Pup to podium

Resuming normal service

2009-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

So ignoring the storage situation for now....

Pup has been thinking about practicalities, it's important to be practical. After all, whatever car we choose we will be needing to cart around a load of spares and various tool based parifinalia combine this with the fact that my current steed is a 3 door supermini and you can see the temptation of an estate.

Now I know an estate conjures up images of national trust sticker in the windscreen, tartan rug in on the parcel shelf blessed with the distinct aroma of wet Labrador, but there have been some very interesting fast estates.

Now Pup's budget doesn't stretch to the granddaddy of them all the Audi RS2 as funds are about £13500 short, but there is an estate that has a distinguished history in both BTCC and has served the public with a long standing service with the UKPolice force.

I am of course referring to the tyre shredding, front suspension eating Volvo V70R

http://www..com/SALES/1313080.htm

For those not in the know, this is not just another estate with a sports badge and a leather interior oh no. It's powered by turbo charged 5 cylinder engine that was the precusor to the unit used in the Focus ST. It Pushing out 250bhp and 350 Nm of torque with a 0-60 time of around 7 seconds. Being a Volvo it's very safe with multiple airbags, sips and daytime running lights. Ok so none of these are important, but they all add up to a lot of weight that can be stripped, sold and reinvested into the project.

Defiantly one for the list:

Cost:£1000
0-60: 7.7 seconds
P2P Factor: 7/10

Falling at the first hurdle

2009-10-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

Pup was speaking to his cohorts yesterday evening, all was looking positive until we discussed the thorny issue of secure storage of the beast, no one presently owns a garage.

This means we need to find one asap, that's nearby one of our locations (Southend, London or Manchester), is secure and doesn't cost a fortune a month.

I fear this may be an impossible task.

If you know of such a place please get in contact!

All about the fundamentals

2009-10-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

"A strong house is built on strong foundations."

Wise words, but it flys in the face of what p2p is about, so lets rephrase it:

A strong house is built on blind optimism, sticking heads in sand and miserly intentions.

There, much better.....

Joking aside, for this project to have a chance of working we need to detail how much we can spend on a car. I'm undertaking this with two other people, who for now will remain nameless (this may change), I've suggested contribution of £500, creating a budget of £1500.

I think £500 each is enough to give us some flexibility without taxing our wallets too much.

Insurance, repairs, tax etc all need to come out of this budget, although the car may change this (e.g. if its a classic car we can arrange classic insurance which is much cheaper). Storage of the beast will need to have a separate fund as its currently unknown how much it will actually cost at this point.

I think that I'll come back to this poster later on in the project and laugh at how wrong my initial calculations were......

The concept

2009-10-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

If you're a fan of cars, chances are you want to drive them as god intended. Unfortunately this is no longer possible due to issues such as road racing being both illegal and unsafe, speed cameras every three meters and potentially destroying your prized vehicle.

But wait, I hear you say what about track days? Yes they may solve the first two problems but the third is magnified by a factor of a million. Although you may be a 'driving god', others may not be so gifted and so the chance that they may stuff their car into both you and the armco is fairly likely. Y

You also need to consider the moment where your talent runs, when this occurs (and it will, it's just a matter of when), do you really want to be in an expensive car? I certainly don't, I also don't want to stuff up my one mode of transport, but at the same time I can't afford a track day special or a Caterham.

I've always been a fan of the underdog, the terrier nipping at your heels, the guy with his best days behind him but puts it back together for one last blaze of glory. What that mess of clichés is trying to get across is, what if we used a car that used to be good but time has taken its toll? It may have 18 owners, have less floor plan than Fred Flintstones car and be leaking more oil than the Exxon Valdez.

But it will be cheap and if the worst happens, it will be true throwaway motoring.

Pup?

2009-10-18T14:07:00.001-07:00

Pup

-noun:

a young dog; puppy.
the young of certain other animals, as the rat or fur seal.
a small plant developing as an offshoot from a mature plant.
a car of poor mechanical condition