Motors and Me

Time to explain the silence on here, me thinks. :) In short: I’ve sold the Mini and now have the red 350Z. Result! The long version’s a little less clear cut in its joyfulness. First, I sold the Mini to a dealer for £6500 (now being sold for £9000). A week or so back, it would’ve been painful to even type that (hence the lack of posts), but now, I’m pretty much over it. Yes, I got a lot less than the car was worth, but: The car needed a fair bit of work doing, They didn’t quibble about the rattles that would’ve put off a private buyer, and It meant I was able to go and buy the Zed All in all, it was still a positive move that ended 2 weeks of the worst car-related stress I’ve ever known. Hell, it was so bad that I’d broken out in absolutely manic itching in my hands, feet, forearms and shins. It drove me absolutely nuts and was affecting my sleep. Anyway, with the cash safely banked, I took a half day off work and hopped on the train down to York with a banker’s draft

Oh, man, what a day. My stomach doesn't know which way to flip. At lunchtime, I took the car back to the dealer that had offered me £7k for it. Today? £6500, no more. Damn! Turns out they'd watched my auction on Ebay and decided that they could get away with offering less. They even bidded on the thing, apparently. Anyway, I'd feared this would happen and walked away without doing a deal. The Zed was thrown into jeopardy. :-( All afternoon, I've been doing my best to ignore frustration that bordered on blind rage. I told the owner of the Nissan that I had to re-think things and requested again that he drop his price by £250 to help clinch the deal. He offered a £100 drop. Pissing in the wind, really. Anyway, I've just let it stew since then, giving myself time to think it over. I no longer feel the same pressure to get things resolved, at least. In fact, I even started reconsidering that 135R. And then, out of the blue, the Zed was handed a lifeline. Within mi

Sick to death of the FIA yet? I certainly am. While McLaren lost all their constructors’ championship points for 2007, were fined $100m, and still have to wait till February for permission to compete in 2008, Renault have got away without penalty for the same crime. I used to think the FIA had a pro-Ferrari bias, but now I’m starting to think they’re just anti-McLaren. Elsewhere, and related to this fiasco, there’s a chance UK viewers might see Martin Brundle’s access to information for ITV’s coverage restricted next year. All because he spoke his mind in the Sunday Times . In fact, they’ve even issued a writ against him (which will fail). Thankfully, he’s not backing down . Go on there, Martin, son. Stick the boot in. :)

This post could well end up being a painful read in a few weeks’ time. That’s because I’m about to count my chickens before they’ve hatched. I went to view that 350Z yesterday and... well, I want it badly . It seemed to be in pretty good condition (allowing for the odd mark consistent with its age) and was thoroughly unmodified. Apparently, it hadn’t been out on track either, but I wouldn’t have held it against the guy if it had. Just because it hasn’t been on track, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been driven by a hooligan on the roads. Upshot of all of this is that I need to sell the Mini ASAP to get the cash for the Zed. To this end, I’ve dropped the price on Pistonheads to £7750 and have listed the car on Ebay too. I’ve had another couple of part-ex offers come through on PH (neither of which was what I wanted) and, while the actual bidding’s still very low on Ebay, I’ve had 3 people send me questions asking directly for what price I want; one of whom is a mackem, one a Scot and the

Oh, the sweet irony: 90mph police chief banned from driving . A chief constable who was Britain's most senior traffic police officer was banned from driving yesterday after admitting speeding at 90mph on a road with a 60mph limit. Take that, you hypocritical idiot. Incidentally, the road he was on at the time was the A5, the main artery into the heart of Wales’s best driving roads. And he was on holiday. Wonder what he might’ve been planning for his time off. I just wish he'd lost his job as well as his licence for this.

Right, sod that yellow S2000 — I've got a new object of desire . Right car, right price for its age, right location. Hell, it's even the right colour for trackdays. Only one thing's missing: the offer of a part-ex. So, this week I've currently got off work has suddenly turned into a sell-my-car-f***ing-quickly week. Think I'm gonna have to get pimping it round the local dealers looking for the best price I can get and playing them off against each other. I just wish the damned roads were dry; the Mini gets dirty in less than a mile!

Is colour a valid consideration when buying a second-hand car? The more I browse the Pistonheads classifieds, the fussier I seem to become about the colour of car I'll accept. And I'm not just talking about dismissing the odd pink Boxster here (odd being the operative word). There's such a wealth of quality used cars on that site, it almost encourages you to be choosy. But is it going too far when you're reluctant to take on a fairly standard silver car? Thing is, the more I see of graphite and medium silver-coloured cars, the more I think “Hmmmm... I'm not going to catch the eye in that.” And that's not a vanity thing. It's all about the trackdays. If I'm pushing someone, but not quite fast enough to get past cleanly, I at least want to be sure that they see me. To that end, the Mini's been great and I'd be more than happy to get another red car. The yellow S2000 (that I'm not getting, honest) would be great too. But cars that blen

Well, a couple more part-ex offers came in this week, but still nothing that really grabs me. One was for a relatively basic Holden Commodore — a V6, but with surprisingly little power at just 203bhp. Given that this car is rebadged as the Monaro in the UK, I was expecting more. Even then, it's too big and heavy for my liking. The second offer was a Boxster, but its owner (I suspect it's a dealer) gave so little info that I had no way of knowing which advert it was on Pistonheads. And they've not responded to my request for more info, so sod 'em. Truth be told, I've spent most of the week lusting after that yellow S2000. But it's just too damned expensive. I could stretch myself to get it, but I know the depreciation would be heart-breaking — it's already lost £10k in its first 2 years of life. As a final nail in its coffin, I only realised a day or two back that the current-gen S2000 gets a measly 3.5 stars out of 5 in the Knowledge section of Evo . Tha