Leaderboard

I know it's a car place, but how about having one more forum for other stuff where we can talk about anything other than cars. For Example: Phones School Travel Flights Games Property Restaurants Night Club

This car originally started out as a cheap car to travel to work in but I made the mistake of falling in love with it. It began life with a 2.0 boxer engine which was eventually changed to a twin turbo 2.5. I fitted a front bumper and spoiler from a Subaru Impreza. 2 completely different cars so it took a bit of work to make it fit. The new bumper came with indicators in it so I wired them up and turned the original indicators beside the headlight into sidelights. With the extra power of the bigger engine, I needed bigger brakes so I fitted ones from an Impreza WRX and they made a huge difference to the stopping power. I also fitted some alloys and a set of gas shocks and some lowering springs to help with the handling. Interior wise, I didn't do much apart from fitting a set of Recaro front seats. I fitted a decent head unit, a couple of amplifiers and subwoofers in the boot. I also had a 240v invertor in the boot, handy when you need to plug in a household appliance when on the move. Again sorry for the picture quality, I used a potato.

I picked this up a while back. It belonged to an old guy who was full of good intentions to restore it but became ill and went into hospital so his son decided to scrap it. I decided to save it because it's something you rarely see. Paid the heavy sum of 60 GBP for it, around 300 Dirhams. I cleaned the carburetor out, put some fresh petrol in, set the points and got it running but never got around to doing much else with it. I thought about doing something crazy like fitting a SR20DET engine but the footwell is so small that there's no room to add a clutch pedal. It's a 1976 Volvo 66. Basically the same car as the DAF 66 with a Volvo badge and a few minor trim differences here and there. It has a 1289cc Renault C series engine. 56 horsepower when new. It only has 20k miles on the odometer, hence why I didn't want to scrap it. It has a DAF Variomatic transmission, an early belt driven form of CVT. Crazy thing, capable of travelling in reverse at the same speed it goes forward. 40 MPH in reverse in a biscuit tin isn't as much fun as it sounds. It's damn scary. Anyway, here she is in all her primer covered glory. Sorry about the quality of the picture, I took it with my calculator.

I have friend who had a LR3, and as you describe our style of driving was "cruising", this friend cruised around 200km+ in Liwa over a 2 night trip, he did well. He knew how to use the vehicle from multiple trips, which he had learnt about the electronics and the delays in traction aids switching on/off. But once he did mention that his car's suspension had lowered completely, he had this issue occur at his home, and was able to have it towed to the dealer, they ran the fancy computer, and found that one of the rear lights, not sure if brake light or just the rear light bulb had blown. Once replaced, the suspension functioned again. I would consider this an issue, and what has been mentioned before, the reliability is something to consider when going offroad, you want to be able to get back, and if something does go wrong, and Land cruisers and Patrols do breakdown in the desert, but they can limp back and be fixed almost all over the UAE/Oman, which I assume where most of your driving would be. I own a Y61 patrol, and love it, but it is a gas guzzler, and cooling is not great for cabin or engine, also the front axle is too weak for the weight of the engine. My wife drives my older 120 series prado, very very comfortable ride, AC is very good, but there was a fault from factory for the evaporator, which leaked and needed replacement, AED3000 bill, but the only large bill in 170,000kms of motoring, yes a axle boots and modified control arms joints needed replacement, but nothing major. We used to have a V6 fortuner, and I still believe that this a unsung hero, 7 seats, rear difflock, manual shift into locked centre diff, in high and low ratio and does not guzzle fuel, but as weight is low the engine has enough power to outperform the prado and patrol. Only issue is the size of fuel tank in the early models, but your budget I think can get a 2nd generation with larger fuel tank.

Thanks for sharing this info Barry.

Parc Ferme workshop in DIP or Mazeed oil products in Garhoud. It's not cheap stuff but it lasts a long time and it works. You'll also need to buy the Evans flushing fluid. It's very important that all traces of water and old coolant are removed from the cooling system.

Taxi drivers are supposed to be professional drivers. If they don't act professionally, they deserve all they get.

How do Pajeros take to Evans Waterless Coolant? I've used it many times in old classic cars that were prone to overheating and always had positive results. http://www.evanscoolants.co.uk/Coolants/Performance/power_cool_180

Buddy, cabbies are one of the poorest guys who work for long hours up to 12-15 hours to make two ends meet for 3000 dhs salary. Financial fine is not the right way but they should be punished in some other way like reduced monthly leave or lesser incentive if goes above target etc.