This evening's Ale + Night Cap Whiskies + Pub Food

rsv1cox wrote:I usually drop my name at the end of my posts Dave, but for the most part I recently gave that up.  Reason - this place is like the bar at Cheers, where everybody knows your name anyway.  We recently did a thread on that.

If it wasn't for Lucas "The Prince of Darkness" vintage British cars would not be so bad.  It's part of the charm.  I haven't been without one for the past 30 years.  

Johnny's thread is titled "The perfect road to drive a Midget".  And he drives his a lot to the pubs throughout Blighty.  He samples food there too.  Half of foods enjoyment is the presentation, and I must say, your shames Johnny's.



My family's roots (both sides) go back to England to the 1750's.  There is still a pub there with our name on it.  

Bob

Well Bob.

The image above looks like it might be from the island of Ireland!?

The sausages look very Irish. The potato and cabbage is obviously Colcannon. The thick piece of pork looks like bacon and the thin bit like rasher. In Ireland rasher is what the English call bacon and bacon is what the English call ham.

You are quite right. Lucas products were crap.
Ford Motorcraft  similarly so.

In 1968, after working any shifts I could at Laycocks, and saving every penny, I bought a Ford Escort. It was awful. The Motorcraft electrics failed, and the body rotted, and the gearbox failed.

My girl friend, now wife, had a Mini Cooper. The Lucas stuff on it was always a problem.

In 1970, after I had written off the Escort in the1969 Jackson Trophy Rally, I bought a SAAB 96.

Without doubt, in the 1960s and 1970s, it was the best Engineered car in the world. Superbly strong shell. Superb double wishbone front suspension. Bosch electrics, which never failed. VDO instruments. Superb aerodynamics. Fantastically comfortable cloth covered seats. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Trouble is, when we got married, we were skin. So we had to sell the SAAB and keep Elaine's Mini. Worst decision ever!
I wish I had SAABs now!

I remember loads of advertisements in Motoring News for Lucas 11AC alternators. They were so unreliable they were sold week after week after week. The blinkered 'Buy British' fools were so indoctrinated that they actually believed that UK products were the best in the world. Buying a German Bosch alternator would have solved all of their problems!

Don't get me wrong. The stuff we made at Laycocks (Overdrives and Clutches) was made to the highest standards. They were perfectly Engineered. The Ferrari and Maserati overdrives were 'Works of Art'. We made the FF 4 wheel drive systems for Ford 'Crapis'. Trouble is that Laycocks, like all other UK engineering companies, was run by 'Managers' and 'Accountants'. In the UK Engineers are not appreciated. When I graduated they made me, at 24 years old, manager of the Overdrive Service Exchange Workshop. I wanted Engineering not Management so I left. In the UK Engineers mend washing machines! So they say. In the rest of Europe the title Engineer is respected. Now you know why I don't like the UK.

Well Bob. I did own a Vauxhall, but just for two days!

At one company, in the early 1980s, the new Managing Director and I did not get on. So. He got the Company Secretary to get rid of me. As part of the deal I was given my company car, a bright green Vauxhall Viva 1300. The next day, after my wife got over the shock of me being 'released', she took it and swapped it for a bright yellow Citroen 2CV for herself and I got my 1976 SAAB 96L back. The Company Secretary was given the push two weeks later. 'New Broom' thinking!?

Never had a Japanese car. Although they made some great engines, the 1970s Toyota 1600 Twin Cam being one example, they never made a body shape that look right to me.
In the late 1960s NTN Japan bought a licence to make Laycock J-Type (as fitted to MGB, et al.) Overdrives. I was seconded to Overdrive Engineering and was given the task of vetting the Japanese drawings. I soon found out why their products were so good. Their system was to produce three drawings for each component:
#1 - The Engineering Design drawing which had the correct tolerances for each component.
#2 - The Quality Control drawing which had the tolerances tightened.
#3 - The Production drawing which had tighter tolerances still.
So. Production were not permitted to use QC drawings and QC were not permitted to use Design drawings.
Thus. If a batch of components was manufactured outside QC limits then QC could release them if they were within QC limits. If sad batch was outside QC limits they would refer the matter to Design who would either Release them or have them scrapped. This is the proper way to run Engineering companies were Engineers are in control and not accountants!

In the end the deal fell through as vehicle manufactures began to produce cars with 5 speed gearboxes and overdrives were defunct!

I have been driving AUDI and VW since SAAB stopped making proper cars. Blame General Motors who ended up destroying the company by making them build Opel/Vauxhall clones.

I have a rare RHD 1991 Audi 90 Quattro 20V 'Basic' (no extras) and a rare RHD 1967 VW Golf GTI 'Basic' (no extras). I don't like: sunroofs, radios, AC, electric windows, etc. etc.. Finding RHD cars without these is quite difficult! Both are off the road at the moment. The AUDI has been stripped to the limit to eventually build a lightweight competiton car. I have Recaro seats , a rubber fuel tank, twin Bosch competition fuel pumps, BBS Forged Magnesium Alloy wheels, etc. The Golf likewise, but that is to be rebuilt to standard condition. Trouble is I don't have a garage as yet so progress is uber slow in the wet West of Ireland summers.

We also have a 1992 Audi 100 Avant which was the workhorse while I refurbished the Coach House. It has 250,000 miles on the clock and has done sterling service bringing building materials to the house including hundreds of Blue Bangor slates from the North. It never rusted because the body is galvanised, and never broke down. I did fit a new clutch, fuel pipes, and brake callipers  at 200,000 miles. It sits forlornly outside at the moment because Elaine wanted something smaller and faster!

So. We managed to find a 2003 Mk4 Golf GTI 25J (25th Anniversary) and it has now done 170,000 miles. These were never sold in Eire and they only made 1500m RHD for the UK market. Special Recaro seats, special front and rear bumpers, special exhaust, bigger  brakes, bigger wheels, 6 speed gearbox, etc. It does not have a sunroof, which is good, but does have, Air Con, Radio, 6 disc CD player and electric windows, which are all bad! I have fitted SACHS Race Engineering coil-over suspension. I have also ported and polished the inlet and exhaust ports. It sits on Pirelli P-Zero SC super sticky tyres. The engine modifications has raised the power from 180 PS to well over 200PS and because of the more efficient cylinder head fuel consumption is better. Elaine can get 40 mpg on motorway travel, 35 mpg driving carefully around our very tight and bendy one lane roads, and 30 mpg thrashing it!



As you can see our house is still a work-in-progress!

rsv1cox wrote:
What I thought was quite clever, the Australian beer can is upside down.    

Oh, ha ha ha!  You probably think the earth is flat too, don't you?

I could comment on the automotive discussion as well, but I don't want to get Dave off-side.  Well, here goes!
His "love" list is pretty much my "hate" list when it comes to car brands.  My job for the past 42 years has been fixing cars, so I've seen a lot of good and bad in that time.  Most of the bad has been caused by over-inflated costs for repairing European built cars.  The story closer to the source is probably completely different, but I dislike giving Euro car owners the bad news when it comes to repair costs.  Parts for Euro & US based vehicles out here are generally an astronomical price.  Jeep dealer wanted $1060 AUD for a set of front brake pads for an SRT8.  It's hard to give that sort of news to customers.
Sadly, since the demise of the Aussie car industry, the country is being flooded with Euro brands.  The Japanese seem to be losing their grip on the market.  Toyota set up manufacturing out here in the 60s and have always been my first choice.  My preference is based on economy of long term ownership.  Owned Toyotas since I was 16.  Many have clocked up 200,000-300,000 km trouble free.  Did 460,000km in a new 1984 Corolla with little more than a water pump and a wheel bearing.  I have a customer with an 80 Series Landcruiser that's up to 800,000km with just general maintenance- very few repairs.  Another has two Camrys with over 600,000km on each.  Amazingly reliable.
My comments come off the back of trying to sort out an electronic turbo fault in an Audi A3, recurring EGR faults in a Passat, and again EGR issues with a Korean built EU deigned GM Captiva. Apart from Youtube there's very little information available on many of these cars.  A few years ago I had to put a clutch in a Saab.  Someone put the engine in backwards!!  Clutch is at the front, timing belt to the firewall.  

I'll be glad when I'm able to hang up the tools finally.  Too late now for me to re-learn all I've learnt over 40 years.

ha my first cars was a vw scirocco 1.8 wit 2.0L porshe head cam intake modified was using a switch wit extra jet on smal extra pump using bosche jet tronique sistem very strange setup resonable power for track wit 13 in slick tire like vw but mis my crx turbo so bad wish y never sold my 91 crx sir turbo how just picturs can remind past

Speaking of exotic foreign European cars (seems everything normal in EU is considered exotic in US),

had my eyes on relatively new Mercedes Metris 8 passenger mini-vans, but after the riots, don't want others to see that big star on the grill and think I have wealth. (Metris new or used are about the same cost as other mini-vans. In reality they are a commercial vehicle, a throwback to the Chevy Astros of yesteryear in hauling capacity.) Then I saw the sale price of a replacement alternator for nearly $800 through our US auto parts stores. No wonder why they depreciate heavily, although I test drove one and really loved the handling.



So, I am now looking at the plain Jane Dodge Grand Caravans. I like them because the 2nd and 3rd row seats (depending on model) fold into the floor for full cargo carrying capacity, although not as great as the Mercedes with passenger seats removed. Anyway, enough of my foolish soccer mom discussions.

Oldenginerod wrote:I could comment on the automotive discussion as well, but I don't want to get Dave off-side.  Well, here goes!
His "love" list is pretty much my "hate" list when it comes to car brands.  My job for the past 42 years has been fixing cars, so I've seen a lot of good and bad in that time.  Most of the bad has been caused by over-inflated costs for repairing European built cars.  The story closer to the source is probably completely different, but I dislike giving Euro car owners the bad news when it comes to repair costs.  Parts for Euro & US based vehicles out here are generally an astronomical price.  Jeep dealer wanted $1060 AUD for a set of front brake pads for an SRT8.  It's hard to give that sort of news to customers  

I'll be glad when I'm able to hang up the tools finally.  Too late now for me to re-learn all I've learnt over 40 years.

$1060?  WOW!
I’m not rich, but I am economy minded. I have a strong dislike for VW’s engineering and parts pricing. Absolutely went nuts during the SAE to Metric changes, and when my wife came home and told me the Midas muffle guy said she need new muffler bearings?  I have my sons girlfriends car in the driveway right now waiting for me to R&R the tierod ends. Her mechanic told her they need to be replaced “soon” and gave a estimate of $450 for the job. She’s afraid to drive the car after what he told her could happen if one of them break!  Local autoparts suppliers want $33 to $65 each for the “parts” I found a close out sale on ROck Auto and bought 2 for $22 delivered to my door!
The shipping to you in Australia might be expensive but even if its $250 It’s way way less than the $1060 the dealer wants!  
Here’s the low price specials ( i guessed at 2013 SRT)


Hey I

Marleysky wrote:Absolutely went nuts during the SAE to Metric changes, and when my wife came home and told me the Midas muffle guy said she need new muffler bearings?

Went to the local parts jobber and he had them in stock.



(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Marleysky wrote:
$1060?  WOW!

$1,060 AUD equals around $750 USD currently.  Customer complaine to Jeep so they agreed to only charge $750 so long as he purchased new rotors at $500 each.  He didn't need them.  Car had only done 29,000 km from new.  I installed the pads (genuine Mopar/Brembo) and he was back for another set 20,000km later.  I researched and found a set of ceramic Hawk Performance pads to suit from a local race supplier for $375.  Fitted them along with the new rotors.  The original Brembos lasted about two blocks before the wheels were black with dust.  The new Hawks never created any visible dust and he claims stopped the car far better than the Brembos.  Also, when he sold the car about 25,000km later the pads were still like new.  Don't always assume genuine is best.
Another Grand Cherokee cracked an oil cooler, filling the radiator with engine oil. (Diesel). The replacement cooler was over $2,000 here.  Bought a genuine Mopar replacement, from Greece of all places, for under $800 delivered.

V6 diesel VW Toureg wore out it's intake swirl flap linkages at 80,000km. VW AU wanted to charge $1,800 for the whole assembly.  Didn't sell linkages separately.  Genuine VW/Audi linkage set out of England, $75 delivered.

Local merchants complain about businesses like mine purchasing on-line from overseas, but unless the locals can become a little more competitive, they're signing their own death warrant.

So, you can see from my examples that I really struggle to do the right thing by my customers, but I hate giving bad news.
"Sorry, we'll need to amputate".

Yes Rene, I use Rockauto a lot.  Even with high freight, it's still worth it even just to buy spark plugs etc.

Excellent video article, Rod. There's just one step further, change the blinker fluid. For the past several years I have been using synthetic with excellent results, a necessity for modern late model vehicles with LED's.

Oldenginerod wrote:
 A few years ago I had to put a clutch in a Saab.  Someone put the engine in backwards!!  Clutch is at the front, timing belt to the firewall.  

A brilliant design feature on the SAAB 99! Name another car were you can change the clutch without having to remove the engine and/or gearbox? Quick and easy with no special tools. Even the retaining ring just pops out. I can't remember having to change a timing belt but it's probably easier then changing the one on Elaine's Golf which is a pig needing special tools, which I made, and removing an engine mount!

I spent many happy hours at SAAB SÖDERTÄLJE watching them build SAAB 99 Turbos. There was no production line but a number of workstations where a team of 8 would completely build a car from scratch. Each team member could do every job and would swap and change as they wished. That's why the build quality was so very good.
My company made springs for many European manufacturers including: Mercedes. Volvo, Ford, etc. SAAB's Engineering requirements were of a far higher standard than any other vehicle manufacturer! Even we had difficulty meeting their standards that's why I visited them a few times.

Without doubt Audis and VWs are not as good, and I really don't like any Audi built since 1992 or any VW since 2005. Spares are expensive, but I have never needed many. The run-on problems with the 100 is a shame and was handled badly by the Accountants who ran Audi in those days! But. If you will insist on having auto. boxes, from a European manufacturer where 90% of cars are manual, then problems are too surprising!

The much vaunted German engineering is something of a myth. My own experience is that even when you can prove them wrong they will argue and prevaricate instead of getting on with eradicating problems. We purchased a taper-leaf spring forging machine from Hauser in Germany and if would not produce the required parabolic shape. It took the Hauser three months to accept that there actually might be a problem and send people over to inspect the machine. All of this time I had the Company Chairman on my back ordering me to release it for production, which I refused. In the end they found that the main component in the forging system was 10mm too long and this caused the parabola to be 20mm out of phase.

Do you remember when 3 litre Audi A4s thrashed 8 litre Dodge Vipers on US race tracks!?

This is a properly engineered car! How I wish I still had the ones I owned!
Check out the 1969 Baja 1000 video on YouTube!

Daligh wrote:A brilliant design feature on the SAAB 99! Name another car were you can change the clutch without having to remove the engine and/or gearbox? Quick and easy with no special tools.

I suppose it's a matter of what you get used to. Everybody complains about VW timing belts, but I'd easily do Elaine's any day over tackling the Saab clutch again. Ok until you find the clutch shaft is stuck fast. Also had to devise a way of compressing the pressure plate before installation because there simply was not enough room to install it including the concentric slave cylinder, which had to go in place at the same time.
The VW timing belts neen no more special tool than a white paint marking pen to ensure everything lines up visually on assembly. I've done dozens and never had problems. Sure, they're annoyingly awkward, but not difficult. Clearly repetition makes a job easier.

Oldenginerod wrote:

Daligh wrote:A brilliant design feature on the SAAB 99! Name another car were you can change the clutch without having to remove the engine and/or gearbox? Quick and easy with no special tools.

I suppose it's a matter of what you get used to.  Everybody complains about VW timing belts, but I'd easily do Elaine's any day over tackling the Saab clutch again.  Ok until you find the clutch shaft is stuck fast.  Also had to devise a way of compressing the pressure plate before installation because there simply was not enough room to install it including the concentric slave cylinder, which had to go in place at the same time.
The VW timing belts neen no more special tool than a white paint marking pen to ensure everything lines up visually on assembly.  I've done dozens and never had problems.  Sure, they're annoyingly awkward, but not difficult.  Clearly repetition makes a job easier.

In 1978 I changed a SAAB 99 clutch at the roadside outside my parents home with no trouble at all. I really can't remember it being at all difficult, mind you I did have the proper SAAB workshop manual! I always bought the pukka SAAB Workshop manual for all of my cars.

You can't have changed the timing belt on a 1.8T 20V Golf Mk4, Audi TT, etc. Changing belts on the earlier 1.8 and 2.0 GTIs is very easy.
You need a special tool to compress the belt tensioner, which is buried at the back and impossible to see, and a bent spanner. You have to removed coolant pipes and a various covers some of which are only accessible from below. You have to support the engine on jig which spans the engine bay so as to remove the engine mount I made mine from wood!

I appear to have 'Hijacked' my own thread with all this car talk.
I shall not post about cars again but return to the main theme: Booze and Pub Food!

Proper British pub food: Sausage n' Mash. This one has loads of superb onion gravy.

This is again at the Museum Pub in Sheffield.
Our great nice Charlotte now only eats Sausage n' Mash. Which is great news because up to a couple of years ago she would only eat McDonalds' Chicken Nuggets when we took her out. We once tried them but, never, never again!