A little quiet job on the Abarth whilst off work...

 I have been off work since last Tuesday, after having to come home following not feeling at all well. In fact, I haven't quiet felt myself for going on 3 weeks now. It all started with a migraine, which persisted and eventually turned into a headache. The following day I felt the same, and as the weeks went on I just didn't feel great with this constant bad head.

Anyhoo I was taking prescribed medication to try and combat the migraines, a drug named Naproxen. I was taking the recommended dose each day and as the first week went on I was starting to have weird dizzy spells, where I felt a bit disassociated and like I was having a panic attack.

As I work in a hospital, my colleagues got an obs machine and took my blood pressure, and it was something like 177/110. One of the friendly doctors upon our ward checked me out and recommended I go home, so that is where I have been.

I have managed to get in and see a friendly GP, and she has prescribed some blood pressure tablets and I have to go for an ECG and bloods, just to try and get to the bottom of why I have been feeling so off. Turns out, Naproxen is really bad at raising your Blood pressure, as is Ibuprofen.

So this week I have pretty much been taking it easy, even cutting down on my daily cycling, only doing around 5 miles per day on the turbo trainer.

On to my Abarth. I ordered some sound deadening, some stuff called Dodo Mat. I got it from Amazon, ordering it one day and it arriving the next. It was lashing down yesterday, well I think it was, that is another thing that is affecting me my concentration and memory.

Dodo Mat sound deadening

Dodo Mat

 Well today, as it was sunny, my dad and I removed the door cards from the Abarth, and we fitted the sound deadening. We had already had the driver's door card off, last week as the wee car has an annoying rattle coming from somewhere, I actually think it's the driver's window.

The door cards come off relatively easy, there are a couple of covers to remove, one chrome one that goes on the interior door handle and another that is like a small rectangle shape, and this is in the door grab handle, where the arm rest is positioned. Once you get these off, there are 3 Allen head bolts to remove, and then you have to try and use something to pry the door card from their plastic retainers. My dad had a proper type of tool, so the cards came off fairly easy.

Door handle cover

Other cover in handle

Once the door card is away from the clips, you have to remove the cable that operates the door handle and on the driver's side the power window switch connection. From there I used a hairdryer to heat the soft door membrane, you need to keep this intact as much as possible. We got it off so far then just peeled it back, just needed enough to be able to get access to the inside of the door skins.

Door Card  Removed

Door catch cable and power window cable at bottom

Heating up membrane, just watch you don't stretch it too much

The first sheet of Dodo I heated with the hairdryer, however, soon discovered that it became so sticky that I couldn't get it in place correctly without it sticking to something. The best method was to just measure the sheet of deadening with the backing on, trim it if necessary, then only peel about an inch of the paper backing off and sticking that inch in place, then remove the rest of the backing as you work the sheet onto the door skin. As it was a relatively warm day, the sheets stuck no problem. We used a combination of a roller where we could roll the sheets and where we couldn't just a firm bit of pressure, until the deadening was in place and secure.

Became way too sticky

 

Oh! By the way, I bought a pack of 12 sheets of Dodo and I think I had about one sheet left over after doing the doors. I have ordered another pack of 12 so that I can do the boot. One pack comes in at £25 from Amazon.  

 


As you can hear in the video, it doesn't half make a difference to the sound of the car when tapping on the door.

Steering lock

Oh! And I also ordered a steering lock from Halford's so popped down to pick that up yesterday. It's a sturdy bit of kit I have one for my VW Beetle GSR, it won't stop a serious thief, however it is a good deterrent for the opportunist, every little helps in this day and age.

I Don't Believe It !!!

Well, I have owned my wee Abarth 595 roughly a month now. There are things I love about her and things which are slightly getting right on my tits if I am honest. Let me explain. The little Abarth drives great, sounds great and in my opinion looks great. Even better now that I have visited Mark over at Dent-Tek in Chester-le-Street to get a small dent removed out of her passenger door. I am not sure if the little dent was in when I bought the car. I only noticed it whilst parked in Morrisons, covered car park, at Birtley and the light just hit the door, showing up the small dent. So, not sure if it happened whilst I was parked down there.

Wee Abarth 595 Competizione

Anyhoo! On to the tiniest things that are getting on my nerves. I have noticed a few annoying rattles. I think one is coming from the passenger seat, and the other which is doing my head in is coming from the driver's side, I think it is from the driver's side window. It's a barely perceptible rattle, however for those of you who know what tinnitus is like, well I can only imagine or describe it like that. When I hear it, I can't get it out of my head.... well ear!

 

Naughty Wee Abarth

Oh! And another quirk of the Abarth I have discovered is that sometimes when I press the driver's side electric window switch, for some reason the stereo will switch from whatever it is playing via media and jump to a radio station, then jump back.

Looks Tiny

Now to the "I don't believe it" part of my post. Yesterday, as I got in, there was some mail waiting for me. As I opened one of the letters, I wasn't best pleased to discover I have been caught speeding, apparently doing 38mph in a 30mph zone. It was on Shield Row Bank. I am proper gutted as normally I don't go over the limit, well not that much, I mean if we are all honest everyone goes over the speed limit at some point.

Looking back at my dash cam footage, I can see where I was caught. Very annoying as I was actually only doing 20mph to 25mph when I passed the sneaky van, which I am sure was illegally parked right up on the footpath. A car in front then turned in to  a street and I accelerated in preparation for the bank at Shield Row. No excuse, caught bang to rights, the Wee Abarth is nippier than I thought, and I just didn't feel I was going all that fast.

My last points were on my licence way back when I was around 21, so I guess I haven't done too bad. In the letter, I think I come under a category A, so I may be able to go on one of those speed awareness courses, at a cost of £75 and avoid 3 points on my licence. I guess I will just have to wait and see. I was only 3mph over being allowed off according to the letter.

Had a little blast out today in the Wee Abarth and I must have learnt my lesson as I was back to driving like Miss Daisy, saying which I was still abiding by the rules of the road and not dawdling, so it kind of pissed me off when I had some numpty overtake me down Lanchester Bank crossing the two solid white lines, then cutting back in, in front of me, Why is there never a Copper when people do this? LoL

A Wee adventure in Myrtle to Druridge Bay.

 John and I had thought about heading out for an overnighter, taking Myrtle on a kind of road trip, just for a few days. Thing was that we had left planning a little late, and as I explained to John, Myrtle hadn't really been on any far-flung road trips since having her fuel starvation issues sorted. I am pleased to say, that this does appear to have been remedied by the fitting of a fuel regulator and a Facet electric fuel pump, which my dad very kindly installed and plumbed in. In mentioning the Facet fuel pump, I do also have to say "Man it's loud". I can hear the bloody thing "Tick, Tick, Ticking" away, hopefully when I get around to fitting the sound deadening and rugs this will quieten things down a fair bit.

  

Myrtle looking all shiny

Oh! And as John and I, had talked about wild camping, which isn't so bad when taking the bikes, as you can go covertly, when thinking of taking a small car, it's a little bit harder to be inconspicuous, so Scotland would have been the best option as you can wild camp, within the law. I did a little research, and you need to apply for a permit for Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, however if we were to go over to the Forests of Galloway there is no permit required, it's a canny old trek, especially in an old car, and we would need a lot more planning.


I know I have posted a lot in the past about all the problems my dad and I had with Myrtle's suspension. I lost count of the amount of times Myrtle was up on stands with her wheels off and both my dad and I removing, and then replacing, her various suspension components and then measuring stuff. Anyhoo you know what I think was the cause of all her suspension problems? In fact, I now know. It was a faulty Air Lift manifold. I bought the complete setup from Limebug, brand new and had it fitted by professionals, however the car never felt right from day one. It always rode, how can I put it, "Wonky". It wasn't until a few months ago, upon having to use Myrtle for work as Tango, my beloved Wee Smart car was off the road for repairs, that I started getting an error with the driver's side, rear bag not fully deflating, when using the remote control. A long story short I contacted Air Lift, sent a few videos and within about a week I had a brand-new manifold. Now that the manifold has been installed by my dad and I, Myrtle has been spot on, and I am no longer stressing about every time I come to a speed bump, or in having to worry about her looking and feeling "Wonky". Now when I get in Myrtle and I check in her glove box, looking at the Air lift controller her pressures all remain where they should be, and she goes up and down, on the touch of a button.


My dad and I have been out for a few short trips in Myrtle now, mainly going shopping or to pop to Costco for fuel, over at the Metro Centre, and she has driven spot on. So I was quite confident taking her for a drive up as far as Druridge Bay yesterday
 

I awoke relatively early with the plan of giving Myrtle a wash and trying out this new Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax that I had looked at on YouTube and then bought from Costco. I quickly read the instructions which are pretty straight forward, wash the car, rinse the car, apply the wax whilst the car is still wet, turn the hose on again, and allow the wax to spread over the car, then using a micro-fibre duster dry the car and buff up the paint work. I am actually quite impressed with the stuff, it's so easy to use and Myrtle was all washed and polished and gleaming in under an hour. Apparently the first application is the most difficult, and then you can just use a liberal amount of the wax as a top-up. Any water on Myrtle no just beads off her, and she feels slick, and looks glossy.

 

Meguiar's Hybrid Ceramic Wax Good Stuff This

Myrtle done, I popped up to Stanley for a quick haircut, then came back home and got sorted ready to go and pick John up. I popped my cooler box into myrtle and the vintage boom box Ern and I made which was connected to my Mp3 player which had loads of songs on for the day.


Once I had picked John up we headed to Stanley and Home Bargains and bought a few bits and bobs for the day then we were off, following directions using Google Maps on John's phone.


The A1 North bound was as frustrating as ever. Even though it was stop start for a while and a very hot day, Myrtle never flickered, she just kept plodding away. She did stall on two or three occasions, however that was more to do with me and still not having the semi-auto clutch control down.


The drive on the lonelier country roads with the windows down was awesome. It can be really pleasurable just to drive an old classic car with no mod cons, you know a simple dash, with one clock, no air con, no electric windows and the sound of a little 1200 cc air cooled motor plodding away, yeah not for everyone I know, but for me, now that Myrtle is running sweet, it's a relaxing experience. John and I also noticed just how many people smile as they see Myrtle, well most, I mean you can get the odd irate driver who has to be somewhere that is really important, and you know getting that one car space ahead of you will make all the difference.


Once at Druridge Bay, we discovered it was really busy. I had to park Myrtle on the grass and there wasn't any great opportunities for photo's, hence not many here. We took the cooler box and headed down to the beach.

  

Druridge Bay Beach sea fret coming in

John and Me

Me on the beach

 

It started out really hot and then a weird sea fret blew in. We decided to have a walk along the beach, and before long you couldn't see more than about 20 to 30 meters in front of you. 

It was like walking through a cloud. In fact, that was what it was, as we soon discovered we were quite wet. I am not sure how far we walked, however it must have been canny far, as it felt like it took ages to get back to the trail where the steps took us off the beach and past the Highland Cows, which we had seen in the field as we approached the beach. I was thinking to myself, "poor things, they must be so hot", what with their long fury coats.

Poor cows must get so hot

 

We then had a walk right around the lake at Druridge Bay, it was a lovely stroll. 

 

Druridge Bay Lake

At one point, two robins came within about 3 feet of us and sat perched in a tree nearby. They appeared unfazed and sat as if waiting to be hand fed. I have never actually seen a wild bird this used to people. One of them actually sat whilst he/she had their picture taken, which John captured, such a pretty, happy looking little bird. We continued our walk around the lake and then headed back to Myrtle.

  

Pretty little Robin

 

   

Walking around the lake trail

Myrtle started first click, and we were soon on our way back home, again with no dramas. Myrtle plodding away, showing between 50 mph and 60 mph on her clock, which I think was more like 40 mph to maybe 50 mph, lol. She is what she is, not a supped up race car. Now she is more like a reliable tortoise that will get you from one point to another. And so goes another mini adventure.

Ooh! I did have one little problem. I think when we have fitted Myrtle’s steering wheel on, or the steering column, that the indicator stalk mechanism is getting stuck as I put weight on the steering wheel, like say turning a corner, Myrtles indicator tends to come on unexpectedly. My dad was on the case upon my return when I told him, he loves working on the old girl LoL

Here's A Start...

I got my hands on my little Abarth 595 Competizione on the 19th of July, and I have already given in to the urge to modify the wee car.


As I perused the interwebs gaining knowledge about the car and what mods were, both beneficial and aesthetically pleasing, I came across an induction kit from 500 Madness. This company is based in the US, and it was not until I emailed them about their kit that I learned the US market cars use a 1.4 Multi-Air variant of the engine, whilst the UK, EU and I believe Australia uses the 1.4 T-Jet motor.
 

Unfortunately, the 500 Madness Induction system would not fit my wee car. The reason I liked it was because it came with a pretty cool engine cover, that just finished the job off in my opinion.

500 madness Induction Kit

I noticed a lot of people were using the Forge induction kit. It looks very well finished off, a quality bit of kit, and sounds pretty aggressive, it was just the fact that I did not really want to cut my car's scuttle panel. I know it is not a big deal. It was also the fact, again in my opinion when the car's engine cover/regular air filter is removed, well the engine looks kind of bare.

 

Forge Induction Kit

So after much searching, I discovered GT Tuning's offering. I know GT Tuning have been around quite sometime, as I can recall back in the day when I had my BMW Mini's, GT Tuning offered some good bits of tuning gear.

 

GTT Cold Air Induction Kit

Anyhoo I ordered the Cold Air Induction kit online from GT Tuning's website, selecting the colour of the engine cover and hoses, and it arrived yesterday, and was waiting for me as I got in from work. 

Just awaiting the finishing touch, a cool looking Abarth badge to put on the engine cover.
 

Ordered an Abarth Badge off of eBay for the engine cover

A quick cuppa, then I was out under the bonnet of the wee Abarth. I still haven't found a name for the little car, I am sure something will come to me soon.

I followed the provided instructions, which were pretty informative and accurate. I dropped a couple of things down the front of the car by accident, a hose clamp and a washer during the removal/fitting of the air filter. It was a right pain getting them out from the under tray, but a combination of a bicycle spoke, a magnet and a one of those grabber type devices soon recovered each part that I had dropped.

Two of the most difficult parts of the process were  firstly removing the original air filter along with the engine cover. This was mainly because I had never taken one off before, and I didn't want to break or snap anything. When I read in the GTT instructions about watching you don't break the peg on the back of the manifold, I was kind of double-checking I had removed everything, before I had to give the air filter and engine cover a decent pull to get it off its rubber mounts. There are two of them, and as long as you pull up evenly, you don't put any undue force on the rear peg on the manifold.

The second part that took sometime was in installing the GTT induction kit and getting it to line up with the two notches on the engine cover and around the oil filler neck. Once my dad and I had figured this out, Oh! I forgot to mention, I had called on Ern's expertise as I don't fully trust my skills the rest of fastening up the kit was easy, that included popping the small provided filter in place on the what I think is the inlet pipe, I may be wrong, anyhoo it went on with a rubber hose and two hose pipe clamps.

I then jumped in the car, well rather manoeuvred my self in, something I have found is that it can be quite awkward getting into the car due to my prosthetic socket and the high sided Sabelt seats. I don't want to wreck the side of the seats as I get in and out due to my stupid socket.

Once in the car, I started her up and allowed her to tick over. To be honest, the car doesn't sound any different whilst sat in her, either in normal or sports mode. I am hoping the filter will just allow her to breathe more easy, as the original filter I have read is quite restrictive.

All in all happy with this first mod, it looks neat, hasn't made the car obnoxious to live with, as I now use this wee car as a daily for work, I mean I probably only do just over a hundred or so miles per week.

I like the fact the car has a valved exhaust, and you can bimble along fairly quietly, yet put the car in ASBO mode when you feel like being a bit of a hooligan, whereas Grandma my GSR Beetle is permanently in hooligan mode and on a longer drive can make your ears pop as her exhaust drones.

Anyhoo now more saving to do as I have a few more mods I would like to do to the wee Abarth.

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