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Having fun again!

I'd had a few mini's in my youth and learned a bit about maintenance, but tried to avoid it as I regarded cars as transport only. If you want to go fast get a bike. Any sports bike over 750cc made since the mid 80's does 0-60 in under 4 seconds and a top end that I dont have the balls to find out is really over 150mph. That sort of acceleration in a car is only available in real top end cars or light kit cars and where do you use it? With our narrow roads and cameras it only a matter of time before tears arrive, hence the popularity of track days. Its a little easier on a bike to nip through the gap on two lane roads but if you really want to go fast most now realise that the track is the place to do it.

I started to enjoy my driving again and marveled in the purity of the design and quality of the micra. I started to feel comfortable and at one such a willing performer. Read the classic "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" by Robert M Persig to see what really makes motorcyclists go for a blast just for the fun of it. Such feedback is rare in a modern cheap car. It was available in the late 80's and early 90's with the Golf GTI's and Pug 205GTI's both of which I loved, but later versions got heavier and product liability worries stopped cars with any tendancy to oversteer on the limit.

My little Micra without anti-rollbars requires setting up for bends. Throw it in 205gti style and chronic understeer with body roll sets in. Set it up gently and feel your way around and you can enjoy the experience. It certainly teaches good habits, ones I first aquired getting a tank of a Vulva 240 to wallow around bends at any sort of speed. The cast iron lump in the front goes on for ever but just wants to go straight on confirming that Newton knew his stuff!

I went through the car from one end to the other and started reading up on the internet on the common problems.......not many. For you young pups, you dont know how lucky you are! My Mini Clubman 1100 from the early 80's had brakes that would not lock the wheels over 40 mph. The slave cylinder seals went at various times on all four wheels. The sills required complete new outer skin and internal patches. A burnt out exhaust valve and a 48hp engine meant a journey towing my enduro bike to an event near Rhyader on three cylinders and 36hp = 50mph flat out! It all ended one Sunday morning when yet another slave cylinder died over-night and left me with no brakes as I approached a main road. I pulled on the hand brake so hard the mounting pulled out of the floor pan and left me with it in my hands before I grabbed the wheel and entered the main road blind and hoped! I made it just.........as nothing was coming, but it was the end for me and I sold the car later that day and the pleasures of running a Fiat 126 greeted me!

You have endured my tales without compalint so I will spare you the tale, but the Mini tale does emphasize just what quality you are getting with some modern cars, espcially a Micra. There was little to replace, a fan resistor, water pump and alternator drive belts were starting to crack and after fitting an adaptor for my CD I have had little to do with maintenance. There was one fly in the ointment and that was the failure of three tyre valves, they perished! I have never come accross this before, so I will lay the blame on the Hammerite that the previous owner had used on the wheels. Hammerite is not based in white spirit, but a form of thinners that melts almost all plastics.........if you are thinking of painting your wheels, you have been warned.

The engine in a micra really is somthing special. It was the most advanced engine in the small car world when introduced. The Ka has only just stopped using a cast iron lump from the late 50's Ford Popular which is fine with gentle use but will not stand revs like the K11 lump which revs and revs. The most important thing with Micra's is to let the engine and the oil warm up fully before giving it some. The cam chain depends on oil pressure for correct tension and wear will be so much higher if revved before properly tensioned.

The gearing I feel is too low as the engine is quite comfortable in top at just over 20 mph and given that nearly all my driving is solo a higher ratio would be better for consumption and comfort. Hills need revs and lots of them,but the little car will fly up all that valleys of South Wales has to offer. It pulls a trailer with all my camping gear with ease on the motorway, just keep momentum up. This is one adaption from running a 405 estate but as I camp a few times a year, one I make gladly.

As you cab see I was enjoying my new little toy and there was so much more to come!
 
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