Twilight
Notice anything different?
Been a while since I updated this, and progress has been relatively slow. Spent some time painting fixings for the Lotus seats I wanted to install, and doing likewise with the wiper arms which is a job I've wanted to do for ages. And as you'll see above, I fitted a Jackson Racing intake, which I've had knocking around for a while but was arm-twisted into fitting because in doing other stuff under the bonnet I split the original intake flex hose.
However, it's all been somewhat in vain. As the title of this post suggests, I think I'm coming to the end of my tenure of this car.
I started it up today for the first time in ages, just to make sure everything I've fitted works. It does, but something I've done recently has obviously disagreed with the way the car runs, and as it starts to warm up, the idle starts to die. It's not an issue I had last time I fired it up so it's presumably related to the new intake. A look online suggests it could be any number of things, most of which are probably fairly simple to sort, but to be honest I can't be bothered any longer.
I've not driven the car since February, hiding it away from the bad weather we had at the start of the year to stop any more rust developing. I let the MOT lapse, so I've not been able to drive it since, and while it's given me time to work on the car I'm just generally losing patience with spending so much time on something I'm still taxing and insuring but unable to drive. I enjoy driving more than working on stuff and I've spent far too much time doing the latter on this car.
Running problems are just the last straw for me - it's yet more firefighting, and frankly I want my garage back for the Peugeot, which needs less doing to it (in terms of maintenance, and because I don't feel the need to modify it to make it better) and has better value prospects ahead of it.
So I think the plan now is to return everything to as factory-stock as possible (which means, off the top of my head: put the original steering wheel back on, buy a Nardi gearknob for it, put the passenger seat back in and keep the standard ones, buy a BBS centre cap to replace the missing one, find a factory yellow tower brace), spruce it up a bit, possibly get the small areas of rust repaired and then sell it ahead of next summer.
Some of the cost of the above will be offset by selling the Elise seats I bought for it, selling the current Nardi wooden wheel, and selling a few other associated odds and ends, but the end result should be among the nicer examples of its type I've seen offered for sale - most S-Specs are either far from original or pretty ropey. I'll probably get back what I paid for it four years ago, but I'll no way get back everything I've spent on it since. But such is life, and sometimes you just want to cut your losses and run.
) though I've decided to give it ONE LAST CHANCE.
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