240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Indeed yes Dave - but that is why we like our older cars. Just last week I found a little oil leak under the fuel pump (the PO had over-tightened the bolts when he fitted the new pump and split the plastic spacer). Ho hum.

What you say about Ultimate fuel is interesting. I use it in the Porsche (because I have to, either that or Tesco Momentum, I find it gives does just the same - it is a little cheaper but not enough to make much difference). In the Royal Barge I use Morrison's very cheapest, mainly because I like the idea of paying under £1/litre - and the RB seems to run just fine on it.

It is interesting that you get 15% better fuel economy on Ultimate. I topped up the RB the other day and had covered 108 miles on just over 4 gallons (not a very scientific test this one) - so 25 MPG (I think a slight increase since changing the head/ignition timing). I'm happy with that considering the type of driving: almost exclusively short journeys (the longest was my 30 mile jaunt around Rutland) it is my round town car (also a few warms-ups to I test things I've changed).

I don't think there would be any value in me changing the RB to Ultimate or Momentum just because of the type of use: the first pint mostly goes down the exhaust without contributing much to motion whilst the manual choke is on. Once we get to Morrison's roundabout the choke is fully off, but many of our errands in that car aren't much further away. It would of course make more sense to use the Skoda (or even the Porsche), but that is not the point.

It is good news that your fuel economy is returning to normal - it sounds like you have tracked down the problem. Well done.

There is a certain masochistic pleasure in running a 40 year old car Dave: it makes no great sense and doesn't really save any money, but it is a sort of addiction :-)

Stay safe,

Alan

I've tried the Tesco stuff and also the Shell stuff in both my beasts Alan and neither comes close to BP Ultimate for economy or performance come to that. When Shell first introduced V-Power, it improved the Volvo very slightly over BP Ultimate but did nothing for the Rover except made it run rough. Wasn't long before V-Power went the same way as Formula Shell in the late 80s and rough running in the Volvo set in.

Between you and John you've covered the other points i was going to make about depreciation, the "green" credentials of running older cars and so on.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

The same argument applies even more so to the Royal Barge (When are you going to 'spill the beans' on your choice of name?) and I would make no apology whatsoever for running the car. Even today, one can buy an awful lot of petrol for £4,000 a year!

Regards, John.

I'd just written a piece explaining about the 'Royal Barge' name, but the forum would not let me post it - maybe it had too many military secrets and so GCHQ stopped it? I don't know, so it will have to wait for another day :-)

[john.wigley]

Eek; I wasn't intending you to jeopardise our national security, Alan! Sorry!! J.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Eek; I wasn't intending you to jeopardise our national security, Alan! Sorry!! J.

... that was a bit tongue-in-cheek John, I don't really think anyone would be fussed :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I'd just written a piece explaining about the 'Royal Barge' name, but the forum would not let me post it - maybe it had too many military secrets and so GCHQ stopped it? I don't know, so it will have to wait for another day :-)

Did you get something like "Error 403 : you aren't permitted to post .......... on this server......" Alan?

I've had that a few times lately, seems to go through phases when that happens then suddenly all is well again and it gets forgotten about. Happens mostly on PMs i've found, there's a thread about it somewhere.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Did you get something like "Error 403 : you aren't permitted to post .......... on this server......" Alan?

I've had that a few times lately, seems to go through phases when that happens then suddenly all is well again and it gets forgotten about. Happens mostly on PMs i've found, there's a thread about it somewhere.

Exactly that Dave. I think it was just a coincidence that I'd written an explanation for the Royal Barge name for John. No matter, in a quiet moment I'll write it down again.

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Exactly that Dave. I think it was just a coincidence that I'd written an explanation for the Royal Barge name for John. No matter, in a quiet moment I'll write it down again.

:-)

Next time it does it, save a copy of what you were going to post in Notepad or similar and then post it later when the forum is working properly again. That's what i do.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Next time it does it, save a copy of what you were going to post in Notepad or similar and then post it later when the forum is working properly again. That's what i do.

Ah! That would have been a good idea.

No matter, I should have plenty of time tomorrow (Sunday) so I’ll sit down and recount the story again :-)

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Ah! That would have been a good idea.

No matter, I should have plenty of time tomorrow (Sunday) so I’ll sit down and recount the story again :-)

Alan

For got to say, you won't know it's playing up until you get the "Error 403" - use the back button in your browser to get back to the page where you've typed everything so you can save it.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

The same argument applies even more so to the Royal Barge (When are you going to 'spill the beans' on your choice of name?) and I would make no apology whatsoever for running the car. Even today, one can buy an awful lot of petrol for £4,000 a year!

Regards, John.

Good morn John,

Second attempt at explaining the derivation of the 'Royal Barge' name:

During a trip to Afghanistan, whilst serving in the military, I was working in a US national HQ as a NATO liaison officer. In the military a national HQ (and particularly an American one) can react so much quicker than a coalition, just because it only has one lot of politicians to ask for guidance, rather than the 30odd that NATO had involved in the campaign. Whenever the Americans asked NATO for a decision it had to go back to the multinational military (and sometimes political) setups for an answer - which could take weeks or months. The Americans knew this of course, and so nicknamed NATO the 'Royal Barge' because it changed course so slowly - this was meant in a good natured and humorous way - they even commissioned a cartoon that hung on the ops room wall (which I seem to remember featured me in some capacity) to commemorate the Royal Barge's involvement in some scheme or another.

That was some years ago; when I bought the 244 the 'Royal Barge' seemed like an apposite name because it changed direction so slowly compared with our Porsche - and even our Skoda Superb diesel estate. The Royal Barge name has stuck - it reminds me of a good tour: working with some exceptional people and contributing a tiny bit to making the world a slightly better place - it suits the 244 as well.

So there we have it - I like the Royal Barge :-)

Stay safe,

Alan