Alfashark

Cleveland Station this arvo... Spied the 33 from a distance and thought, fuck yes a Series 3. Got up close and even better, Series 3 P4!

18 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

Isn't that true for all hybrids? Don't they rely on regen braking to top up the battery, so only work well in urban areas, or maybe hilly winding rural areas.

No, try a Niro. 

Putaruru - North Shore - Papakura - North Shore - Putaruru = 3.7L/100km, and of that, the journey from Papakura onwards was 3-up with around 300kg in the boot.

Without trawling through banana boxes of car magazines/stick mags from the early 2000s for one of the multitude of articles decrying it, here's a snip from Wiki:

Yes - Perhaps not from the same generation as the Vectra C, but yeah there was a big song and dance about Alfa using a GM core from their modular family and adding their own heads to give it a proper Alfa sound and feel. 

Seemed to do the trick, it's no Busso, but they make all the right noises and certainly feel right.

If you were feeling brave, I'm sure you could find a stacked Alfa 147/156 GTA and use that - GM 3.2 core with their own heads etc. Should be a lot more room for belt & tensioner changes too.

15 minutes ago, VitesseEFI said:

It’s out of one of the Vauxhall/Opel Omega family I believe. Most of them were auto I think. Possibly because GM don’t have a manual that will last the warranty period. 
I’ll see if I can get more detail.

 
If he were to put it up for sale I might struggle to resist the temptation…..

Found in Saab 9-3 and Vectra C down this end of the globe

It's the shit for painting canopy framing on aircraft models - Let's you run a super fine line that's dead straight and then Boom! Peel it off and you'll be the envy of all the kitset Barry world.

Is Maskol still a thing? Clear liquid latex in a bottle, slather it on then when it's dry, run your blade around the edge of the wheel and paint to your heart's content. When the paint dries, peel the Maskol off and you're done.

That said, look at the mileage on some of their rotary powered daily-drivers...

Puts the local ones to shame.

That half finished Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind kit I've got stashed in the garage, must be taken from the regular Panzer IV mouldings as there's about a million parts on the sprues that aren't mentioned on the instructions and wouldn't work on what's supposed to be a mobile anti-aircraft battery.

42 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

Read somewhere Toyota are bringing them in through Signature Class.

That's what he was meaning. They have a team on the ground clearly buying them new in Japan and shipping them here straight away, hence seeing some single or double digit odo readings. 

The yellow one on TM hits the spot - Leather and AWD, although I'm not sure how big a difference the added weight of the AWD makes in the grand scheme of things. 

If demand arises, they might decide to bring them in new. The UK just did a U-turn on the used/parallel import thing, so there is hope.

I suspect a lot of it will come down to the fact that the brand is known, but they've always had a bit of visual stigma attached to them.

Further semi-EV news, the '23 Prius is a genuinely good looking car - As far as modern appliances go.

Would happily hoon one.

Are you a GST registered business with a legitimate commercial use for the fuel? 

If yes, then you sign up. Then you'll be pre-audited, with serial numbers of the fuel sucking assets recorded (They have a manufacturer's database that they can match fuel consumption against) and your claimable work.

Some bird up north found out the hard way what happens when you bullshit the system, parole date some time after 2030.

Yeah, the wife was working for an outfit that took care of all that jazz. It's a bit of a fuck around, but pays to do it if you're a heavy user and despite the apparent ability to game the system to your advantage, it's nothing like that in reality - Serials, model numbers, figures of fuel consumption per Km or per hour and if things don't add up, then you get a visit that usually ends in tears. 

Without going hunting, it's the portal from The Man In The High Castle

And he's done part two:

Found online - The talent and creativity of people when it comes to kitsets is astounding.

Make sure you get first dibs on it, when it gets stacked. 

I'm sure you could work magic with that engine in a K11, or another Imp...

^^ This.

I've got a mate with an SS who by his own admission would rather be dead than seen in an EV, so I took him for a squirt in the 6 in Eco mode which had him grinning like a mad cunt, then in Sport mode which had him positively foaming...

Then he went down the usual "Oh but it won't go far if you drive it like that everywhere...". I think I might have seen a light bulb flick on above his head when I pointed out that he doesn't get much more than 200-250km out of his SS with his driving style.

I think he meant a little Rotrex... No taking up valuable real estate for turbo manifolds.

Yeah but your phone can already give them all of that and more. 

Strawman argument really.

Yes, they exist.

I've seen the odd one here and there - The clattering they make is the first hint.

And yes, they pay RUC, at the same rate as a car.