Waiting at a junction for an oncoming car to pass, someone rear-ended my Xantia and pushed it into the path of traffic - luckily no one was hurt and he admitted liability, so a cheque to the value (£430 - I thought they were going to offer scrap money) of the uppy-downy car was sorted out quickly. Bit of a pisser because the Xantia had recently flown through an MOT test - the first car I've owned that's gone straight through.
I spotted this Volvo 940 TD a couple of weeks before by chance, delivering a slightly broken camera to my friend's parents' house.
The guy who owned it is great, he's owned all sorts of rubbish diesels from Morris Oxfords to Ford Granadas and Sierras - and some silly plastic cars. Sadly he's had to thin down his fleet due to terminal illness.
The engine is a Volkswagen D24, turbocharged and intercooled (you could buy a non turbo diesel 940 in Europe - GRIM) with around 120bhp and 177lb-ft of torque. It's languid off boost, but push the very long travel accelerator pedal down, twiddle your thumbs and it goes quite well once the turbo kicks in.
It must be one of the least refined engines fitted to a modern passenger car, other applications for this engine include the VW LT and Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer, but it's quite charming, with a deep-chested burble (& knocking injectors...) at low speeds, and a gruff straight-six soundtrack at higher revs.
Revving the engine at idle, the engine's torque (and poor mounting) makes the car wobble like some 1970s American V8 with jelly suspension.
It's fitted with a 4 speed + O/D gearbox, it's relatively low geared for a big diesel, so the engine is vocal all the time - cruising along, it reaches a peak of noisiness at about 75MPH.
That photo was taken after rigourous testing* on the A93, the highest public road in the UK.
Handling is good for a wobbly, heavy (it's not that heavy by modern standards, my neighbour's Golf TDI weighs more) RWD car with a live rear axle.
It's no Peugeot or Citroen in the chassis department, but you can chuck it about and it's quite docile, I did accidentally DRIFT it uphill somehow though.
BLUE. I should get a better picture of the blueness really, without a sheet in the way. It's a great antidote to the blacks, greys and beiges in the usual 1990s cars that I buy. The driver's seat is a bit cramped for me with the manual sunroof stealing headroom, but once settled in it's mega comfy.
I'm driving it down the road to visit a friend in Kent soon. 1200 miles round trip.
It'll be fine*.