Alfa2Evora

Just for a laugh as I had a bit of time to play with, I decided to see what shopping around would get me. Short answer, a requirement for a Resus team to be close at hand. Go Compare - 'best price of £3787 with an excess of £750 through Sterling Insurance - who? Confused - 'best price £11246 with a £525 excess through Doddle Insurance - again who? Positive bargain that one Didn't bother with the meerkats as they're probably too busy scoffing their discounted coffees and pastries.

£512 for the renewal on my 2010 (somewhat modified) NA through Admiral as part of a multi-cover policy, up around 10% on last year but then I did report the car park incident, which although the other party's insurer is fully covering the repair (now 7 weeks in and £12k and rising), I suppose the fact that I had a bump at all now makes me a greater risk. I was going to shop around but there aren't that many companies that will entertain the number of modifications my Evora has and my experience of doing so for my daily driver put me off even starting the process. It's a 2010 Alfa Giulietta 1.4 which is probably worth not a lot now with 135k miles on the clock. As part of the multi-cover policy, Admiral quoted £397 for it (also up 10% with only a windscreen stone chip claimed last year) so I of course absolutely jumped at the 'best offer' found for me by the opera singer of £1547, .

Even although it's unlikely that the Evora will be ready in time, I'll still be coming to this. I'll meet you at Hermiston Gait and tag along behind at a discreet distance in the insurance/rental car company's idea of a Lotus equivalent, .

If the Evora is back from bodyshop then I'd be up for it. Will let you know nearer the time.

In a somewhat last minute decision when the Evora finally went into bodyshop last week, I decided to take up the other party's insurance company's offer of a temporary replacement car. I had been intending to use our Alfa but it's getting a bit long in the tooth now and I just had that little niggle in the back of my mind about placing my reliance for transport solely with it. Anyway, it took a couple of days for all the admin to filter its way through from insurance company to rental company then for them to locate and deliver a suitable 'equivalent' vehicle to me. Well, I can only presume that the Lotus Evora was unknown to them and on looking online, the search for 'Lotus' brought up the Eletre as this is what arrived at my door at lunchtime, ......... A Hyundai Tucson self-charging petrol hybrid. Relatively quick off the mark in a straight line but hit a twisty bit and a Lotus equivalent it most certainly aint! Could have been worse though I suppose - could have been of German origin and then I would have had to alter my driving style completely. "Indicators? What are these 'indicators' you speak of?"

About 3.30pm today (Sat, 24 Feb), Chrome Orange Evora travelling west through Linlithgow High Street. Only saw it after it was past as I was inside a shop but a 400 I would think judging by the rear wing.

You're lucky on that Andy. The vehicle tax system is a shambles with all the different sets of rules that apply depending on when the car was registered. My NA, because it's older than a 2017 registration year, is £395/year otherwise it would be just £180 if it had been stuck in storage and not registered until after 2017.. Do you know anybody looking for a nice 2.0 Turbo SAAB Estate? By pushing out 1g of CO2 per km over the limit that would have had it in the same tax band as the Evora, it's costing £675/year, . Now off the road and on SORN until I part company with it.

No, retirement hasn't caused Alan to lose the ability to count - there were 4 Lotus in attendance, only I had to disappear sharpish (before the above pic was taken) to visit Jennifer in the nursing home.

I'd be up for that then I can nip back into Linlithgow and visit Jennifer at the nursing home before lunchtime.

Indeed it is Andy (or should that be It/That? ) - wouldn't dream of it going anywhere else and the other party's insurance accepted my 'specialist car, specialist repairer' comment without demur. Just got to see what they give me as an appropriate courtesy car as apparently I'm entitled to one from the 'premium' range - so that'll be a Hyundai i20 rather than an i10 then?

I'm still puzzling over the sodden carpets conundrum. I tried the supplementary seal solution championed by @Lee Valleley on my S1 but sadly to no avail. If anything the problem has got worse because whereas before the water seemed to be making its way to the bottom of the door then tracking in under the sill trim panel before dropping down the bottom section of the A-panel into the footwell, it's now just pouring straight over the top of the sill trim panel if the regular puddle I find there is anything to go by. So, it's back to a bit more head-scratching while the carpets remain nice and dry in the airing cupboard and I run around with all the alloy flooring panels exposed pretending I'm in an overgrown Elise, .

Yeah!!!! 4th of March can't come soon enough. That's the date I've been given for the Evora to go into bodyshop as all the required parts have finally been gathered together - I don't know what it took to achieve it but the Unobtanium mines clearly managed to get some product out the door eventually, . It'll only be a few days shy of 18 months since it was so rudely trampled on by the X5 in the hospital car park, but finally the wrongs are going to be righted and I can look forward to my P&J regaining her stunning good looks. It'll be great too, to fill up my weekend diary with shows and other motoring-related events. I wonder if I can sue for 'emotional distress' over all the days out I had to cancel last year? That's the modern way of doing things after all, isn't it?

Now you know - never trust any advice you get from this guy.............................

Well, it's official or at least as far as our local supermarket is concerned - Christmas is over, as they've now got these on display in the 'Seasonal' aisle, .

SAAB J29 Tunnan This example from the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight visited the airshow at Prestwick a few years back - they fly better than they look apparently.

"Does my bum look dirty in this?" A bit of Christmas porn for your delectation - she ain't no garage queen this one.

Problem solved in as much as, thanks to a very generous offer from @Doug Ashley, a replacement unit will shortly be installed. Thanks to everybody for their help and suggestions, both here and in my 'wanted' post - gotta love TLF, .

Problem solved with grateful thanks to @Doug Ashley . Once again, TLF confirms what a great community it is, .

I was sitting in the supermarket car park, replying to a couple of family texts as it happens, before setting off for home with the weekly shop. I became aware of a shadow alongside the car and turned to see a couple of lads standing there. "Do you mind, please, if I take some pictures of your car?" asks one of them. "Not at all, go right ahead" I reply. After taking several shots from various angles, the lad came back to the window and enquired if I'd just arrived or was I about to leave. When I confirmed the latter, his response was to high-5 me then say that he was going to video the start-up and drive off "to remind the old man of what a real car sounds like" as he grinned and rolled his eyes towards the Tesla parked a few spaces away, .

I know that car and I can advise that the current nose badge that's on it came from here: https://hethelsport.com/trim/front-nose-badge/ I got one of the green and yellow ones for mine I have to say that the 'sculptured' appearance of them does look loads classier than the flat plastic OE ones, and they are a lot cheaper to buy to boot. The only issue that I experienced with mine was that after a particularly harsh winter, the enameling started to peel, which probably led to the comment on this potential issue being included within the product description. My solution was to mount the badge using thin Velcro strips rather than the adhesive backing pad so that I can swap between this enamel badge and the plastic one as and when required - OE badge for general use, and certainly throughout the winter, and the 'good' badge for the summer show season.

Attending an Armistice parade this morning, and already having impressed myself that the No1 dress uniform I had made to measure 45+ years ago still fits me perfectly, I decided to complete the aviator look and take the Evora. On the way there, I was stopped at a junction when a group of mixed Cadets crossed over in front. One of them, a female member of the khaki lot, eyed up the car then shouted out "Ooooh, nice!" along with blowing me a kiss. I don't know if it was the elbow in her ribs from the Air Cadet alongside her, or whether she'd actually then clocked my attire, but there followed a swift "Sorry sir" accompanied by a very uncertain 'should I salute or should I not' hand gesture as her face went redder than the traffic light and she scurried off into the side turning to avoid any further embarrassment. That followed a short time later when we made eye contact as the parade was forming-up and the poor lass had to excuse herself from the company. I did go over and alleviate her suffering so she could rejoin her fellow cadets by the way. Then on the way home, I stopped for some motion lotion and pulled in behind a modified (lots of carbon add-ons) Audi RS3 being filled by a lad in his late 20s/early 30s. He looked round as I arrived and pulled a pursed-lips expression. As I got out, he followed up his facial contortions with "I thought I had a nice car. You win".

Whole unit replaced, with one in a Vauhall wrapper at £15 on Ebay rather than the identical item in a Lotus wrapper at £72. Was working fine until the other day then nothing. I'll need to whip it out when I get a moment and see if I can work out what's going on. Footwell lights and door lights are still working so it's not the entire circuit that's gone down.

In a bizarre twist, without me having done anything to investigate or repair, everything is back working as it should - for now anyway. Knobs and background nicely lit with their intensity controlled by the lighting rheostat and the fan knob, although it does still get a bit warmer, it's not so hot that you can't touch it. I wonder how long this will last? Just so I don't get too excited though, the interior roof light which also hadn't worked for years until it was replaced a couple of months back, has again decided to go on strike, .

Many weeks ago, I ordered a full set of the brackets that secure the Evora's front bumper and clam as some had been bent in the bump while all of them were looking pretty rusty in any case. Back came a reply that the original part numbers are 'No Longer Available" but they can supply alternative items if I still want to go ahead. Gave them the nod, and waited, and waited, and waited. Email received today. All these substitute items are 'Out Of Stock' at the factory with no ETA on when they'll be back in stock, . Looks like the bits of shelving bracket, that I used as a temporary measure to get it through its MOT, may now have a bit more permanency about them, .

Before I fitted the aftermarket bumper, which does hang a bit lower with a longer overhang, my S1 would clear speedhumps that my completely standard daily-driver Alfa 159 wouldn't if that's any help.