Your fleet running reports

[JonMad]

Have bought a Bluetooth LE OBD dongle for some Harry's Lap Timer track day stats gathering (using that app plus trackattack.io, is my plan).

[ste]

UPDATE

E53 X5 4.8is

Like most modern cars with plastic headlights the X5 was suffering from the usual dull headlight lenses so I refurbished them today.



From trying various different kits and products I've settled on using the Autoglym headlight restoration kit. It comes with a velcro backed drill attachment, various grades of sanding pad, a polishing waffle and plastic polishing compound. It works really well with my 18v DeWalt cordless drill, whose charger charges a battery quicker than the drill uses it, so as it goes flat you can just swap the cell for the charged one and keep going.



To do it properly takes quite a few hours and it's quite a messy job. The sanded plastic dust goes everywhere.



The finished results are worth it though.





I think the facelift Dynamic Xenons look great. Hopefully the lights will perform better too. As good as the Xenons are they're not a patch on the LEDs on the Polo. Another job ticked off the list...

[Matty]

That's a massive improvement on the lights. Do you treat them with anything afterwards?

[ste]

Cheers. I haven't done previously and as I don't tend to keep cars very long I've no idea how it fairs in the long term. As I intend to hold on to this I'd like to put some kind of UV protectant on it. I'll probably try Marine 303 unless any detailing types have a better idea?

[integrale_evo]

I used the autoglym kit on our merc the other week and was pleased with the results, only gave them a quick go as they were only showing signs of just starting to dull so didn't go through all the grades.

I've been planning on trying to lacquer them as a semi permanent fix. It usually does a good job of blocking uv, quite handy if you don't want your paint to fade within a year or two.

[McSwede]

Exciting month end report.

£608 of SUL poured in and £615 of business mileage claimed which means it continues to cover my private mileage which is awesome. Months average MPG is 28.7 so thank heavens for a lot of motorway miles otherwise it'd be dreadful.

Car should hit 20,000 miles for the end of March and the first service will be due.

I'm still loving it though, it's a cracking little car and the engine is a belter.

[Foz]

Merc continues to be a great workhorse, towing the lotus perfectly all weekend.

Decided I need to get a covered trailer as well, keeps the car away from prying eyes and keeps it clean and dry.

[scotta]

Cheers. I haven't done previously and as I don't tend to keep cars very long I've no idea how it fairs in the long term. As I intend to hold on to this I'd like to put some kind of UV protectant on it. I'll probably try Marine 303 unless any detailing types have a better idea?

[scotta]

Merc continues to be a great workhorse, towing the lotus perfectly all weekend.

Decided I need to get a covered trailer as well, keeps the car away from prying eyes and keeps it clean and dry.

And keeps you dry when your mending it...

[Foz]

Merc continues to be a great workhorse, towing the lotus perfectly all weekend.

Decided I need to get a covered trailer as well, keeps the car away from prying eyes and keeps it clean and dry.

And keeps you dry when your mending it...

Aye, a mobile garage

[Sundayjumper]

As I intend to hold on to this

Ste's plans for 2019:

Feb - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Mar - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Apr - Say that I'm bored of my car and thinking of selling it.
May - Describe in great detail how I took my car for a drive and it's TOTALLY TEH ORSUMZZZZ and I'm never ever selling it.

<realise I've fcuked the engine>

Jun - Quietly sell the car.

[Rich B]

As I intend to hold on to this

Ste's plans for 2019:

Feb - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Mar - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Apr - Say that how I'm bored of my car and thinking of selling it.
May - Describe in great detail how I took my car for a drive and it's TOTALLY TEH ORSUMZZZZ and I'm never ever selling it.

<realise I've fcuked the engine>

Jun - Quietly sell the car.
Jul - say it wasn’t very good anyway.

efa

[Sundayjumper]

Ste's plans for 2019:

Feb - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Mar - Blather about how brilliant my car is.
Apr - Say that how I'm bored of my car and thinking of selling it.
May - Describe in great detail how I took my car for a drive and it's TOTALLY TEH ORSUMZZZZ and I'm never ever selling it.

<realise I've fcuked the engine>

Jun - Quietly sell the car.
Jul - say it wasn’t very good anyway.

efa

[JLv3.0]

Mate here is just the same - every car is a keeper and the best thing ever then he just announces he's sold it for reasons / non-reasons and repeat. Most entertaining

[nuttinnew]

<realise I've fcuked the engine>

[scotta]

Mate here is just the same - every car is a keeper and the best thing ever then he just announces he's sold it for reasons / non-reasons and repeat. Most entertaining

Is one a Caterham that was bought to do Trackdays. Then completely refurbished at ££££ with lots of shiny trinkets fitted. Then deemed too good for the original intended purpose and quickly sold?

[ste]

Nah the X5 is planned to be a keeper so long as it fits into our current needs. Saturday it completely proved itself with the bikes on the back getting us up onto Chanctonbury on the South Downs along a rutted track for a night ride. Out of all the cars I've ever owner, the X5s I've kept the longest as they fulfil that need really well. I had my first silver much one longer than any other car I've owned, nearly 6 years. I had the black one for 2 more which compared to most stuff I've had is a lifetime.

Mate here is just the same - every car is a keeper and the best thing ever then he just announces he's sold it for reasons / non-reasons and repeat. Most entertaining

Is one a Caterham that was bought to do Trackdays. Then completely refurbished at ££££ with lots of shiny trinkets fitted. Then deemed too good for the original intended purpose and quickly sold?

Depends if he bought it cheap, enjoyed rebuilding it and driving it about all summer and then sold it for a large profit. In which case he sounds like a smart cunt to me.

FWIW, mine wasn't bought to do trackdays, I bought it because I fancied trying one. I did and I enjoyed it. I learnt lots while I owned it, one thing being that I wasn't going to track such a flimsy bath tub without a cage and another being that road Caterhams with cages seem to lop a massive amount off their value and desirability on the market.

I think most people given the opportunity to be paid to drive a flourescent yellow Superlight R for nearly a year would probably take it.

[JLv3.0]

Sure but I'd then keep it each to their own mate

[Jobbo]

Ste, our recent purchase came with a fully stamped service book and one extra receipt: for recent polishing of the headlight lenses. I think it was £50+VAT, but the garage which did it only bothered to polish a circle in the middle, not up to the edges, so it looks really crap Functional, though.

I had xenons on my E39 540i Touring, both E61 545i Tourings and E46 330i Touring and none of them were that great at night. Probably quite a lot better than the basic halogen alternative, particularly if they had had the original bulbs in. Xenons may not often stop working but they definitely get dimmer over time; but the bulbs were about £150 each when I checked so I didn't bother replacing them.

[ste]

Sure but I'd then keep it each to their own mate

Why would you keep it? It had done what I needed it to do and paid me a few k. I realised if I had one I wanted one with a cage. If I had unlimited funds and space then sure, I'd have kept it and enjoyed taking it out every now and then for a Sunday morning blast, but life's short and there are hundreds of other cars I want to own and try out too.

I also predicted I had a fairly short window of opportunity to sell it when it had a buzz on social media and the weather was still good. Otherwise I'd have had to have £25k sat in a single garage getting in the way of stuff all winter. I knew I needed to stick my turbo trainer in there too and if getting out and training involved moving a car out the way my inclination to do that would have been less.

Sure, I'm doing it wrong, but I'm enjoying cars some people will never get to own and not spending any money doing it. *shrugs*