First trip out to a show for the 25 in my ownership over to the annual New Year's Day show at Stoney Stratford.
Was quite pleased to come back from my first wander to find a DS parked next door. The Seat SUV on the other side of me, not so much.
Definitely will need to make an information sign to go in the window. Virtually everyone thought it was a 21. Guessing that's because the headlights and grill are more similar to those on the 21 than on the facelift cars - and this is I think the second pre-facelift 25 I've ever actually seen in the metal...so the general public at a glance can be forgiven I think.
She's definitely still a bit cranky about the engine bay washing. I've got one cylinder dropping out under heavy throttle at lower revs, which to me says weak spark on it feels like just one cylinder. She started up initially off one so that tracks.
Looking at the distributor cap revealed two things.
1. I need to add "replace distributor shaft seal" to my to do list. No particular stranger to this issue from my Saab days.
2. This definitely won't have been helping our spark.
I'm not going to worry too much about that oil seal immediately. This thing has done so few miles over the last few years and the oil isn't great so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I've had oil leaks like this on long dormant engines vanish on their own once there's good oil in the engine and it's back in regular use. Not often, but it has happened! The oil I'm hopefully going to get changed tomorrow. It and a filter are in the boot.
I cleaned up the cap, left the HT leads off at the plug end while the engine was hot to hopefully help any moisture that might have been trapped between the boots and the head. It spluttered on me once today, but is 90% better.
Something which became immediately apparent when I took the distributor cap off was that the HT leads are completely and utterly petrified. I suspect they may well be the originals so have very much done their time. A new cap, rotor arm, HT lead set and fresh set of plugs has been ordered. Plus while I was poking around on Autodoc I found a few other things stocked that I didn't expect. Crankshaft position sensor, ignition coil, oil pressure sensor, both coolant temperature sensors and air intake temperature sensor. Given these are only going to get harder to find and we're only a few quid each for the sensors and £11 for the coil I just decided to order them on the spot. They can just live on the shelf as insurance that I won't need them. They're the sort of things that are likely to be a right pain to find in a reasonable time if I do come to want them. Especially the crankshaft position sensor - which is the one that provides the timing signal to which both the ignition and injection systems are referenced. So you lose that, you lose the lot. The spare for that will be living in the boot. At least it's dead easy to get to on this car, right on the top of the bell housing.
I didn't actually take many photos at the show. It was really busy so hard to get a good line on anything. So I just concentrated on actually looking at what interested me and enjoying the show, just snapped what really interested me.
This...thing...definitely fitted the bill.
I mean...just look at it!
I was thoroughly expecting this to be something purely to be trailered to the odd show for amusement value only until I walked round the corner.
It's only road legal! Taxed and tested too.
Obviously built before the current IVA rules came into force which would render building something like this today totally impossible for road use. Though irrespective of when it was built I suspect using the rear engine on the road would be rather frowned upon!
Yes, that rear engine does appear to be functional, and if I'm not mistaken is a Rolls-Royce Gem - so about 1000hp worth. Something this small would shift...rather well I suspect with that much shove.
I'm not usually one for wacky one off things built just because they could be...but this one really appeals to me. It must be a royal handful to drive irrespective of power source, especially as there's no linkage between the bars and front wheel, so cornering lock is basically limited by how far you can lean - and with that size of a tyre up front with no small amount of weight on it I doubt it's light.
I am very jealous of the owner and slightly in awe of them if they do actually drive it more than a few miles a year. Irrespective, I really want a go!
Until the last five years or so I had relatively little interest in pre-war stuff, but lately I've really been finding myself drawn more and more to it. This one in particular drew me in like a month to a flame.
Not sure if it's unrestored or just been done sympathetically done (no idea on what colours you could originally get one of these in), but irrespective it's obviously used and not babied and polished every other day. I doubt anything we're driving today will look half that healthy after 107 years.
I'm really surprised how expensive Model-Ts aren't. Yes I know they're not exactly something you can use every day, but given the age of them and historic importance in the story of the car they just seem a lot cheaper than I'd expect. Always have done. If I had a decent sized covered storage space I'd really be tempted by something like that as a weekend toy.
The little details are so nicely thought out and so different to what we'd consider normal these days. Your temperature gauge for one.
I have been lucky enough to drive a Model-T, albeit only once. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Best advice to anyone else: Don't try to think "this is the equivalent to that control..." - Just try to forget everything you know already and listen to your tutor who is telling you "this control does..." And hopefully you should be fine. Around 40mph has never felt quite so fast though!
While I may be able to middle my way through driving a Model-T, I'm not totally sure where I'd start with this!
Dating from 1896 this really is from the dawn of the motor vehicle when most people would probably have still assumed steam was the way forward and that the new fangled internal combustion engine things would never catch on.
This thing is fascinating. Here's what the engine looks like.
I wouldn't even know where the heck to start driving this...looking at it just for a few minutes there are a bunch of controls I've no idea of the purpose of!
It's interesting to see that the Model-T above dates to 1915, this thing from 1896, and in the middle in 1903 Oldsmobile produced this.
Which very much ticks the "horseless carriage" description really. Underneath where the luggage rack normally would be there is an engine, albeit barely recognisable by today's standards.
I think looking at the controls though that I could figure out how to drive this though given a bit of time and a nice big area to experiment. I saw this pull in though and it sounded lovely. I know plenty of stuff built in the last ten years which don't run half as smooth - and given this only has a single cylinder that's saying a lot!
I don't know if I'll ever own a pre-war car, but I have absolutely come to the conclusion that I need to spend some proper time around them sometime.
There were a few more relatable things in evidence though.
I swear I recognise this XM, the reg number just seems really familiar though I can't place it for the life of me.
An absolutely pristine Nissan Primera GT was on the high street.
Primeras of any description seem to be one of those cars that just vanished overnight. Imagine they fared poorly on the scrappage schemes given they'd have been right at the bottom of the depreciation curve around then. Not a car I've any interest in owning myself, but it's nice to see them being preserved.
Likewise early Mondeos are a rare sight these days.
I didn't even know that an estate version of the Fiat 500 existed until I came across this one.
Not a car that mere mortals like us can really directly relate to, but it would have been rude not to snap a photo of this Rolls-Royce.
Back when it was a brand name which actually meant something. Gorgeous car.
I'd have liked to stick around a bit longer, but was pretty well frozen through. It wasn't *that* cold, so you didn't really notice it. However a few hours later you suddenly realise that you're absolutely frozen through. It took me hours to get warmed back up again.
Tomorrow the Renault will be getting dropped off with a garage to have the front suspension tended to. I'll feel much more comfortable driving the car once that's sorted out.
I only did the bonnet, but I wanted to see how the paint would take the a polish/wax. Still feels quite rough to the touch as there's so much ingrained curse word still in there - really wants a good machine polish/clay treatment, but that doesn't surprise me in the slightest given how absolutely disgustingly filthy it was.
Does look better in the rain now though.
Have to wonder how many years it is since water actually ran off it like that.
