Eunos Chump

The Benz failed it's MOT today on suspension bushes, which means I have no functioning vehicle now. I'm working flat out on an office relocation in London so don't have any time to fix it, and the Mazda is in the garage partially disassembled with no chance of becoming roadworthy until next year. I need another car! I finally bought a battery for the 5 (along with some poly bushes and cat bypass pipe), but for reasons too tedious to go into it was delivered to the office in London I'm currently working from. This meant I had to carry it home, via the Tube. As you can get shot for carrying wires on the tube this was perhaps foolish, but I got away with it and only scared a few people.

I received the turbo rebuild kit today, about 6 days since I ordered it from http://www.gpopshop.com/ in the USA; not bad. $140 for a small tray of bits... hmmm. Of course, I should really be concentrating on things like new ARB bushes (so it can pass it's MOT), and a new battery (so it can be driven to said MOT).

I went grand-prix karting today. Being great, I came 2nd out of 28 after a number of races and Russ was very pleased indeed. He'll have to wait another 2 years before he can have a go though.

I've had the turbo the best part of a week now, and so far all I've done is scrub it clean. There are good reasons for this: My insurance company won't want anything to do with it I need to buy parts to make an oil drain from the turbo (and I don't know what I'm looking for) I have to drill and tap the sump to fit the above drain (tricky with the engine in the car) I'd like to rebuild the turbo, but can't find a kit in the UK I'd also like to get the cracked manifold welded up There are also numerous other jobs that need doing at the same time, in fact so many I've just stayed in and eaten biscuits rather than face it. I'm having an intimate relationship with chocolate-covered shortcakes at this very moment.

Behold the majestic beauty of the Mitsubishi TD04H! Mrs B collected it today for me, she's very kind as I don't think many wives would be prepared to drive 30 miles in the pouring rain, then hand over the best part of £500 for a box of oily lumps of metal. It came with manifold, BBR ECU and all the trunking, I just need to work out how to bolt it all together now. This is my first eBay purchase. Yes, I've been using the internet regularly since 1993 but somehow I've never had any need for tat-bay so far (probably because there's no porn on it). The seller seemed honest though (hello Jon, if you're reading this), and anybody who knows enough things about stuff to write books is OK in my eyes. I realise I could have got 'at least 45bhp' by buying a £14.99 resistor from Burberry_Dave_101, but I like a challenge. I've actually retired the 5 today, it's going in the garage until next March. The battery is completely shot now and I'm tired ...

It appears I've just won an eBay auction for a Greddy turbo! But now I have to go to bed.

Went to the MX5Mad event today at North Weald airfield. Quite disappointing, the promised track was in fact some cones in a car park, and there was bugger-all to do apart from look at some big barry-style exhausts. However, the biggest disappointment was my car - it now handles like a Cavalier. I'd tried to boot it sideways out of a roundabout on the way down, but it just understeered like one of Luton's finest. I put it down to a diesel spill, but when I took it round the track I was in Cav mode on every corner, and ended up clouting a cone. Some suspension work is clearly due.