Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Paul's Race VanBrian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
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Apr 22, 2012 21:03:18 GMT
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We had a well-used and abused ex-Notts Police Dog Unit Iveco the same size when the team started rallying, cracking old bus if you keep on top of the bodywork (the previous owner hadn't, which is why it went to the big Dog Pound in the sky in the end).
Those engines are marvellous, ours used to run with an XE-powered Sunbeam on a hefty trailer, 8 people, a couple of dozen wheels and tyres, a full toolkit and half a dozen jerrycans of fuel and would sit on the motorway at 65-70 all day no bother. I'd say that in terms of outright pulling-power it was easily the equal of the 312 Sprinter we've got now.
Nice to drive, and handle well for a big van too.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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1955 Standard 10Brian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
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Apr 22, 2012 18:01:48 GMT
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I'm with MM on this one, SO pleased it's gone to such a good home and absolutely stoked it made it there under it's own steam, too! Does wonders for building confidence in a new car when you can make a trek like that happen withough any real incident. Superb.
Can't wait to see it in the flesh sometime soon. ;D
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 22, 2012 17:55:21 GMT
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At last, I've gone out and bought something. And (in somewhat of a departure for me, given my love of all things Gallic and oddball) it's German, solid and stable. After wheeling round in the Xantia for much more time than I ever expected it to last (11,000 miles in 12 months for a car that cost £200 to save from the weighbridge) the amount of problems it had accumulated (knocking small ends, water loss, oil leaks, breathing engine, knackered spheres) just became too much to have any real trust left in it. I'd looked at all manner of crusty tat to replace it but either I was too slow off the mark in viewing them or they really didn't fire any sort of enthusiasm. So when ^^this^^ cropped up on this here forum for £500 last week I was more or less smitten on sight. Something I'd always fancied but (as is my wont) I'd always managed to somehow talk myself out of buying. Not this time. Daddy Damaged and I trekked over to Northamptonshire yesterday morning, did the deal and hot-footed it back here by 2pm. It is a LOVELY old bus. Feels very much a child of the 80's when you're at the helm which is understandable as it's a mild facelift of a design that first saw the light of day back in 1985. The 136bhp 2-litre 16v M111 engine isn't a ball of fire (especially when, as in this case, it's coupled to a switchable four-speed slushbox) given that it's got a fair weight to pull around, but once you're rollin', you're rollin'. The interior is magificently comfortable, if not that practical for a bloke who comes home from work filthy....a decent seat cover and some over-overmats will sort that out. I dodged the showers this morning to rip the stereo out of the Xantia and install it in the Benz. Aux-In means I can hide my iPod in the centre console and fill that swarthy leather-clad cabin with my usual diet of eclectic musical detritus to my heart's content. I've a few odd jobs to attend to, the bootlid lets the rest of the car down as it's had a whack on the top and there's all manner of grot coming through above the number-plate light. There are plenty on Evilbay though, so I'll hold out for a black one. The wheels are off a later car and don't really suit it, but I've already won a set of eight-hole OEM rims on Ebay this morning (for a whopping £34.....LOL) which will go on it once I've picked them up, given them a refurb and done a bit of tyre-swapping. Will update this as and when anything interesting happens. No big plans other than to enjoy being a wafty old fat bas**rd for the summer. Brian
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 22, 2012 12:02:23 GMT
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Fantastic! I saw loads of old tin yesterday morning on the A45 when I was en route to pick the Benz up and wondered where they were all headed. My hot-rodding neighbour popped round yesterday evening having spent the day there at his first-ever VSCC meet and was absolutely overflowing with enthusiasm for it.
Must get along to a meet this year.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 22:18:26 GMT
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Anyway, I'm not going to let that spoil my day. I keep peeking at it on the drive from behind the kitchen blinds and getting little flurries of (non-sexual) excitement. Glad you;re happy with it, I was like that when I first got it too Hope you're ears weren't ringing too much when you got home ! It did rather assault the eardrums, but not as much as the alarm did when I inadvertently set it off on the drive! ;D Did keep me awake though, the car easily rivals my old TDi Xantia (which, unlike the last one, had suspension that worked...LOL) for comfort, thankfully fiddling with all the toys on the way home kept me from nodding off in my chair (those aren't mere seats...oh no). Dead chuffed with it, thanks for the hospitality and coffee Andy, much appreciated.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 22:11:26 GMT
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That is a purchase I seriously doubt you'll ever regret "Some say, they're the last properly built Mercedes before the bean counters took control" Probably true, mine feels like a 4 year old car and its now 21, but, they do like to rust There's a couple of grotty bits on the body, the OSF wing is a bit crusty by the front of the wheelarch, there's a 50p-sized area of surface bubbling on the NSF A-post, a bit on the bootlid over the numberplate light, and a small area in the boot behind the number plate that may need a 2" patch....aside from that it's solid, underneath is amazing....I ran a wet finger over the floorpans and it just comes up black and shiny. The car has spent most of the 2000's in southern Spain which seems to have helped it escaped the worst ravages of tinworm.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 21:48:46 GMT
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^^^^If only I had the dollar^^^^^ Alas the BD Fun Fund is now bone dry for a while, thanks in no small part to the unscrupulous ass-raping metered out by my insurance company this morning when I swapped my policy over. Revenge will be served in the form of them losing my business AND the wife's, come renewal time. Twunts. Anyway, I'm not going to let that spoil my day. I keep peeking at it on the drive from behind the kitchen blinds and getting little flurries of (non-sexual) excitement. Never had that before from a car, apart from my old Land-Rover years ago and a certain rusty air-cooled French one.....
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 20:15:15 GMT
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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560SEC Widebody AMGBrian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
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Apr 21, 2012 18:29:34 GMT
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Can I have the wheels? LOL That's marvellous.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 17:50:14 GMT
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Very nice. Is it an oil burner? Will the missus divorce you if you out some 19's on it? No, it's the cooking M111 2-litre 16v petrol donkey with switchable spazzmatic box. Not fast (the book says 0-60 in 10sec and 125mph), but not as thirsty as I imagined it would be. Again the book says 21mpg round town and 35-42mpg on a run, I poured £40-worth in at a garage near Higham Ferrers, did 65-70 all the way home (91m) and the fuel gauge barely moved. I dunno what the current wheels are off, but I've put a bid in for some tidy OEM 15" 8-holes going cheap on the Bay, I'm not planning on chopping it about to be honest. Famous last words. LOL
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Volksrod PickupBrian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
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Apr 21, 2012 17:18:15 GMT
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Love that. Wouldn't change a thing.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 17:00:02 GMT
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Just seen this on FB, a fine purchase. I especially enjoyed your wife's comment ;D "That's the nicest-looking car you've owned since we met 17 years ago. If you paint that to look like ANY sort of f***ing Police Car, Tank, or Nazi Staff Car I WILL divorce you" She meant EVERY word. ;D
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 16:49:20 GMT
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'.....a Mercedes-Benz' '94 W124 E200, apparently the 'last of the true Mercedes'. Purchased today from JackoM535 of this very forum, and previously owned by Technics1974. So it's still 'in the family', so to speak. Something I've always wanted but have always managed to talk myself out of. Until now. One or two odd jobs to do on it, but nothing that will prevent it from being pressed into immediate daily service. She did the 90-odd mile trip home without complaint and in absolute comfort. More pics and info in a proper Reader's Rides thread tomorrow. If it stops hailing!!! So, SO pleased. ;D
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 21, 2012 13:39:52 GMT
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no worries, glwts, someones gonna get a bargain. Indeedy. That's why it's now sat on the drive at Damaged Towers. ;D
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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1972 Peugeot 504 CoupéBrian Damaged
@damaged
Club Retro Rides Member 33
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Apr 19, 2012 17:58:06 GMT
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That is lovely. REALLY lovely. I spent my teenage years caravanning with my parents in a succession of 504 Familiale estates, as well as that my mother owned a 504ti and I had a couple myself in the early 90's. Quality cars (probably the last solidly upmarket Peugeots ever made) but BOY, can they rust! Daddy Damaged still owns a '61 403 Berline (with a 1468cc version of the same engine) and what we believe to be the last 505SRDT left on the road in the UK. Hopefully you'll be able to free the engine off, those 1971cc hemi-head engines are absolutely bulletproof. Don't forget that that engine was used in the Fiat Ducato/Talbot Express/Citroen C25 van from 1981-1993, albeit in upright, FWD format. The bottom ends should be interchangeable, though. Watching this thread with interest.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 18, 2012 21:57:20 GMT
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It's gone to a good home. ;D
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 18, 2012 21:40:40 GMT
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car looks ok, but what the hell is going on with those pics? they make my eyes hurt. I need to see 'normal' pics of it to actually appreciate it I think. The curse of HDR. Practical Classics is awash with it. It's even creeping into Custom Car now. Horrible gaudy over-processed balderdash.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 18, 2012 20:16:37 GMT
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I like it a lot.
Is it just me, or has Fast Car improved immeasurably of late? I bought a copy in a service station a few months back because there was nowt else worth reading whilst I ate my lunch in the wagon, and I was impressed enough to keep buying it!
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 18, 2012 19:49:18 GMT
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If all goes to plan I'll be there in my new whip. I'll know more after Saturday........
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Apr 18, 2012 19:45:04 GMT
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Also, if enough are interested I wouldn't mind looking into organising some thing in the bromsgrove / droitwich / worcester area meet wise, just something small, not sure if to go just Old Skool Fords, or all older cars, deffo not "retro modern" though (or corsa's etc ha ha. Anyone who would be interested holla in this thread XjamesX That's where the problem (and by problem I mean the almost complete lack of response to this thread) lies. Local meets are a great idea, they are what forms the backbone of this hobby of ours. But as soon as you start excluding particular styles and genres of old/modified cars you run the very considerable risk of appearing elitist. I had a similar problem at the last Beach Party, everything went swimmingly on the day but afterwards a few members of an 'Old Skool' scene-type facebook group starting sniping about the half-dozen modern modified Subarus that turned up to enjoy a day on the beach looking at everyone's rides. A nice bunch of guys, genuinely interested in what was going on...I was horrified to think what any of them would have thought afterwards had they read the amount of snivelling elitist bo**ocks that had been written about them. Some of the 200 cars that attended Beach Party 6. Ooh look....a Corsa ;D There used to be a reasonably well-attended RR Midlands weeknight meet over at The Waterman near Warwick. Twin-pot Citroens mixed with MG's, Peerless, AC's, old Fords, Minis, Range-Rovers and late-model Japanese machinery. Unfortunately it died a death, killed off by the usual "It's too far, I'm not driving 30 miles to a pub meet" apathy which only seems to affect the Midlands. That's why I concentrate my efforts down in the South-West, even in these cash-strapped times it seems that folks from down there will happily dig deep and travel a bit for a day out. It's not really a criticism, more an observation. But if you really want to organise your own meet, it's best to leave it open to the same broad church that Retro-Rides appeals to, unless you like sitting in a pub car park with three other people..... Good luck with it.
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