Eunos Chump

Not much going on at the moment - MX5 has had a cover thrown over it until next year, Rover continues to be problem-free.  I'm continuing to play a lot of Elite:Dangerous though, in fact I've just bought an EDtracker for it.  It's a little box that you stick on top of your headphones, which detects your head movements.  This lets you look all around you, making piloting the ship far more realistic and gives a new level of immersion.  Somebody does a review of it here: I love this!  It even makes you feel a bit travel sick. This time last year I was having exciting times in Australia.  This year I'm stuck in Guildford working on a Lync project, so all I can offer you today is some pictures of my pretend-spaceship fleet: Yellow Vulture got blown up, was replaced with a pretty red one.  That got blown up too. Imperial Courier.  Good fun, good shields, not much weapon wallop though. Python with fancy paint, mostly used as a mini...

So, it's 2015 here in the future, and I'm still driving rusty cars - my 1989 self would have been so disappointed (though perhaps not totally surprised).   The rusty car in question is the Rover - it failed it's MOT yesterday on a couple of holes in the sills. It's fixed now, cost £150, while the hopeless handbrake was just within tolerance (18% effective, minimum is 16%), and the worn strut-top bearing didn't get a mention at all.  I'm quite happy with that. In other news, I'm doing a training course this week - virtually, from home :)  So there's no dragging myself to the station every morning, no taking part in the polite battle to get on the Waterloo & City line, and I don't even have to get dressed.  I just sit in front of the computer with headphones on all day.  Unfortunately, this is also what I do in the evenings so the days just kind of merge into each other.  I've not been further than the MOT station (about 3 miles away...

After much procrastination, I got my finger out and fitted the new rear upper suspension arms on the 75 this weekend. It wasn't too bad a job, and everything came apart without serious issue. This is the procedure I used; the Haynes manual suggests you need to remove the anti-roll bar and disconnect the bottom suspension arms, but that means disturbing more rusty bolts so balls to that: Preparation: give all the nuts/bolts a good dosing of WD40, etc, preferably a day beforehand. With the car jacked up and rear wheels removed, loosen off the bolts at the inner end of the upper suspension arms.  These go into a captive nut, and are accessed via holes in the subframe.  It's a 15mm bolt - access is a bit awkward, and it's torqued to 100NM so you'll need space to get a breaker bar onto it.   Next, I removed the nut from the other end of the arm, where it meets the hub. That's 18mm,and it needed a good scrub with a wire brush as the threads were covered in shi...

I regret to inform you that the mighty Raffle Rover may not have been built to the very highest of standards.  Witness this rear upper suspension arm: It has the BMW Z-link rear suspension, except on the German cars these components are made of cast alloy. On this it's mild steel, and rubbish steel at that.  I've ordered a pair of OEM ones, which cost about 75% of what I paid for the car. Checked the oil (fine), coolant (needs a touch more antifreeze), air filter (recent), and plenum drains (all OK).  Was expecting one of the big front suspension bushes to be knackered, but they look sound.  Handbrake still needs adjusting, and there's a grumbly rear wheel bearing.  Will check it out once I start major dismantling to replace these rear arms.  MOT is November...

Roger goes back to RAF Odiham for another OMCC airfield riding day, and does battle with his arch enemy; Bert, the GSX-R.   James Hillier was there too (he's associated with the club), I didn't realise he was in the video until later though.  Shame I didn't attempt to overtake him - it would make for an interesting footnote on the display stand at the Science Museum, where Roger will one day take pride of place.  

Behold - I have arrived! This was raffled on the Autoshite forum last weekend, but despite buying 10% of the tickets I still didn't win.  So I contacted the guy who did, and a deal was done.  I collected it from North London this morning, and it's bloody SUPER! It's the highly sought-after* 2.5 V6 Connoisseur, in solid Doom blue, with some proper giffer-style bodywork repairs to the rear quarter panel and rear bumper.  And there's a dent in the front wing. Yes DB, it is due a cambelt change :)  Don't worry, it ain't getting one, it's not economically viable.   Internet lore  says they're actually safe to 150K miles, and this has done 81K. This was the real selling point - the interior is near mint.  It's got electric, heated leather seats, climate control, 5-speed auto, cruise, and archaic integrated sat nav - all of which still works.  Computer also says it's doing nearly 28mpg so far, which is quite acceptable given I di...

Doom blue, KV6 engine... who could ask for more?  Not me - I collect it on Saturday.