Posts Tagged ‘car’

Bangernomics – Audi 80 2.0E

We've been discussing Bangernomics lately, a principle I've been sticking to for a while having been hit by some rather high depreciation on a fairly new car, and instead turned to running older cars, though usually spending the top end of the bangernomics budget, and getting something supposedly unattainable, the Golf GTi was bought when setting out to find a cheap runabout, the Audi Cabriolet, is rather a lot of car for a £2k budget. Roll back 5 years ago, my Golf GTi was starting to suffer from 10-20k a year being put on it, not having the time to take her off the road, and extra pressure of me also running my dad around as he'd not replaced his written off 944 (serious high end bangernomics £3.5k). I was starting the hunt for an Audi Coupe, but then got offered a 70k freshly MoT'd 95 Escort Si for £650 and decided to take it. It was horrid, and I carried on the hunt for the Audi Coupe. A few weeks later I found myself looking at eBay one Friday afternoon at a 14 yr old Audi 80 2.0E saloon, 80,000 miles from new, one owner, all the MoTs, lots of service history, freshly MoT, sitting at £300 with a few hours to go, and it's in Chesterfield a mile from work.... BONUS. Taking dad home that night even negotiated a deal that he'd buy the Escort off me for not much less than I'd paid 4 weeks earlier, so we could get him back on the road too. Audi 80 front 3/4 Read the rest of this entry »

Review – Ford Kuga Zetec TDCi AWD

This last few days I've had the Ford Kuga to put through its paces, Fords entry in to the competitive compact crossover SUV market, launched in 2008. Kuga on the Sand Tested here in 'base' Zetec TDCi spec which has an OTR price of £22,495, but as tested with optional Panther Black Metallic Paint £575 and the 'Appearance Pack' £275 which adds tinted rear glass & aluminium roof rails, taking it to a total price of £23,295. A hefty chunk of change, the Kuga is being pitched in to the premium sector of the range hence it only being offered in Zetec & Titanium trim levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Review – La boîte de merde

Back in December, my Audi was terribly un-German, and broke down as near as damned it to Christmas Eve. Luckily my best mate kept me out of the creak by lending me his runaround he'd bought while he does up his CRX, unfortunately, it's a Citröen Saxo VTR, in gold. Lurvely. It's never going to get off to good start in this reviewers hands, as I dislike French cars, and particularly some of the smaller French cars. I'd already driven this a few weeks earlier just to run an errand in it, and even with just 100bhp it was torque steering and tramlining, it was so bad I even double checked the back to make sure I hadn't really just driven a Vectra. Read the rest of this entry »

Smashing Christmas

What a 24 hours. The Audi has had faultless reliability throughout all the recent snow, even when left for a week untouched buried beneath two foot of snow, she still started first turn of the key.


All that went out of the window yesterday, something was obviously amiss when the car took two attempts to start for work in the morning, but then in the evening dropped down to a local pub to meet up with a Twitter friend, at which point the Audi took three attempts to start, and then down at the pub that was it she wouldn't start again. I'd already seen very similar symptoms on my dads A6 which has the same 2.6 engine as in my car, so very quickly suspected the camshaft sensor that had given him the same issue. Gratefully my Twitter friend gave me a lift up home so could at least wait for the AA in the warmth, first repair van turned out after 1.5hrs at 6:30, quickly confirmed that the car wasn't sparking, so it was the camshaft sensor as predicted, or coils. I can't tow you home though, going to have to send another truck. Luckily they dropped me back off home again as the recovery wagon didn't arrive for another 3.5hrs at 11pm, can't really complain too much though as did know I was on the non priority list, only fair those stuck on the M1 at night etc get attended to first.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mallory Park

For the Bank Holiday Monday a group of us headed to Mallory Park for some classic 60s car racing. Wasn’t really expecting much, the bill was full of old Triumphs, and expected a bit of a plodder meet.

It very much wasn’t though, went out to watch the first practice, out comes a lot of TR6s, some Lotus 7s, a Dino, and a pair of 3.0 Capris and they evidently weren’t hanging about. So much so two laps in to practice and the Dino locked up on Devils Elbow, jumped the gravel trap, & then flipped over the armco and dropped on to its roof. News was quick to follow that either the car or one of the barrier paddings had also hit a marshall.

It was a very heart in mouth 10 or 15 mins, we feared the worst when heard there was a marshall involved too, but glad to report that both the marshall & driver are OK. I can’t give any more info than that as I don’t know the details, & didn’t ask. NB The final shot was only fired off after we heard both were OK. As ever it’s a credit to the marshalls/safety teams etc who are the unsung heros of many a motorsport event for their quick responses in dealing with this accident, and in repairing the damage to the safety rails so the rest of the days events could carry on. It’s also a start reminder that just because you are behind the ‘safety’ rails at an event, you should still be on your guard and be keeping an eye on the cars when you are close to the track.

In to the afternoon & we were on for some fast close racing, car of the day was a beautifully turned out mk1 3.0 V6 Ford Capri, which sounded absolutely awesome, and went like stink too. Mallory Park will definitely be on our revisit list too, for a photographer, plenty of clear close (and safe) vantage points to enjoy the action, and the bogs were decent too (Donington with your dirty little blue cubicals take note)


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