IanA's Targa Florio Special Build

[IanA]

Originally Posted by IanA

The 2023 50s Specials Show at Cotswold Wildlife Park is on Sunday 13 August...

A super 50s Specials Day at the Cotswold Wildife Park yesterday.

40+ cars with Ashley, Berkeley, Buckler, EB, Fairthorpe, Falcon, Gilbern, LMB, Lotus, Peerless, Riley, Rochdale, S.A., Singer, Tornado, Turner all represented. Plus a nice Mistral. A few interesting scratch-built specials as well including a wooden 3-wheeler Mini-powered boat tail.

A few later kit cars crept in- a "Bugatti 37" Dri-Sleeve and a converted NG.
Rain only disrupted the homeward journey.

[Lucky@LeMans]

Originally Posted by IanA

My second inspirational car for the TFS (after Tigga's Tribute car) is coming up for sale next week at Sotheby's auction in Monterey.

I will be buying lottery tickets between now and then.

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo23

Some crazy prices at this auction ! Can't believe increments of $1,000,000 just kept rolling in for a Ferrari 250 LM. Went all the way to $17,000,000 in a few minutes but failed to meet the reserve !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42cLl9NSg78

[IanA]

I see that the Fezza 250GT SWB Lot No 354 that I was watching was sold after the auction- but not to me.

Long ago (20C) and far away (Cherry Hills, NJ or Neshaminy, Pa) I spent a Sunday afternoon watching an autotest event in a shopping mall car park.

There were a lot of MGs and Triumphs scrabbling and skidding around and towards the end a guy in a 250LM came tooling by, not to compete but to see what was going on. I knew what it was as I'd just made a 1/32 slot car (complete with PROVA MOD rear number plate) out of a toy car bought at my local post office.

When I find the pics I took that day I'll be able to confirm the date and location.

Suffice to say that the car (real not slot) was a very good investment.

[Lucky@LeMans]

Where to put one's millions must be a real headache when you're in a bidding war with some uberwealthy individuals, how much is too much ? If you watch the footage most of the room are talking amongst themselves whilst cars are being sold for "just" a million or two !

[IanA]

I MOTed the TFS yesterday with no advisories. It is my everyday car and I'm driving about 1500 miles per year. I had to replace the front springs a few weeks ago as one had broken. I found that by inspection- I certainly didn't notice it whilst driving.
Next job is replacing the rear beam bushes. I've asked the ZedShed to book me in for that. Another job that I couldn't do on my own grovelling in the gravel.

[IanA]

Here's a pic of the TFS having travelled a Targa Florio distance- 468 miles from Oxford to Dundee last week. The average speed would have been similar except for the crawl around the Edinburgh City Bypass to the Forth Bridge. Just not so many gear changes.
I would have liked to show a pic after its return yesterday streaked with salt and more road grime but the overnight rain washed most of it off.
About six weeks ago the front was looking a bit dowdy so I washed it and gave it a once-over with Farecla Finishing Compound. Then a quick T-Cut followed by a polish with a "wet-look" carnauba wax. The water is still bubbling on it- the best polish I've used.

[WorldClassAccident]

It does look good with that bonnet.

[Lucky@LeMans]

Great to see you are out there enjoying the car Ian.

[IanA]

Originally Posted by Lucky@LeMans

Great to see you are out there enjoying the car Ian.

It's my daily driver so it made sense to use it for the trip. I'd never driven that journey solo before and was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the seat was for that length of time. Due to the outside temperature and the varying speeds due to hold-ups, heavy traffic, etc I did miss thermostatically controlled heating that graces later cars. Isn't it a tough life!!!
During my usage of the car, the average mpg has been 28 whereas my overall for this journey was 34. It has the 2.0 6cylinder engine.

[IanA]

Good headline?

The context is that the TFS insurance is due at the end of the month. Premium before tax and broker fee was GBP83.50 last year. This year GBP530. The insurance company Markerstudy has stopped offering vehicle insurance and the replacement offered (Highway) doesn't like me parking on the road. Obviously the risk is unchanged but the industry's attitude has changed. I'll find a space off the road somehow and pay GBP150.

That's if I can't find another company- Equity Red Star has been mentioned.

Hagerty provided a park-off-the-road policy for GBP350 which included all sorts of benefits- UK & European recovery, home start and an interesting total loss package- if the car is written off, you get the full agreed payout but get to retain the "wreck" for free !!!

I've cross-posted this in the "Rebody" section on zroadster.org and have had some interesting but depressing replies!

[IanA]

2gether have just provided a quotation of GBP248 with... Highway !!!

[IanA]

In conversation with Adrian Flux i've been told that Markerstudy are back in the vehicle insurance market. Their previous underwriter West Bay went under but they are now underwritten by Tradex so are offering policies again.

They've quoted with Ageas Insurance and I've placed the business with them at GBP183.

[IanA]

Driving through some very wet weather the other night, the dipped and main beams all became inop at the same time.
The sidelights all worked, indicators/hazards all OK and I got home using the front foglights.
The main beam blue dashboard light worked OK but nothing to light the bulbs.
Thing was- I couldn't find any common connection, fuse or relay that would account for this.
I replaced the light switch with a known good one- no change.
Yes it was the bulbs. All four filaments blew at once. What are the chances!!! All OK now.

[peterux]

Do you have dual filament headlamp bulbs?
Maybe dipped is staying on with main beam which will fry your bulbs.
If not this then maybe time to check the output voltage of your alternator.

[IanA]

The former- they are H4s so two filaments per envelope.
The alternator would have been flooded at the same time.