First drive of 2015

[jimj]

The roads were dry and free of salt, the Sprint hadn`t been driven for a few weeks, and I`m a firm believer that not using the car does it no favours. I was out for an hour or so, it was great, and it did rain a couple of times but the car still looks quite clean.
Jim

[pharriso]

They both look stunning!

While I entirely agree with you my car is under cover for the next 3 months... awaiting snow any week now!

[msd1107]

What does snow have to do with driving your Elan? The Elan is a great snow car.

I have driven up in snow covered roads until they closed the road. It was great on the way up, the heater kept us toasty warm. We froze on the way down, though!

David
1968 36/7988

[Spyder fan]

I took my S4 out for a drive yesterday and manged my first breakdown of the year.

Before going out, I started the car and let it idle to warm up a bit whilst I checked tyre pressures and fluid levels, then left it running whilst I took a phone call from a relative wishing happy New Year. Back outside 5 minutes later revealed a plume of steam under the bonnet. One of the heater hoses had worked loose, possibly disturbed a couple of months ago when I removed the radiator to replace the fan belt. A simple 5 minute screwdriver fix and a bit of antifreeze later and we were motoring around the very quiet roads around Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, East Peckham and Borough Green.

Good to have the problem on the driveway and not get embarrassed a couple of miles down the road

The +2 gets an airing tomorrow, hopefully it's 100% reliability over the last 6 years won't be threatened.

[ftsoft]

About the Elan being good in the snow..... I lived in Western Mass for 2 years with the Elan as my only car. My experience is somewhat different from yours. I found that in driving on perpetually snow covered roads and doing ice gymkhanas on frozen lakes that it was pretty awful. The best thing was that it was easy to push it out of big snow drifts once you slid into them. The neutral handling was a disadvantage on ice.

Frank

[Famous Frank]

You are all making me feel bad.

Mine isn't running so I could not drive it on January 1st this year. I did go out to the garage, looked at it, sandblasted and painted a few parts, and then ordered a couple more on Ebay. Does that count?

Frank

[LI-599]

Summer driving in Australia is limited only by the extreme temperatures so we tend to get out early morning for a drive on some of our nice winding roads and be back in the garage well before midday which I did on NYD and also on 2nd, but not on 3rd as it was near 40degC. Ian

[saildrive2001]

I used my S4 for the first three years I was in Ontario year round & found it a great winter car. The 50/50 weight distribution & narrow tyres gave great traction. I only got stuck once because the snow was so deep it lifted the wheels off the ground. I had to block off most of the air intake to get the car up to temp but the heater worked great.

[ceejay]

Yes indeed Ian,
A very early morning drive (@6.30AM) in the Aussie alps is THE way to go... have yet to take the S2 out for a blast, but will wait until all of the holiday terrorists....sorry, I meant tourists are mostly gone from the roads...and that looks like in the next few days. It will also be a test of new parts sourced from RDEnt; such as, upper diff mounts, torque rod bushes, and new rear strut rod bump stops installed over the holiday break. Cant wait for later in the week when the temps will drop to between 25C to 27C...awesome.
Col.