Feh. Do I sell all the classics and just buy a modern?
Discussion
KPB1973 said:
Late to this party, but it has made for an interesting read on a quiet-at-work afternoon.
OP : I am not, nor am I ever likely to be, quite in your boat. But on two or three occasions (including the present time) I have found myself dodging the 'slings and arrows' and needing to significantly downgrade my cars until my business picked up.
On each occasion, I have found hunting, buying and driving something cheap but characterful to be both enormously liberating and tremendous fun. I'm off to see a 986 tomorrow which is less than 20% of the price of the car i've just had to sell.
I would hazard a guess that you'd have equally as much fun in something £5k, N/A with skinny tyres than you do in your current fleet?
Very true.OP : I am not, nor am I ever likely to be, quite in your boat. But on two or three occasions (including the present time) I have found myself dodging the 'slings and arrows' and needing to significantly downgrade my cars until my business picked up.
On each occasion, I have found hunting, buying and driving something cheap but characterful to be both enormously liberating and tremendous fun. I'm off to see a 986 tomorrow which is less than 20% of the price of the car i've just had to sell.
I would hazard a guess that you'd have equally as much fun in something £5k, N/A with skinny tyres than you do in your current fleet?
I bought a Boxster S with 15k last year. The plan was to take it to Switzerland with pals this year, having sold my long term 993 last year.
These are wonderful cars and very cheap in comparison to air cooled and indeed 968’s. I don’t think there will be another generation where values of modern classics go up in another decade or so. The future at least in Britain , is clearly not going to be involving cars that burn petrol.
That said, although they don’t look as nice or engender anywhere near the attention of an aircooled 911, for my money they are nicer to drive. Nice noise, fast-ish, mid engined 6 cylinders, hydraulic steering and, extremely cheap.
I’m selling mine as I can’t justify an Elise with a Boxster
These are wonderful cars and very cheap in comparison to air cooled and indeed 968’s. I don’t think there will be another generation where values of modern classics go up in another decade or so. The future at least in Britain , is clearly not going to be involving cars that burn petrol.
That said, although they don’t look as nice or engender anywhere near the attention of an aircooled 911, for my money they are nicer to drive. Nice noise, fast-ish, mid engined 6 cylinders, hydraulic steering and, extremely cheap.
I’m selling mine as I can’t justify an Elise with a Boxster
Here's a piece of background information that slightly takes the wind out the whole EV thing's sales. In parallel with continuing to try to get my 356 working properly (we might even nearly be there), I asked a well-known UK EV conversion firm about costs and resulting range. The answer? £35k gets you a 100-mile range.
This is a car that weighs 880kg to start with. Tesla Model 3 batteries are supposedly 250Wh per Kg. Adding 300kg of batteries plus say 100kg of reinforcement and braking upgrade to cope with the weight increase should give you a car that weighs about the same as an i3 (assuming the motor, regulator etc weigh roughly the same as the petrol engine, exhaust, gearbox and fuel tank you'd be removing). That's 75kWh, or nearly twice the 42.2kWh in our i3. Surely that should be possible, and should give a range closer to 280 miles (given that the i3 does a comfortable 160 miles).
£35k also nearly (£3k short) buys you an entire standard Tesla model 3, with 254 miles of range.
We are not impressed. EV conversion ought to be a way of preserving some of the pleasure and aesthetics of classic cars, but not if it's this immature a technology and this overpriced.
Looks like I'll be sticking with my ridiculous race motor for a while, then...
Sorry, Greta.
This is a car that weighs 880kg to start with. Tesla Model 3 batteries are supposedly 250Wh per Kg. Adding 300kg of batteries plus say 100kg of reinforcement and braking upgrade to cope with the weight increase should give you a car that weighs about the same as an i3 (assuming the motor, regulator etc weigh roughly the same as the petrol engine, exhaust, gearbox and fuel tank you'd be removing). That's 75kWh, or nearly twice the 42.2kWh in our i3. Surely that should be possible, and should give a range closer to 280 miles (given that the i3 does a comfortable 160 miles).
£35k also nearly (£3k short) buys you an entire standard Tesla model 3, with 254 miles of range.
We are not impressed. EV conversion ought to be a way of preserving some of the pleasure and aesthetics of classic cars, but not if it's this immature a technology and this overpriced.
Looks like I'll be sticking with my ridiculous race motor for a while, then...
Sorry, Greta.
^^^^ EV conversion of classics is five years away from being a sensible option in my opinion. The current solutions are crude and not good enough. The prices being asked are laughable. I see long term having an EV converted classic for town but only when the conversion makes sense and that is not now.
EV conversion of classics also has the problem (for me) that EV's are not very nice to drive. If you are comparing with a shopping car, a boggo golf then maybe. But even though they are very fast. they are just not very nice.
I'll be staying IC for as long as possible for my sports driving fun. Of course Le Famille Bert has an EV for many journeys, just not sporty ones.
Bert
I'll be staying IC for as long as possible for my sports driving fun. Of course Le Famille Bert has an EV for many journeys, just not sporty ones.
Bert
Well, one of them is back and theoretically working properly. We'll see. Just in time to enjoy this lovely weather...
Latest round of work:
There's still more to do, but most of it is minor:
Still, in the meantime, I might get to enjoy it if the rain ever stops.
Latest round of work:
- Check brake relief valve
- Check cooling system
- Fix lumpy idle
- Replace heater bypass pipes in cabin
- Beat out parking dent to door (note to self - when parking in French supermarkets...actually, don't park in French supermarkets)
- O/S door lock unreliable
- Clean and lubricate locks and window mechanisms
- Repair interior & trunk lights
- Replace exterior temp sensor
- Adjust OBC lever
- Repair cigar lighter socket
- Re-line hood
- Repair O/S door checkstrap
- Fit capping trim to top of B pillar
There's still more to do, but most of it is minor:
- Replace dash dimmer rheostat (I've got a used one to fit)
- Replace gauge rubbers (got those too, but have to find the balls to remove the gauges - necessary for the dimmer too)
- Refurbish clock face (= remove and send to Germany)
- Repair seatbelt sensors and heated seats
- Replace rear speakers
- Luminous sticker for RH interior door handle
- Remove old tracker lurking in centre console
- Refurbish areas of wear in interior trim (I need to remember what it was I used to restore the bolsters on my 360 Spider years ago)
Still, in the meantime, I might get to enjoy it if the rain ever stops.
extremely late to the topic and just picking up on one comment that went along the lines of "interest in cars waning". Last week I worked at the Sunday Scramble at Bicester, we left Northampton about 7.10, once we got over the M1 on the A43, we met a HUGE convoy of hot hatches on route to Silverstone for some event, literally thousands of tomorrows Porsche buyers...
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