please can anyone help, ive got a centurion alarm fitted, when i click on it the side lights flash and central locking all opens but when i turn the key in the ignition it is turning over very slow and the alarm light is still flashing on the dashboard, when it did start the car drove like it was about to cut out, and keep juddering, just gone out to it now and all the car opens fine and bleeps let to let me know its unlocked but now it wont start at all !!! please help im desperate Read more

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this is just an excuse, but my VW Golf has been delayed by out 4 - 6 weeks. I was expecting delivery early November, but now sometime in December. The dealer says that VW has had production problems and all there orders are delayed.

It's a bit of a problem for me as I've organised to return another car, and will now have to reverse this and get an MOT done.

Is this just an excuse, or are other peoples orders delayed? Does anybody know what is going on?

Cheers WipeOut Read more

Following on from the thread about radio traffic reports, I'm wondering if I'm having a senior moment or whether my memory is correct.

Am I right in thinking there USED to be a system on Ford radios whereby it would somehow magically record traffic announcements when you were not in the car? Then when you started the engine it would replay the last two or three, so you knew what was happening?

Did I make that up or did it ever exist? (And if not, why not!)

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Some fellow posters may recall it is SOP for Casa Growler to have one on hand for cruising, bar-hopping, and outrunning the local cops, and the saga last year of the '69 351cu.in Mustang. Alas this had to be disposed off due to Miss Philippines' insistence that it smelt "mabaho". This Tagalog word has no direct English equivalent, but here in the Land of 7,107 Islands implies an unpleasantness of fragrance that would curdle milk at 10 metres. Eau du Backpacker in economy class comes pretty close. Normally Miss P. has the world's sunniest disposition and is the soul of patience but this Mustang was clearly a lover's demand too far; the sight of those beautiful features puckering pointedly finally wore me down. She reckoned the car had been through the hands of college students in its life and that was what accounted for the odoriferous bit. (I didn't feel I could ask how she made the student connection.......)

So, after several months of enjoyable driving but increasing sotto voce remarks from Growlette, what was once an envisioned project for a Shelby conversion destined for Eleanor status in the hands of our talented Filipino restorers had to be shelved. After I'd spent a small fortune Fed-exing in from the USA a front end and disc brake conversion kit as well. Hmph.

However, round here not having a V-8 to play with would be as bad as not having 3 V-twin motorcycles in the yard. When the good old US left the Philippines in '92 they bequeathed a wealth of excellent metal ordered by GI's as playthings under their military concessions, much of which is quite rare and much cherished among the cognoscenti.

A grateful HMG is also coughing up a princely sum these days by way of old age pension waiting to be spent on something. I hate being called a "Senior Citizen", especially since I have no interest in needlework or golf and much prefer "Old Age Pensioner". This allows one to come from nowhere and both surprise and annoy others 10 years younger with disap;p;roving wives who would far prefer one to act old so that it doesn't show them up. Least of all with the temerity still to ride very large motorcycles to weddings and British Embassy receptions and generally "behave like a kid" (Growlette's description from her lofty 29 years of age). Plus we're still living with 34pence a litre gas and have enough sugar cane growing down south to keep us in methanol-supplemented fuel to see me out, for one.

Ok, Ok, what is it this time? Well it isn't a Mustang but a 1966 almost original Chevy Nova SS, with the 396 cu in 375hp turbo (I have to check that horsepower number) under that lump in the hood, and no, it doesn't smell. Or rather it does, but of hot Valvoline Racing 20w/50, very hot metal and vinyl upholstery which has been parked in the sun on a 32 C day. Ah, bliss.

Now then, those wags with a full week's Thomson holiday in Benidorm under their belt will have what they consider to be a sufficient grasp of Spanish to make belly laughs about "No Va", a very old joke. Let me tell them this baby rocks and va muy bien de hecho, gracias. We took it down the taxiway of the Clark Airbase here at last Sunday's drag meet and were most impressed. The airfield is Asia's largest and was extended for B-52 bombing runs over 'Nam, so you can really wind your car up. I want it dyno-ed as soon as I can, the torque is phenomenal. Lovely paint, pristine interior, all very clean and tidy. All original except for a Denso a/c compressor. It shows 67,000 which is probably genuine, as the servicemen weren't allowed to travel far off base.

Cost? Let's just say a bit more than a week in Benidorm for two.
Cancun might be nearer.

More from the SS Files as it comes.
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.....to get a job as the designer/engineer who first decided that the best interface between wheel and hub would be achieved by bolts going through the wheel and into the hub?
"Let's get people who have a flat tyre to change their wheel in such a way that (perhaps in the rain, or the dark or combination of both on the side of a busy road)they have to lift a large, filthy object weighing at least 20kg that can only be manhandled with both hands and then require them to position it on the hub with a tolerance of less than 1mm and then hold it off the ground with one hand and with the other pick up a bolt and screw it in - yeah that makes loads of sense, problem solved let's go and have lunch."
Rant over, thank you, I feel much better now. Yes I did get a flat this evening. Read more