Diary

Goodbye 2000 RM; Hello 3 RHM

Posted by Richard on 3rd February 2020
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Whilst the Kawasaki is off the road – whilst I recover from my serious crash last year – I thought I’d take the opportunity to swap the numberplate over, as the ZRX’s ‘plate is ‘better’ than the Abarth’s.

Getting them off the vehicles and onto retention certificates was easy online but I then hit a snag in that you can’t immediately reassign them until the new registration documents (that you won’t be using for anything else other than immediately making them obsolete) arrived.

Great! So whilst the bike is fine in my garage, I had to park the 124 on a private road for a couple of days until I could get it reinsured with its new numberplate.

So 2000 RM is no more (in terms of the 124); long live 3 RHM!

Happy Birthday!

Posted by Richard on 26th September 2019
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Well as it’s the 124’s third birthday – already! – it was off to the dealer for a pretty expensive service and its first MoT test.

Unsurprisingly it passed despite its equally unsurprising rusty rear discs (given it had effectively been parked for three months thanks to the motorbike collision).

So there we are: 19,864 miles of smiles. Now do I keep it until it gives up the ghost or do I trade it in towards a sensible Alfa Romeo Gillian Quadrifoglio?

Long Time No See

Posted by Richard on 24th September 2019
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Well that was nice.

I haven’t driven the 124 since the very start of July because on Sunday 7th I had a serious collision that left me with a list of “life-changing injuries” according to the police and media.

This week I upped the weight on my left leg on the advice of my physiotherapist and hydrotherapist and sought the advice of my pelvis orthopaedic consultant who said I could now drive again providing I can do an emergency stop (I’d earlier driven an auto hire car with no issues).

The 124 has been charged with a solar charger after we had a flat battery but hadn’t been started or moved so it took quite a bit of turning over before it started but wasn’t as seized in terms of the brakes as I expected.

Good to be back driving it though.

Link for attention (re the injuries): http://www.tiger1200.uk/2019/08/23/a-slight-hiccough/

Photoshoot

Posted by Richard on 10th October 2016
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So with the Spider semi-run-in, a nice day forecast and a model friend, Miss Pixie, staying and shooting with us at ours, it seemed rude not to give the Spider a good clean and then go and take some photos.

We had planned a Thelma & Louise theme to the shoot, but as it turned out it was far too windy for that, sadly, so we opted for getting Ali and Pixie to pose in and around the car anyway. Thank goodness for heated seats too…

As it turned out, the car looked just as beautiful as they did:

Special Delivery

Posted by Richard on 30th September 2016
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It’s arrived – well, a week ago, but I was in Malta on holiday and then away in the Netherlands on business – so I finally managed to pick up the Abarth 124 Spider this morning from MotorVillage Marylebone.

And it’s lovely! Pretty car! A really throaty burble too. Hit the Sport switch and in the wet conditions just as we’d collected it, it was keen to go a little sideways – very controllably. As demanded by friends, we had the theme from the Italian Job playing as we headed down Park Lane and homeward past Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.

It’s now all set up for my gadgets and my stuff is in the stash areas, some of which are hidden from view which is a nice touch.

Planning is already under way for a mountain-based Eurothrash in 2017: with the Alps again like last year in the MX-5 or the Pyrenees like I visited on the ZRX.

Order! Order!

Posted by Richard on 7th September 2016
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So having expressed an interest in buying an Abarth 124 Spider, I signed up to see if I could attend a proper test drive session: not just a quick trip around the block, especially as my local Abarth dealer is based in central London!

I put £1,000 down as a deposit and was told initially that I might be able to get one at the end of September 2016 in my chosen specification: San Marino 1972 Black and not in the Heritage trim (i.e. no matt black bonnet or boot like you see in the promo videos) as I don’t think that metallic and matt blacks would go well together. The option pack that was coming with was the Bose speaker upgrade so I was pleased with that.  A few days later, I was told Abarth UK would be in touch about a proper drive: a track session at Silverstone. That was the good news. The bad news was that they’d also accepted an order for the same car at the same time. The better news was they had another San Marino 1972 Black non-Heritage coming in sometime around the end of October/November with the Bose pack but also with the Visibility pack (rain sensors for wipers, and lights, rear parking sensors, automatic LED headlights and daytime running LEDs), so the price went up but at least I had one lined up, subject to a satisfactory hoon as I was worried about such a little 1,4L engine after the (officially-rated) 2.6L engine in my RX-8 R3.

I was going to be at some friends’ wedding over the weekend of 6/7 August and they managed to fit me on Sunday 7th in the afternoon on their weekend at Silverstone.

After a lap in the LHD version driven by the instructor, we swapped seats and off I went. Within a couple of laps I was drifting the Spider: really controllable and sounding lovely with the Monza exhaust!

This made up my mind so the next question was finalising the finances, including the part-exchange of the RX-8 and transfer of its personalised numberplate, 2000 RM.  I’d also been told that they’d had an updated delivery date of the end of September again for mine as well.

So I went into the dealer, Motor Village Marylebone, to sign the papers and drink their coffee and the deal was done!