Afternoon 
Some of you will recall my E28 5 Series I bought about a year ago and was using as my daily driver. It was doing a sterling job until July this year when it decided it was tired and promptly got rid of as much compression as it could
Since then it's been parked in my Nans garage waiting for me to get round there and start stripping the engine. Here's the thread for those that haven't read about it before - forum.retro-rides.org/thread/220113/oap-85-525e-plans-afoot
In the mean time I picked up a reasonably new MINI Cooper S. Not a bad car but not as quick as I was expecting it to be, terrible on fuel and the seating position makes my hip ache! Not ideal. I told Mrs Sammo about this and she agreed that I should get rid of it and get something else. Once she had uttered those immortal words it was time to start looking around for a replacement As much as a modern daily makes lots of sense (plus the ULEZ is probably being extended very close to where we live next year), I couldn't help looking at something old again 
After a few days of looking longingly at classis Minis that I couldn't afford the idea of a Metro popped into my head. My parents had one when I was a kid and I loved it. When they had finished with it my Grandad took it over and ran it for another 10-15 years until there was no bodywork left! That was 25 years ago when he scrapped it so trying to find a solid one these days was going to be challenge, especially with my relatively meagre budget. Anyway, I started searching all the usual places and found plenty of slightly corroded candidates and a hell of a lot of Metro shaped sieves
Eventually I spotted this little beauty on Facebook marketplace. Only 7000 miles from new, absolutely rock solid all the way round and one of the earlier ones. Just what I wanted. The only problem is it's automatic, however I can live with that and I'm buying it based on the condition of the bodywork rather than anything else.
So here it is
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the speckled interior trim but it won't be staying like that for long!
It's a 1275 engine with 62bhp. Plenty of power to get me the five miles to work and then home again I've already got my eye on another 1275 block to build up into something with a bit more oomph and a manual gearbox, but that won't be any time soon.
Anyway, that's it for now. The car is being delivered to me next week at which point I'll break the news to Mrs Sammo (who hates old cars) and then I can get the MINI sold.
Some of you will recall my E28 5 Series I bought about a year ago and was using as my daily driver. It was doing a sterling job until July this year when it decided it was tired and promptly got rid of as much compression as it could
Since then it's been parked in my Nans garage waiting for me to get round there and start stripping the engine. Here's the thread for those that haven't read about it before - forum.retro-rides.org/thread/220113/oap-85-525e-plans-afootIn the mean time I picked up a reasonably new MINI Cooper S. Not a bad car but not as quick as I was expecting it to be, terrible on fuel and the seating position makes my hip ache! Not ideal. I told Mrs Sammo about this and she agreed that I should get rid of it and get something else. Once she had uttered those immortal words it was time to start looking around for a replacement
As much as a modern daily makes lots of sense (plus the ULEZ is probably being extended very close to where we live next year), I couldn't help looking at something old again 
After a few days of looking longingly at classis Minis that I couldn't afford the idea of a Metro popped into my head. My parents had one when I was a kid and I loved it. When they had finished with it my Grandad took it over and ran it for another 10-15 years until there was no bodywork left! That was 25 years ago when he scrapped it so trying to find a solid one these days was going to be challenge, especially with my relatively meagre budget. Anyway, I started searching all the usual places and found plenty of slightly corroded candidates and a hell of a lot of Metro shaped sieves Eventually I spotted this little beauty on Facebook marketplace. Only 7000 miles from new, absolutely rock solid all the way round and one of the earlier ones. Just what I wanted. The only problem is it's automatic, however I can live with that and I'm buying it based on the condition of the bodywork rather than anything else.
So here it is
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the speckled interior trim but it won't be staying like that for long!
It's a 1275 engine with 62bhp. Plenty of power to get me the five miles to work and then home again
I've already got my eye on another 1275 block to build up into something with a bit more oomph and a manual gearbox, but that won't be any time soon.Anyway, that's it for now. The car is being delivered to me next week at which point I'll break the news to Mrs Sammo (who hates old cars) and then I can get the MINI sold.
