Show Us Your Motors!

[Dis86]

Love it! That red is fantastic.

 

[shadow_boxer]

Agreed. Gorgeous colour.

 

[agw_01]

I do really like my mates Cooper S, he got it for something like £3500 and its got 85K on the clock, no major issues to speak off. The supercharger whine is glorious, and the exhaust note is nice and meaty too. I was quite surprised for a stock setup!

They do make a very nice noise. My ex used to have an R53 which I spent a lot of time in. Simply awesome turn in, the thing felt like a go-kart. The short wheelbase made it feel a bit skittish though. The steering and gearbox were heavy and the seats were absolutely atrocious on long journeys. The car was full of stupid little quirks and niggles (and I'm used to Rovers!) and the engine suffered from a nasty cam chain rattle on cold starts... not all that uncommon going off my Google searches. It had only done 45k too.

It was a fun car to drive but I didn't really rate it.

 

[RoboCod]

As long as it passes its MOT, which it should do, picking this up on Saturday. Missed my P6.

That's a great find. Please post more pics when you get it.

 

[Clarkey]

Wheel refurb done. This is 'ultra chrome', I love it, so glad to be rid of the black.

 

[Cookeh]

Love it.

 

[Akagi]

Excellent. Love that.

 

[agw_01]

Looks much better Clarkey!

 

[wedrum]

Clarkey 2 great looking cars there pal

 

[Akagi]

Found this delightful series of videos from the 4th Super Southern meet lol

Single sweary right at the end. Sorry.

I tried to go around that first corner at the same speed in the Octavia at the most recent meet, and I nearly barrelled it into the hedge.

 

[Phil W]

Wheel refurb done. This is 'ultra chrome', I love it, so glad to be rid of the black.

Looks great! Perhaps de-tango the side repeaters?

 

[Akagi]

Tango is everything on 90's Japscrap!

 

[PardonTheWait]

That's a great find. Please post more pics when you get it.

Thanks, I will do!

She passed her MOT today with no advisories, needed a headlight adjustment and a reverse light bulb. So I'm picking it up Saturday morning and have a 120ish mile trip home in it.

I am bricking it! Excited though. It's an adventure, either way.

 

[Dis86]

Thanks, I will do!

She passed her MOT today with no advisories, needed a headlight adjustment and a reverse light bulb. So I'm picking it up Saturday morning and have a 120ish mile trip home in it.

I am bricking it! Excited though. It's an adventure, either way.

So need more photos!

 

[PardonTheWait]

So need more photos!

I think I will start a thread for it once I have it, but I have some more photos from the seller (and I found the pictures from the auction when this chap bought it).

It's very original from what I can see, aside from paint - it's definitely had paint done. Especially with it being red, it's clear that's had some. I looked very carefully for rust, and the underside is really incredibly clean. It's had inner and outer sills welded in the last few years, to what looks like a very good standard. I ran a magnet along the whole underside of both sills and they look solid. In the engine bay, one of the chassis 'legs' is a little rusty but it's a great big fat bit of steel and only surface rust. I'll wire brush, rust treat, and repaint it, and slather it in engine oil, and keep an eye on it. Basically water flicks up while you drive and sits there, so you just keep an eye. Both inner arches at the rear need attention - there's not really repair panels available but I will have them seen to. They're not structural, however. Both outer arches on the rear have filler on them, but it's not particularly visible. You can see it if you look but it's a decent repair.

Boot floor, footwells both solid. Some rust under the rear seat but it is superficial and I'll see to it.

I am fairly sure it's all original electrics-wise - it's still on a dynamo and is still positive earth! I thought it had no radio fitted, but in hindsight I think what I thought was an ashtray may be the radio. It has an aerial in one of the wings so if it doesn't have one now, it did have at some point surely! The aerial, obnoxiously, obscures almost entirely the view out of the left wing mirror.

It's VERY straight body wise and there's no rust or patina to it at all really. All the door shuts are good. Even the brightwork is in nice shape honestly.

It's a 1600cc rootes engine, with a 3-speed, column shift automatic box (which I find hilarious and adorable). It's a borg-warner 35 that is honestly ridiculously smooth for its age, I can only assume it's been rebuilt recently. My Rover P6 had a BW 65 which is a similar box and was clunky and useless. You can barely feel the shifts in this one.

The engine however is.. asthmatic. It's not a fast car BUT the box is so smooth that you're at 60 without realising it. It doesn't, however, have loads more after that! It's happy at 60 though.

Future plans may involve a 1725 rootes engine (90bhp), or if I can find one a 1725 Holbay one which made about 108bhp in their day. This engine is about 58bhp. I have no plans for a 'proper' engine swap at this point but if it's as good as it seems, I may hang on to it long term and consider a daft engine at some point in the future.

Exhaust sounds a bit blowy to me. I'll look into it.

Brakes are shocking. Absolutely shocking, to me. I believe they are discs up front, but unassisted. Later Super Minxes had assisted brakes so I will be planning on fitting a servo at some point - these brakes were probably fine in 1964 when all the other cars had 1964 stopping power but it's not 1964 any more! I'll be looking into the pads, discs and hoses first though - I'm advised that if I get all these up to spec, the car may actually stop fairly well. There's also the fact that the brakes DO work, you just have to stand on them. I was probably spoilt by all-around servo assisted discs in my P6 which did really stop the car very well. I also test-drove a 1966 Sunbeam Rapier which is a very similar car in terms of underpinnings, and that stopped really well, I mean ridiculously well for its age. Not so with this one, it's a bit scary but I will have to drive accordingly in the meantime. The fact that it's about as fast as marmalade hopefully will help on this front.

Interior is quite lovely. There's a rip to the driver's seat, which I'll patch underneath and glue. Outside of that it's really nice. The "wood" is split on the glovebox. I feel like I may wrap or paint all the wood red to match the body but I'm not concerned with this at the moment.

Really needs a new carpet set, it's pretty horrible.

ALL the electrics that I tested worked, right down to the clock which basically never works in any classic!

Immediate plans for the car are:

• All new fluids

• Change the dynamo to an alternator and convert the car to negative earth. Interested in 'dynamator' units which are alternators built into dynamo housings, but concerned they might be one of those things that's an excellent idea in practice but doesn't work in theory.

• Install a modern head unit, probably in the glove box, and see how I can install some small shallow mount speakers without molesting the interior too much. If there is a radio fitted (I honestly missed this because I was too busy hunting for rust) I will change the original spakers instead. Until I do this I'll probably just use a Bluetooth portable speaker.

• Address those brakes. Clean or replace pads, discs, hoses etc, assess, and then fit a servo if I feel the need (think I will feel the need).

• Run the car for a while and see how she behaves.

Then after that:

• I'm getting a red metalflake Moon steering wheel for my birthday. I don't care what you think.

• New carpets

• Lower 2 inches front and rear - will have springs made for the front and replace dampers if necessary, and lowering blocks at the rear

• I've already bought some steel Rostyle wheels in Cortina Mk2 fitment for £40 off eBay - hopefully these are sound and worthy of a refurb. May fit whitewall flaps to the tyres as well.

• Seatbelts for the rear seats

That's it really for now. Going to enjoy it over summer, take it to loads of shows and car runs.

Long term... I may have the roof painted in pearl white with metalflake. Possibly. I think it's too good to mess about with too much though. Also considering some hot rod scallops to the sides but definitely not brave enough for paint - may get some made up in vinyl to test it.

More pictures - from auction and seller:

 

[Dis86]

Epic post. Im so looking forward to the thread. Not fancy any minor engine mods prior to any swapping just to get a bit more grunt?

 

[PardonTheWait]

I'm not sure there's much to be done. I think they use Solex carbs which are fine, I may look into putting Webers on it, but I think if I want to get a little more power out of it I'd be better off just finding and fitting a 1725 engine or maybe having a real good hunt for a Holbay engine which is a tuned up 1725 that went in the Humber Hunter GLS and one of the Sunbeam Rapiers. It's a posing car really for now... and probably always.

My problem previously was having no garage and no support network. When I bought my P6 I basically bought a piece of ****. I didn't have anyone to help me, and no one to really get advice from. None of my friends have any more than a passing interest in this sort of car. I'm much better off now in that regard, primarily my girlfriend's dad who quite likes the Rootes stuff, he's got a Humber Hawk that he's restoring at the moment and will be putting an SD1 Rover V8 into and I'll be helping him with that so hopefully will have a helping hand when I need it too.

I'll be attending a fair few shows and runs this year and onwards, so I'll be in a much better place to deal with all the **** this car will no doubt throw at me.

I tried to daily my P6 which in hindsight was never going to work This is 100% a toy and I don't 'need' it, so any issue it throws up can wait if I don't have the money to deal with it. It was also well within my budget so I have a reasonable cash buffer that is allocated to it and dealing with improvements and maintenance which I didn't have before, so hopefully I should be all good to maintain and pamper it like it needs.

 

[NickK]

Current motor Peugeot 3008 SUV Allure + LED front light pack, electric leather seats (massage!) and interior, roof bars. All new 2017 model - 1.6 BlueHDi 120bhp (300Nm) EAT6 6 speed automatic, front wheel drive. Car weights less than my Ford Focus Mk2 1.8 TDCI and produces more HP & Torque, has more boot space.

In the driver's seat - iCockpit.
Piano buttons allow quick select on the touchscreen (centre), multi-function bindle screen that will also show satnav without needing the satnav running on the centre. Satnav is fully linked with the car's own mobile, showing road blocks etc on the bindle screen. Centre plays video/audio USB, DAB etc and also options for controlling everything too.

Boot is big 560+litres, 1670litres seats down and the passenger seat also folds forward for long loads.. or if the passenger wants to sit in the back and sleep with legs stretched forward.

 

[RoboCod]

We have the older 3008 and the interior is still nice on that. The new interiors are great, really driver focused. I just think they're going a bit OTT with their external styling, particularly the front end

 

[Phil W]

Wow, I love that 3008 interior.