After deciding to sell fix then sell the rangie after the trouble I had with the ignition, I needed something to get to work, have fun and be old and cheap (max budget was £1600 but I didn't want to spend that much, just to keep the missus happy).
Was hunting for a a Merc 300E turbo diesel (either 123 or 124), but nothing came up still available in the paper trader/loot (my internet connection died the same day, so I only had half an hour online at lunch at work and no time to view in the evenings before dark).
The boss suggested BMW, Lexus and early Ford based XJs. So i started ebaying and spotted the monster above.
Advertised as in Liverpool, but I saw it at a garage in Warrington where it was getting MOT work done (tyres/brakes).
Emailed the seller and rang him. Turns out, he was a squaddie, He was supposed to be getting posted to Germany and bought it to get home across europe to see his GF and kid. But they changed the posting and posted his unit to Warrington instead, to turn the local TA barracks into a regulars unit camp.
So he got an Army loan and bought a Vectra Diesel instead. bit of a difference between up and down the autobahn for hours, and plodding through the Liverpool end of the M62 congestion and 50 limits.
So the car, with a fresh ticket, two Colway CMV3As in the front, and two more in the boot (yes I know they are remoulds) was sitting at the camp, about 200 yards from my house, he had just driven from Glasgow to Preston, but would come over that evening to show me the Celsior.
Would have been rude not to really, and I do like it. Just need to weigh in the likelyhood of the cambelt on such an understressed engine going. The early ones are non interference so if it does go, you just get the embarressment of being stranded, and a big bill from Toyota/Lexus, rather than looking for new heads and a mortgage.
The air suspension has already been swapped for coils, so that is one major failure out of the way.
Now, nobody suggest VIP style, or posting pictures of TRD and Tom's parts.
;D
