andyelcomb

Fascinating. Hope you do get to the bottom if this as I'm dying to know what the problem turns out to be.

Hey, that's my name too! (When I'm not being Petra, that is).

I've been to McLaren's for a tour. Strange place, very spartan and uber-clean (not surprisingly). Didn't really get to see any of the guts of the place like the wind tunnel and the part where you can see racing cars being worked on from the public area (foyer I suppose) is never going to be the latest kit. Most doors and corridors don't have labels so you would never know what might be behind them - very secretive. Nice array of McLarens in the foyer though and well worth the effort if you can swing a tour. Prodrive is a lot more hands-on though. You get to see stuff properly close up in the machine shop and elsewhere. Also highly recommended.

For those OCD detailers of a delicate disposition - look away now... Took my MK1 MX-5 (Eunos really) round probably the roughest, toughest night road rally in Britain recently - and it's ALL off road on fields, tracks, old airfields etc. Apart from a couple of hard top latch screws coming loose, and having to regularly clean the mud of the lights, I didn't need to touch the car all night. Quite how the rear dampers are still intact is a mystery to me though as they spent a lot of time whacking the bumpstops. No trailer, drove from Kent to Norfolk Saturday afternoon, did the event and drove back again Sunday lunchtime. 4.5 hours of solid pressure washing to clean the car top & bottom on the Sunday afternoon and the drive was one hell of a mess. Aren't japanese cars tough?! Before: During: After:

Turn up the volume and I defy any normal bloke not to laugh out loud... http://youtu.be/UYSMm0Oj5HU

Fully checking rear suspension is a good point. Years ago one of the Brands Hatch Race School XR3is got dumped into a gravel trap and subsequently suffered massive steering wheel shake. They changed just about everything at the front to no avail despite me sticking my oar in and asking if they had checked the rear. No, No they said - its definitely from the front. But it wasn't - a rear wheel had a great lump of mud & gravel spread half way round the inside rim and once that was cleaned up all was well. Not saying yours is a rear wheel balance issue as I think you've checked that but what about the rest of the rear suspension? Both dampers good? No rear wheel bearing play or high spots? Rear bushes? Just clutching at straws...

Little bit of snow forecast next week at Ipswich so not just up north.

Only the bit of trim over the boot lock, but I did have to jack up a bit of the sloping "roof" which has meant some slightly lumpy bits on the rear parcel shelf but you wouldn't know with the carpet in place. And as there's no another monster spare on that parcel shelf you definitely wouldn't know.

You can get a good sized spare wheel in the boot of a MK1 MX-5 - but it is a squeeze...

Bang... BOOM! Very clever.

Something nice and gentle for a change to make you smile. Better with sound, completely work safe: http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2013/10/cats-stealing-dog-beds-compilation.html

Thanks. Certainly I thought it cheap, although it wasn't advertised on Ebay as needing that amount of rust repair. But I was prepared to take a punt and if it was dire rust-wise I was considering putting the running gear into my MK1. I just happened to be trawling the 5s (as you do) and came across that one that few were bidding on. I think one of the reasons it got passed over was that the seller had properly listed it as MX-5 and it didn't come up if you searched for MX5. There was about 30 mins to go when I found it so put in a last gasp bid that I thought reasonable and got it for nearly £100 less. Result!

Turns out I was 3rd overall so very happy with that. The MX-5 cost me £460 with a just-expired MoT that required some home done welding of the outer floor, a couple of resistors on the ECU side of the front ABS sensors to put out the ABS light and that was about it to put it on the road. Both rear 14" mismatched tyres were advisories as low tread and minor age cracking so they stayed on the back, while I put a couple of 15"s with Toyo T1-Rs on the front to help make it a bit more pointy.

Oh, that always brings back good memories of a scout camp down on the South coast. Remember going into a chippy that had a juke box and we played it over and over and drove everyone else nuts!

Thanks Tony, but it wasn't one of my better runs as whenever the camera is turned on I invariably c**k it up! Not sure where I came overall in the event but I know that a BMW 318 Compact was first, followed by a very nicely prepared Pug 106. I did beat all the other MX-5s and other similar sports cars, so happy wherever it turned out. The matter of using the handbrake is a tricky one as it was generally very slippery with some loose gravel, as well as the deep puddles and the MX did rather like to wag its tail. Unfortunately "drift-mode" just isn't the quickest way round, but it is so much fun that it is extremely hard to resist.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201244091282148 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201243824635482 My latest cheap MX-5 from Ebay performed quite well at the Maidstone MC Autosolo on Sunday. (Please remind me how to embed video again chaps...)

I haven't been to the Cutty Sark since going there as a child and annoying the Blue Peter people who were trying to do some filming. They did have the original Petra with them so that does rather give my age away... That's partly why my current dog is also called Petra.

That was an impressive crash, but surely it wasn't classic understeer - the driver braked too hard, locked the front wheels and never came off the brakes. The tyres never had a chance to actually demonstrate if they had grip or not. My interpretation of understeer would have been if we had seen the front wheels turn right, the car then continued straight on having way exceeded the tyre slip angle due to excess speed.

That is superb - so elegant!

Ah crap - remind me how to embed video please?

http://youtu.be/RKsGKERivTQ Clever, poignant and lightens the mood.

Looking at the wally-wheels on it I'd say they probably have fitted an injector downstream of the turbo to get that effect. Definitely done on purpose.

No, just Googled it and the Vulcan never had afterburners / reheat or whatever you want to call it. She? I don't think so - that's a MAN'S plane!