A weekend of successful eBay foraging took me first to Wales, to pick up a set of 951 Fuchs. 951 = 944 Turbo, and early cars had beautiful 16″ Fuchs with a deeper dish to the rear of the spokes to give room for bigger brakes, and a slightly different offset to the 911 7s and 8s. They are unique rims, and the 7s and 8s both fit on the front of the 911, so when I spotted these on my birthday with a reasonable buy it now, I snapped them up.
The wheels were the other side of Cardiff, so I set off early on Saturday morning, setting the cruise control and heading up the M40 to the M42, then down the M5, onto the M50, then M4 to Pontyclun. Steve who had the wheels turne out to be a great guy and an ex-rally mechanic, so we had plenty to chat about over a cup of tea. Good craic. He had fitted Turbo Twists to his black 951 so the Fuchs were superfluous. Apart from rubbish tyres and a rattle-can paint job, they were great, so into the Prius they went.
Coming back, I decided to stop off and see Rob, who is working his butt off building an Allard for a German customer at the minute. The car is undergoing a total rebuild, from bare nothing up, and should be absolutely spectacular when it is finished later this year. The chassis has been optimised, not to mention straightened, and it has just had a new body which is BEAUTIFUL. Still lots of work to do on the car but it is coming along really well. I also dropped in to see how his extension at home is doing. In a word: fantastic! Hard to integrate a block-built extension with a 17th century cottage, but they have made a nice job I think - pics another time. Here’s some of the Allard:
Today (Sunday) was a trip to Derby to pick up a new pressure washer. Well, eBay new I mean. My Bosch Aquatak gave up just before Christmas and I wasn’t impressed with the basic things that had failed in my ownership (it earned its keep regardless – good little machine when it worked right), so I wanted to step up a bit. The choice was either go for a decent steam cleaner, or get a proper pressure washer and keep saving for the steamer. I have spent a small fortune lately so the cheap solution won. Not that this was cheap.
I tripped over a Kranzle 115 on eBay that looked good but I knew would fetch OK money on ebay. These are serious hand-built Austrian machines with amazing performance, inherent durability with proper fittings, and valved pumps which can be stripped and repaired. The 115 is the smallest prosumer one they do, but it’s enough for what I want, so I bid 30% of retail three seconds from the end and took my chances. I won it. New they are £530 plus the VAT, but I got this for £160, so a proper bargain if it all worked OK.
Got to the guy’s house at 9 and some other winners had just arived to pick up a little quad. The Kranzle looked absolutely new, as he said it more or less was, so I paid up, got a receipt and got it in the car before he changed his mind. Arriving back at home (breakfast at Jack’s Cafe on the way), I hooked it up and there began an afternoon of washing fun. First the truck, then the car, then the bike. It’s a great bit of kit and I am totally delighted with it. Pics to follow.
Speaking of pics, above is one of the Prius’ energy meter following two 80mph motorway cruise runs and some balls-out cross country work coming home yesterday. Show me another automatic car with this space and the same equipment levels that can do this sort of economy. Even our old V50 TDi only managed 40mpg average.
