The website of Adam Sloman, motoring journalist.
Archive for October, 2009
Another advert for me!
Oct 27th
This month’s What Diesel features another article from yours truly, all about Dan Chudleigh’s Commer Campervan.
I won’t spoil it for you, the magazine is on sale now, priced at £4.50, or available digitally from the What Diesel website.
You can polish poo…
Oct 19th
As a return favour for a friend, I spent a few hours on Sunday washing and detailing her battered and abused Peugeot 106. The poor little bugger hasn’t been washed in years, and it showed!
The 106 was decidedly dirty!
Still, after a good wash, dry, clay, clense, polish and wax it looked a bit better!
Getting there
Now I just need to replace the rear passenger door to lose the nasty de-laquered one, fix the rear drivers door that opens itself, change the side repeaters and find a nice subtle set of alloys for it.
Who needs scrappage when you can polish a t*rd! The little 106 has been faultless, faithful and utterly reliable for Rach, so why bin it when it works so well? A bit of TLC goes a long way, and keeping a car on the road rather than cubing it is much better for the environment too.
Before and after!
A night with the Rover Cronies…
Oct 9th
My father-in-law owns a Rover P4, and adores it. Personally I find it a bit to dull, as I’ve always preferred something a bit sporty, and thoroughly capable of being thrown around at speed. If I were looking for a classic Rover I’d go for a P5 Coupe, or a P6.
The Rover P4- a true classic, if not quite my cup of tea.
Still, the P4 is a real classic and a reminder of the quality Rover used to produce. Of course, as a committed P4 owner, Ian is a member of the Drivers Guild (the term ‘owners club’ is far too down market for a Rover owner!) and often hosts the club meets at his house, meaning all the members, or the ‘Rover cronies’ as my mother-in-law calls them, descend for the evening to discuss what they’re going to do in the next three months, how projects are coming along and other stuff. Funnily enough though, it’s not just Rovers that are the topic of discussion. One member doesn’t even own a P4 and another chap spends his time rebuild Triumph Dolomites, as well as various cars from an MG B, to a Midget, through to Morris Minors and Land Rovers, the guild meeting was actually pretty interesting, and a pretty good way to spend a Thursday night!
Damn Spam
Oct 6th
Spam-tasteless, unwanted and damn annoying
I hate Spam. Especially in it’s online form.
It seems that my blog is currently flavour of the month with the Spambots. As quickly as I can delete spam comments offering free viagra and other such exciting products, another ‘comment’ offering this kind of stuff is added. Well, I want to leave my blog open to any comment, so that people can drop by and add a comment without the hassle of registering, so I will keep battling the spammers, for now at least.
In the meantime, sorry this is happening, hopefully it won’t get in the way too much. Gits.
Congratulations, Colin!
Oct 6th
The 2009 BTCC season came to an end on Sunday at Brands Hatch and congratulations to Team RAC and Colin Turkington for winning the championship for the 1st time.
Colin Turkington-2009 BTCC Champion
Turkington began his touring car career with the MG junior team, Team Atomic Kitten, in the West Surrey Racing preperared ZS, before graduation to the full team along side Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes. He then briefly drove for Vauxhall in the Astra Sporthatch, before coming back to WSR and the ZS, before Team RAC switched to the BMW 320i.
Having been glued to the BTCC this year, both at trackside and thanks to ITV 4′s superb coverage, I’ve loved every minute of the championship and Sunday’s races were no different.
So, well done to Colin-roll on next season!
Random Road Tests: Rover 25
Oct 2nd
The 2004 Mk2 Rover 25 5 door
As my ZS has an appointment with the MOT tester today, I’ve been relieved of my beloved MG, and very kindly been lent a Rover 25 from 2004.
It’s a bit of a disappointment. I’ve got a genuine affection for the cars MG Rover built, but on the evidence of this 25, from around the time the company was on it’s death-bed, the company just didn’t deserve to survive.
Finished in Firefrost red, the 25 looks good, with 15″ alloy wheels, the paintwork is great, it’s a stunning colour, and one of my favourites. The 25′s 2004 facelift is less successful than those of the 45 and 75 in my opinion, though the revised rear with it’s retro styled ‘ROVER’ boot script looks good.
Stepping into the 25, things don’t look good. While the car I’m driving features a full leather interior, it looks cheap, and feels cheap. The seats are adjustable forward and back, but not in height, meaning my head is touching the headlining.
Cheap Leather + Harsh plastics = Bad interior
The revised cream clocks look awful, compared to the black ones found in older Rovers, and they seem to be smaller (although that might be my imagination). The new (well, for 2004, at least) dash is made from very hard, shiny plastic and in my opinion, is another step backwards in quality. The ‘wood’ centre console doesn’t do the car any favours, either. The glove box, reworked to mimic the interior of the bigger 75, is missing any form of a lining, another part of ‘Project Drive’ meaning it’s very cheap looking, the plastic itself is reminiscent of an ice-cream tub.
So, enough about the inside, what’s it like to drive? Again, not great sadly. The car is very loud on start-up (the mark two cars lost most of their sound-deadening, again, as part of Project Drive) and the 1100 K-series makes itself known immediately. Oddly, the horn sounds as if it’s inside the car-it can’t be, but it sounds like it. On the twisty roads from Budleigh back to Exeter, the 25 gives considerable body-roll, underlining that Rovers are for comfort, not for speed. It’s not a car I would use with any exuberance, in short, it inspires little confidence when pushed towards it’s limits. The gear change is notchy too, with significant play when in gear. Compared to the ZS, I seem to be sat up in a very high position.
Now, having read all that, you’ll probably think I don’t like the 200/25/ZR. Well, my other experience of the range is from my Sister-in-law’s ’99 200, and that has none of the faults from the 25, despite having done almost three times the mileage. The car is quiet, handles well and doesn’t seem to suffer the same notchy gear-change. The dash is soft to the touch, the clocks are clear and easily readable. Comparing the ’99 car to the ’04 car it just seems to underline how much quality had been stripped out of MG R’s products.
The late '90's 200 is a far superior car
