So for those of you who have stuck around from the beginning, you’ll know that I currently own a MY ’00’ Volvo C70 Coupé 2.0 Turbo Manual which is my first car and of which I’m currently restoring/upgrading, well over these last few days I’ve been doing just that as I can finally reveal that she now has chrome rings around her dials in the instrument cluster!

So how did these come about & why did I go for them for the C70?, well as you guys may know after the Aston Martin blog a few weeks ago, I’m a massive fan of Aston Martin’s and GT cars in general and if given the possibility, I’d happily own multiple GT cars throughout my life if given the chance, now one thing I’ve noticed with multiple modernish GT cars whether they’re Mercedes CL’s or Jag XK’s or even Maserati 3200GT’s, they all seem to have chrome around the dials in the instrument cluster to make them feel classy & upmarket, however, because Volvo aren’t as upmarket as those other brands, when the C70 was launched way back in 1996, chrome around dials were never added as standard nor as an option, weird really for a car which has massive GT car credentials.

This is where DidoTuning come into play, DidoTuning is a polish company which manufacture & create chrome rings for an array of different cars and they sell their products both on their website & on their eBay page so when I came across them after finding an extensively modified C70 over on Facebook & seeing fellow group members & friends apply these to their own cars, I just had to buy them for ProjectC70, overall they cost about £30 including shipping which to be honest wasn’t too bad.

After a hefty 2 week wait of mainly customs related issues they finally arrived, and I finally got to have a look at what I got for my £30, so essentially they are 3 chrome aluminium rings which are cut to shape of the cluster so in theory, they should clip in tightly & then have the ability to fold over so they don’t fall out, however, as with all aftermarket stuff, fitment just wasn’t quite right, especially on the two outer rings but I’ll get to that later – first of all, I had to remove the dash pad off my car and remove the actual cluster first!

Now for those who have been here from the beginning, it’s not been the first time that I’ve actually removed the dash pad from my car, the last time I did it was a good few years back when I replaced the interior centre console trim & dash trim which really wasn’t easy, however as I’d had no choice but to remove the dash pad before, I knew what I was doing.

After looking a bit online, there was no turning back, it just had to be done, the job entailed removing all the plastic trim like the air vents & speaker vents, a plethora of T25 screws, a few 10mm bolts & the removal of the glovebox itself as well as disconnecting the passenger airbag, as the battery was already removed I was safe enough to undo it.

To make things easier, I used a 18V drill with an extended T25 Screwbit, a 10mm Spanner to remove the 3 bolts under the dash & a small flathead screwdriver to both undo the electrical connections & remove the trim, with all those tools combined, it made getting the dash pad an absolute breeze to remove and even easier to remove the cluster itself, now sure I could’ve bought a trim removal tool or a bone tool from IPD but with the time it’d take to turn up, I wouldn’t be writing this article as of right now as it’d possibly take a few weeks to turn up from America.

I started by removing all the trim with the flathead screwdriver, it’s real easy to do, just pop the screwdriver under the trim & pull and hey presto it’s out, I did this all around the dash removing the front dash vents, the higher speaker grilles & two plastic inserts which fit into the side of the dash, that was step 1 done, now onto step 2.

Step 2 involved removing the T25 screws which hide behind the plastic trim, as mentioned above, this was made a breeze with the drill & screw bit, one zap on the drill and the screws were slowly but surely coming out one by one which brings me onto the step 3 – The glovebox removal.

Step 3 was the removal of the glovebox innings, this again was really easy on my car, a few T25 screws on the outside & then a few more T25 screws once it was removed and once again, the glovebox came out and now I was in sight of the fabled passenger airbag, as I was working, it was vital that the battery was either disconnected from the car or a cable was removed, due to the C70’s battery being removed to stop drainage this wasn’t an issue whatsoever.

Disconnecting the airbag was really easy with the battery removed, it was just a matter of disconnecting the connector & removing the 3 10mm bolts nearby and that was all it took for the removal of the dash pad, however, I wasn’t finished there.

 

With the dash pad removed I had to remove the cluster itself, this included removing yet another two T25 screws prior to removing the pad itself, once they were undone, I just had to unclip the 4 connectors both on top and behind & the two metal clips on the top of the cluster and with a slight yank it was freed from it’s slumber.

 

With both the cluster & pad inside, it was time for the disassembly of the cluster itself, however before that, I wanted to check the bulbs while I was at it as they can easily blow so with it out it only made sense to check all the bulbs and I’m glad to report back no blown bulbs whatsoever, with that out the way it was to business.

Stripping down the cluster took a bit of figuring out as it’s held in with tiny little screws as well as a multitude of black clips holding it altogether, I was also worried of not breaking it as I’d never removed or worked on a cluster prior to this point before in my life, after gingerly removing the screws and slowly but surely separating the clips, it slowly came apart into two separate pieces, now the main part I was interested in was the front bit as it held the slots for the chrome rings, however as I’m about to reveal, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

So what was the problem exactly? Well, with my car like many, it has 3 sets of dials, it has a dial for the fuel level & coolant level which sits on the left of the cluster, it has the speedo in the middle & lastly the rev counter on the right side with the middle dial being bigger than the two outer ones, now while the rings were size specific with the middle one being bigger than the other two, it made it easy to figure out where it went, however, the two outer rings weren’t wanting to play ball whatsoever and kept popping out of place & with a lack of knowledge & overall patience it wound up that after a while we started to notice deep scratch marks which would block my vision when fitted back into place.

This meant that I had to order a second used cluster off Ebay to work with with the intention of just swapping the screen part while already using the existing dials & original to the car cluster electrics, this meant that I could keep the original mileage which was the most important bit in the whole change up, after ringing up both Volvo Parks Ayr and Volvo specialists M.J. Motors over in a village not far from me called Auchinleck, they said that if I kept the electrics the same it will keep the original mileage so I ordered the second cluster with everything crossed that it’d work.

With my trust in both the specialist & dealer, when the new cluster came in earlier today, we instantly got to work stripping it down, fitting the new chrome rings and then refitting, I decided to let my stepdad fit the dials as he is stronger than myself and also has more patience than me as well, it wasn’t easy as the two outer rings kept popping out which was the issue I had a few days prior, however, he persevered and finally got them to fit, after putting the cluster back together, it was time to put the car back together.

The cluster was just a matter of screws & clips so nothing really difficult, I had to be careful however as with the ill fitting outer rings, it was very easy for it to go belly up and I wasn’t wanting that to happen as we’d be back to square one, however this time everything went back together smoothly and it was ready for refitting time.

Refitting was the reversal of removal, so first of all the cluster went back in, then it got connected up, after that, the dash pad got put back in place, the airbag got reconnected, the 3x 10mm bolts were next to go in and then once they were in, the glovebox was lined up and refitted, once that was back in the rest of the T25 screws got put back in and then last but not least, the trim & vents went back in and hey presto – ProjectC70 was now fitted with chrome rings around the dials & what a difference!!!

Now, I’ll be honest, cheap aftermarket parts don’t really interest me as a whole as they tend to look tacky or be made from really crappy material and it can really show and can ruin an otherwise nice car, however, to give DidoTuning their due, these rings look absolutely amazing and because they are actually aluminium instead of chromed plastic, they really suit the car a lot, in fact I’d say that they look factory which isn’t something you can say about a lot of the stuff you see for sale online.

 

So would I recommend them? well it all depends really, they look fantastic and really suit the car, however, with some of the parts ill fitting & really tight spaces to work with, it isn’t the easiest job to do, however, if you take it easy, it will be do-able and the results will be fantastic.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

So, picture this, you’re a young petrolhead and you are looking for your first ever set of wheels, now because it’s a first car, it needs to be cheap to buy, cheap to insure, cheap to tax and overall cheap to run but yet has to be decently fun to drive as well as being reliable & not much to fix, with all this in mind and with a vast array of cars out there, here’s some top ten steps to take when buying your first ever car!

1.) Set Yourself a Fixed Budget.

Now when you are looking for a first car, the main thing you have to work out is your current budget, there’s no point looking at Ferrari’s if you only have £1,000 to play with, also there is no point in looking at a £6,000 car if you only have a £5,000 budget, stick to a budget which can easily get you a car & cover costs of insurance & tax prices, that way you have a better idea of what’s exactly out there for buying.

2.) Shop Around For Insurance.

Now, while Budget is top dog when it comes to buying a first car, there is no point in buying a car if it cost way too much to insure, try & find something which is cheap to buy & also cheap to insure & don’t be afraid to shop around different quotes to find the best for you, the more you shop around and the more companies you get in contact with, you’ll more than likely find a company who’ll put you onto a ‘Young Drivers Scheme’ which lowers the insurance quite significantly compared to your typical quotes.

3.) Buy Something That Young Driver’s Won’t Normally Drive.

This may sound weird at first glance but bear with me on this, If you go for something that no other young driver has, the lower the insurance will more than likely cost, now remember to do this within reason, If for example, you are looking at a Ford Focus MK1, look instead at the likes of a Mazda 3 or Alfa Romeo 147, because no young driver is hardly seen insuring these kinds of cars compared to their rivals, the insurance companies don’t give out really stupid quotes as they’re hardly ever crashed by inexperienced drivers, also, if you disregard insurance for a second, buying something that nobody else has means that you can potentially get yourself a car which drives as good as if not better than the typical choices & is also a rare sight on the roads.

4.) Make Sure It Has a Good Community. 

There is no point in buying a car if it has no following or love for it as that’ll make it impossible to get any help with it regarding parts or even fixing it, also there is no point in buying a car if the following is huge but unhelpful to your specific car in question, try if you can to find a car which has a very good owners community which will literally go to the ends of the world to help you out, not just will this help you with parts & fixing the car in question but you’ll also meet some very good friends through it as well and will make you stick around for many years to come.

5.) Don’t Be Afraid to Try Out a Classic or Retro car.

With new cars becoming ever so complicating & some small classics becoming really cheap & easy to pick up, it makes sense to buy a classic or retro car, It’s so easy to join one of the many arrays of classic car clubs around the place and fit in with the rest of the members, the best part about these kinds of car people is that most of them are of a mature age so will easily be able to help you without hurling abuse or making fun of what you drive, plus with so many different shapes, sizes, & styling it certainly makes for some fun motoring as you’ll know that you’ll be driving something that isn’t common on the roads anymore, add in the easy mechanical access & more raw driving experience a classic car gives you, it certainly makes for a wonderful ownership experience.

6.) Go on Your own Insurance Policy.

Now while a lot of people may tell you to go on to the likes of your parents insurance or even another family members insurance for a few years to lower costs, this isn’t actually the best way to go in the long run, see, insurance companies don’t give out ‘No Claim Discounts’ to named drivers on insurance policies, only those who are actually main drivers, so what does this mean exactly? Well while for the first few years the insurance will be low, as soon as you sign up in your own name, it will be more expensive, by going on your own policy from the get-go, you can build up a significant no claims discount before moving onto your next car or even changing company, even if you have to add people onto your policy then do so – just make sure it’s in your name!

7.) You Can’t Be Picky.

Remember what I said about trying out cars that no one else has? Well if you choose to do that which is very much advised by myself, you can’t be picky when choosing a car, sometimes the underrated cars are some of the best cars you could ever own regardless of badge or stereotypes, when I bought my C70, I was never considering a Volvo as I always thought they were old mans cars which drove terribly, however, while some of that may be true, it isn’t actually as bad as everyone makes out and this is the case for most cars which are never considered.

8.) Do Your Research.

whether it’s a brand new car you are looking at or a secondhand car you have your eyes on, whether it’s a typical everyday VW Golf or an expensive entry-level Audi/BMW/Mercedes, always always do your research, this will make it so much easier to filter out the good cars from the bad, too many people make the mistake of just buying what they like or what they want without even reading about its common faults or ownership issues which means that unfortunately, they are stuck in a position where they are severely left unhappy & ultimately cold with their purchase all due to lack of research.

9.) Get in Contact With People in The Know.

So, you’ve whittled it down to maybe two or three cars, they’re all within budget, have similar performance & running costs and all have good badges or a good reputation from both owners & forums/groups, how do you go about whittling it down to the right car?, well you could always go round the dealerships and find out more about the cars you’re looking at but 9 times out of ten they’ll be biased as it’s one of their products and this is something which ultimately won’t help, however there is nothing to stop you from getting contact with specialists in the know of the cars you’re currently looking at, these guys will be able to give fair honest answers without being biased and will make it so much easier for you to come to a decision & ultimately coming away with more knowledge than the internet or forums could ever give.

10.) Go Out & Actually Experience Potential Cars.

So, you’ve narrowed it down to a couple of cars, they both have fantastic reviews, both within budget & both are good buys from those in the know, how do you make the decision to actually go ahead and buy one?, well you either drive them or get a passenger ride in them of course!, This separates the good from the bad and is the ultimate turning point in potential car ownership as you will actually be able to see first hand what the cars in question are like & what they’re like to actually drive & sit in, this way you can actually get to see what kit comes with them and what everything feels like and get an overall feel for the cars in question, while reviewers & journalists can tell you how fast a car can get around a track, no one can tell you what it’s like to drive & live with on a day to day business.

I hope this list helps and guides you into first car ownership easier than going alone without anyone helping, now, even though this list does help out & makes things easier, there really is no right or wrong way to buying any car let alone your first car, this is only meant as a guide and not as the be-all & end-all of all of the multiple first car lists out there on the internet, I know that when I bought my C70 way back in 2015, I had different wants & needs to friends of mine who just wanted a cheap set of wheels to get them on the road, not everyone is the same and everyone has different needs especially when it comes down to cars.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

 

 

In the world of rallying these days it’s a fierce game, in a sport where you have top tier drivers in top tier cars piloting them through the toughest & most mentally challenging stages it’s no wonder that after the stages are done the drivers go & relax, now if you have ever had the chance to get up close to a drivers living quarters you’ll quickly realise they’re massive and outlandishly lavish with everything & more anybody would ever seriously need, however, what if you’re not a rally driver but still fancy lavish living quarters? well, I’ve found just the thing!

With thanks to Racetrailer one of you lucky people out there can now go & buy Petter Solbergs actual 2017 VW Racing Trailer Living Quarters, as like all living quarters this one is absolutely huge and is more like a small office building than actual living quarters, for a start, it has Hydraulic folding stairs, Full A\C, Smart TV’s, Double refrigerators, a fold away awning, various storage cupboards, a welcome desk, a plethora of beds ranging from single beds, double beds & multiple bunks as well as much much more!

Now to carry all this weight & mass, it needs to sit on a good chassis which can cope with its bulk and this one sure does, it’s a 3 axle trailer which in itself spreads the weight evenly and makes it easier to move & it even has a stepdeck frame which is perfect for heavy loads like this.

However, while the chassis is good for the weight, you’ll still need a powerful truck to haul it around, whether thats a Scania R Series or even a Volvo FH16 or any other of the trucks out there, it’s not a light trailer at all, to be quite frank though, if you can afford the trailer than you are more than likely able to afford a brand new truck to haul it with which brings me onto it’s major set back & that’s the price.

See, this has to be the most expensive VW branded product bar a Bugatti, see this trailer is up for sale for €450,000 + VAT (£396,261.54) which isn’t exactly cheap, in fact, that’s the same price as a well specced nearly new Ferrari 812 SF which begs the question, which is the better buy?, the unbelievably quick yet comfortable 2 seat V12 Ferrari GT Car or the lavishly equipped home from home for ultimate rally fans.

There is no doubt the Motorhome is equipped really well and is the ultimate rally fans trophy piece and with everything in it & more it’s certainly worth a buy and will no doubt be bought by someone who has the money to buy it, however with limited usability the Ferrari seems to be a slightly better buy.

One thing I can say however, which ever one is bought, you’ll both get a fantastic reaction from it and will both be phenomenal to own and both are so ultimately cool that they will never go unnoticed wherever they’re parked.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

With the release of the new MK5 Toyota Supra back in January, it caused a storm in the motoring world for being if anything a flop to the Supra name badge which stopped production way back in 2002, for a start the new ‘A90’ as it’s codenamed isn’t exactly a Toyota as it’s built within conjunction with BMW and shares a majority of parts & even the chassis with the new upcoming BMW Z4 MK3, on top of that, for the performance available it’s just way too expensive with a price tag of over £50,000 making it a direct rival to a Porsche Cayman which is really the bench mark for 2 seat sports cars these days which makes the new Supra really a bad deal when you think of it, however, before you get out the pitchforks, I have a hunch that Toyota & BMW are up to more than they are currently letting on and this works in favour of BMW and this comes in the shape of a potential new ‘M’ car.

Confused? Let me explain, with the new Supra being directly based on the new Z4 and also sharing parts with each other, it only makes sense for BMW to make a new 2 seater ‘M’ car out of the new Z4 thus making what I believe to be the new Z4M Coupé, now this may just be me speculating however, if you look up the stats of the original Z4M Coupé, they are very close to the new Supra’s stats which certainly can’t be coincidence, now of course, the old Z4M used the same 3.2 I6 from the truly wonderful E46 M3, unfortunately, the ‘S54’ is well & truly dead but with the new range of 6 pot engines used these days used in a plethora of fast BMW’s, it’ll only make sense to slot one of those wonderful engines into a competent chassis then hand it over to the geniuses at the ‘M’ division to make something truly special.

There is also method in my madness, due to the new Supra & Z4 having very similar running gear & same chassis, that means that it won’t be too difficult to make a coupé body shell for the upcoming Z4 and fit it over the already existing chassis which makes it very much possible to put into production.

Size wise, the new Supra & Z4 isn’t that much different than the original Z4M which makes me think that they’ll bring it back for us ‘M’ car fans who unfortunately don’t have the garage space for the likes of a M2 Competition or M3, when the original Z4M Coupé came out, it was the entry level so to speak of the ‘M’ car range in regards to both size & also price which brings me onto the next point.

With the already existing BMW M140i starting from £35,000 & the M2 Competition starting at £48,000, there is a very good chance that if they did bring the Z4M back, it’d possibly go for a starting price of £45,000 putting it slap bang between the two and making it £5000 cheaper than the current 718 Boxster S which of course puts it into close  rivalry with the Porsche which to be honest has always been the same with both cars since the very beginning.

So, what does this have to do with the new Supra then?, well, if BMW were to ever bring back the Z4M which as of yet hasn’t been confirmed, I could possibly see Toyota making a ‘GRMN’ Version of the upcoming Supra – GRMN of course being Toyota’s current sportier model lineup of their current cars, not just would this make Supra fans rejoice but also give BMW owners something else to salivate over which makes it a win win situation for both companies.

With both the upcoming Z4 & A90 Supra both being a shared platform, even if the manufacturers don’t bring out more hardcore versions, it’s safe to say they’ll both go down well with owners & journalists alike regardless of brand legacy or history and they’ll drive very well indeed, BMW are known for making drivers cars and even a simple flick through Toyota’s history books shows phenomenal drivers cars being produced which makes these two a forced to be reckoned with within their class.

So what do you think?, is there a possible chance that Toyota & BMW are hiding a potential new Z4M Coupé/Supra GRMN or am I, like a few others getting way ahead of myself and hoping for something that will unfortunately never happen & getting myself way too excited at the prospect of a new Z4M?, Whatever the case may be, I hope it’s a good one!

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

 

It’s no surprise to anyone that I’m quite a fan of Volvo’s on this blog, I of course own my wonderful C70 Coupé project car, my parents have owned a MK1 S80 in the past and over the last year I’ve been very much a part of the Volvo scene more than I ever was before by going to multiple launch events, however, when it comes to cars, Volvo doesn’t even come close to my all time favourite car brand – I’m of course talking about Aston Martin!!

That’s right, shocker right?, well let me explain, Ever since I was young I was bought up around cars so whatever it was I had or watched or even played it involved cars in one way or another, now I’ll admit, when I was really young I never really knew much about Astons or any high end manufacture for that matter as I was just way too young to even take notice, add that in with the fact that Astons aren’t entirely seen every day of the week it just never registered with me at such a young age, however that all changed with one movie & ever since then I was hooked and have been ever since.

Picture the scene – it’s the year 2002, Brazil have won the FIFA world cup, Michael Schumacher was on his way to winning the F1 Season with Ferrari & EA are working on the legendary game that is NFS Underground – all while this is happening, a new film is getting filmed, it stars both Pierce Brosnan & Halle Berry and for the most part, it is filmed in Iceland, I am of course talking about Die Another Day, now what got me interested in this film really was the ice chase scene between the then new Aston Martin Vanquish and the equally gorgeous Jaguar XKR Convertible, now as a 6 year old at the time, I was instantly hooked, Imagine seeing two cars fight it out on a frozen lake while shooting a plethora of weapons at each other, as a six year old I was in heaven, ever since then I’ve had both a very keen interest in James Bond Films & the cars which have been in their before and on top of that – that was where my love of Aston Martin originally came from.

Skip a few years later to when the DB9 came out and again, just like the beautiful Vanquish before it, this had me hooked, it was able to beat the then new 200mph cross continental train to Monaco with ease on Top Gear, it spawned the DBR9 race car & of course bought along the DBS & Virage later in life, in fact, the DB9 had me so hooked it instantly became my dream car and has done ever since, I’ve been lucky enough to both be a passenger ride in one at 13 & also drive one when I was 14 and it’s been my mission ever since to eventually get a DB9 one of these days no matter what thats how much I love it.

Recently I’ve gotten into the classic Astons like the DB4, DB5, V8 Vantage & even the classic race cars like the DBR1, in fact a few years ago, I was lucky enough to get to see a 1954 DB2/4 Saloon up at Peter Vardy Heritage in Glasgow and it was everything I’d ever asked for & is a day I’ll never forget.

Now by reading all this, you’ll think that I’m a massive Aston fan and while for the most part that is correct, there has been one car from Aston that I’ve never really bonded with and that is the DB7, now sure it is a beautiful car, there is no doubting that, however compared to the Vantage which preceded it and the DB9 which replaced it, it never really had that wow appeal that Aston’s are so used to giving off, on top of all that, it was based on the old Jaguar XJS which in itself was nearly a 30 year old car, worst of all however, especially by Aston standards was the 3.2 I6 which was used in the early cars, with the Vantage having a V8 and the DB9 having the truly wonderful 6.0 V12, the early I6 just wasn’t very Aston, now sure it was supercharged so it was as powerful as any other AM at the time but the soundtrack was just not the same plus with Ford switchgear it certainly was as well built as other Astons previous.

In 1999 the V12 Vantage came out and this completely changed the DB7, it now had both the power and noise of an Aston, however at that point it was still quite an old car on an even older platform and it was starting to show it’s age quite considerably, however, Aston still plodded on and kept it going till 2003 with the absolutely savage DB7 GT and the equally gorgeous DB7 Zagato being two limited run versions of the DB, now these were essentially the two swan songs of the DB7 range before the truly fantastic DB9 came out, however these two weren’t the only limited edition DB7’s to be commissioned oh no no no, in fact, there is one DB7 which recently has gone under the radar for quite some time as it’s so rare that if anything no one knows it actually exists.

I am of course talking about the Keswick Edition – what is the Keswick Edition you may ask? well, it was a limited edition run of ten DB7’s, 5 of which were Vantages & the other 5 were Volante’s, they all had the 5.9 V12 fitted which gave them 420 bhp & 540nm torque and either came with the six speed manual or the 5 speed auto gearbox, top speed was 186mph for the manual cars or 165mph for the auto cars, now while the engine was exactly the same as the normal Vantage or Volante, which made this so special was the following specification.

For a start, they were all coloured Ferrari Nero Daytona Black, the Volantes had a black mohair roof, they had upper & lower mesh grilles, interior wise, you had charcoal hide on the top & bottom of the dash with DB7 insignias embossed into the seats, following on with the black theme was the charcoal carpets with the DB7 logo’s also embossed into them as well, the headlining was also black, the wood veneer was replaced with metallic finishes, on the instrument cluster, you had white dials with chrome rings which really lifted the interior somewhat, on the outside you had a wonderful set of 9 spoke 19″ wheels with black brake calipers hiding behind them, all Keswicks had a numbered IWC watch included as well to really show you had something special.

Now, like a lot of rare cars, it’s very rare you’ll find a Keswick for sale, with only ten being produced it’s never going to be common which makes this one a real diamond in the rough so to speak, however, what is very weird is the price, now while £30,000 generally isn’t cheap, compared to other limited edition cars it’s unbelievable value for money, especially considering it’s only done 40,000 miles which is nothing considering the age, even for a high end car, also, this one is in fantastic condition that you wouldn’t really want to drive it it’s so clean, now sure, you can buy a normal V12 Vantage for that money or even a DB9 for that price but even for any of them, it’ll be either a wreck which will need a bit of work to get right or a good car with a middle ground specification, with this Keswick, you get a relatively low mileage, 2 owner car with a very high spec and the bonus of having something like nothing else on the road which is only a good thing really – this really is a car to buy now to keep as an upcoming modern classic.

With the 6.0 V12 most definitely dead and other multiple V12 engined Aston’s going for quite a bit of money, now is the time to buy a DB7 V12 to look after & enjoy & for £30,000 this Keswick should be on anybody’s DB7 shopping list, it was one of the first Aston production cars to have that wonderful V12 fitted and with the added bonus of rarity added in, these cars won’t be around for these prices anymore.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

So like a lot of car guys, I can’t help but search the classifieds to look for potential next cars, project cars or even unobtainable dream cars, now for me, my main car buying/selling site I use is AutoTrader as over here in the UK they are the most popular and have anything & everything for sale whether it’s a normal everyday cheap hatchback to a £1M+ Ferrari Daytona, now on a lot of occasions, I tend to look at affordable cars with the odd occasion looking at the wacky, weird & downright different cars and today I think I’ve found one in the shape of this Aston Martin DB5 kit car based on a 1999 Honda S2000 here.

 

Now being a kit car, it’s never going to look like an actual DB5 as it of course has to fit over an already existing chassis – In this case a AP1 S2000 so width, length and overall track is gonna be slightly different to the real thing, however, as kit cars go, this has to be the most accurate one I’ve seen for sale, compared to the F355 kit cars based on SW20 MR2’s it actually looks realistic, however there is of course some big & small differences.

 

For a start, the doors & windows are a different size to the real DB5 due to it’s Honda roots, the interior on this particular one still has the original S2000 interior which kind of looks out of place compared to the outside but everything does work which is typical of any Honda product, now I don’t have any issues with an S2000 whatsoever and that even includes it interior, however it does look weird in something which looks like a DB5.

 

Secondly, the mirrors, wiper arms & wheels are slightly different to the real thing, now these can easily be changed or fixed one way or another and shouldn’t take too long or much to fix, however, there is one last thing which is massively different to this replica and that is what ultimately gives me my mixed feelings.

 

See, being based on the S2000, it still has it’s F20C fitted, now in engine terms, the F20C is a wonderful engine, 9000RPM rev limit, bulletproof reliability & some decent power from a 2.0 4 cylinder engine, in a car which looks like a DB5, it makes sense to have an engine like this as it’d give good reliable power with a really good power band which in turn with the sublime S2000 chassis would make this rep a really good car to drive on any road you take it down, so why does it give me mixed reactions then? well it’s pretty simple really.

 

See, even though this is based on a really fantastic Honda sports car and it’s been a reliable old thing over the last 6 years the kit was applied, for me, having an Aston whether a kit or not, it should have the feeling of an Aston & of course the sound of an Aston, so to still have it’s 4 cylinder fitted makes no sense in that respect, If it was mine, I’d personally fit the 3.2 Supercharged I6 & running gear from an early DB7, that way, every time you drive it, it’d sound and would somewhat feel like the car it’s supposed to look like.

 

Same story goes for the interior, now of course it’s still a lovely interior which is very driver focused and of course everything works which you could never say about the original, however in this car it looks so out of place it’s unreal, to make it more realistic, it’d need replacing with a custom interior and custom retro bucket seats which would bring it more in line with a real DB5, unfortunately however to do all that will of course cost quite a bit of money to put right which brings me onto it’s biggest issue and that is the price.

 

Now a normal S2000 starts at around £5000 for a good one all the way up to about £10K-£15K for a later Facelift, however this Replica is hitting nigh on £70K which isn’t cheap at all, in fact you could get a MK1 V12 Vanquish for a similar amount of money, you could easily get a DB9, V8 Vantage or even a V12 DB7 Vantage which are proper Aston’s and not kits, however, if you really really love the DB5 then in that retrospect it really is a bargain as a real DB5 can cost upwards of £500K which is way out of reach for a majority of us, add in the upgrades that I’d personally do to make it more realistic, you’d probably be spending about £100K all in which is a 5th of the price of a real one with better reliability than the DB5 and a better driving experience too having DB7 bits added into the mix, add in the custom interior and it’d be a kit car which in theory wouldn’t be too far off the real thing which can’t be said for a lot of kit cars going these days.

 

So what is everyone’s opinion on this kit car then?, a very good remake which just needs the finishing touches I mentioned or yet another fake wannabe Aston Martin which is too much money for what it actually is?, me personally, I quite like it as it’s a whole lot better than a lot of kit cars these days and the work which has gone into it is a whole lot higher quality than others I’ve seen, once finished it’d be a 5th the price of a real DB5 and the best part really is the feeling it’d give off, with the upgrades done, it’d feel reminiscent of driving the real thing which can only be a good thing.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

With modern cars these days getting all different gadgets & technologies – some of which are potentially life saving and others just purely to satisfy us drivers while travelling, it can sometimes become way too much for any ones personal needs to the point it can get quite distracting & also slightly annoying which begs the question, when is enough enough and what should really be important in a car and what should take a step back?

 

It’s no surprise that us petrol heads like our cars to drive as pure as possible with as little driving aids as possible, however, we still love our gadgets and can’t live without the likes of a premium stereo system and the likes of electric windows and of course the good old air conditioning for those really hot days.

 

I know for a fact I’m one of those people and I know I’m not alone in this situation, me personally, I can’t live without cupholders for a start and I certainly can’t live without the likes of electric windows, leather seats & a cracking stereo system.

 

For example, with the equipment on my C70, I love the parking sensors fitted to mine as it makes it so much more liveable to park what is still a fairly big car, I also adore the leather seats and find them quite frankly fantastic to the point it’d be weird to be without them, not just are they unbelievably comfortable but because they were designed by an orthopaedic doctor, I know that they are helping out my back which is a god send, especially when my back goes which it sometimes does.

 

However on the flip side of that, there’s a good few things on my car which I hardly even think about and these include the heated mirrors for a start off, now sure they help clearing the frost & ice & water off the glass quite quickly, however unlike the seats they’re not really that much of a god send and even go unnoticed even by myself.

 

Other things which get unnoticed by myself are the DRL’s, now sure just like the mirrors they also serve a purpose & every Volvo ever since and even before the C70 have had them fitted but they serve such little purpose apart from a safety point of view that they’re easily forgotten about and can easily get unnoticed however good & safe they might be.

 

Now, this is where it gets a tad confusing but work with me on this, while with my car there is things I can & can’t live without, with the likes of the Seat it can easily be considered bare bones in comparison, for example, it has one cup holder between 5 people which is just crazy, it doesn’t have electric mirrors or even electric windows in the rear which was something I’d expect from a car built & using parts from the VAG parts bin, however with such little equipment apart from the bare essentials it kind of works in that situation due to the fact there is less to go wrong if there is less fitted to it in the first place.

 

Even with the Seat though, even though it is quite archaic compared to both the Volvo & even the Lexus which I’ll get onto in a little bit, there is even things in that which is in some respects unliveable even by todays standards, one of which is the 6 CD changer in the glovebox, now sure it takes up a good 80% of the glovebox space which isn’t that good, however, it’s such a good add-on that it’d be weird to live without.

 

Now, this is where the real point of this article comes into play and this can easily be explained by the RX400h we have, now, Lexus have always been known to add in tons of equipment even in standard trim into all of their cars regardless of price or car class and to some it’s fantastic, however, while our Lexus has tons of equipment we can’t live without, even to us it’s overkill with the amount of stuff it has – for a start off it has adaptive auto lights which swivel when you turn the wheel & rain sensing wipers, it has sat-nav, cruise control, Dual zone climate control & an electric tailgate to name a few.

 

Now most of those stuff in that car we’ve never had before so it’s all new to us and does take getting used to I’ll admit however even with the Lexus more than anything else there is tons of stuff in that we’ll never even consider using or living with and with some even there just for owner satisfaction it comes across as overkill which certainly begs the question, why is it there if it’s hardly ever gonna get used?, it just makes no sense!

 

Now, the RX certainly isn’t the worst, with new cars coming nearly every few months, the equipment & gadgets coming out on them are indeed great but on the other hand can be way too much for anyone to live with, what happened to the days of actually speccing the likes of an optional sports exhaust instead of it being controlled by a switch, also, whatever happened to paying a little bit extra for the likes of a “Sports Chassis” instead of going through in some cases a miss-match of options & driving modes just to get the perfect driving set-up, before all this came in, if you wanted a proper drivers car you’d always have to wind up going for the performance model but today it seems that every car has the option to sharpen something up with the change of a setting through the cars entertainment system.

 

Also, while on the subject of settings & entertainment systems, how is it possible for the likes of older people who are used to older tech to set up the car they want, now don’t get me wrong, I’m quite tech savvy so that doesn’t affect me in any shape or form whatsoever but there a lot of people out their who just aren’t tech savvy or haven’t gotten with the times just yet which makes all this tech & gadgetry quite frankly null & void however fancy or clever it is.

 

Another issue to be raised is some owners relying on the cars systems & gadgets to guide it down the road, considering that a good amount of drivers these days have the potential to do that, it makes drivers lazy & also prone to massive accidents all down to lack of due care & attention which makes motoring even worse for us petrol-heads who cherish our cars and don’t want them dinged up in any way shape or form.

 

Now am I just being old, senile and being generally stubborn to move on or am I right in what I’m saying?, I’d like to hear what you guys have to say and while on the subject, why don’t you let me know what you wish your car had or didn’t have, I’d really like to see what everyones view is on this.

 

Hope You Enjoy

By Alex Jebson

 

In the world of car ownership, it’s always been said that the more expensive the car is, the better it is, now I’ll admit I’ve always went by this too and have always vouched to parents or family members never to buy anything under £500 as it’ll more than likely be wrecked and need a ton of work to get it back on the road, however, it seems that I’ll more than likely have to eat humble pie for breakfast, lunch & dinner after my stepdad bought a Seat Leon MK1 for the measly sum of £300 back in May – that’s right, he bought a fully working, full service history, relatively clean, lowish mileage car for less than my Canon 1300D Camera.

 

So what exactly is the deal with this Seat and why do we own one?, well, with my mum away working in her new job as a Live In Carer and needing a car to get her down to wherever she needs to be and my own car being a rolling project, my stepdad needed a cheap set of wheels to just get him mobile, now of course, with such a limited budget it would be highly unlikely that’d he’d get something flashy or prestige for that amount of money, for this he needed something reliable, cheap to run, easy to fix if it ever needed work and of course an easy array of parts at a relative cost, this is where the search begins.

my stepdad got a message from a friend of his through his Facebook saying that she’d found a guy in Glasgow selling a MK1 Seat Leon 1.4 on the Facebook Marketplace, after the usual questioning you ask when buying a car & a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we finally decided on a price – £300 for the car itself & £20 delivery from his address and that was it, we had bought ourselves a Seat Leon MK1 1.4.

Now, I’ll freely admit, I’ve never really got the Vdub scene and especially the VAG scene with cars, I’ve been in a few VW’s before and while not too bad, they’ve never been a car I’d ever consider owning and when you add in Dieselgate a few years back and countless horror stories of their cars having big issues it put me off them and Seat was no different, after hearing all that stuff I’d honestly thought that I’d not gel with this car whatsoever and would soon begin to find issues with it and would soon begin to eventually hate it as it’d live up to the reputation these cars have gained upon themselves, however, a few weeks into ownership and I was actually pleasantly surprised.

I’ll admit, when the car came along that evening, it wasn’t anything fancy and it certainly needed work doing to it to get it up to roadworthy condition, this was expected for two reasons, one, the guy we bought it from had already told us what was wrong with it and for two, it only cost £300, it was never going to be a good running car for that amount of coin, even I’d be pleasantly surprised if it was like that, especially in this day & age.

Things all started to change the first time I shunted it around to help jump start my C70, it blew me away with how easy it was to drive & how well screwed together it all was, especially for a everyday, cheap, easily accessible 5 door hatchback, the build quality surpasses anything similarly priced or even any fit’s rivals, even the MK4 Golf it shares a majority of parts with.

Ever since fixing it & getting it roadworthy, it’s been perfect to own and hasn’t given us hardly any issues, we bought it on 98k miles and since ownership we’ve put about 3k miles into it which I’ll admit isn’t much but in those times we’ve done biggish trips and also small trips and not a single issue has raised it’s ugly little head – a big feat for a VAG car over 15 years old.

Drivability wise, it actually drives really well & has overall brilliant driving manners, the steering is great, the brakes are surprisingly good but to be quite frank the car doesn’t weigh much so it doesn’t need huge brakes to stop it, the engine & gearbox is strong albeit out of puff at higher speeds but that’s expected with a 1.4.

 

The best bit about it however is it’s fuel economy. It only costs £60 to fill with current fuel prices and that can last for a good few weeks, on paper, the little 1.4 can do 42mpg combined and after living with it for well over 6 months I can really start to believe it.

I honestly don’t know if it does actually hit the 42mpg like the stats state but it certainly isn’t far off, this means that for us or even anybody either on a budget or looking for a daily it will save quite a bit of money over a small period of time which can be spent on other things like new car parts for example.

 

The only real issue as I mentioned above is really the lack of shove at higher speeds, this isn’t a car built for high speed motorway driving, if you want something which can cope a little better i’d suggest either the 1.8T 20V or the well loved 1.9 Diesel as these will be so much better suited to the car.

Interior wise it isn’t actually badly equipped, ours has the optional 6CD Changer fitted in the glovebox as well as A/C, electric windows, Alloy wheels amongst other things and everything works, the heater is fantastic as is the stereo system, inside it is pretty sparse with equipment I’ll admit as it is the base model with a few extras added in however there is two good reasons why we don’t mind this – first off, it’s less to go wrong and for two, it can easily be replaced with OEM parts from higher specced Leon’s if we so wish, for now however it’s doing it’s job so we’re not too fussed about changing it up just yet.

 

So, you maybe asking what are the plans for this car for the future? – well for now we’re going to keep it the way it currently is as it’s working perfectly fine, it could be due a Service sometime soon and there is talks of changing out the interior for a full leather set from a higher specced car, already it’s had Audi A3 5 spoke wheels fitted as the originals were resprayed black and were done so terribly, the Audi wheels actually suit the car well so they’ll be staying unless we can find others which suit even better.

 

We’ll hopefully be keeping this little beauty for a few months to come as it keeps up clocking up the care free miles day after day, keep an eye out for updates on it in the future months as it hopefully changes from a £300 run about to something actually relatively decent, it’ll never be a show car that’s for certain but it’ll be a car anyone will be happy to own.

 

 

Hope You Enjoy!

From Alex Jebson

 

Now with winter starting to come in at quite a rapid rate, it’s at this time of year that it starts to take it’s toll on us petrol heads, whether it’s the cold weather, the dark nights or even salt & grit on the roads, unless you have a garage or unit of some kind where it’s somewhat easier to work with, for the rest of us who aren’t so lucky have to sit and suffer, so here is my 10 reason’s why us petrol heads hate winter.

 

1. Cold Weather.

Now this may sound typical but bear with me on this one, depending on where you live, it can get so cold, wet, windy & miserable that there is just no chance in hell of working on your car, add in potential storms & other weather related issues and it really does hinder progress on fixing cars, also, if like me and the car has been sitting for a few months, rust starts to build up which means that when it’s finally time to go fix the car, all the bolts & components have more than likely rusted making it more difficult to remove & fix.

 

2. Dark Nights.

Another issue which we have to put up with at winter time is the dark nights, now obviously this affects everyone in different ways, whether that’s work related, travel related or just general living, in one way or another it affects us, however, I’d say that us petrol heads without a garage or unit have it the toughest, normally prior to the clocks changing, it’d be possible to work on your car until way into the evening and it’d still be light, however, now the clocks have changed you’re lucky to have light late afternoon meaning you’re missing out on a vital few hours of repair time.

 

3. Salt & Grit.

Ah, Salt & Grit – a petrol heads worst nightmare, now, I like many others understand why the salt & grit is needed, it obviously works it’s way into the ice and breaks it up to give us car drivers more grip, however, in the process of doing all that, it winds up pinging up off of other road users tyres and causing stone chips and small dings as well as eating into the bodywork if not washed off properly which brings me onto my next point.

 

4. Dirt & Road Grime.

Now, if like me, you’ll love keeping your pride & joy clean and you’ll also love putting in the hours to make it shimmering and will do anything to keep it clean, this may include a machine polish, a full professional detail or even a ceramic coat of some kind, however in the winter months, these options are very much limited due to all the dirt & road grime on the roads, as soon as the car is cleaned it get’s filthy within a few miles of driving making it a forever cycle of trying to keep the car cleaned, add this in with the salt & grit which also graces our roads at this time of year and it becomes a right pain to keep a car cleaned for a long period of time.

 

5. Other Drivers on the Roads. 

Halfway through now & onto possibly the most annoying one on this list – and that is other road users, now us petrol heads have to obviously share the roads with every other car owner, now on the most part, we don’t have issues with that, however, it seems to me that whenever winter comes, those who don’t really care or those who don’t really notice just blast they’re full beams on, if not that, it’s either their fog lights blinding you or DRL’s, now with lightbulbs getting brighter & brighter it really annoys petrol heads, especially those in lowered cars, sports cars or even small hatchbacks, Unless the visibility is absolutely terrible, which on most occasion it really isn’t, there is no need whatsoever to actually have these bright lights blaring, especially Fog lamps, now if it’s not the lights which are the issue, it’s also the road users who decide to speed knowing the conditions on the road nearly causing a crash, when you put them two things together and a petrolhead who really loves their car into the mix, it doesn’t end well whatsoever.

 

6. Gritting Lorries.

This kinda goes along with step 4 but again, bear with me on this, as a petrol head, the first thing we fear while driving in the winter is the gritting lorries, every time one passes, us car people wince in fear in case they are spreading the grit or salt, we fear for our paint work & our bodywork too, especially those with pristine cars and recently resprayed cars, it doesn’t help when the trucks grit slinger is above most cars body panels, as many of us know when they hit, you definitely know about it.

 

7. Black Ice.

Black Ice to anybody is even a fear into itself but it’s even worse for a petrolhead, it’s a lot of people’s worst nightmare to hit black ice but for a car person, we feel it more, one thing we can’t stand is to spend most of our blood, sweat & tears into our cars just to hit a bit of black ice for us to then spin or even career off the road and crash them potentially writing them off to the scrapyard in the sky.

 

8. Car Meets aren’t the same.

With autumn going away and winter coming in, it’s just too cold or too treacherous to even consider going to a car meet, this means that on most occasions, hardly anyone turns up which then means a very minute meat with hardly any cars on show, tie this in with the bad weather, salt & grit & even other dodgy drivers and you wind up with hardly showing up at all.

 

9. Potholes become more apparent.

Now this list wouldn’t be complete with massive sinkhole like potholes littering our already bad roads, now the main issues which obviously cause these potholes to be so apparent is for one the terrible weather, the wet & windy weather certainly doesn’t help situations but unfortunately can’t be helped, neither can the mass amount of vehicles driving around help neither, all of these cause damage to our roads but with more and more deliveries and more & more family gatherings happening over these winter months it just can’t be avoided, however, the councils should in my honest opinion fix these roads, not just do potholes damage our pride & joys but they also damage us humans whenever we inadvertently drive into one, at this kinda time, you really feel for the car people with lowering springs or with massive alloy wheels.

 

10. Cold Winter Mornings.

Last but not least, this is possibly the most time consuming thing any petrol head should have to deal with, especially if like me and you have an older car which takes a bit of time to warm up and get ready, these days manufacturers are able to create an app which can turn your car on, set the heating and even power up the heated seats & heated steering wheel for those cold frosty, possibly icy, cold mornings however us people who have a substantially older car or even a classic will feel the pain in what I’m writing, now depending on the car in question this simple task could take up to anywhere from 10 minutes up to possibly 30 minutes depending on the age of the car amongst other things, however for us, it feels a whole lot longer than any of that and while we wait, it is absolutely freezing to the point you can’t feel any of your fingers or anything let alone controls on the car like heater controls or anything like that.

 

Can any of you wonderful people think of anything else which you think should come under this list?, if so, comment below what else should be in this list and I’ll get back to you and if it’s a substantial reason, I’ll consider either another top 10 or even top 20 reasons by you guys the reasons why as a car person you hate winter, I’ll also possibly do a shortlist of the reasons why a petrol head loves winter so it’s not just one sided.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson

 

Now, if you are like me, you’ll more than likely spend a lot of time on the internet watching car related videos on Youtube, you’ll more than likely search the classifieds nigh on every night and if you are into modifying like a lot of petrol heads are then you’ll definitely be looking up for the next part to get for your specific vehicle.

Now apart from the modifying scene which i’m not really involved with due to restoring my car, I spend a lot of time watching car related videos & I, like everyone else spend tons of time looking on the classifieds looking up certain cars I’d love to own but could never afford and after watching a ThatDudeInBlue video last night, this had me thinking, is it truly possible to have an emotional attachment to a car and when is it time to say enough is enough?

I bring this up solely because after watching that video late last night, it tapped right into myself and my C70 Coupé restoration project, I’ve had my C70 for 3.5 years now and while I love it to bits and progress is being made, there has been times when I’ve felt like packing it in and getting a new car, however due to the certain circumstances I went through while buying it, the memories I’ve had with that car and the people I’ve met along the way its honestly the only reason why it is still with me.

For those who don’t know, I bought my C70 a few years ago as my first car, it was never intended as my first car but after finding a few for sale and realising I could eventually afford to buy one, insure it and run it I was instantly hooked, so hooked in fact I spent about 6-7 months spending the bare minimum that I could honestly spend to actually buy my car, it wasn’t plain sailing as I was getting hassled by the college I was in at the time as well as other things like trying to stay healthy so I could get my license and trying to balance both saving for a car and paying general bills it wasn’t easy.

However after persevering for about half an academic year my patience paid off as I was finally able to get my C70 as I’d always planned and even to this day I still remember it driving into the cul-de-sac of the previous owners address and seeing it for the first time and instantly falling head over heels for it.

Even over the years it’s generally been a great ownership experience, however, there have been times with it where I’ve just fallen out of love with it, add this into the money I’ve put out on it over these years and it’d be no surprise that I have on many occasions looked at cars for sale within a certain obtainable budget and wondered “what if?” or “that’d be nice” but it’s never went past that stage due to my sentimental connection to the C70.

Now don’t get me wrong, the C70 is a wonderful car and at the moment, I couldn’t ever see myself getting rid of it – in fact I point blank refuse to part ways with it as I’m not one to give up on a project car whatsoever and while I still have money in my bank and tools in my shed, it’ll all be getting spent & worked on with the C70 as well as other cars in the mini fleet we have now stumbled upon owning.

Thing is though, while having the C70 all these years and fixing it and mostly enjoying myself with it, there has been many cars which have came & gone in that 3.5 years while I’ve had my own car and all of which I’ve taken a shining to in one way or another.

Take my stepdads Seat Leon for instance, now on paper it isn’t anything exciting, it isn’t a Cupra or a Cupra R, hell, it doesn’t even have the well loved 1.8 20V Turbo unit under it’s bonnet but it has a certain charm to it, now for me, I’ve never really got the whole VAG movement and that was because I’d never really experienced one before, but after getting the Leon for £300 a few months back and getting it roadworthy it has just completely stunned me.
It’s reliable, easy to fix, really easy to drive & overall a brilliant little car to own, now like some people, I’ve never been one to spend so little on a car as they have always tended to be complete wrecks but this Seat is a little diamond in the rough and whenever my stepdad has bought up another car to replace it, I’ve always been one of the first to talk him out it and that is purely because it’s so good, I couldn’t see us without it and the fleet will personally always have that missing piece regardless of whatever car he replaced it with.

It’s been so trustworthy over these last few months and has truly blown me away with how good it is that I’ve kinda got an attachment to it, this is also the same for the old Saab 9-5 Aero and now to a certain extent the Lexus.

I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of Japanese cars and that’s only due to previous ownership experiences with them, the Lexus is the 4th Japanese car we’ve owned and by far the best but the previous 3 just never hit the mark for me personally, they’ve all been good cars and ones that either sell well or ones which have a cult following amongst other fellow petrol heads but to me they just didn’t have a soul about them.

However for my family over the years, whenever they’ve got a car, like me, they’ve persevered when it’s came to ownership and just fixed the cars issues regardless of how bad the car is, now like myself with the C70, they have been the same with some of their previous cars and have fell for it regardless of it’s never ending problems which brings me onto my final point – when is enough finally enough?.

For me personally, there is a good few reasons why my C70 has stayed, those mentioned above of course and others too, if you take away it’s issues, it’s an amazing car to own, drive and to be around, it has a feeling that no other car has currently gave off and I know that once it is eventually at a point where it can be used without going wrong it’ll be a lovely car to own, also with sentimental attachment added into the mix, it’d be really difficult to just let go and I honestly couldn’t find another car to properly replace it with.

Also, it’s a great feeling driving around knowing that your own blood, sweat & tears have gone into it to make it the car it currently is, add that in with the mechanical knowledge you get from fixing your own car and you feel a connection that you normally wouldn’t if you were to leave it alone or to get someone else to fix it.

The only way I could find an instance where you don’t feel emotionally attached to a car is if it truly terrible to the point you don’t want to be seen in it, if it’s too common and it blends in way too much with the rest of the traffic or if it cost’s way too much to keep fixing and you just lose love for it which is possible with project cars and cars in general in fact.

Anyways, that’s enough from me, but here is a question from me to all you, is it truly possibly to become emotionally attached to what is essentially a mechanical object and when is enough actually enough?, I’ll leave that for you guys to answer.

 

Hope You Enjoy!

By Alex Jebson