Yoss

You could get a set of VW G60 steels and not have to band them. There are pictures somewhere on here of Teflon Toms Felicia with them on. They look standard and I think you'll even get the Skoda centre caps on. I've got 195/50 15s on mine, I think they'll give you all the grip you'll ever need on a 1.3 Favorit, though I,and I suspect Joe above (as it's a facelift), have power steering so I don't know how heavy the steering will be.

If we go with the Seven Stars we may have to change dates as one of the Triumph clubs meets there on our night, hence the odd Stag and GT6 that goes past whilst we're stood in the car park. Also think it might be a bit pricier than the West Meon even in non two-for-one mode. Also don't think the Petersfield Wetherspoons is a real long term solution. The pub is good enough but location isn't. It's not just the distance from the car park but when you want to take other people's cars for a blast you have to negotiate Petersfield before you can put your foot down. I think we need a big car park, a good road and decent food in that order.

Proper man drink.

And pudding.

And yes Tony, my tips more than covered this trip. My pocket's full of new fivers.

Hope you're enjoying your burgers, this is my starter. Yes I know it's sideways, I've already been on the cocktails.

You haven't seen the Millbrook mums in Shirley High Street.

Love that steering wheel badge.

I'll not be at this one I'm afraid, I'll be here instead.

Yes fair point, I just couldn't let that comment go, sorry! But wether they can follow Škoda depends on wether Renault will let them. Rapidacia works well, I like that.

Okay, so this thread got me curious and I started looking into Dacia history and I found one of their cars I'd be happy to own. This is a Dacia 1100S. Basically a Renault 8 Gordini.

That's not really true is it? Škoda had nearly a hundred years of engineering experience behind them building their own designs. And not just cars but all forms of transport, buses, trams, trains etc. Dacia was set up in the late sixties to build old Renaults, they have no history of building their own designs. When Škoda were looking for investment they had talks with Renault at the same time as VW but all Renault wanted was a cheap factory to build their old cars, (they had at this point briefly terminated their agreement with Dacia but went back when the Škoda talks came to nothing). There is an argument to say Škoda are now building rehashed VW's but they are at least current VW's. There's little doubt they made the right choice, otherwise we could now have Škoda Sanderos and I doubt this website would exist.

Oh yes it is!

I've seen the 'wood' on a a couple of cars. I went to look at a Bohemia that had it a couple of years back but it was too rusty. I'm not sure if it was offered by Škoda as an extra or if it was just an aftermarket thing. I found a company in Germany that still lists it in various finishes, different types of fake wood and some solid colours like gloss black. I presume they have some sort of template and just print it off on request, I doubt it's something they keep in stock, not much demand I wouldn't have thought. It was about £80 a set I think.

That's a strange and rather vague question from someone in Notts. A little more information might bring a few more replies!

Don't quite know why you're so keen on seats turning into beds, but this is what you need.

RTs and RFs had pre select boxes, Routemasters are autos or semi auto. They were all built as autos but mine is now a semi auto. The speed sense generator (SSG) broke one day leaving us stuck in second gear. The owners club do by pass plugs (it's all done electronically). I have a 4 speed selector on the steering column which is no more than a big electric switch and it just goes in whatever gear I want when I want. There's no clutch but you do have to back off the throttle as you change gear, as you would with a manual, if you want a smooth gear change. Pre select boxes work by magic and witchcraft. Considering the first RT was built in 1939 the technology was very advanced. I've never driven one but I've watched one being driven and it all seems counter intuitive, but I guess you get used to it. You pull away, usually in 2nd, (1st is generally only used for hill starts) then immediately put the selector in the next gear. But it won't change gear until you press the button on the floor. This was apparently so you could change gear halfway round a roundabout, for instance, without having to take either hand off the wheel, bearing in mind they had no power steering. Very clever stuff.

Modern cars eh? All these people worrying about minimum temperatures. The Felicia has its washer bottle inside the engine bay where it should be. My Triumph is even better, mounted on the rear bulkhead, just behind the exhaust manifold. I've seen heated washer jets advertised as some fancy extra on modern cars but they're standard on my 47 year old Triumph.

Like this you mean? To be fair, I think octyal knows this, I think he was was making a reference to Vanden Plas sounding like Claude Van Dam. I'm just using it as an excuse to post a picture of an MG Maestro Turbo.

Having just Googled my own bus I found this. This was just over ten years ago, how time flies, and a case in point of running with the correct route numbers. Spent a day doing old Norwood routes, the 2B and 68.

This is mine on a day out round Southampton with a few old Southampton buses.

A lot of them were refurbished in the 1990s and gained mainly Cummins and Iveco engines with a few Scanias added later on. The Scanias were probably the best in terms of sounding like a proper engine but none of the above are used in the Heritage fleet. These come from a later batch that were refurbed around 2003 and have a later Cummins that complies, I think, to euro 3 emissions standards. Trouble is its a very small high revving unit that makes a noise totally unsuited to an RM. Bearing in mind the original AEC and Leyland engines only revved to 1800rpm and idled at a mere 2-300. It is also coupled to an Allison automatic gearbox via torque converter that gives quite a rough gear change compared to the original AEC semi auto connected via a fluid flywheel. This is so smooth that even when you mess up a gear change the passengers will barely notice.

I know a few RTs still have class 6 MOTs so can still be used for stage service. Ensign Bus have some and Roger Wright uses them for his services linked to the Epping Ongar Railway. Every so often they have running days on the heritage route 15 using proper buses but I don't think there was one yesterday. I say proper buses as the Routemasters they normally use on the heritage route are an abomination. Horribly refurbished, tacky interiors, florescent lights , hopper windows in place of the original wind down ones and nasty little Cummins engines. They neither look, sound or even move like a proper RM. They are just something that looks vaguely Routemaster shaped from a distance. Anyway the one you saw on telly was probably just a preserved RT. There's nothing to stop you driving your own bus round with a route number on. You can even pick people up as long as you don't charge them. We've all done that.

My knowledge of warship names comes from British Rail Class 50s. There were fifty of them all named after old warships and although they were all withdrawn nearly twenty five years ago I can still remember them all without hesitation. They were proper names like Warspite, Revenge and Thunderer. And indeed Dreadnought. I'm sure if they'd been named after modern warships, which seem to be mainly towns and cities it seems, they wouldn't have had the same impact on the impressionable youth that I was. Although I often wondered what the average member of the public thought when the engine on the front of their train came in with Revenge on the side in a big metal nameplate with no explanation as to why. There was also one named Superb, 50002 it was, which might appeal to a few people on here.

Yes that's how I read it too, got a leaflet when we were there last month. That's more than it cost to buy in the first place. I've just looked, 6' x 3' sheets in b&q £5.45. that's ridiculous. As others have said it'll all go in the wheelie bin in future. We took our front wall down last month when we found out the charges were coming in. Took four trips in the back of the MG.