mystery machine

Aye, I got that bit OK, was just curious as to why you would favour a dealer from a financial perspective - I thought you might have been referring to the fact that a lot of private sellers are currently asking more for their motors than the dealers (wake up guys!).Must admit that I usually go for a personal loan - often works out cheaper and isn't tied directly to the car. But everyone has their own financial circumstances, etc (not something I'm enquiring about here, of course). Tam.

Cheers, John. Can't believe you broke the Scooby taboo and actually typed the 'E' word Next thing I'll be describing the Impreza to friends as a "4 by 4"!

Fingers crossed for 35mil... On my own doorstep too... who'd have thunk it?

Not trying to be nosey here, Stewart - but I'm curious as to what you meant by that?

Sounds like they perform well, Ed. What kind of Scooby did you fit them to? (newage + 4-pot = WRX?)

Interesting - do keep us posted if you hear any more about that Hey - I could even apply to be an extra... my big break into showbiz! Do you reckon that's the same incident?Bisset is about the same age as me (he was born in 1975). If any of the events in the book were based on his own experiences during his mid teens, then they would have taken place around 1991-92 (now THOSE were the days, young Ross! ). Of course, it would make sense for him to bring the story forward in time to make the book more contemporary and appealing to the young 'uns. Guess it's also possible that he was just writing about something he'd heard, or perhaps it was all completely fictional! He does mix it up a bit right enough. For example, there's a lot of chat about text messaging and mobile phones - and there sure was none of that nonsense when me and Mr Bisset were laddies, oh no... At the time that I began courting, if you craved the company of a fair maiden, texting was not an option... Here's what you had to do: - Learn how to play the guitar. - Write a sonnet - aye, a sonnet! - Camp out below her bedroom window. - Wait until the moon reached its apex in the night sky. - Serenade her in dulcet tones, with perfect pitch. - Woo her with your sonnet, embellishing where appropriate with interesting phrasing, accentuation and inflections. - Finally - if you hadn't lost the will to live - you would ask for her father's permission to take her on a social outing (strictly no tongues). Or, failing that: - Buy her a bottle of MD 20/20 + ten fags and hope for the best...

Seriously? Where did you hear that? Hope they film it around Falkirk... Probably end up transferring the story to Surrey, casting Hugh Grant as Alvin

Heddy haw! Just read it for the first time a few weeks back Very good 'coming of age' story, written in our local tongue. Really strange to read a book where every place that's mentioned is completely familiar! Even down to the burds posing on the stairs at Rosies (a while since I've been there to see them, mind). For the most part, the car scene is a backdrop to the story. However, there's one very amusing part involving a drag race, a driver with no license and a brick wall Plenty of good Scottish humour in there too. One thing I couldn't work out while reading it was how much of the story was autobiographical. I know that Bisset is from Hallglen, but that's about it...

Yes, that would've been a bit more gentlemanly.

This country ain't big enough for the two of us!

A-HEM! As an RB320 owner, you have no place in a thread entitled 'Lack Of Power'!!! Just kidding Ross, join the fun - how's yer IAMs been keepin'?

Fair enough - but it's probably reasonable to suppose that air temp, air humidity and engine temp can also affect the likelihood of knock.I guess the only way to find out for sure would be to record the values of these multipliers over a period of time, while driving the car in various conditions... Emdy fancy loaning me a laptop and a Scooby ECU cable? (just kidding) Well, if nothing else, it's given me a better understanding of why the car might behave the way it does Cheers for the info and for your insights, Paul

Quite! Perhaps they're kerb-crawling? :crying: It's always nice to have something like that to look forward to after work - makes the day pass quicker

That's the spirit! You're right not to concern yourself too much about the smaller stones and gravel - they usually sound a lot harder on the paintwork than they actually are. They'll leave a 'rash' eventually, but hey - if appearance was all you cared about you'd have bought an Alpha, right? Also, I don't know if all the newages are the same, but mine has a thicker/grainier blend of paint on the bottoms of the doors ('stone chip resistant', I believe they call it) - seems to deflect most of the little B-road projectiles without leaving marks. Mind you, when I was down the Borders a couple months back, a passing car threw up a larger stone onto the top section of one of the doors and it left a couple of scuffs. I was a wee bit pee'd off at first, but had to accept that it's just part of the wear and tear of driving country roads, and having fun on country roads is the main reason I bought the car (apart from to get to work and back - bah!). Take care.

LMAO!

Yeah - what's all that about? Must admit that I don't really go for the 'twilight cruising'. Prefer to save my petrol for the weekend mornings when the roads are deid and the sun is (hopefully!) shining

Ouch... any hopes for having that sorted? I know someone who's about to go for a knee-replacement op (which, if I understand correctly, involves replacement of the cartilage).

Just keeping the conversation warm while everyone's away, Cathers

Result!

That's it, I'm out of the closet. I LOVE IMPREZA BUGS Sweet, sweet, sweet, Tommo!

Wouldn't it be just hilarious if, after all this detailed analysis, simboy73 came back and told us his turbo was gubbed? OK, maybe no' so hilarious for simboy...

Aye, I know what you mean Probably should have just left it at this - says everything the vast majority of us need (or want!) to know:

Cheers for posting!Interesting to see how it's broken down across the rev range - perhaps that explains some of the 'stepping' I sometimes feel accelerating through the revs? (particularly after driving sedately for a week! ).

Cheers again for the reply, Paul.OK, I understand. Let's hypothesise for a moment and assume that fuel supplies aren't necessarily consistent - even within a particular brand and flavour of fuel. Imagine then, you top up with a good batch of V-Power, give your engine a good booting for a couple hundred miles, and your IAMs hit the big 16. Next top-up the fuel isn't quite as rich in octane, and your ECU detects knock - IAM is reduced a tad and the car doesn't pull as strongly. Tank three you're back to the good stuff, but - and this is the important bit - until you've given the engine a good hoofing, your IAM remains languishing somewhere below its optimum value. OK, I've used (an assumption of) variable fuel quality as an example of a factor that may cause IAMs to be reduced, but would you agree that there are other factors that may increase the likelihood of knock, even after the ECU has decided that its current IAMs are 'safe' values - e.g. change in engine temp, air temp, humidity...? You see what I'm getting at here? You pointed out quite rightly that sedate driving doesn't directly cause timing to be retarded - however, from a driver perspective it might appear to have that effect. I'm speculating that IAMs, rather than being values that hit their targets and then stay there for 'a long time' until something freakish and out-of-the-ordinary happens, perhaps they are being pulled down more regularly as a result of knock, brought on by varying external factors. Therefore, to keep one's IAMs at or near max, one has to give one's Scooby a bit of a caning on a fairly regular basis - drive sedately and you might be allowing those values to drop... BTW - this is probably just an overly-analytical way of saying the same thing as you just did - but hey, "the devil's in the details" as they say