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I smuggled stuff into the secure part of our offices by hanging a thin line out of our 3rd floor window into the car park. Then we put the contraband in the car park with a length of heavier line attached and tied the thin line to the heavy line. Nipped back upstairs and hoisted the whole lot up and in the window.

Wound up made me a custom disc version of this for my Enigma and I love it, not sure why this one was for sale but disappointed to have missed it, let me know if it becomes available again.

Yes, just been down to Reefton for a bit where the weather was drier than here in Nelson. I was going to ride today but still wet, LoPro is in the window at LBS for a while so I can't get any decent shots although here is one of it in their storeroom

Well this has been asleep for a long time and I have moved to the far side of the world but the Raleigh is now all finished with its full Zeus Pista crankset and hubs, Wolber rims and Vittoria tubs. I would like a shorter and more period stem for it, preferably Zeus to link nicely with the Zeus seat post if i could find one. Numbers on the bottom bracket (which is Cinelli) are 59.5 (probably the size although how that is relevant to this shape of bike I don't know) and SB8074. There cannot have been many of these and it would be nice to know a bit more about it from when it was new.

If the weather improves Ill take some better shots with the camera rather than my ipaddle.

Very nice, you have inspired me to go and look at mine which has been hanging around for at least 18 months after the painter painted it the wrong colour just before we flew to NZ to live. He did give me a refund as there was no time to correct it but I've still been having a sulk while I wait to see if the colour grows on me. I've been looking at it all day whilst standing at the lathe and I think the time has come to move it up to next on the list.

What a great collection of catalogues. I can't log in on my iPad but i spent a couple of hours browsing them last night. I think you are right it is some sort of circa 1993 Delta V700. I've never seen them before. It is ideal for our purposes as Mrs Enigmatic has no desire to mountain bike or don lycra and join in with bunch rides, she just likes a quiet ride down to the beach / any alcohol source.

The headshock does not appear to be an airspring either from the bike or the catalogue. The rubber bellows is fairly new and a bit long which makes it look saggy. It all feels ok though when I ride it and I'm 80kgs although compared to a modernish fork the rebound is pretty uncontrolled - how do you know if they are worn?

Since settling back in NZ I managed to pick this up for almost nothing for my wife to ride on gravel paths, to the wharf, wineries etc. She loves it but I can't find out anything about what exactly it is!

Well I've bid on it. Last gasp addition to the collection before it all gets packed for NZ.

Christchurch (where I grew up) initially but looking to buy in Nelson.

Sad day today. We are shortly leaving to start our next adventure living in NZ and today was my last ride with my club. Took the Koga which I finished building a few weeks ago but have not yet ridden. Great ride which covered a lot of my favourite local routes from the last couple of years. Thanks PNECC. If my next club is half as good I will be very lucky.

Yes - Hispano Suiza. 27 litre aero engine.

Camshafts and followers - these items still come with break in provisions every time I buy one / have one made. They say that from initial start up engine revs must not be less than 2000rpm for the first 20 minutes of running.

That creates two issues with my new old engines - the first is it assumes that even without any initial set up guidance or data for a standard engine let alone one then blueprinted and modified - that when we stick it on the dyno for initial running we can get it to run right straight out of the workshop and the second, particularly with early aero engines, is that 2000 rpm is pretty close to redline for the feet per minute speed of the pistons!

Camshafts and followers aside plenty of my car and bike engines are run in at first practice followed by an oil (and filter where fitted) change in the paddock and then a weekends racing. Only failure to date (leaving out old 2 stroke bike engines which in race trim are always a hairsbreadth away from destruction) was on a fabulous engine with only a few hours on it which had a chain inside the timing chest driving the generator. A roller on the chain broke up and a piece went into the oil pump at full noise on a trials hill, it sheered the drive to the oil pump, caused a weird screeching noise and brought everything to a sudden halt as the mains seized. The journals turned blue from the heat either side of the big ends and mains. It was all rebuilt and running again 10 days later - modified so it couldn't happen again even though I could find no record of any of the same car having had that particular failure in the 80 years since they were made!

Isotta Fraschini, perhaps Daimler or Maybach? Napier, Sunbeam. There was a Rolls Royce with RR Eagle engine for sale about 8 years ago but not sure where that has gone.

Once I got it all set for collection last night I spent a bit of time looking at the engine. I will be really sad to see it go. The more you look at it the more you notice all the design features which make HS head and shoulders above any other pre 1930 manufacturers including Bugatti, Bentley, RR, Alfa Romeo etc. they are fabulous and although it is just a lump of metal I am feeling sad to see this one go even if it is paying for the Delage to be finished. (Ps Lynx - I am not as well off as you may think - since I left school I have spent over 30 years applying all of my earning capacity to attaining my car ambitions the way most people target a house, pension etc. probably unwise but it has been a blast so far).

Thanks for the extra details. Not for me this time. GLWS

I've been very lucky in the things that have come my way. Owning Hispanos was like winning the lottery. I was trying to get an H6 and got a tip off about a pair of them. When the owner told me he would only sell the two together I nearly walked away but at the last moment asked the price. It was less than I was planning to spend on one. So I bought them. For the first few months I kept going out to the garages to look at them. I just couldn't believe my luck and after looking at one I would go to the other garage and check that there really was another one. I sold one quite soon but I had the other for a while. These bits are a kit I put together from my spares to build a Hisso Aero car - but plans change and now they are off to Germany.

7 speed 8 speed? Any photos? Can you ship to Hants?

Spot on Olly.

1926 H6B + 1928 12Mbr engine (27 litre, OHC, 6 carbs, compressed air starting, 24 spark plugs).

This is one with a V8 version of the engine in it the V12 is better because obviously its hugerer but also because its a 60 degree v rather than 90 degrees which means that you can get it all under the original bonnet profile (although you need to add about 6 inches in length).

and going back to Old School,

this is the last one of these I have and I don't think I shall have another. My feeling at the moment is that having spent 4 years living breathing and eating the Delage project that I do not have it in me to do anymore cars from remains through to finished, so after 10 years I advertised this set of parts (actually this is just a few of the big lumps - I have pretty much everything and a lot of it is restored such as all the instruments, lights etc) and they were bought unseen in under 24 hours from advert by an overseas buyer for a surprisingly large sum of money...

I was happy but now it is leaving I am a bit wistful especially about the engine. These are very special cars, they were allegedly 3 times the price of a Rolls Royce Phantom 1 when new. Only the most extravagant / optimistic manufacturer would produce the chassis seen here - it is their shortest wheel base / sporting model with an overall length of 4.52 meters. I planned to compensate for that by using this V12 engine from the same factory in place of the original. Any guesses?

Yes LSD. Mine was in NZ. It was one of the final batch of 50 added on when the production had been set to end in 1976. A kiwi bought it ex factory drove it around Europe for 18 months then shipped it home. I got really lucky in that the manager of our local dealership had trained for a year of his apprenticeship with the BMW factory and knew the cars and the Kugelfischer injunction system intimately. He kept it running really sweet. I can't remember which tyres exactly we had on it in the end, pretty sure they were Pirelli. Apparently all of the last 50 were fully seam welded as part of the run was to be spares for touring car racing. No idea if that was true or not but mine certainly was. It even had a personalised plate "BMWTii"

We used hunt out cheap old 850 when I was in my teens. Underpowered but a load of fun especially on gravelly ski field roads. My 2002 was lovely it was a very late tii with square tail lights pretty much all the available options including a 5 speed with dog leg first. It is one of only a handful of the many cars I've owned that I regret selling every time I think about it. At the time it was my only modern car and it was just too expensive to run. The flaw in that logic is revealed by the fact that less than 12 months later I was running a land rover and an Evo VI.

You need to go to Retromobile - last time I was there a number of coach builders were showing Delahayes and Talbot Lagos with new replica Fakey and Flashy bodies. Not rally kit cars as the running gear was all authentic and the bodies were coach built in traditional materials just like the original ones.

One of the guys who works with me on my Delage is doing a tear drop coupe on a Talbot Lago and an airline coupe is being built on another Delage 3 litre chassis.

Lots of views but no interest so off to the bay....

My bundle arrived today well packed and everything good when unwrapped. Very happy. Thanks

If I use cruise control on the motorway / good A roads at 70mph I can get about 37 mpg. I have done a long stretch in France at well over the speed limit with race trailer and car and got it down to 28mpg. On the plus side it is an amazingly stable trailer tug! Was still worth it - the car on the trailer was a single seater and at best did about 10mpg

I've got a 3 litre A6 All Road. Even though it's been chipped it fails your hp requirement and it is an Audi but I've had from new and I think if you include the ability to tow race cars on trailers up to 2500kg it is the only option without going to a Range Rover / Disco or SUV all of which have far more disadvantages.

It is not a sports car but it is a fabulous all round day to day tool.