Leon's car farm

Leaking Corolla fixed. Faulty windscreen install, fixed at their cost (well, other than my bus fares to get to/from their workshop and the bills for running my heater and dehumidifier in the car for days).

Did a second gravel hillclimb in the weekend. Came dead last, but didn't crash or bend the car, so I'm ok with that. It was a lot quicker than the last one, so took some getting used to driving the car on gravel at the top of second / middle of third gear, which is why I was last. Started getting the hang of it a bit better in the last run, and pulled out another four seconds. But I'm happy enough to be Mr Learner Driver for now, as it is cheaper than doing car repairs if I run out of talent ;)

the boring grey appliance Corolla got some loving.

Replaced a rubber strip that was missing on the roof, replaced the centre console (had a broken lid), and got a luggage cover for the rear hatch. $110 worth of little niggles fixed, and fitted everything this arvo (along with giving it a big groom).

Car now looks remarkably good for 464,000km on the odo :)

Incredibly useful car. Spent all yesterday lugging furniture and appliances, along with scrap metal, and rubbish, on a caged trailer. This thing just chugs along happily. Picked up a gearbox in it from a wrecker this morning too.

Boring grey Corolla appliance now appears to have a minor oil leak, so I shall have to figure out where that is originating from. I'm a bit OCD about oil leaks.

Club car Corolla is back on tarmac spec suspension, in anticipation of an event coming up in a few weeks, which is a lovely tricky sealed sprint on a fairly evil road. Rates as "the road Leon is most likely to roll the Corolla into oblivion on" because I tend to get a tiny bit over excited on that road, and generally push my luck (and push the car) pretty damn hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DLtIHxU_lE That is an in car sample of the event. That isn't me driving, but it is worth commenting that I am faster than that on that particular road.

The ITR has been used for a Tarmac Autocross, and got me a pretty decent result (far better than I was getting in the identical event when driving the Corolla). Ended up 7th out of about 30 in the first half of the event. Then in the second half of the event (which is a shoot out elimination series) I missed out by 0.3 by getting into the top four shootout round.

In other car thoughts / plans:

I have test driven three VW Beetles (1960's), all of which were described by their owners as running well. All three of which when I showed up to drive (two of them were two hours drive away) were actually running like a bag of arseholes. One was stumbling badly. Two were backfiring back through the carb. So, for now, I've given up on Beetles, as it just isn't meant to be.

I am very interested in getting my hands on a Toyota 86 / GT86. However, if I do so, this will be at the cost of the ITR, because currently the ITR is the tarmac toy. If I get an 86, that will become the tarmac toy. So the ITR will be sold to make room for the 86.

This does require my getting another job though, as I'm currently unemployed, but with a reasonable sum of money in the bank that I can live on for some time.

Man, tough call - toys or relaxation. I don't envy that decision one iota!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leon

I am very interested in getting my hands on a Toyota 86 / GT86. However, if I do so, this will be at the cost of the ITR, because currently the ITR is the tarmac toy. If I get an 86, that will become the tarmac toy. So the ITR will be sold to make room for the 86.

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Too bad; some final goodbye pics of the ITR should be posted! :up:

sale of ITR is not a foregone conclusion ... if I struggle to get a new job, the GT86 budget won't be there.

Currently ITR is sitting under a car cover, because at the moment I only drive it about once a week, by which stage it is covered in leaves and paw prints from my cats. So I then want to wash it before I drive it, resulting in one car groom per drive. Which is a bit OTT, even for me.

First world problems.....

Extremely.

Also OCD car must be clean problems. Side effect of 9 years working in rental car industry.

NZ rental cars are clean? US rental cars are water-spotted like crazy.

Best of luck on the new job hunt and possible GT86. Would that be your first new(ish) car in a long time or ever?

P.S. I am going to drive a white Type R next weekend.

Yeah, well the cars where I worked were always clean :)

I've had a new moped, if that counts? Other than that, nope, never owned anything even faintly close to new. I think maybe 6 years old might be about the newest car I've owned. Normal age of cars for me is 10 - 20 years old, but price NZ$2k-NZ$4k

Have fun driving the R, just remember that the "wrong" wheels are driving