Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Nice.

Ours is indeed a pickup. #good4tipruns

I used to love those weeks off tinkering. Damn my family and middle age.

Enjoy.

@IR if you are N London way give me a shout I’ll sort you out with a CO alarm

The 550 Touring sold, for the full asking price, to the first person to make it to see it - not me.

SO! M5 Touring, looking at one with 76,100 miles, the chap says the clutch has never been changed and doesn't need changing now. From that most sanct of sources, "The Internet", I understand that these cars rip through clutches every 40,000 miles, does this mean that the car will be in desperate need of a new clutch, or should I buy it once for the asking price as it clearly has a one off, immortal friction material?

If it's truly on the original clutch then it's been babied and motorway driven it's whole life. Hard to believe tho

Yeah, I've asked for clarification.

In other news https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201710039912574?onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&sort=sponsored&model=ALPINA%20B10&make=BMW&postcode=se233un&radius=1501&advertising-location=at_cars&page=1

20,000 miles on this in the past year: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201710160324924?postcode=se233un&sort=sponsored&body-type=Estate&advertising-location=at_cars&make=BMW&model=M5&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&radius=1500&page=1

These are really ageing well. Look great. Rear tailgate looks to have been resprayed. I'd be buying one of those for sure... Too tempting. Personal preference is for black leather. M5 touring... Why they never send here to aus. Perfect family wagon

...and people dissed Bangle for his flame surfacing marlarky. All his designs still look pretty fresh. Z4M always catches my eye

I was in Brighton today and stumbled across the Veteran Car Run:

All cars at least 100 years old. Sadly, there was a crash involving a 115-year old Benz which looks like it was a pretty rough one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-41879353

Nice pic. 😎

Saw Mr Bangle at a Buro Hapold lecture once. Interesting fella.

I once saw him do a lecture at a thing called creative mornings in London once.

I asked him a question his reply was "Study for life; There will be a test"

I had to buy a car for a trip to Norway in late August and ended up getting something I've always wanted, a '05 Saab 9-5 Aero. The car feels really solid and well looked after and is more than fast enough.

I've had a 99, c900's and 9000's previously, but this is the first GM era Saab for me. It has much of the same appeal that my old '82 900 turbo and '90 900 Aero used to have, but with a much nicer interior. It's still a real Saab, i.e. the gearbox is shit.

Do you get sensible fuel economy with it? I've got a 97 tdi that averages 0.7l per 10km, 0.6 on longer trips.

The tax on mine is silly as it's an old diesel, but if I've calculated correctly I should make it up with better mpg. But only if the aero does say 1.0l per 10km.

You'll have more fun though. Mine is great for motorway cruising, but through town the engine and gearbox feels quite agricultural

on coach up to Blackpool. more about the glamour of my life later. but M6 southbound currently stopped. here's why

1 Attachment

pretty shocking sight. but don't think anyone hurt

Coach to Blackpool... Do they give out free smack when you board?

oh how I wish they did. anything to release me from death by drivers shit mix tape

Yes please:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J74Qkuk1l4

This fucking E9 from SEMA

Turbo S52

They can be scary enough with e30 M3 engine....

Inva car blue....

Suspect the spoilers are needed for that.

byawlk

Boring middle age car purchase update.

Mitsu ASX is exactly as i was expecting. Dull to drive, but suprisingly not as marsmellowy as i thought it would be, slightly better looking than most SUV twat mobiles, much better interior spec than other £10k options we looked at. Very comfortable inside and decent driving positon for a twatty SUV. Done two return trips to London from Bristol loaded with crap in it this week, and it's perfectly suited to dull 90mph motorway cruising. Does exactly what we need from a car at the moment very well, as depressing as it is for me to say that. Rear reversing camera is actually much more useful than i thought it would be, I'd always just assumed it was a bit of a gimmick.

Only annoying thing is the fucking awful aftermarket Kenwood touchscreen Nav media thingy that they come with from the factory. So complicated to use whilst driving, and wont stream audio from my phone via bluetooth, even though it connects for hands free calling. Also no DAB which I've become so used to over the past four years, it has made me realise how unbelievably shit all the old school FM radio stations are apart from Radio 4.

We'd love to replace it with something that does apple CarPlay, so we can just do everything via a connected phone.... Does anyone know if this would be a fairly simple upgrade if we took to a decent car media place? I'm thinking geting a car play unit to work with reversing camera and steering wheel controls etc will be a bit of a PITA? Possible to do for £500ish max budget?