MOTOR CHAT

[Mr Panda]

Re:

Work in Banchory at 8am this morning so I, as usual, decided to go over the Cairn o Mount in the Trusty Subaru. By the time I'd gone 4 miles from home I was thinking the snow gates would be closed due to, well, all the snow, ice and heavy frost which lay around the approaching roads and fields. They weren't :twisted:

A couple of cars came the other way, flagged me down and spewed out tales of woe involving great slippiness, sideways motion and sliding down hill. A Weegie Van Driver said "it's pure ice man, yer aff yer heid if ye even try :twisted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-n ... d-30411416

Sat at the bottom of the hill for a minute watching a Scottish Power LR trundle slowly upwards, passing a transit van which for some reason was parked sideways on LH verge. Waited a wee bit for all the other cars to slide slowly down the hill, then set off.

About 5 minutes later I was at the summit, having passed the Scottish Power guys who'd pulled into a layby.

I parked at the top, phoned Banchory and said I might be a few minutes late, and phoned the roads manager to say the road was effin mental and should really have been shut. Passed a gritting lorry about 20 mins later coming the other way and got to Banchory at 8:15 only to find all my guys were out emergency gritting as procedure dictates

Loving this car.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1LUsYdy7s

.....apart from the fuel and oil consumption but hey ho :xmas-big-grin:

EDIT - one of the highlights of course was the 2014 Audi Quattro driver who failed miserably to get up the first 100 yards or so and gave up after repeatedly slip sliding away :facepalm:

Sometimes commuting can be fun.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Weird you posted this, as I was over at the farms the other day and I went over the hill first, before even the landies. I was basically skiing over drifts where later I couldn't coax a Defender over the same route later as the ice was sending me into the verge constantly.

I had no idea I had left my cousin so far behind until I stopped to let the dog out and heard nor saw nothing for a mile back.

Subaru for the win.

 

[clubby]

Re:

Problem with the Audis is that they come with 255/35 19" sport tyres. Most drivers think they'll be ok just because its Quattro. That why I had a set of narrower 17's for the winter months.

 

[keithyr]

Re:

had the gt86 for just over a week now.

Apart from putting a litre of vpower diesel in at first fill before realising my mistake and need clean underwear its been fantastic.

got it fitted with yokohama winter tyres which have been great so far.

the standard tyres are 215/45/17 which is the same as a prius!

 

[jimihendrix]

Re: Re:

Apart from putting a litre of vpower diesel in at first fill before realising my mistake and need clean underwear its been fantastic.

Lucky you did'nt fill it up, will be fine with such a small amount, even if it was a bit more would maybe just smoke a bit, too much and it could put the EML on though.

Got the steering built back up on the Lotus.

Had to remove the bonnet to get to the mountings as they were impossible to deal with leaning over the wing or from underneath.

Bought this new hinge pin and bush set to fix my sagging drivers door but currently having a nightmare with it, started the job during the week and found the WHOLE DOOR has to come apart to fit it, even the frigging window frame has to come out the door to allow the steel beam (which forms part of the door hinge) to be withdrawn from inside the fibreglass door.

 

[highlandsflyer]

How much do I love the Lotus updates?

There is no like option, dammit!

Love the GT bty!

 

[jimihendrix]

How much do I love the Lotus updates?

There is no like option, dammit!

Cheers man

Here's what i'm up to at the moment :facepalm: , was'nt looking forward to this job but decided to tackle it before the holidays (incase i want to use the car)

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/to ... eplacement

 

[jimihendrix]

Re:

Slowly getting there with the drivers door hinge rebuild on the Lotus.

Grease nipple fitted, bushes knocked into beam and new pin installed.

New steel welded into beam (old rusty section was chopped out)

Beam bolted back into place, problem was the bushes and pin had siezed in the beam allowing the pin to rotate when the door was opened, welded washers to the brackets, fitted the grease nipple and did the nuts up tight to prevent this in future.

Fitted the catch to the end of the beam and adjusted the lower bracket to get it working nice, may still need a bit of adjustment once the door is built back up but should only be minimal.

Still have a couple of 10mm captive nuts to weld to the beam for the window frame (had to chop these off as the bolts had snapped), a coat of paint, Waxoyl inside then i can build the door back up.

 

[keithyr]

Can't wait to see the lotus finished and then in the flesh

 

[ajm]

Re:

I don't think a car like this is ever finished Quite enjoy the progress updates myself, trying not to think about the Volvo's MOT which I should really be preparing for now. It's just too cold and wet outside for that kind of thing...