Kickstart

I bought my first car in 1991 as well, and it was a Sprint as well. Although mine was a plastic bumper 1.3 model (early plastic bumper one so still had inboard front disks). Still pretty mch my favourie car (and still have a few spares floating around). One would do me nicely. Only real down side is the cost / hassle of doing the cam belt every 36k or so. Driven 164s a few times. Lovely car, but a bit big for me. The 3L was a pretty limited edition, and not a general production car. Basically a homologation special (like the 5L V8 engined Sierra XR8). While the normal 2.5 used injection the 3L used carbs (like the early Alfa 6) All the best Keith

Remember hearing a story from the early 1980s of brand new SM engines being pushed from the upstairs of the warehouse into a skip (downstairs), with the only requirement being that they were wrecked. Whether it was to kill off the SM, or just a way to right them off against tax I don't know All the best Keith

Hi We had an X Type. While they are based on the Mondeo platform there are not that many shared parts (even the engines have some fairly major differences from their Ford equivalents. And there was no 4wd Mondeo that used that platform. We bought ours with about 44k on the clocks and sold it with about 128k. It was pretty reliable and the build quality wasn't bad (put it this was, it was replaced with a BMW E46 3 series and the Jaguar seems far better made than the BMW). Problems we had were a failed lambda probe, 2 rear suspension links (cheap and easy), brake light played up (caused by wear in the pedal box and the brake light flashes on when you use the clutch - fixed with a thin shim of plasticard on the brake light switch), central locking played up (caused by the little flap on the ignition key hole sticking - easily fixed with a little lube) and the drivers door handle deciding not to work (wear on the link inside the door). Starter motor played up at about 120k, but very easy to get to and once cleaned up it was OK. Reason to get rid of it was that rust was taking hold (bottom of the A posts), and rust on the brake pipes (mobile mechanic we use for some jobs commented that with the routing of the pipes he didn't want the money enough to do the job!) It did use a bit of oil, but not that much, while changing the spark plugs on the rear bank of cylinders was a bit of a pain. Ate headlight bulbs (drivers side one is a pain to change) Big problem with the X Type is the 4wd transfer box. These are sealed for life (or possibly sealed for death). While there is an oil filler hole it is below the oil level. They can use a little oil from here which lands up wrecking the transfer box. Reconditioned box is close to a thousand pounds. Officially to top it up you remove the transfer box, although you can get away with jacking the car up high (about 2 feet) on one side to fill up the transfer box. Boot is big, front seats are comfortable. It managed 28mpg in general use, although occasionally I could get it up to 40mpg on a long motorway journey (both figures on the trip computer, which when checked seemed to read about 2mpg high). It drank petrol on short journies around town (my better half filled up one monday and then used the car round town for the week - 12mpg was the result). On the other hand, it was not a fun car to drive. It is a big, heavy and slow steering car prone to understeering. The 4wd is great in snow (handles beautifully in snow) but doesn't do anything for handling the rest of the time. The 2.5 V6 is an engine that needs to be revved hard to have any reasonable amount of go, but the gear change is fairly lazy which doesn't match the engine while it feels like half the weight of the car is in the flywheel which makes it rev slowly; again not matching the engine. If you want something for cruising down motorways then it is great. If you want something that is fun to drive then avoid it. All the best Keith

Hi There was a spoof script done for Star Trek meets Red Dwarf. Worth a google. All the best Keith

Hi Many years ago I was riding a bike down the M1 (little Aprilia AF1 125) and came across a 2CV which was sitting at about 80 following a car. The 2CV got bored and pulled out to overtake and instantly lost 10mph and no way to overtake. All the best Keith

With the 164 the issue is probably likely to be parts these days. The youngest is now 16 years old and Alfa are not good at supplying parts for older cars. But the 164 is a very good car to drive and well made. Local Alfa specialist had one I borrowed for a day with 192k on the clocks that was still solid and quiet (far less squeaks than the BMW 3 series we have now) and went very well. Main problems are the motors for the air outlets for the climate control and if an auto the gearbox is not long lived (from memory the main problem was easily fixed but half the time a full gearbox rebuild was done instead, often not actually fixing the problem). All the best Keith

Hi The Terrier had tempted me. Looked at the prototypes this weekend at Telford and decided I liked them (they did mention there are a few changes being done - such as the hand rails into the cab). And at the ~£170 that some traders are doing pre orders at they are a bargain. So ordered one. All the best Keith

If you google there is an Australian guy who chopped 2 cylinders from a Merlin engine to have a V twin engine for use in a bike. Possibly a tad excessive. All the best Keith

Saw on of those being driven down the A38 north of Burton a week or so ago (on the way to Midland Railex at the time). First time I have seen one in decades. All the best Keith

Hi I have used the standard setup, but for one model the springs, well, sprung somewhere. My solution was a single long spring (with a straight section and hook at each end - from a cheap set from Maplins) between both coupling hooks. Visible if you look from a very low angle but not from a normal viewing position. All the best Keith

Cheers. Trying to work out what will fit in the space I intend to use so keep adding these bits up for myself. All the best Keith

Hi If I may go back to the plan, you appear to have a min length of 5 sets of point. Shortest points readily available seem to be about 16" long so that is 80" total. Only leaves 40" for either end and the parts between the points. I may be missing something here so if I am wrong I would be interested in the feedback of what I have missed. All the best Keith

I also have one and largely agree. The mount for the dremel is plastic and allows a fair bit of movement with very little force. I have wondered if there was anyway to use a cable tie to hold the dremel hard against the stand to reduce the play but I don't think it is possible. As to the Dremels, I have 2. One was bought new about 15 years ago and has been hideously abused in the garage. Still works well despite the heavy use. The other is a new one and not sure it will last as well, but is being kept out of the garage so I don't get it covered in oil! All the best Keith

Hi Apparently when Lotus were developing the 2L (later 2.2) twin cam they found the bore centres matched the Vauxhall engine and did a deal with Vauxhall. They landed up with 3 Vivas fitted with the suitable engine and with the Lotus head on them (in exchange Vauxhall got to see how the bottom ends coped with far more power than they were designed for). Apparently driven regularly from Hethel to Luton to be checked, and so frightening drivers of supposedly faster cars. All the best Keith

Hi The initial units should be per quarter or year. However if the billing gets complicated then they might well screw this up. The idea is that the extra higher rate initial units add up over a year to the old style standing charge. It is normally quoted as a number of high rate units per quarter or per year. The suppliers do have a disputed readings system for sorting out readings on change of supplier All the best Keith

In the UK a non car derived van has a speed limit of 60 on dual carriageways, for example. Yep, one reason I said buy the Alfa. We bought an X type Jaguar last year. Can't complain about it as a car. Very nice to be a passenger in, looks good, works well, decent boot, comfy, 4wd. Pity it is just no fun at all to drive, and you feel like a passenger when you are driving it. All the best Keith

Just buy the Alfa. All the best Keith

Check the tariff. Think a fair few UK iPhone tariffs exclude the using a computer with the iPhones connection. No idea if this is the case in the US though. All the best Keith

Hi Not sure you can. Most likely cause for loss of broadband would be loss of the phone lines. Possible that your broad band providers data centre could be taken out without affecting your phone lines. In which case you could possibly use a dial up connection if you still have a modem (in the UK there are a few who offer dial up services without a contract - but you would need to find the relevant phone number and details prior to losing broadband). You could also possibly use a 3G dongle to get a connection via the mobile phone network. All the best Keith

Hi The lightbox style sheet isn't found. All the best Keith

Hi Looking at the code now. The page doesn't depend on the javascript, as the javascript is designed to modify the page once loaded to suit the functions that are available using javascript. Looking at it on page load it loops through adding an onclick event to various links. This should put the full image into a popup. However it doesn't seem to be locating the popup correctly, instead just leaving it at the end of the page. Still looking. All the best Keith

Hi There is this video from the late 1980s, on the peripherique in reasonable traffic. All the best Keith

Hi What is the problem with the Javascript? Or post a link and I will have a look. All the best Keith

Most of the grey imports were from Japan (ver strict MOT), which meant an odd selection. Due to licencing rules anything more than 400cc was difficult to get on the road hence not common. Loads of 400s and 250s though. Think a lot of the 250s went to Aus and NZ where they were learner bikes, while there was a more limited market for them in the UK. Also there was a power limit on these bikes (45hp for the 250s, think 60hp for the 400s), so were restricted compared to equivalent UK models (not that there were many beyond the RGV250 and KR1). Further the next class up was 750cc and these were limited to 77hp. You don't want a Japanese market 750! Anything larger than that was in very limited supply in Japan (from memory for a bike above 750cc to be sold in Japan it had to be an import). All the best Keith

Hi All the ones we get are recorded messages. Just dug this out from when we contacted the TPS about them Might help with these scammers (most seem to be either ambulance chasers, or the closely related ones trying to get you to complain about any loan repayment insurance). All the best Keith