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So now I’m in a hotel in Nice, 200m from the Mediterranean. More than 3000 km so far. So probably more than half way. Tomorrow it’s no longer man and machine, it’s man and wife and machine. So I’ll have someone to talk to, well maybe more listen to… Wink

And Charlie’s group for dinner Sunday. What’s not to like?!
quote:
Originally posted by No Quarter:
Oh no, not another one! You and Stick-shift McCall

I never ceases to amaze me how modern car owners want to elminate any small action with e.g. power windows and automatic climate control, but the most annoying action driving any car off track is shifting gears.
burn rubber


not me ! never had a auto and never will ! Big Grin
my last new daily , BMW 650i, which i sold due crazy taxes now in Belgium, even the factory double checked me if i wanted a manual,i replyed : who's gonne drive the car , you or me ? Cool Smiler

and now even more difficult...i wanted a BMW 530d Touring....so we made the configuration at the dealer...ready to order... and no, seems 2013 was last year with manuals Mad so i kept a eye on BMW.de and bingo ! A premium ( 4 years garantie) 530dTouring manual from 2013, 17k kilometers...in the configuration as i wanted !! ( black,Alcantara interior,sliding roof,//M set,tow hook,prof navi etc...)got the car here this week, ( German dealer was 820 km ) and me very happy Big Grin so i may have one of the last manuals 530d ....

Pitty timing ! 12/07 we go to our boat in Gogolin... could have met you in Nice on board !!
it's a Fairline 43 with Volvo diesels.In fact we bought that boat in 2012 because we wanted the harbor place for our sailboat and it was only for sale in 1 package....intention was to switch the boats in 2013 but my sailboat wasn't finished... Smiler so it became 2014... again not ready Big Grin...i play to much with cars !
No problem, summer 2014 will be again with the motorboat....and switch plans for 2015. ( Fairline comes to our harbor Blankenberge in Belgium)

So I met with the wife flying in to Nice, and we drove to the first meeting point on the McCall trip. Strange to see so many people that you appreciate, but still don’t see more often than every second year most of them, the world is just too big. I won’t go much into detail with that part of the trip, others will I’m sure, but it involves chateaus, boating, train riding, walking, gocarting, sceneries, eating, eating, eating, a bit of drinking as well. And meeting more old friends on the way.

Well we got to Le Mans, so my Longchamp reached the main goal of its pilgrimage, at that time it had driven 4400 km. And indeed it was fortunate enough to win the long distance trophy, nobody else had been crazy enough to do a detour like mine.

Right now I’m sitting at Finkenberg in Blankenheim, a place I think was discovered by Swedish DeTomaso Club that we Danes now also use, a day trip from home. Had a beer, a Jaegerschnitzel, another beer etc. Ample parking, more would join later. One interested customer, a group of three later insisted I would start it and rev it a bit. I did. The waitress later said she thought it was thunder, but maybe she was just hoping for a tip…

Tomorrow is just 800km, mostly German highways, and then this trip is over. The Longchamp, challenges on the way and all, did prove a capable continent cruiser, I never got tired of driving it at least. A few things to mend during winter, but that’s to be expected with a 35 year old car.

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quote:
Originally posted by Belgiumbarry:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by No Quarter:
Oh no, not another one! You and Stick-shift McCall

I never ceases to amaze me how modern car owners want to elminate any small action with e.g. power windows and automatic climate control, but the most annoying action driving any car off track is shifting gears.
burn rubber


not me ! never had a auto and never will ! Big Grin
my last new daily , BMW 650i, which i sold due crazy taxes now in Belgium, even the factory double checked me if i wanted a manual,i replyed : who's gonne drive the car , you or me ? Cool Smiler

QUOTE]

Good man! Someone I can COMPLETELY relate to. Have never owned an automatic (with one exception when I bought a Chicago Pólice Car (Ford Crown Victoria) at an auction for $250 USD) and never will.
OK, so I'm a Little late but I had to work.. I'm now on vacation and have time for important things - like finding out how your trip ended!

Thanks for taking the time to share - made for pretty entertaining Reading! Life is about the journey... you could have just driven straight to and from the event, but then you wouldn't have half the memories that you do. Or such a nice coffee cup!

Nice car too... pity about the automatic, but you can't have everything!
A little follow up, and a question. The bearing sound that annoyed me most of the trip, today I wanted to find out, was it gearbox or rear diff? Got the car on the lift, idled in drive, yes the sound was clearly audible. Then I took of the drive shaft, tried again, noise gone. So rear diff problem I concluded. Which is a shame as a new rear diff from UK (Jag stuff) costs £2300 Eeker

But then I noticed the yoke was like I haven't seen before, totally dry and with grooves around it. So took the yoke off the drive shaft, installed and tested. Noise still gone. So for sure noise is from rear end.

But...is the yoke supposed to be dry? All GM trans I've had experience with, when you took the yoke out, some red oil would drip out. So do I also have a trans problem, anybody know? I know I need a new yoke because of the grooving.

One more issue, since the drive shaft translates a US Ford dimension to a Jag dimension, the rear ujoint has different dimension on the the two axis', wonder where I get a new one.

Yes, actually driving your classic car costs in the maintenance/repair department, but why else would you want to have it? Smiler

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