Goodwood Festival of Speed

-
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 weren't going very quickly (Dick Dastardly's car appears to be '80s Metro-based so he was lucky to be moving at all), but some of the cars were flying - the TWR-Jaguar Le Mans car got to the top in 47 seconds!
The bales do seem to work though. This is John Cleland's Cavalier after understeering off this very corner.
I was spending like a millionaire, with fancy grandstand tickets and 2 cans of £1.40 millionaires orange pop. We even went for a spin in this helicopter. It made me feel ill, but I couldn't afford to vomit up my millionaire's £4.70 bacon sarnie else I'd be hungry later.
I was very popular with the ladies. Everywhere I went they were all over me, perhaps I had the look of a divorced dad about me. Unfortunately they all wanted to sign me up for Sky TV, or a beach buggy or other crazily expensive impulse buys. Do I look like a man who can be parted from his pennies by a pretty face? No, I don't. I've got a ruddy, beetroot-red Norfolk face. I look like a scarecrow. And scarecrows only want a cup'o'tea and a nice slice o' cake.

I like this, it looks like something I might make in the garage:


As I'm not really a millionaire, there was no helicopter to take me home. The boy and I had to tolerate almost 2 hours of delays getting out of the car park, then police roadblocks. I was pretty glad we had taken the Taxi, it's slushbox was most welcome in the jams and prevented me going Grand-Theft-Auto-style ballistic with other road users.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding bluetooth to a Mini with Harman Kardon audio

-
Image
My R53 Cooper S has the unexpected bonus of the Harman Kardon premium audio system.  While it has impressive power and sound quality (once you discover the hidden settings ), it's firmly stuck in the past with just CD and analogue radio.  You can't change the head unit as the speakers are all wired to the 10-channel amp that lives in the boot, so new cables would need to be run from the head unit to each speaker, which would be an almighty faff. I wanted to add bluetooth so I could play my cheesy '80s music from Spotify, so bought a Grom BT3  which is a small module that plugs into the CD-changer port on the rear of the standard-fit Boost head unit.  It allows you to stream music from your mobile, and make/receive calls via the supplied microphone.  You can also buy another module that plugs into the Grom to provide DAB radio, USB, or iPod wired connections, I didn't bother with any of those, I just wanted Bananarama, loud. There are 2 versions of the Grom...
Read more

BMW E39 diesel pump replacement

-
Image
I replaced the fuel pump in the tank of the 530D yesterday.  It was quite fiddly and I couldn't find any useful guide on the internet, so I thought I'd create a quick outline of the procedure: Symptoms of failure : poor starting/cutting out when the fuel level falls to around a quarter of a tank. Cost : £42 from GSF , plus 2x 9mm petrol hose clips (the originals are not reusable). Procedure :  remove the rear seat base by pulling up sharply on it's front edge (there are a pair of spring clips holding it in place).  Beneath are 2 access panels to the tank, the pump is under the right-hand side one (behind the driver on a UK right-hand drive car).  Remove the cover and disconnect the 2 hose connections and the electrical plug (removed by pushing the locking clip sideways).  Unscrew the locking ring by gently rotating it with a hammer and chisel. Now slowly remove the fuel sender unit, noting it's orientation and how it slots into the pump assembly below ...
Read more

MINI tailgate hinge replacement

-
Image
I replaced the snapped tailgate hinge on t'old MINI today, and it wasn't too bad a job.  The design is a bit crap and they tend to seize, and then break and attempt to bonk you on the head with the tailgate.  Didn't like that. The hinge is held on by a single nut but you need to partially drop the headlining to reach it.  To do this you need to: remove the tailgate seal remove the rear seats remove the rear side panel trim on the affected side This is all covered by some helpful folks in this YouTube video.  After this, you need to remove the white C-pillar trim; it's held in by 4 plastic tabs (2 top, 2 bottom), which fit into metal clips in the body.  It needs a sharp tug but there is a fair risk of breaking the tabs, but I got away with it. Now you should be able to gently pull down the headlining, to release the clip in the centre: That should give just enough clearance to get a 13mm socket onto the nut securing the hinge.  There is...
Read more