Wow that was good effort my last entr ywas over a year ago.
As far as the site goes not a lot has been happening, I've been thinking about ways to make the generation of the tax discs a bit smoother online and removing the manual bit of me having to push a button to generate the discs and email them. It's not a real hassle for me but it means there can be a delay in generating and sending the discs someone requests them on the site.
However by the nature of how my hosting works it makes this a bit more complex than normal. Part of the the purpose of this project was to do something, which didn't cost a lot to host and run so I can make the discs free so I have to work within the limitations.
I also noticed no-one uses the QR Code part of the disc, which I thought was a good idea. I'm not sure if it's just not clear, badly executed or just a bad idea.
I've also been thinking about generating some new types of discs. I have the EV one but I though maybe something inspired by Back to the Future 2 and the floating cars and the future hill valley or possibly some 1920's art deco inspired designs. I'm thinking that could be quite an interesting thing to do given there's no more new tax disc designs coming from the DVLA.
On the car projects I've still got the high mile Megane R26 featured on the site. I'd like to give that some love this year if money allows as other than change the oil and some work on the front suspension it's had very little done to it. It still runs great and goes like stink so I've no complaints
I also sold my 7 series after the aircon broke on the hottest day of the year while on holiday and we had to drive back home with our heads out the windows like ace ventura. It turned out part of the clutch for the AC compressor had fell off . While we we're lucking it didn't munch through the belt it wasn't so luckly when I had to pay £450 to replace it when I got home. That was the last in a series of bills including it failing it's mot on an active shock that cost £1200! I had to import a second hand one from California for £250 that did the job as I'm not paying £1200 for anything car related that's not a complete car.. I really loved owning it, it was amazing and so much value for money for what you pay to buy it. Just don't mention what it takes to run. Live meant I had to return to reality so sold it and bought a 2018 Megane diesel estate. A great car that does 53mpg, has apple car play and duel climate control but is dull and whenever I visit someone they think I've turned up to fix their dishwasher such is it's domestic plainness.
I haven't eradicated all stupid BMW's from my life infact I think I own the one of the worst BMWs ever made. In 2006 BMW needed to homologate some E90 3 series BMW for racing. To do this they create a special edition called the 320si, which was basically a 320i msport but with a hand built by Sauber engine. The engine is based on an earlier engine used in the e46 with a trick cylinder head supposedly similiar to whats fitted to one bank of an v8 M3. This made a not that impressive 173bhp but did have a nice carbon fibre rocker cover. BMW brought 250 of them to the UK and sold them for less than a 320i msport. This meant they fell into the unwitting hands of people buying them for company cars who soon found their boots full of broken engine parts rather than the computers or carpet samples they're trying to sell
In their rush to homologate the engine and get it out the door BMW didn't really fully consider the implications of using alloy liners in the engine. This result is a lot of engines suffered fatal liner cracks sometimes resulting in chunks of the liner falling into the engine. The only permanent solution was to get the old liners bored out have cast iron ones inserted, which also required new pistons and piston rings Any one who watches M539 restorations on youtube will know the difficulties this brings as he found on his Alpina v8 engine rebuild.
Legend has it that toward the end of the 320si run and during many engine replacements BMW updated the engine with cast iron liners but I'm not sure that's true,.
Combine this with timing chain issues and exploding rear diffs has thinned the herd somewhat so there's quite a lot less than the 250 brought in remaining.
I was really fascinated with the story of this car with the racing links and just how badly BMW executed it. I never planned to own one then one day I did. £800 with a stretched timing chain I bought site unseen and got it put on the back of a truck and brought home
I'd never heard it run, it was described as a runner but when it arrived all the coil packs and spark plugs were in the boot. other wise it was incredibly rough stinking of "herbal" cigarettes and finding an uneaten vintage greggs bacon roll in the centre console. I did a budget refurb on the wheels, painted faded wing quite badly and fitted a new timing chain having found the unicorn timing tools for sale in eastern europe. It now runs, not great but it runs and there's no indication the liners have cracked. It then failed it's MOT on knackered shocks. I dismantle all the suspension before Christmas and have totally lost the will to put it back together. I however now have parts incoming and I'm hoping warmer weather may inspire me to finish it. It'll probably then blow up.
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