Category Archives: Cars-general

Do you believe in Fate?

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So do you? I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I’m not religious in any way but do feel that there is a purpose for everything and sometimes things are meant to happen in a certain way.

When I first moved to Northampton I knew no one, apart from the people I worked with, and unlike a lot of people, I didn’t really socialise with my work colleagues.

I got on the popular dating app Plenty Of Fish, and found the girl (now fiancee) I’m due to marry later in the year. (Coincientally, I have a history of dating apps. See What’s wrong with online dating? and Goodbye POF, hello Match.com)

As a part of meeting my girlfriend Annabelle, I now have several new friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. If I hadn’t hit up the dating apps that may never have happened. It is likely I would have found someone but would have taken much longer. I’m generally a fairly shy person and at the time certainly not very outgoing.

I’d always wanted to get a cat but it wasn’t until meeting Annabelle that she went out and got one… and so on and so forth.

I’d probably still be sitting with a living room full of car parts and an undecorated house too if I hadn’t gotten into a relationship so for those reasons I can only be thankful.

The same goes for the journey with my Mazda. The number of new friends and events I’ve been to and involved with since 2013 is tremendous. All because of one purchase on eBay following a night out at the pub. Hurruh for Dutch courage and trigger happy bidding fingers!

Check out this Phone Mount (Best I’ve found)

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Simple, just how I like it!

I don’t know about you but I have a really hard timer finding a mobile phone mount that is both cheap and reliable. I don’t like vent mounts and I like it on the windscreen, so a good suction mount has to work. I know these tend to have problems in warm weather but I’m in the UK and only ocassionally does it hit 30c.

I’ve previously bought the Griffin WindowSeat, and when that broke last time round I bought it again, as it did the job. But now, I’m finding it harder to get hold of so had to go hunting for another. The first eBay special I came across cost around £5 and had a bunch of positive ratings, but in reality it stuck to the windscreen for about 5 minutes and I then proceed to break it by trying to get it to fit with the suction mount from my old one – that’ll teach me!

So in my effort to get a better alternative, I hit Amazon…. and found this Arteck mount. It was equally as cheap but the reviews were all good and seemed genuine.

The mount is neat and not dissimilar to my old Griffin mount, it’s been there for a week now and hasn’t fallen down yet on it’s own so it’s got to be a win! (Having just double checked the description it seems to employ the use of 3M window mount adhesive, probably the same as the Griffin as that came with spares).

Bit of a boring post, but hope it can help you out too 🙂

Japfest, “Japscrap” and a 2JZ Volvo….

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Between myself and my girlfriend, we now have two Japanese cars – two mk1 MX5s. Before these I had a number of MGs so have the ability to compare the two quite happily. The MGs were great fun, fairly simple to maintain albeit the headgasket failed on the TF which is common for this model.

For years I had hounded those who drove Japanese cars, and called them “jap scrap”, mainly ‘cos it rhymed. But then I didn’t really have the right to. The build quality of a 26 year old MX5 is much better than that of a much newer British build car. Everything about it is as if it has been well thought out and planned. The later MGs before the company’s demise just seems rushed and ill thought. So now, with much irony, I love Japanese cars! I went to Japfest 1 and 2 last year, and now that the first has moved to Silverstone for 2016 (which is just up the road from me in Northampton) I’m already looking forward to seeing what’s on show. My turbo MX5 will probably still be waiting on it’s second life so the girlfriend’s Mk1 1.8 will probably be used… so watch this space!

Then of course, with Japanese engines also being more efficient, and fairly compact, many have been used for engine swaps etc. Who doesn’t like the 2JZ block, turbo charge it and you have a lot of power. Put that into a smaller car and you have much epic-ness!