The Good and the Bad.....

The Bad: I decided to take the TR6 on a short drive before we headed up to the mountains for the weekend. Car was running great, weather was good but cold and the drive was going quite well until I pulled back into my subdivision. That is when the car decided it just wasn't going to let me put it in gear at all. The clutch peddle went to the floor and nothing but grinding noises would come from the transmission when I tried to put it in gear. Luckily I was able to match revs and get it into 2nd gear which allowed me to limp it home. Got home and took a look, no fluid in the clutch master cylinder and a new spot of liquid on the driveway where I had stopped while pulling out to let the car warm up. I have not gotten under the car yet but I am betting the slave cylinder finally went. Figured as much since it looked a bit rough when I replaced the master last year. Got the new slave ordered today along with a rebuild kit for the front right brake caliper and new seat covers! That will give me a little to do in order to spiff the car up for any potential buyers.

Now for the good: The first long road-trip in the new XC70 went great. Car handled the full load well. Cruises very nice on the highway, very comfortable and has enough umpfh with the turbo to make passing easy. Handled remarkable well on the twisties although you can definitely feel the extra weight and higher center of gravity on the car. It was nice to have the AWD for the drive home, roads where a bit slushy from the snow storm Saturday night. Seat are great, much more comfortable than the Lexus and MINI seats. I don't find my self getting as tired driving this car as I did the Lexus, the seating position is just better. All in all a successful shakedown cruise for the new land yacht.

The Swedish Invasion....

Well we now have a nice '06 Volvo XC70 Cross Country parked in the garage next to the TR6. The MINI is still relegated to driveway parking and the Lexus sits out front of my wife's uncles house with a for sale sign on it. Really happy with the new Volvo, only has 16k miles and looks new every where. It is a bit creepy how much it drives like my old '87 245 wagon. I drove it around most of the weekend and was having a serious case of dejavu. It handles like the old 240, the way the body leans a bit in the corners is the exact same, the rear view mirror is in the same exact spot, even the clock control is the same type knob. Now, the XC70 is a much more comfortable car than the 240 was, seats and the interior are amazing. I just hope they hold up to 2 kids! Anyway, I'll get some pics up here sometime. Until then, happy motoring!

The new car search and a man cave...

Well, not every car that I look at is for my use only. My wife and I recently found out that we are expecting twins sometime in April. This has lead to a new car search. My wife's Lexus IS300 isn't going to be big enough to haul two youngsters around and the MINI isn't exactly kid friendly either. Since my wife will be the primary driver of the new car I have let her lead the way on what she wanted. Everyone has been telling us to get a Minivan. Umm, that would be a no. At least my wife and I finally agree on something car related, neither of us wants a Minivan and we really are not too fond of SUVs either. After throwing out a few wagon and cross overs that I thought we should go look at it was decided that we go test drive a Volvo XC70. I like the XC70, heck I like most Volvo's (something about the funky chuckiness of them, that and they still make a good wagon and I am a wagon fan, owned a 240DL wagon, great car), and the car did not disappoint. Very comfortable, back seats are managable, tons of cargo room in the back. Kel really liked how it drove like a car (this was reinforced after we test drove a Nissan Murano later in the day and she commented that it felt like she was driving a dump truck) and was easy to see out of and maneuver. That pretty much settled it, so we are now in a hunt to find a nicely used XC70. We did look at one this weekend (a pretty base 2006) and I got the chance to drive it this time. Kel was dead on in her assesment, doesn't feel all that large, has good pick up once the turbo kicks in (has a turbo 5 pot under the hood), handles well. It is kind of funny in that it feels like a very nice car but you happen to be sitting up a bit (way different from the low slung cars I am used to), but this isn't a bad thing. Figure we will resume the hunt after the holidays. I'll post update on our hunt as thed develop.

And now for something completely different...

If anyone of my readers (all 6 of them....) have visited my beer blog (plug) then you may have seen the pictures of my basement bar. I will admit it is pretty awesome, big tv, beer on draft, pool table ect. makes it a great man cave. Well, I have now seen what I have to match when I build my Man Cave Auto Annex... Check this out:



Yep. This is a picture of the car cave of a good friends brothers house. Yes that is a Land Rover Series II in the back, sitting next to it is a Triumph GT6+ (that he literally stole he got such a good deal on it) and in the fore ground is his Triumph Spitfire race car. Drool.....

Maybe one day I'll be able to post a similar picture with my TR6 in the place of the spitfire, a Landy or Nissan Patrol in the Landy spot and a Bugeye Sprite in the GT6 spot (or a GT6 if I can find one for the same deal he got..)

That is it for now.