Eunos Chump

Paid my first ever visit to the Beaulieu autojumble today.  I had to go alone as nobody else fancied walking around acres of land for hours on end, looking at obscure fragments of cars.  No problem though, it left more room in the car for bringing home crap! First tempting bit of tat was this stuffed badger umbrella holder... great for infuriating the Mrs and terrifying the boy and animals.  It would have been a mistake.  There was a fox too, you can see it in the background.  And some cow skins.  Lovely for decorating the house. How about a missile?  I'm not sure what it acutally is but it was ace.  There were quite a few cars for sale too, I'd assumed they'd be overpriced and some of them certainly didn't disappoint (£10K for a late 90's E430?), but there was serious temptation for the person with £3K in their pocket.  Nice 80's S-class Benz, '95 Jaguar XJR (supercharged 4-litre V8), plus some mint Austin ...

It was my birthday recently, so I put my cash towards this portable media player: It's a Samsung YP-R1 and look, it's got a gingerbread man and a coffee cup! Neither of them are any more than animated icons but you don't get either on the leading competitor (the name of which I cannot bring myself to type).  It was quite a bit cheaper than that other device too, and has twice the memory.  The interface is a tad fiddly though, and it took me some time to find the option to shuffle tracks at random - such basic stuff should be on the home screen rather than daft icons.  Another useless feature is the Beat DJ app, which lets you put sound effects and stuff over your tracks.  I had a few minutes fun putting cliched samples such as 'ahh yeah!' and handclaps over Mozart's Requiem, but I doubt I'll ever use it again. It does support BBC iPlayer though, and I've watched Mad Men on it this evening (ignoring the 50" TV in the same room).  I love ...

I decided to help out the oil companies yesterday, by re-tuning the MX5 for MAXIMUM POWAH.  I've used a new target AFR table for the Megasquirt from the MiataTurbo forum, and did a few runs using the VE Analyze Live function in Tuner Studio (I love that software).  Still more testing to do, but it's considerably quicker and much more like it's old, mental self.  I don't know how badly this will impact on economy, but frankly it's rubbish anyway so being 10% more rubbish will have negligible effect. Beemer did 1700 miles in Scotland last week, averaged mid-40s MPG too.  The engine did stop on the M6 though, when the fuel started to get low - I suspect that pump in the tank will have to be replaced.  I got it started before we came to a halt, so technically that's not a breakdown, is it?

I bought an OBDII car diagnostic reader recently, it plugs into the USB on a laptop and allows you to read the error codes on anything with a OBDII socket (first appeared in '96, apparently).  It's from eBay and only cost £20, and came with a CD containing Bit Torrent's bestest bent diagnostic software.  I don't know how they get away with that.  Anyway, it's a good toy and I was able to reset the engine warning light on Mrs B's Berlingo (seems the motorised throttle body did just need cleaning).  I can't get it to speak to the BMW though, could be a port config thing. MX5 still running without issue!  I've been sorely tempted by a deal on Flyin'Miata anti-roll bars and a set of big Sport brakes, but I'm sticking to my austerity drive for now.

I passed my final CCNP exam today!  This has nothing to do with cars but will remind me I need to renew it in 3 years.  I celebrated with tea and toast, a nap on the sofa, then Toy Story 3 in the evening.  It was very good, which is just as well as the novelty of 3D cinema has already worn off for me.

I haven't posted much recently because nothing has broken.  It's quite astonishing, although the MX has seen no track action it's covered thousands of miles in the past few weeks, much of it in juvenile idiot-mode.  It does chuck out quite a bit of blue smoke on the overrun sometimes, and the oil pressure isn't all it was... I've never rebuilt an engine before, could be a winter project. I went to the Goodwood Breakfast last weekend, with a few other MX5s and TVRs I met up with in Guildford (it was a gentle quiet drive and no laws were broken, OK?)  I've never seen it so busy, cars were arranged around the track as far as the eye could see.  Here are some photos - 2 of them are cars I am considering buying, can you spot them? I've carried out the foamectomy of the MX driver's seat, and so far it's excellent.  I sit a good couple of inches lower in the car, and suddenly everything is in the right place - the instruments, steering wheel, door mirro...

I had a run through a MRI scanner the other day, and it appears I'm not made of any of the above ingredients.  I am full of gross meat and bone though, enjoy!