time to tart up the soggy old waterbed.

I'm just in it for the painkillers.

"DervMan" wrote in:

Cool - this country, or somewhere across the pond (I know you've talked of emigrating there as a long-term thing...)

Talking of which, are the in-laws in California safe, with all that fire-related s**te happening out there?

Peter

You'll have plenty o'customers from this group.....

Peter

Hmm...

About a mile and a half away, half a mile where we were before moving to this arm pit. The landlord comments, "the garage has some furniture in it" so I will be encouraging this to be moved elsewhere...

Yes, they're safe... thanks for asking!

I actually did laugh unexpectedly and through my nose at that, much to the surprise to all of the other people in the room.

Thought it was worth mentioning.

...

You sure you're not gay?

cheers, clive

Too much 4x4, traction control, abs, stability control all to much. The purity of a rear drive, rear engine car is ruined. You need to be able to drive it, feel the balance, keep it on the edge. Modern version have so many "driver aids" that it might as well be a diesel passat. You no longer have to be a driver to drive quickly, just hope the makers fit more toys to their car.

That is exceptionally difficult on even the later temed models, let alone a proper 80s model.

But my "Hmm" was along the same lines as Homer Simpson, "hmm donuts" followed by drooling.

Steady on. It won't be that rapid.

I agree with the "driving quickly" but, but same electronic gizmos are handy when you screw up - which I do, sometimes on purpose, sometimes through inattention.

It'll have an off button, or as some later Mercs do, when it's off, everything still works under braking but not under power.

gut at work in service drives to work now and again in a V reg (with the V at the ye olde end of the plate) and he has a later kit on it. looks a bit newer than it is and he's running about 380bhp. think V is 1970 something but he said it's typical 1970 style turbo, nothing then bam all at once. says it can be a little 'twitchy' in the wet.

While 380 HP is possible out of the 3liter T, better is to go up in engine capacity and put on the big (Ruf) intercooler.

If your collegue has indeed one of the older Porsche 911 Turbo with an engine on boost delivering 380 HP, he will drive in the wet in such a manner that the turbo never engages. That's fairly easy: never go higher than 3000 RMP and never accelerate longer than 2 seconds. Anything more and all hell will burst loose.

Iirc the 74 and 75 models were not yett galvanised : unless they lifed in the Saoudi desert or sunny California, most developed terminal rot. The galvanising added 20 kg to them. That's one of the reasons why Porsche opted in 1977 to raise the power (and the engine displacement).

From 1977 the engine became 3.3l and power fluctuated between 300 HP and

The 3.3 L engine was/is extremely reliable but somewhat gazguzzling: on a circuit it doesn't take Fangio to see fuelconsumption around 60 l/ 100 km. A heavy foot on normal street gets around 25 l/100 km

Porsche being somewhat tight did something they hoped nobody would notice: from 1975 to about 1997 the basic chassis didn't change and parts were easily transferrable. That's why even today there are still a lot Turbo's around at affordable prices. If you find a real Turbo S however, then cancel the affordable...

Tom De Moor

Still bigger than the boot in Toms Elise.

Fraser

That's not true but mine has a badge: "50kg maximum load".

And it is impossible to secure :-)

Lisy is sleeping under a blanket now: couldn't be bothered to put the hardtop on. Anyone interested in a S1 Elise hardtop?

TDM

Yea the boot on the Elise isn't actually *that* bad. My under-bonnet boot has a sticker that says "30kg Maximum Load" hehe :-)

I remember when I rented one that the boot was effectively a bag next to the engine and I couldn't get my slim aluminium briefcase into it. It had to go on the passenger seat. But what a drive....

Fraser