The MR2 went today to it's new owner, and has been replaced by..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . a Vauxhall Nova TD!! A bit of a come down, but it's cheap and cheerful and should eat up motorway miles and do plenty of miles to the gallon at the same time. Now on the lookout for a cheap SR/GTE/GSi interior to tart things up a bit.
Make sure the rad is in good nick - the one in my last one of these wasn't, and it gave out on the M25, taking the engine with it.
Easily tweaked and weighing sod all, these are pretty quick if you want them to be.
The shells were strengthened compared to than the rest of the Nova range as well - fit Calibra 16v front brakes, and it'll stop pretty well as well. :-)
They're not as bad as the world would have you beleive. When I was younger I knew a lad with one with all kindsa fettlings under the bonnet, was supposedly running some 130bhp, and I do recall a pub story of it once outaccelerating a Saab 9000 - one of those sporty dark blue ones with grey wheels - along motorway slip road. It would apparantly top out at 120 but would get there frighteningly quickly.
The handling responds very well to lowering and 195 profile tyres. A good mate had a 1.2 Merit and 1.4SR for years.#
I'll sell ye this
Used to have calibra front brakes but now has standard discs with no calipers (fun driving it the 7 miles to the field with just the handbrake...)
Going cheap ;)
SR Front bumper and GTE sideskirts as well ;)
Worth more than i thought!
Buy a car off you? You're joking aren't you? :)
I'm glad you know something about them - where should the temp gauge sit in normal driving? At the moment it sits around the first line which is only about a 1/4 (if that) up the gauge. There's a thick line about 1/2 way up, I would have thought it should be there. Maybe the thermostat is stuck open?
Brakes are pretty naff at the moment - they stop you but are really spongy. Apparently it had new pipes all round for the MoT and new discs and pads last year. Gonna have a look at it today to see what I can do!
It goes suprisingly well, but it's a Merit poverty spec. Got a rev counter and temp gauge which is good, but everything else is pretty limited. Paintwork is pretty rubbish too. But it means we can both fettle around with it at weekends. Hopefully a decent interior will just bolt in, that'll be the first port of call after looking at the brakes and giving it a wash today!
TBH I'm actually quite looking forward to tarting it up. And with any luck it wont require constant attention like the MR2, and will last a year without any major work! And hopefully, as they seem to be quite popular and rare, we wont lose any money on it when we come to sell it!
1/4 is about right - the fan should kick in just over the 1/2 mark.
If it's taking a while to warm up when you first start off of a morning, that's a normal diesel trait - they take that much longer to warm up than a petrol lump.
The main thing is, once it's at a 1/4, it stays there when you're taking it easy on the open road etc., and the heater still blows nice warm air.
My last one died due to a combination of ropey radiator and a heavy right foot on my part, blowing some repmobile off along the M26. :-D
Because mine had been tweaked, the extra boost etc. was generating that much more heat when you floored it... which the ropey rad wasn't doing a very good job of dealing with.
Sounds about right!
Try bleeding them just to be sure - don't forget you're used to stuff fitted with brakes that actually work. ;-)
My Nova GTE had Calibra calipers coupled with cross drilled / grooved discs - you could lock the fronts up at over 90 in the dry if you took the piss, and I never encountered any fade from them, no matter how much abuse I gave them on a fast cross country session.
Good luck with it anyway - just out of interest, how many sheckles did it set you back, miles etc?
Well it stay at around a 1/4 and the heater blows nice and warm so I guess it's ok then!
:)
Seemed to be a bit of air in the rears - got it out and they seem much better now. The o/s caliper has had the nipple snapped off though, which is a pain.
Have been thinking about some bigger brakes, but we'll see how it goes. Would need bigger wheels before we did that though. But tt's only a commuter hack for my missus so shouldnt be getting much abuse anyway.
We paid £400, which was probably a bit too much TBH, but we needed a car this weekend and if we didnt get that we probably would have ended up paying about the same for a crappy mk3 Fiesta 1.8D or Metro 1.4D. On the good side it had an MoT done in July and had a load of welding done, plus all the brakes hoses changed (probably when the bleed nipple got snapped off). It's done 130k miles but seems to have had an easy life - was owned by an old guy for most of it. Doesnt smoke much and boosts well. Cambelt and tensioner were done 2 years ago, but I'll probably do the cambelt soon for peace of mind. Body work is a bit crappy - rusty front valance and rear arches, plus a couple of big scratches down the side. But my girlfriend's dad is handy with bodywork so we'll probably take it up to him one weekend for some touching up. Used some back to black on the bumpers this arvo which has made it look a bit better. Couple of pics here:
Do they sell socks?
No...............do you know how to read headers?
k
Yes, but I prefer socks.
Is that the same threat you were making against me?
False promises from behind your keyboard?
Never did send that letter of intent did you?
All wind and lies.
I will watch this with very great interest. I would love to see you follow through an action of threat.
Waiting.
Pigs will fly
Mike That damned truth always prevails
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