GTAm

More pics from Hell. It was a slightly disappointing visit as the guy had not done much at all in two weeks. Put the blame on his wife getting ill (this is a new excuse, usually it's a funeral or the rain ) Anyway he had removed more from the car to reveal how scary things are. One of the previous owners has been "nice" enough to weld new pieces of sheet metal over the rusty parts without removing the rusty bits off. Like grafting new skin over a wound instead of cutting off the infected bit first. Actually the tinker is quite happy about this because the original panels though rusty, are still there for him to replicate. Usually when body work is done by a poorly talented tinker he changes the shape of things and it's quite a task to look at pics, models and guess the original shape. Anyway the way it has rusted is quite scary as you can see from these pics. I think most other tinkers would have run a mile.

Great race. Lots of overtaking throughout. I wish Alo qualified on the front row there might have been a battle for the win. Brilliant drive again by Sergio.

Wow lucky indeed! Great.

I always thought that different engines would have different pressure levels.....?

Did you clean the MAF or Air Flow sensor as well? Could have got contaminated with the poor filtration. Fuel pump pressure ok?

Upto 2000cc it's roughly 200% then it gets higher.

MS is still being MS I guess. Would like to see him try that on Lewis or Maldo

I would not be surprised if they drop duty on smaller engined cars. It's ridiculous to have the same rate of tax for 2.0L engined car as well as a 800CC engined car. Also the government revenue targets must be under severe pressure by now.

Yep drive of the day was from Vettel for me too. Shocking but it was nice to see Massa didn't fair too badly for a change. I just did not get Mercedes' tyre strategy. After umpteen number of races that proves your car eats tyres more than everyone else' you try a one stopper and fail miserably. Again??

It's really amazing that a brand like Peugeot has managed to preserve its great image in SL despite all the cock ups by Ca*Ma*t. An interesting case study for business students?

Harshan, that relationship is definitely going to be tested very soon. PSA group is in deep deep trouble themselves. Their share price has dropped so much that they might be dropped off the CAC 40 in the Paris stock exchange. Like Ca*Ma*t. They've had to sell land and even their head quarters building to stem the flow of red ink. GM (those idiots never learn too) recently purchased 10% of PSA and have had to write it down almost immediately after. Soon PSA will have to shut down a plant or two. My guess is there will be some consolidation between GM Europe (Opel/Vauxhall) and PSA soon and they might both shut down a few plants and develop cars together. Of course the socialist government does not want to shut any plants but they'll probably run out of options. Europe suffers from chronic over capacity. Peugeot will need every sale it can get to survive. So maybe that long standing relationship isn't going to last much longer. Let's hope.

I've simply given my experiences which might be useful to people comparing cars in this sector, of which the Mazda 3 and the Axio are part of. I've already given my views (not ideas) on the topic above. You are most welcome to ignore them if you think it's "irrelevant bullshits" and make your views known. In a forum this is what people are meant to do. Different people have different views on different subjects. They come here are share them with one another. Everyone learns new things and discover others' point of view on the subject. People agree, disagree, add to or disprove. Very often people will tend to deviate from the subject because one thing is connected with another. But that's no big deal imo. But say I suddenly spoke about say the Lambo Countache vs the Ferrari 512BB in this topic, then you could call "Totally irrelevant bullshits". However I think little over the top here Monte Carlo or Monticarlo. I'm not angry or annoyed with you. Just putting my view on your response into a perspective you must have missed. Cheers and have good day!

I must say progress is brisk by any standards I've seen. Well done MasterDon!

They've also sold land at their Ratmalana workshop to Ideal Motors and land at Union Place to Arpico.

Yes if you can get hold of a breaker that should be a cheap source. Only two manual ones were imported by Euro Motors. They are two door 16v ones with 6 speed manual boxes, 17" alloys and glass roof. I see the orange one often but not seen the red one since it left the showroom. I did not know that there were UK imports of GPs.

Yes Crosswind.

Looking good. How much power does she put out? Around 300 horses I guess?

That's a thought that has crossed my mind many times. When I was studying in Oz I thought about doing a short course at the uni on panel beating and welding. However it always clashed with my other classes and part time job. Yes Mercantile did a good job although not perfect (a few "drips" in some places). The only thing they disappointed me was with the time taken. Almost a year for a paint job!!!? My Giulia was done by Micro (special favour) who had another "paint artist". Great job but again not perfect (a few small blisters here and there). My Sprint was done by D*MO (I got special price as my bro works there) final yet to be done but it looks great so far. Now since I am connected with a workshop I guess the Berlina will be done there. And that painter is also quite an artist judging from his recent work.

Super! Hope to see you there. I think it's 09 Laps. 03 with cones behind pace car. 03 with cones without pace car and 03 without cones.

Most of the Grand Puntos are still one owner and some are low mileage. YoM is 2006 or 7. Price for petrol ones are between 2.0m-2.5m (some have high spec like 17" Alloys and Skyview glass roof, premium stereo etc). Diesels 1.3 Mjet goes for between 2.8m-3.5m. The Diesels are the pick of the range if you can stretch your budget. More power and a lot more torque. They are very comfy and you feel like you are driving a bigger car. The only annoyance for me is the duologic gearbox which isn't as smooth as an automatic. But you soon get used to it. In the diesel it feels smoother maybe because they are newer or maybe the extra torque masks the step up and down. You can always use it as a manual though. Reliability issues - The biggest problem is the duo logic gearbox. However the good news is it is very easy to fix and not costly. One car I know had a steering rack issue and it was a bit pricey to replace. Normal service parts like filters and brake pads are comparable to genuine Japanese parts and sometimes even cheaper. The expensive parts are things like headlamps and body parts. However if you are fulling insured........

Fiat Grande Punto for me.

I see Don. Yes the problem you describe requires some skill. This guys should be able to do it properly. Let me know if you want to send someone with the car and get his opinion. I must warn you he's usually dead slow. However this project he has started off with a bang which I'm a bit worried about because this means faster cash outflow for me.

IJ, I have not driven them back to back or timed them to comment on this specifically. I can say this though; most Toyota's are very very smooth at low revs. But the moment you try anything bordering on brisk pace, they begin to sound like stressed out washing machines. I'm not talking about Toyota sports cars but sedans like the Axio. This coupled with their soft suspension and steering so light that if you breathe too deeply you can make unnecessary steering ( ) adjustments without your wanting to. Besides this there is so little communication from either the steering or the seat to your butt that going fast becomes a lot of guesswork as to where the cars' limits are. For most owners this will not be an issue because they'll never need to go near those limits. Fair enough. In the Mazda 3 the situation is a lot better. The 3 does not feel particularly fast but you tend to know more about what the wheels are doing and how much grip is left. And there is a lot more grip given the 3's expensive IRS that the Corolla does not have. The steering is not as communicative as say a BMW but it's weighted nice and heavier than the Toyota for sure. So you feel a lot more confident driving fast. Considering the quality of the chassis I think the Mazda can do with a lot more power. I've actually driven almost all the cars in that class at that time. One that I missed was the Mitsu Lancer. The best drive for me was the Subaru Impreza 1.5 hatch. Perfect suspension and good steering, great handling and noise, but under powered and ugly inside and out IMO. The VW Golf (mk 5) felt very sophisticated and was the lightest car in the whole class, but severely underpowered. The Fiat Bravo was the polar opposite. 150bhp and a load of torque so very quick but the chassis felt quite ordinary. The current Civic for me was all about the engine. Revved very nice but I was so disappointed with the ride quality and steering. I felt the ES was a better drive. Just my opinion! I don't want to tread on any Lions' tails and have UN-ending roaring contests that seems to be almost standard in almost every discussion.

Yes Mini Ace. Hoping to take my Giulia. Are you coming?

I will gladly introduce you to this guy. You can book him for once he's finished with this. Out of curiosity what is the project you have in mind?