Eunos Chump

See him? I met him today, in Gloucester. He drove his depressingly mediocre Ford into the shapely rear of the Mazda at a roundabout. I could see he was on a collision course but as the only alternative to getting bum-raped by Kermit was driving into the path of a lorry, I took the former. However, the only damage was a split bumper on his car so it was all good in the end. I've got an Innovate LC-1 coming shortly, another 2nd hand bargain (I hope). I won't be able to do a lot with it at first, should be interesting to see just how damn rich it's running though.

Russ and I went to the MX5 Owners Club Spring Rally on Sunday, at the Haynes motor museum in Somerset. I'm not actually a member but they were still giving all MX5 owners discounted museum admission, which came in useful in the cafe (I had to pay £3 for 2 mangy cakes). Good trip down there, with much sun and dawdling MX5s to blow away... I only drive at 70mph on dual carriageways when the snow is more than 6" deep :) MX5 Parts were there but not with the huge discount offered at the National Rally, so I only bought a windblocker . With the windows up it's quite cosy in there now, it's only a mesh screen but gives the impression of the bullet-proof shield on 007's Aston. I'd have had a new steering wheel too but they hadn't bought any with them! Here's Russ with his favourite vehicle of the day... he then spent the next couple of hours crazing me for a toy tank, until I gave in. Good job I saved £39 on that windblocker.

Whatever I did, I could not get that split hose to seal. In the end it was wrapped in multiple layers of duct tape with cable ties in between, but the heat and pressure had it leaking as soon as the turbine started spooling. Thankfully I got a replacement from a local breaker at just £10, and I've cable-tied the accordian section this time to prevent it ballooning. It's the MX5OC Spring Rally tomorrow so I've cleaned the car inside and out. Discovered a large pool of coolant under the mat in the passenger footwell... I'm hoping it's escaped past the heater matrix hose which was a bit mangled, I've put a proper jubilee clip on this now so if it's not, it's dashboard-out time.

After a long high-speed run last weekend, the 5 developed a chronic misfire which I initially put down to fried plug leads. I had to adjust the throttle to give a F1-style idle speed but managed to drive it the remaining 70 miles home, even with food poisoning (I know it was your mushrooms, Holiday Inn). The car has been off the road all week (missing the heatwave) and it turned out the fault was due to a big hole in the crossover intake trunking (see above). It was hidden from view and I only found it after taking all the trunking off to inspect it (thanks to Rugger and my brother for guessing it was an induction leak). Trouble is, I can't seal it again! First I tried electricians tape, then duct tape, then layers of duct tape and velcro straps, but all of them give way under full boost. I'm advertising for a replacement now, I know I should fix it properly but that means an intercooler and I don't have the time at the moment. I've set the Konis to 1-turn from ma