Getting lost in Beamish

 I had no real plans for my days off, so it was a lovely surprise when my mate John Whatsapp'd me to ask did I fancy a tootle out on the bikes.

Farmer's Trail

 

I message John back telling him I couldn't be faffed with attaching my Bartlett Tendons, so I would be using my Orbea Cyclo X bike, so we would have to plan a route taking this bike and not one of my mountain bikes. John was happy with this, he just wanted to get out for a little while.


As I went to sort my gear out, I couldn't find my Race Face shower jacket. It's a handy thin bright Orange stowable pullover type affair. I then recalled I had left it in the back of Grandma my Bug, so I had a ride down to her garage, opened up the garage and grabbed my jacket from her boot. Whilst I was there, I started Grandma up, just making sure her battery wasn't flat. I have to take Grandma to the dent doctor on the 5th August as she has managed to get a dent in her... I hasten to add AGAIN! In exactly the same place. This was whilst she was sitting up in our backyard having her new brakes fitted just the other week.


Anyhoo gear sorted I had a leisurely ride up Durham Road, using my Orbea Gain on Max assist, level 3, as well... I can.

I didn't have long to wait for John, as he had been dropping his daughter off at school. I told John I had forgotten my bike pump and that on the way up, my tyres felt a little soft, so we headed back down to mine and I retrieved my pump and put some air in my tyres.

Then we were off heading for the Farmer's Trail, to No Place and then down into Beamish, passing the top end of Beamish Museum, dropping down to the Museums farm and past Beamish Golf course. We turned onto the trail opposite Beamish Hall and continued up through the woods, till we came to the road that can either take you to Sunnyside or Lamsley. We headed Left as if going to Sunnyside, however detoured along another trail and headed for Hedley Hall Woods and the car park.

John and the Woodsman

John taking pictures

 

Going through the car park, we were soon on the newly constructed pathway at Hedley Hall Woods and followed a route to where I wanted to show John the sculptures that had been installed. We then did a spot of off-roading down a trail that was rather overgrown, so much, so I ended taking us a different way to what I had planned, as I couldn't see the trail. I also fell off at one point as the undergrowth was so long, and I lost sight of the trail and went down a dodgy bit that was obscured. I wasn't going fast, so no harm done, and both John and I had a laugh about it.

Glenn

Undergrowth got a lot thicker

At one of the weird sculptures

 

Finally, I figured out where we were, we had done a large loop and actually came out at the pond we had not long ago passed at Beamish. We rode a little further, then I saw what looked like another nice off-road trail, amongst the trees. It was the sculpture trail, sure I have been on it before, so I led John up that way. It wasn't long before the trail became more difficult to see which way to go, as the undergrowth crept in, and before long we were off pushing our bikes. The tress then started to get thicker and the terrain muddier and steeper.

 

Duck

 Knackered after all this fighting with weeds and pushing

Low tree branches

John thought we were going for a ride, not a hike

I just appear to have this knack of getting us lost close to home. More pushing ensued, and we were both bad laughing as we were trying to avoid getting nettled, plodging through mud and then there were the really low tree branches and the slippery slopes both up and down. I kept getting my prosthetic foot snagged in the under growth, so the majority of the time I was tripping all over and in a constant battle to get anywhere. Eventually we came to an area after climbing a rather large bankside and John said "It's a dead end, no one has been this way". As I got to the top of the bank and surveyed the area John was right, the plants were like waist high and I couldn't see a path. Sod it I am not going all the way back I thought, so I spurred  us on, and we made our own kind of path.

Man with a spade

 

Yay! We must have been going in the right direction as we came back onto a trail at the top of yet another steep bankside, and we were back in Hedley hall Woods where we had already ridden.

Finding our way and heading back home was easy now, and that's what we did, a nice spin along the Causey Arch on the new tarmacked path, well until it ran out. Then up towards Shield Row, and we got on the C2C all the way up until the turn-off for Iceland at Stanley.

John popped into Gregg's for a couple of Gregg's dummies, mind you, he came out with a bag that looked like it would last a week. And that is another mini adventure completed.

Got Myself A New Ride...

So following on from Tango my old Smart car deciding to die on me last week, I have spent a somewhat stressful and what I thought was going to be a fairly depressing week searching for a replacement car.

A good few months ago I had toyed with the idea of thinning out my fleet of cars and getting rid of both Myrtle my old 65 VW Bug and Tango my wee Smart Car. I had been checking out the Abarth 595's. I know the little hot hatch isn't for everyone, but I really liked the styling, and the small form factor, and it would have suited my purposes ideally, a big bonus being that the little car was available in an automatic, something I need due to the whole missing leg situation.

Anyhoo I put the idea on the back burner, that was until Tango became poorly, and then the decision was kind of made up for me. And so my search began. I thought it would be easy, just locate the exact model I was after, which was the Abarth 595 180 bhp Competzione MTA, I mean come on there would be loads of them for sale right? Errrr wrong. I wanted as new a car as I could possibly afford, and when I began searching, I discovered 5 on Autotrader. Yeah! That's right 5. I contacted 3 of the dealers, all of whom gave me a courtesy call back and went on to send me various video's of their cars. Two of the dealers were way off from me and their cars were a little out of my budget. There was no movement whatsoever on the cars. Plus, I just couldn't get away with the colour of the interior of one of the cars, a kind of dirty brown.


As I write this, did you know the 2nd hand car market has seen a 32% hike in prices. It's a case of supply and demand, I guess.

Abarth 595 Competzione MTA

Mangoletsi, Knutsford Cheshire, Manchester

One of the dealers, I contacted, was Mangoletsi who have a showroom in Knutsford, Cheshire. They were also the closest to me with a car in stock and at a very good price, when compared to their competitors. I recieved a very friendly courtesy call from the manager George and he arranged for one of his salesmen Isaac to take a few videos of their car and then contact me.

 

 What I liked about Mangoletsi was that there was no pressure sales, and when I asked about the car the sales team were open and honest. I didn't want to jump straight into making a car purchase just for the sake of it, so following watching the video's Isaac had sent over I mulled over my options, admittedly there were not many, these automatic Abarths are a lot harder to get than I thought. That said, the car I had been shown looked in really good nick, so the best thing was to see it in the flesh, so to speak.

 

Abarth 595 Competzione 70th MTA

Ern checking out the wee car when we got home

 

After some consideration, when Isaac gave me a call back, I told him I would like to come down and have a butchers at his car. Isaac suggested putting down a £250 deposit. Informing me that if I was not totally happy with the car, the deposit would be returned. And so I put in a little annual leave from work and my dad and I drove down to Manchester to view the car today, which is the 19th July.

Abarth 595 Competzione 70th MTA

 

As we arrived at Mangoletsi's showroom, Isaac was just pulling the Abarth around, and he immediately came over to greet me. I guess the leg gives away who I am. It was absolutely sweltering on the forecourt, so we went indoors to the showroom, whilst Isaac grabbed some trade plates. A quick check of my driver's licence, then Isaac handed me the keys to the car, and we went for a test drive.

Little Abarth

I have sat in an Abarth before, however never driven one. It didn't take me long to get to grips with how the car felt. I pretty much knew after having a quick look around the car and the first few auto-gear shifts that it was the one for me. I love the colour it is not in your face, the car sounds awesome with its Record Monza exhaust and the engine, although only a 1.4 turbocharged 4 cylinder, is punchy. The car's seats will take a bit of getting used to, they offer great support, however as many motoring journalists have said they are pretty firm, and you also sit up high in the car. Saying that, my head doesn't touch the roof and I think it is just a case of getting used to a different car. That goes for the suspension too. It is very firm, however the car feels planted. I am quite used to a firmer ride as Grandma my VW Beetle GSR is running on coil overs and quite low.

Interior

Sabelt Seats

After the test drive, it was back into the showroom to pay for the car and I had to sort my insurance out. I must have been on the phone to Adrian Flux for well over 1 and a half hours today, probably 10 minutes of that actually speaking to someone, the rest being on hold.

Fun little car to drive

I opted to take out a further 1 year's warranty for £400, a  bit of a no-brainer really. The car is registered on a 69 plate, however it is a year 2020 car. Oh! And a very neat touch was that when I viewed the car I asked could Mangoletsi source some Abarth carpets, as when I checked out their video the car didn't appear to have any. That is one of the first things Isaac pointed out, when I went to actually look at the car. As a customer, when details like this are taken care of, well it just makes you feel like you are being looked after.


All the paper work done, Isaac went through what was provided with the car, such as the spare keys, the car's service book and manual and the locking wheel nut in the boot.


My dad and I said our farewells, thanking Isaac as he had looked after us from arriving to leaving and the car was exactly as he had described it. Fantastic service, with a very friendly team and the car I think was at a really good price.


After filling up the wee Abarth... I have yet to think of a name for her, it was off homeward-bound. As I was driving, I recieved a few test messages via my phone. Now I never use my phone whilst driving, what was really cool though was when I was stuck in traffic the Abarth's radio informed me I had some messages. I clicked on the "read" button on the 7-inch touch screen, and the lady hiding in the car's radio actually spoke my messages. Wow! Anyone from a younger generation will think so what, it's old tech. I just thought it was pretty cool, LoL.

Farwell to an old friend...

 It has been pretty hot weather the last week or so, I am sure you will all agree. Well on Sunday after finishing a rather warm and sticky day at work I jumped in Tango and headed home. I had both of her windows open as she was roasting inside. I mean, she had been waiting patiently all day for my return in the glaring sun.

I popped her air-con on to help with cooling. I know you shouldn't have the windows open with the air-con on, it was just until things got cooled down as we drove home.

Wow this was 7 years ago the day I bought Wee Tango

 

So off we set on our usual route, with no dramas, Tango running perfectly smooth. It wasn't until I got real near home, just about opposite Humber Hill, when I smelt a burning smell. I thought it was something from outside somewhere.

As I pulled up outside our house and parked over the road on the grass verge and went to get out of Tango, that is when I noticed a small amount of smoke. I originally thought it was coming from my rear drum brakes, however as I inspected my wee car, it soon became apparent it was more of a burning oil type of smell.
 

I had turned her off at this point and went in to get Ern's opinion. Ern came out and suggested we leave Tango to cool, saying "come on, we can go up to the tip and drop off all this garden stuff". We had been on cutting the hedges you see, so had loads of cuttings, in a dumpy bag and wrapped in a tarpaulin.

When we arrived back home, it was still red-hot and Tango was still warm. My dad popped Tangos tail gate and lifted the carpet and protective sound deadening, then released the clip that holds the metal engine tray. We then got a rag and pulled out Tango's dip stick, checking her oil. The oil was up to the recommended level and looked lovely and clean, I mean she is serviced by my dad regularly. We then replaced the dip stick and went around to the front of Tango and checked her coolant level, again it was perfect.

We then had a go at starting Tango, and she just gave off a pitiful little groan... Oh! Dear!

My dad suggested leaving her until the following day, and whilst I was at work, he would investigate further. Upon picking me up from work, my dad let me know that Tangos engine felt "Tight". He had put a socket and wrench on her and tried turning her engine over by hand. She wasn't exactly seized, however she was poorly.


I have had Tango 7 years, and she has been a great little car, ideal for what I needed her for. I was gutted, however at this point I had had enough of spending money on her, I mean just last month I had spent over £500 on new suspension parts a tyre, then had to get her tracking re-done. I decided pretty much there, and then it was time to say farewell.
 

Tango when I first saw her and fell in love with her

I will miss my little Tango

I no longer have a Facebook account, so I used my dads and banged Tango up for a £1,000 on marketplace. Within minutes of the ad going up, I had 9 people contact me. So I was furiously trying to answer everyone's questions. I hate selling stuff, as you either get some numpty trying to bid you down or asking ridiculous questions. Not just that when someone really wants something, and you only have one, it's difficult trying to not come across as a complete dick when someone else buys your gear, and it's gone. Maybe I am too soft, LoL.

Anyhoo within about half an hour of the ad being out, a guy informed me he would be at our house the next morning with cash, and true to his word he arrived, paid for Tango and took her away. I wasn't in, as I was at work. I said my final farewell that morning, which was really sad, I loved that little car and had some good times in her. I hope Colin, her new owner, can repair her, and she sees many more miles of bringing a smile to someone's face.

And so what to do for a car for a run about and for work. I can't possibly use Grandma as she costs a fortune to run, plus she hopefully will be a future classic. I don't want to use Myrtle as well she uses just as much fuel as Grandma, however annoys a lot of people on the road as she is soooo slow and there is the fact she is not ideal to park, and I am still on the fence about her semi-auto clutch adaption. I still get anxious on hills and at junctions at times. Sometimes I can pull away smooth and on other occasions she either cuts out or, like when I was a learner, as if she has kangaroo petrol in her.

Sometime ago I had debated selling both Tango and Myrtle and was checking out an Abarth 595 Competzione. I'd actually love an EsseEsse, however they are hard to get in an auto and a lot more expensive. It sucks being an amputee as I am limited to an auto, and you always seem to have to pay a premium.

Abarth 595 Competzione

Obviously not in the market for a brand-new car, my budget won't extend to that, but something a couple of years old would do the trick. I am also trying to resist the urge of getting a car and modding it. I have already noticed there are loads of nice bits of gear out there for the Abarths Lol

Grandma ... My What Big Brakes You Have !

Well we have finally got around to fitting the bigger brake mod to Grandma, my 2013 Volkswagen Beetle GSR, which happens to be #240 of a production run of 3500 worldwide. Of those 3500 cars produced only 100 were brought to the UK. Of that 100, there were 70 Yellow and Black's and only 30 Platinum Grey and Blacks, so Grandma I suppose is quite a rare car, plus Volkswagen are no longer making the Beetle, so she may become a bit of a collector's car.

Grandma is now 9 years old, approaching ten, and she is in canny good nick. Stone chips are my biggest annoyance with her, but hey, show me a car without the odd bit of road rash after 10 years. She still turns a few heads, and I think quite a few people get a surprise at just how pokey she is. When I bought her, she was remapped, with a Revo stage 1, and pushing out 264 Bhp. I then got her remapped to a stage 2, along with the Race Cat and DSG gearbox map, so she is now pushing out 290.6 Bhp. Grandma is also running a Revo cold air intake and a Miltek unresonated Cat back exhaust, which sounds pretty good, however can get on your tits when travelling between 50'ish to 60'ish as it drones, so much so at times it makes my ears go funny. The DSG mod is quite fun as when you boot Grandma she has a sort of fart when chaging gears in sport mode Lol.

Anyhoo moving along I will now give you a run down of the brake mod with as much detail as I can, who knows it may help someone out there if, like me, you run into a few teething problems with mixing and matching bits of gear. I will write a complete list at the end for reference purposes, so you can skip to there if you don't want to read my blog... Shame on you, Lol.

OK so the 2013 VW Beetle I think is based on the Mk 6 Golf chassis. I am sure this is correct as I recall the Miltek Cat back system as being off a Mk 6 Golf and also the Revo 200 cell Race Cat from a Golf Mk 6 fitted when i had it fitted down at BTG Performance. Following much research and still being a little unsure, of what exactly would fit, I just decided to bite the bullet and purchase a pair of MK 7 Golf R front calipers, which I got from Flea Bay. They came complete with the carriers and the R badge side plates. I opted for all black to go with my stealth theme.

Grandma about to be elevated

Had her 4 years now and still love her