I blame Dezzy :-)
 

Only this weekend at ADI I commented how, despite its (mandatory) failings, the Range Rover was otherwise a very reliable motor....

Well, it expired spectacularly this morniing at about 6am somewhere around Chesterfield when it dawned on me that the large fog of smoke on M1 behind me, was in fact, from me.... I'd not noticed this, as for the past few moments I'd been engrossed by my sudden lack of heat in the cabin, and only glanced in the mirrors after concluding 'its just another one of those land rover things'...

With temperature needle screaming on the far right rest stop and more smoke than a 1980's pop concert I nursed it half a mile off the motorway and crossed a kind blokes palm with pictures of the queen to ignore the fact that I'd dumped it in his car park until at least Friday, which is when I have chance to (a) see it in the daylight and (b) recover it, followed by likely (c) scrapping it. Thankfully, he also found me a handy taxi bloxey who had nothing better to do than spend the next hour driving south whilst I spent most of that hour on the phone convincing his taxi office to let me pay by credit card...

It doesnt matter whether the head gaskets gone, or Ive just lost a bit of coolant (yeah right), its a sign, combined with the overwhelming presence of 4 ring hardware at ADI means I've been cleansed, and see the error of my ways...

I need quattro, and not the big mud clomping kind, but the low down, sporty, kick ass kind where grins come from all angles and 'practicality' is acheived with a roof rack or a towbar, not by opening up the whole cabin to rattles, squeaks draughts and the ingress of water randomly.

I still respect the Land rovers, they are awesome machines, but if you absolutely, really, must be in Birmingham for 9am, it seems like its not the motor for me.... :rolleyes:

Watch this space..... :cheers:

. . . and there endeth the lesson - he hath seen the light . . . . and its xenon plusses :D

Well, we have forward progress....

A number of phone calls, web scouting, calls to Audi customer service, calls to HPI, heavy perusing of Audi brochures and squinting for hours on end at poor quality web pics, I think I might have found myself a nice one...

I've just hired a car so I can go and view it tonight..... +++

D3 W12 or V10 S8........Gotta B to maintain any creditability here! :D

Intrigued....can't wait to see it!

Yes come on spill the beans IT :D:p

surely a nice new shiny rad hose to replace the one that popped is cheaper............

Yes, but then I just lie in wait for the next item to break, which has been on a weekly basis....

I think I was just expecting a bit much from the tired old girl... +++

Well, shes mine..... :D

I've had one hell of a day really - Hire car fell through as I couldnt produce 2 proofs of address, being as though Im' not currently at home where I traditionally keep my paperwork, besides which, if I was at home, I'd have access to the missus car and wouldnt need a blinking hire car.

Anyway, Resorted to a prebooked Taxi @ £160 to take me from here to there, hang aroung for a while and bring me back. That then fell through as they couldnt take card, and I'd just used my 'days allowance' of cash withdrawal to get a deposit should I need it for the car..... Aargh.

This meant, to get a taxi, I first needed to go via a bank branch to do an over the counter withdrawal.

Seeing my pain, a colleague eventually offered a lift, in exchange for a modest % of the spondoolies that would have otherwise lined the taxi firms pocket.

By this point though, I'd already sorted the logistics of getting the bank branch and figured I might as well just draw the lot out, then if it was worth having, it could be job done and not have to go back and fetch it..

Dave @ a8parts sold me on the idea of a D3 over the weekend, and so a D3 it had to be, but with a good spec behind it (of course)

I'm still wrangling with the exact option list, as even Audi customer services confessed there were items fitted to the chassis that wernt on the sales order (how the hell does that happen??!!) so they pieced together some spec, from 2 different places, which I then tried to correlate with what the owner thought it might have...

But, im, well, blown away by it really. Really, really happy with it....

As a teaser, its a D3 SWB 4.2 V8 petrol, and the rest will have to wait until I've worked it all out +++

D3 eh!

Looking forward to seeing the pics and reading the specs+++