That's great customer service

My use of the Porsche has changed over the last year so I'm thinking the race kit might turn out to be the better choice now anyway.