She's beautiful Al. Just wish I could hear her too! Do you have a garage full of product to dress her right?

What are the bodywork plans?

Will you be coming to Run to the Sun?

New wheels. Obviously wait until the tyres need changing for that.
I still want to see the interior, Sir.

Mark

Each tyre manufacturer makes more than one type of tyre. Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics are better than anything Firestone make.

Didnt Firestone's have a knack of killing people some years back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1393055.stm

<-- Stands corrected.

I run F1As on the Skoda and they're lovely. Not quite Michelin though.

I like Toyo Proxes T1-Rs myself, all the grip of the Goodyears, but quite a bit cheaper. Michelin Pilot Sports come highly recommended, but again, quite pricey. I've got the Bridgestone RE050s that my car came with at the moment, they're not bad, but I'll be replacing with the cheaper Toyos. They don't last long, but I don't do much mileage.

Alex, your car is frigging awesome!

They look like pretty high profile tyres - a lot of the high performance ones only start at 17" - thos look to be 15 or 16".

I have a feeling I'm going to be going a lot of 'glym Paint Renovator. She's had a poor respray straight over the original red (I can see the pinstripe decal on the side still). And it hasn't been clear coated. And it's been stood outside for months.
So yeah, a mild rub back with the Paint Renovator to remove the poor stuff, then a polish, seal and maybe a carnuba wax (although I'm hearing good things about the new poly waxes). I will take my time, see what's working and what's not. Not a huge rush. I put some basic 'glym polish on the bonnet last night to get an idea (after a good wash), and even that was taking paint off the car, the cotton rags were getting blacker and blacker...



Cure the rust, first and foremost. There's a few spots in the t-tops, and that's structural, so that's top of the list. A couple of small bubbles on the inner lip of the wheel arches, I think.
While they're there, I'll get them to cure the surface spots above the windscreen too, which will more than likely involve removing the windscreen, so I'll be sourcing a nice new trim strip for it, and probably new door rubbers.
Rust proofing is also high on the agenda, as it'll be spending time parked very close to the sea.

Eventually, once that's done, I'll be thinking about a respray, possibly. I'd love to get it done properly, however, and that's not cheap.



I dunno!

Well dude, if you want a hand at any point, I have tons of products and I'm always up for a bit of hard work (when it comes to cars that is). Be nice to have you looking something like it for the summer. You should aim to be in the show 'n' shine at RTTS. There's always a few LHD, classics and yanks there. You'll be right at home

Worst tyres ever were the Michelin MX! It was like driving on ice, in the middle of summer.

I had an Escort 1.3 with Goodyears on it and it used to drive very nicely. I then got an Escort 1.3 rental with MX tyres (they used them, because they lasted longer than other brands and, because they gave less resistance, they used less fuel - i.e. they were made of Teflon!). On the same corners in the same conditions, where I could power hard through the corner in my car, the MX Escort oversteered over to the wrong side of the road and wheelspinned everywhere.

If you drove like a granny, they were okay, but they were horrible when trying to drive normally, let alone fast.

On motorbikes, Michelin make about the best grip, they hold on much longer than most other tyres. The problem is, whilst Bridgestone, Dunlop, Metzzler. Pirelli etc used to slowly lose grip as you pushed them harder and would let you know that they were starting to slide, the Michelins would give full grip, right up until the last moment, then they would snap!

I loved my Bridgestones, I could ride much faster on them, because they would slide predictably, you could even power slide the back tyre through the corner, line the bike up for the exit, back the throttle slightly, stop the sliding and then gun the throttle and launch out of the bike out of the corner. The Michelins needed much longer to warm up and were less predictable and when they did let go, they let go in a big way!

It is one of the reasons Michelin fell out of favour in the GP scene, they got sponsorship for a couple of 500 teams and the riders, who were used to sliding the back end around and "backing" the bike into a corner were suddenly high-siding all over the place. Some of the riders refused to ride Michelins mid-season, forcing their team to give up their tyre sponsorship deal and buy tyres from elsewhere and look for a new deal... That was back in the mid-to-late 90s ISTR. A couple of riders were "compatible" with the Michelin style of riding and they did quite well, although they never won consistently.

As has been mentioned, manufacturers make all sorts of different compounds and they have different characteristics. Somebody somewhere will make the right combination for you and your car... It might not suit other people's ways of driving, but if you are comfortable with their performance on your vehicle (and how the tyres react to different vehicles and suspension set-ups is another big factor in how good or bad a tyre is, and why only certain brands and certain models of tyres are legally approved for certain vehicles in Germany), then those are the "best" tyres for you. It doesn't mean they are the best for everybody though.

I might well take you up on that - just bear in mind it's about the size of a Jag XJ! I'm stuck working weekends at the moment, so the usual time for such activities is out of the question at the moment.



As this isn't a car I'm going to drive hard (I'm not really a track day sort of person, unless it's someone else's car), I'll settle for giving me a quiet, supple ride, that's sticky enough and copes in the wet.

I did get her a little sideways pulling out of a junction onto an empty road with my sister in the car - was quite unexpected!
It has, however, usefully taught me just how much throttle I can safely use if I needed to make a gap in a hurry, without the rear end getting all out of shape.

I also now have to set about making the car carbon neutral to appease the boss. She is not happy with me at the moment.

Yeah, I had a 1988 BMW M535i and I was working in Cardif, I came out of the junction by the Hilton in teeming rain and ended up doing about 50-60M sideways up the road! Straightened up in time to pass a refuse wagon.

The problem was the tyres, there are only 2 types of tyre for the that age of BMW M5, Michelins at about a grand a tyre and Avon Turbospeeds at under 200 a corner, but they seem to be made of Bakelite... They handled well enough in the dry, but a few spots of rain and the handling was "exciting".

Right then.
I have a little money.
The Camaro went to the body shop today and the assessment is 'how long is a piece of string?'
Basically, I could sink 2 thousand into her and never see it again, apart from having a lovely, entry-level example of the breed.

Or...

I can spring for a really nice, desirable model that someone else has spent money on.

Which is what I think I'm going to do. So, come monday, I'm going up to near Guildford, then back west again via Wimbourne (then some place called the Blue Vinnie - you may have heard of it some of you...) and on to home.
Chances are, I'll have picked up another car on the way home...

You crazy fool!








I'm excited for you............