Eunos Chump

It has cost £240 to have the aircon fault on the not-so-Mighty Benz diagnosed... it needs £400 of condenser. I rather lost my rag over this and decided there and then to get rid of it, and within hours Mr Bill arrived, ready to take it away (for he loves the slushbox). In the meantime I'd cleaned it inside and out, and driven it a little, and realised I couldn't let it go for the measly amount it's worth... sorry, Mr Bill. Perhaps I'll regret this next time something expensive breaks, but I can't find anything to replace it! I considered a Saab 93, but that's just a fancy Cavalier, isn't it? BMW? Same issues as a Benz. 1964 Daimler 250? Ooooh yes, but 17mpg with a 72 mile daily commute? No, perhaps not.

...but fixed once more. On the way to Goodwood I noticed a rasp from the exhaust manifold AGAIN, and this time one of the studs for the turbo had sheared off. I dumped it back on the drive and ignored it for a couple of days, thoroughly bored of these constant problems. I couldn't get the stud out but Mrs B took it to my new favourite garage (I don't even know it's name but it's underneath the Basingstoke snooker hall), and they did it for £5. I suspect she received an 'ample bosom' discount - I had to cough up £20 to get an 02 bung welded onto the exhaust. It's all back together now, and I even fitted a new cam cover gasket too because it's been leaking all over the drive like a B***ARD! Off to see Adrian in Bristol at the weekend, which may result in me bringing home a Hillman Imp with rusted sills. I just happen to be starting a welding course in September, how very convenient!

Russ and I had an excellent time at the Festival of Speed yesterday, despite the Mazda giving up 1 minute into the journey... the mighty Taxi was quickly brought into action though so no time was lost. There's a special feeling at the festival. Not only can you get up close to some truly historic kit, but these priceless machines are then thrashed up the hill in a senseless display of noisy, wheel spinning, fuel-wasting excess. It's fantastic! Look, dragsters too! These were next to an exhibition of future car technology, and it was all sickening battery-powered eco tat. I had to get out of there quick, before I was invited to have a go on the green-driving simulator. It made me feel DIRTY. There were a number of F1 cars, but none of them current. They no longer race up the hill, instead they just have fun lighting up the tyres and driving them on the rev limiters - health & safety perhaps? Those bales don't look like they'll stop much, do they? The Wacky Racers w

I've had a lot of irritating little problems develop over the weekend; the air filter banging on the bulkhead, the handbrake becoming totally ineffective again, a raspy exhaust leak and worst of all, lumpy running at speed. The latter scared me, especially as this was the first time I'd driven the car hard in hot weather with the boost turned up, so I pulled the timing back 4 degrees. Didn't help, car felt worse, poor idle too. Today I decided to put the timing back, and discovered not only that I'd forgotten to take the bridging wire out of the diagnostic socket when setting the timing yesterday (which buggered up the idle), but one of my fancy aerotight nuts on the turbo was loose - hence the raspy noise and poor running! I fixed the other problems too, and once more it's back to 100% operational. How long this lasts is anyone's guess. I went out for a test run on my favourite bendy road later... the understeer monkey has gone now, but Papa Oversteer almost ma

Went to Wheels-in-Motion in Chesham today for a 4-wheel alignment. He has a very impressive £30K computerised machine for doing this, with IR cameras on long arms; it looked not unlike something from a Terminator film. And he really knows his stuff, this is a million miles from Kwik-Fit. My suspension was so far out it was funny! I went for a fast-road setup with zero understeer, and he warned me to be careful at first because it would feel like a different car. And he wasn't wrong. I cannot believe the difference! I knew it wasn't right beforehand, but now it's just... delicious . £99 well spent. Naturally, other problems have appeared. The battery has broken free, and dented the inside of the quarter panel. There is an exhaust leak somewhere, giving an annoying little rasp. The air filter is banging against the wiper motor. The handbrake is bugger-all use again. Will I have time to fix all of this, the squeaky brakes on Billy Berlingo and watch Lewis Hamilto

The new manifold turned up a week after I ordered it, not bad seeing as it came from Canada. So far I've not been asked to pay any duty either, bonus! It didn't come with studs and none could be found locally, so long bolts with the heads cut off had to do. I've used aerotight nuts this time, which are all-steel locking nuts that are unaffected by heat. They won't be working loose, I'm sure. It all fitted together easily enough, and now not only is it much quieter, my old friend reasonable-fuel-consumption has returned. No loss of power, but no gain either (the manifold is claimed to have better flow).