Southern Belle

[Chilli Girl]

Great pics. 

[Petrus]

Today drove the gf´s Peugeot 307cc along the N340. Some of it the same as Saturday.

Also a convertible, 140 ps. about the smae age and mileage.
Being 2+2 versus strictly 2 is small difference, 50% more weight is a bigger difference.
Thé difference however is FF vs. MR; apart from it being a lot heavier, most is up front and being púlled forward.
The FF layout makes the car fundamentally stable in a straight line.

Two compact convertibles from the same era with identical output yet só, almost diametrically, different.

I wanted to take photos but her´s was dirty so no go 
Ah well, summer is near so there will be plenty of opportunities in nicer settings than Málaga suburbia.

[Petrus]

The other Malageña has a religious streak so specially for her I drove up the church forecourt and







The Enkeis should be here somewhere next week.
Hopefully the wheel nuts too.

Meanwhile anxiously awaiting the Pokeball shift knob 

Oh and today was fathers´ day here.
Will save you the details of the but mountain love missed the ball whereas shé is the mother of my kid! To make that up she has offered to buy me the rear wing 

[Petrus]

Three days of sun and gfs in the MR. Done close to 100 kms of stunning roads.

Thursday with curly Malageña on the way to her appartment the exhaust reverberated in the moist quiet night air. She got all giggly so I shifted down, rvved it a bit through the next corner. When parked she observed she found the racey note veru sexy and --- euhmmmm... exciting 
Thát is a first!

Friday enjoyed a particularly beaútiful lóóóng corner, nicely banked, slighly uphill, with the car controlled júst sliding when mountain love exclaimed ´Jézus!´. So I eased up asked whether it was too fast. ´Oh no, didn´t you notice that stínk of that chicken farm we passed just there?!´

Today with Malaga nurse was just cosey pottering along. Most notable moment was the car parked right in front of the terrace where we sat, a réally good cappuccino and thé best lemon merengue pie icecream I have tasted sofar.
Whát a life.

Here a shot of the Iznajar dam. There is no way to get there other than over the most pittoresque of twisty roads. Low speed high driving fun.





Now about to leave for Antequera. My son is coming back from the students exchange in France around midnight. It is a very nice place to go out but haven´t been there at night for years so combining that with his mother.
She has purple neon glow under the car 

[Petrus]

The region I am based in the northeast of Málaga.  Bordering the provinces of Córdoba and Granada. It comprises of a very varied hilly to mountainous karst region and houses 7 véry different villages. Well, ´different´ not so much the villages itself but because of the varied geography their surroundings and economies.
Most are only connected trough local roads.

This is a minute impression of Cuavas San Marcos.

[Petrus]

It has been the most dry winter since they started recording rain here.
Thus we nééd rain.
Saw some clouds hanging low around the mountain so decided to wash the cars.
Indeed some drops.
It did not even wet the ground.
Júst enough to leave sand spots on the black car I just dried.

Mine is ok as I dried that under roof.

Still no rain worth that name.
Only 50% probablity Thursday morning.
Good for lovely drives but nothing much else.

[Petrus]

F@CK!!!
A glitch with the Enkeis I ordered. Untill the seller sorts it, no deal.  Rather unbe-effing-lievable; am prepared to pay the bucks and this is the thírd time a not at all bargain falls through! So no, not even third time lucky
Right, enough negativity.

Received two bottles of ceramic 9-whatsit wonderstuff to armour the paint.
Will try it out on the MR in the cool of the morning tomorrow before I have a go at the metallic black SUV.

Rain has been postponed till Sunday.

[Petrus]

Put the 9H stuff on.
Maybe I am doing it wrong but there seems to be a contradiction in the user info.
It says to apply it on a misted surface using a moist cloth but also that the stuff dissolves in water.
When applying the latter prooved true as any residue in a nook/cranny thwarted the polishing up dûh...
Now if you leave it enough for the crannies to dry out, the stufff does not rub out anymore.
The MR being small and mostly grey, I have sort of sorted it but the big metallic black SUV will need a different approach. Will need to think about that 

[Petrus]

Received the wheel nuts. As simple as they come yet high tensile steel and 40 gramms lighter per nut.
Times 16 it is rather more than one would expect just on a set of lug nuts.
At 40€/kg. rotating unsprung weight it is rather cheap too.
Since I was going for different wheels anyway it made sense.
Now the wheel quest has stopped it makes less sense 

They may be, veryvéry sad  , mile stone markers too btw.
For the moment I am not ordering anything form the UK to avoid it, whether correctly or incorrectly, being caught up in possible customs hassles per the 29th or 12th or 

[Joesson]

So it will be Snr Petrus that affects the UK's trading figures for March!

[Petrus]

So it will be Snr Petrus that affects the UK's trading figures for March!

Anyone EU-side with a few working brain cells will be aware that any buy arriving over the weekend máy meet with bureaucratic hassle even though it theoretically should not untill 12 April or 22 May or   
Common sense in the brain cells makes them ask; ´why risc it?´
One answer coúld be the pound dropping but that is not nów and again 

Take buying Enkei RPF1 wheels: They have a delivery from UK of 3-4 wheeks min. so which rules will be in vigor is 

Just a real world Brexit example from Spain.

Done a third of the bl@@dy big SUV. Looks good = mountain bird happy 

Will drop by the tyre bloke later in the afternoon.

[Petrus]

To avoid confusion; not mý photo nor wheels; just something to look forward to 

[shnazzle]

Those wheels are huuuuge

[Petrus]

and the tyre thus very little more than a rubber band around them.

I do not at all get the obsession with ever lower ratio tyres. It is no that the road surfaces keep up in smoothness. More like the inverse! (:< >

[Petrus]

Oh my!!!

A heat wave here!
No less than 5,5 degrees this morning 
Makes a nice change from just above zero.
Also using warm water to wash the rear of the SUV 
Makes a nice change from water just above zero  :withstupid:

[Petrus]

Took the aerial out because it going up/down all the time bothers me big time and it is also up making noise when using the cd whereas I néver use the radio. Ah ánd it removes weight. It is only 1 kilo though 

[shnazzle]

1kg for tbat unit? More than I thought

[Petrus]

1kg for tbat unit? More than I thought

I swapped one in a 4x4 some years back and that was 2 kilos. The MR2 one is just about all plastic housing in a metal bracket though. So lighter than I expected but then the metal I cut from the bonnet was heavier than I expected because I had to cut some of the reinforcing frame too.

All in all just over 60 kilos of lightness added now, counting adding the front strut brace.

Sounds a lot and yes it is noticeable, but it is not even an average passenger.

Just took the rear storage doors out. Indeed surprisingly heavy at a bit over 2,5 kilos.
Leaving the rest in as it looks neat. The doors out adds just that bit of extra space for luggage. It it needs to be stored secure, then they are put back in 10 minutes top.

[Petrus]

Ofcourse one could say it applies to any car. Any car that pushes your buttons, any car that sparks you interest, any car that stimulates to mods, is fun, motivating. I have no doubt that say an MX5 is just as satifactory.
I doubt however that it is as rewarding because the MR is véry sensitive to changes. I would not say it is more knife edge as that would suggest it is more tricky and I think it is not. What I mean is that because everything is just that bit more direct, you notice changes more direct.
This motivates to fiddle, call it faff about, with it.

Also it is in concept not designed to be practical, designed to be a runabout toy. Literally too; a Toy.
You don´t need to feel to take it seriously on the estetics. It is fun to nót take it seriously.

When driving the thing about, it provokes, gets smiles. Lots of smíles. Whether they laugh át it, or me, think it odd, ludicrous or fun, smíles it is. I have not taken it out a single time and nót seen a smile or heard a cheer from some kids.

We have fínally some rain here now. Hopefully the whole week as in the weather forecast. Just in time after the dryest winter recorded.
Means I will be doing chores inside the house and not take it out much. Next time I go down to Málaga I need luggage space so it will stay under for that too.
Time to ponder about things to do to it. Even when it is under roof because of rain it is fun :-)

Currently on the list are lighter rims, better rubber, the engine torque damper, shift knob, rear wing, smaller front number plate. Oh and the effing airbag light.
Also would like to chuck the floor mats. If I can find a bit of black cloth that sticks to the carpet so I can place it under the pedals, they are out.
Can´t think of anything more. Till I think of it ;-)

[shnazzle]

Spot on with regards to it being quite sensitive to changes, calling you to tinker. That's my problem
Hence my wife often saying "why can't you just leave it alone?".
Because it's fun! Sometimes the results of a change aren't what you hoped for, but then you can undo it, modify it, etc etc.
I love how everything seems to affect the handling, no matter how ridiculous a thing (e.g. Dev's door bracing).
I also love how responsive the engine is to changes in weather, fueling, air, etc. Some cars you could change the entire exhaust and intake and it makes no difference.
Inversely it also punishes you straight away if you do something wrong. But, the punishment isn't always terminal. The wealth of sensors and that watchdog ecu creates a lovely safety blanket.
On that note, did you know that the 1zz is used as the test/learning engine for High Performance Academy?
They chose it specifically because of its responsiveness to tuning and also how easy it is to get it to knock. That sounds like a bad thing but for an outfit that is set up for people to learn how to tune cars, it's perfect!

Gotta love the mr2. The endless money pit if you want it to be and the reliable fun roadster you barely need to touch if that's your bag

[Petrus]

Hence my wife often saying "why can't you just leave it alone?".
Because it's fun!

Fun it is 

[Petrus]

One observation though, mý gfs think me always modding my cars über
Sent them and a few female friends the above photo and ÁLL  it. Totally appreciated the humor.

Shared it with my son, his granddad and some male friends too. None gets it. What is that with blokes? All taking it serious.

Ah well, I like women better anyway 

[Petrus]

Ah  what lóvely rain!!!
A whole week of life giving water in the prognostics.

Means less farm work outside so made some time to write anóther intro for Spyderchat. The first got lost in approval by moderators.
Composed a masterpiece I say, with photos matching the story line. Alas, it was received by ´waiting for approval by...´ blurp.
That is IT!
If they cannot recover it, then tans pis for them.

Because the rain was as forecasted, I fitted the hardtop yesterday. It is very .... grey, I think. I know, it ís, but imo it jars a bit with the fun theme of the car.
So I asked the local wrapper about the possibility of a chrome wrap of it. Possible but the stuff is expensive he said.
Next is measuring how much is needed so I can decide it is worth the cost.

The Pokeball knob is nicer in the hand than the OEM one btw. It is slightly larger and feels better to the touch. Win-win-win 

One step backwards; yesterday I put the hard top on with my son. I first collected him from the bus stop. Still wonderfully sunny, so top down, enjoying the warming sun on the face.
While waiting for the bus to arive, a véry elderly lady walked up to me for a chat about the lovely car and that she thought I was só right in enjoying it.
Later in the evening mountain girl dropped in with the story that said elderly lady had stopped her in the village to say she enjoyed seeing me enjoy my convertible, life.

[Petrus]

Seeing the líght!





And the sticky tape to go around them:

[shnazzle]

Seeing the líght!





And the sticky tape to go around them:

Very very nice. The best shoes and feet in my opinion