Frederic

Pulled out a guy at the desert near my house yesterday who got crested while taking his first steps with his new Wrangler. We had a lovely chat and he promised to join the carnity off-road club from now on 😂 Welcome to the club Jude 😂😉

I thought long about this but couldn’t find a real logic to all the cars I’ve owned and driven. All had their own pros and cons. A few highlights: * Smart Fortwo: was a fantastic little preppy car. Very little comfort but felt like driving a go kart. Sold when kids came along. * Lancia Delta: wanted something that stood out of the regular hatchbacks and was not disappointed. * BMW 318TDs touring. Was slow but sooo damn reliable and everything was just in the right place. Drove it into the ground. * Peugeot 205: was my first car and absolutely adored it. Overheated the breaks and it rained inside but this car was soo much fun. i have the tendency to go out and look for a car A and coming home with a car Z ! Sometimes the moment just grabs me and I am overcome and star struck by some cars. It’s like they choose me 🤪

Oooh I love the MR2. My colleague had one in red. Kept asking him to sell it to me but he was smart enough to keep it 😁

Interesting read, thanks @hossein ! They indeed "recommend" to drive in 4LLC but it's not really necessary so it seems. But putting the transmission into limp mode could also mean that it might disable other critical functions which we don't know about.

looks like he was coming too fast and too close to the other Landcruiser, so he might have applied the braked agressively, causing the car to sink away in the soft sand and tip over. Why aren't these guys using the flags or radios ?

My friend has the Hummer H3 and takes it for camping trips in UAE and Oman. He's happy with the performance but it is not a dune-bashing kind of car.

How much i'd love to join these rides, by Thursday night i am completely burned up as i'm currently combining three job roles at work

from what i remembered in the past, chip-tuning gives you improvement over the rpm range, but not so much on the top range (+4000 rpm) but i could be wrong. I've always been very reluctant to do chip-tuning on a car that has +80,000 km on the clock. There are so many variables that come into play when going offroad. The extreme temperatures and behavior of engine and transmission are calculated with enough margin by the manufacturer. Playing around with these settings might work fine on-road, but could give very bad results offroad. On the 3.8 SWB i think the car is more than powerful enough to get you through extreme terrain. I would spend that cash on minor upgrades (cold air intake, exhaust, iridium plugs) or other things that will slightly bump the performance without messing with the OEM ECU settings.

Hahahahaha I know but I have no idea how much @Emmanuel was pushing it at that time. My little 3.0 had to give it all and that sometimes worries me a bit, so I wish I had a bit more reserve 😉

Coming from a 3.0 owner. Go for a 3.5 or above. The 3.0 really needs to be pushed to the limit when going for dune bashing.

Ramadan Kareem ! Let this be a month of spending time with loved ones, contemplating life and love, enjoying the company of your friends, colleagues, and just sitting back and thanking that we are healthy and blessed that we can share this with others. I won’t be able to join in on the coming suhoor drives but I wish all of you all of the above !

I downloaded it on my pc to watch it at double speed. Had a bit of a Benny Hill kind of thing to it Fantastic footage and very nice to look back to and see where we can further learn and grow.

Six working hours per day. There is no distinction between Muslims or non Muslims. Most office staff works from 9 till 4. I hope to do the same 🤪

Guys I had so much fun on this drive. @Emmanuel blessed us with a fantastic track that combined both the short technical dunes, and the long and high dunes where we had to push our cars to the limiter. We had a small setback with @G.huzhis nasty pop out, and it was nearly impossible putting it back into place in that location. I loved how all worked together and kept a cool head. We all learned a great lesson and that’s what matters. @amir.rophail @Javier M @G.huz Thanks for the great company ! @Emmanuel it was a blessing to follow in the pursuit of the mighty velociraptor, containing one hell of a great guy and off-road expert ! See you soon back in the sandbox !

The Opel (Vauxhall) Manta A. I have a very very faint memory of an uncle who had one with the beige leather perforated seats and that smell and cabin still sits gently on my mind. The Lancia Fulvia or Delta, Triumph Spitfire, VW karmann ghia, Golf 1 convertible, Alfa 33, Saab 900 Turbo are all in that same boat of semi- affordable retro cars I’d like to have in my modest little garage to tinker around with once I ever retire and find the time 🤪

Just came from London a few days back where just a glimpse of sun was like a god gift. Having a drink with friends on a terrace here now so I am not complaining about this time of year 😄

PIV gearboxes were very popular in the days. We had only one mechanic who we trusted to service them. http://www.corrugatedbox.com/gearbox.html But yes, the VFD in combination with a normal gearbox has taken over most applications in the industry. Barry, If the transmission needs reprogramming, is that due to a faulty original program from Nissan ? Or is that solely to match the newly installed transmission with the onboard program ?

Welcome to Carnity @Jas Gajaria !

My dad has CVT on his Mercedes A class. Had a big issue once where they had to replace the electronic module between gear lever and CVT itself from what i understood. Had some rental cars with CVT and wasn't so fond about it; it's takes time getting used to it i guess. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1204698

In my search for a family 4x4 for my wife a while back, I came across a very decent Gen 3 2004 3.8 LWB for 12k. I ended up going for a Gen 4 2008 3.8 because the price difference of 7000AED was in my opinion justifiable for a younger car with more whistles and bells, and much lower mileage. The LWB is very good for camping and family outings, but for off-roading purpose a bit bulky and heavy, but hey it works of course. Lift-kit might come in handy if required. Be aware that the cars you will find for 8-10k range are NOT for immediate high performance Off-road drive. You'll need to get a complete checkup done of suspension, engine, gearbox. Most probably another 3-4 kAED will go into that, and if you're unlucky like me that 250K engine will misfire or head gasket might give up the ghost and that's another 5-6 kAED minimum. Adding this up your 10k car comes close to 20k. I just want you to realize that old cars perform only as good as the care you or the previous owner took of them.