Jake

There certainly does seem to be an endless supply of cars that somebody in Japan paid good money for and then forgot to use.

You've got me worried that the indicated 185,000 Kms on mine might not be genuine now!

It's a downloaded avi file. You're welcome to a copy if you want. I'll see if I can find it...

I have a long video of Derrin Brown showing some great sleight of hand tricks and he shows how it's done afterwards. It's like an instructional video for conjurers Amazingly good technique is required though. I kinda got one trick working OK, not great, but it was hard work. I've totally forgotten it now.

Went into my garage to grab a few tools and noticed the floor was wet. "Hmmm roof must be leaking" I thought. Looked up - no roof! (well, there is some roof but there's a bleeding gurt bit missing) The fooker must've blown off sometimes in the last few days! It's that corrugated asbestos crap too. I bet you can't get that any more.

Do you know if it's a Manual or auto?

Thanks Darren mate, but it's nothing compared to the heartbreak I had with the engine in your (my old, in case folks were wondering) bloody car. All things considered, the problems with that engine cost me over 5k. I'm glad you put a new engine into her. I reckon that other one was cursed

Making people go Wow! = the retrim and steering wheel Making your car better and more fun to drive = CW's suspenders Just depends how shallow you are (kidding, I love a nice retrim as much as anyone but I'd love CW suspension setup more. Shame I can't afford it)

Excellent - thanks! Hmmm, 2.62km from the exchange That's quite far I guess. Maybe I'll stick with cable after all.

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes. You're a great bunch. Just to be clear; this was only a drama for a few seconds and all is well now. The telling of the story takes much longer than the actual event did. Thanks to Dan and his colleagues the car is 100% fine now

I don't think there is a thread about it. He just PM'd the guy and asked if he had any skirts for sale.

Remind me how you do the test to find out how far from the exchange you are? I know you dial 17070 but I can't remember which options you choose from there. Anyone know?

Oh I see. Thanks

On the bright side, you were lucky. One guy crashed his car when the same thing happened to him last week. Apparently it left him with no power steering just as he was cornering.

Yeah, you're right. He's not great at making himself clear, is he.

I think he means "See post number 223 of the thread in question", which doesn't change

So true

Actually he said he'd have it done for Saturday. Unfortunately I live a looong way away from you so a lift isn't really practical, as much as I'd love to. Perhaps I'll see you there mate.

"the cooling systems still pressurising" not sure what you mean there mate. The cooling system is supposed to be pressurized when it's hot.

We couldn't do any mapping for hours after the incident because we needed a new oil return hose. He did get a new one but it was like 1pm by then and Dan didn't think there was gonna be enough time in the day to map it properly. So I've left the car there and will pick it up when it's ready. Only took me 5½ fucking hours to get home on the train! Dan rang me later in the afternoon and said that he's mapped it to 0.8bar so far and it sounds great. He said it spools really early but runs out of puff a bit at the top end. I'm sure the top end will be loads better at 1.5 bar though.

I'd rather not say, because I don't hold them responsible. Another trader, Mark from Phoenix, pointed out to me months ago (at TOTB actually) that there was a problem with the oil return line and that it was slightly leaking oil from the fitting. Mark tightened the fitting up a little but he couldn't really get at it because the car was red hot and to do it properly you need to remove stuff. He stopped the leak for the time being but told me to get it sorted properly as soon as I could. Days/Weeks later I tightened it up myself but I'm now thinking that maybe I caused the return hose to move out of position and made it touch the manifold. So that's why I don't want to say who fitted the kit, because it was probably my own negligence and nothing to do with the trader.

What's not brilliant? Do you get anywhere near the 8mb download?

Will it? How do you know? Do they do a test of some sort? If NTL don't get my cabel broadband working tomorrow I might go with Sky myself. I'm just a bit worried that the advertised speeds might be total BS and I find myself stuck with a fresh 1 year contract and still only 1meg

He's as cool as cucumber ain't he? Honestly the fire was only about the size of football when it first started but it still scared the shit out of me. I really thought the whole car was gonna be in flames within minutes like you see on YouTube etc. Luckily as soon as the engine was turned off and the oil spray stopped the fire didn't look so bad cos then it was only the oil on parts that was on fire rather than the spraying oil. Gonna get myself a couple of fire extinguishers tomorrow.

As, I think, Greg said. The oil return hose was touching the exhaust manifold and had burnt through. This of course sprayed engine oil over the glowing hot manifold and caught fire. When it first ignited it looked bad and I thought it was only going to get worse, much worse ... and quickly unless the engine was turned off straight away. Obviously the longer the engine is running the more oil there is being sprayed onto the fire. Luckily Dan was a lot more composed than I was and turned the engine off and put the fire out without any fuss. In my defence though, I would have been a lot calmer if it was somebody else's twenty grand car. Any road. Where was I? Oh yeah, the damage seems to be none. Once the fire extinguisher powder was cleaned off and the oil residue cleaned off the manifold, wastegate etc I was surprised to see it was all fine, apart that damn hose of course. I suppose most everything on that side of the engine is designed to be in a very hot environment and a few secs on fire doesn't do any harm. Amazing really. I'm counting my lucky stars. Thank God it was raining this morning and I had to take it easy on my way there. If it hadn't been raining I would have blasted there in an effort not to be late. Then the fire would have happened on the road and the car would be a pile of ashes right now.