Progress has been made but a couple of issues are still challenging me - the speedo and the key situation being two of them, a knocking exhaust being the third. Mike, the previous owner had told me he backed in to something or someone - can't remember which. The result was the same either way, the driver's side exhaust got bent, it looked quite obvious from the rear of the car. I had adjusted it and it looked better but now it knocks when driving over bumpy ground so it needs a different fix. I'm hoping I can do it without having to purchase exhaust parts with their associated Bentley tax. I have an idea of what to do but it's still 30 degrees outside and I find that very draining these days. I might wait until late this evening when the heat has gone off a bit.

Twas the annual Wrangle show yesterday so it seemed like a nice opportunity to get Betty out for the day. It's only a short run, about 10 miles each way but I thought it would be a good idea to fill her up with bang bang juice so I could get an idea of how the fuel gauge reads. My plan was to fill it right up so I could work out how many litres were still in it when the gauge was down to about a quarter - I like to know these things because running out causes all sorts of problems. Anyway, I had to go in to Skeg Vegas as there are no stations between here and Wrangle, a great excuse to do an extra 15 miles or so.

That is the question that many people have asked me over the last couple of weeks, to be fair I am still wondering it myself. Those of you that know me best will know I was actually lusting over an earlier Turbo R, a car that I have admired since the mid 1980's, I have covered the story before so won't repeat it here but it's been a long burning itch that I have only recently felt in a position to scratch.

I knew the aerial was knackered when I bought the car, I had hoped to fix it but my efforts proved inadequate. Perhaps not too surprising that something that has been outside for much of it's life should pack up after 28 years, the mast sections were rusted solid. I kind of got it working but it was never going to be reliable so a replacement was sought. The nice thing about the original Bentley item is that it sits nearly flush with the body, it's very neat, a proper quality item. Trouble is finding one in working order is not at all easy. I found one but it was £350, which I thought was fairly hefty, I couldn't find one off anything else that looked similar so in the end I bought a cheap universal one as a stop gap solution. It was a wee bit cheaper than the Bentley one at a mere £26 including delivery. To be fair it doesn't look too bad, it works perfectly, gives a decent signal and means I can have radio, which is nice.

As stated in my previous article one of the rear seat switches was broken = you could feel it and the seat would not go back from the fully reclined position. I had read somewhere about some switches being unreliable so I set about looking in to my own particular situation.

The trouble with buying old cars is that sometimes they throw up problems that you really should have spotted before you handed the cash over. There is no finer example of this than my recently acquired 1998 Bentley arnage. I knew the central locking and driver's door mirror didn't work, I hadn't realised the interior lights didn't work and nor did one of the rear seat adjustment switches. To be fair I hadn't even realised the rear seats were adjustable, I just never really paid much attention to the back, I never go in there. Things got a wee bit worse when I phoned the last people that serviced the car to ask what they had done. The guy I spoke to remembered the car, said they had done a minor service then casually mentioned that there was loads wrong with the car, although he wouldn't tell me what!. It's been recently MoT'd and some issues were raised at that but only as advisories. When I mentioned the door locks he acknowledged that was one of the problems. And it is a very big problem if you go to Bentley because they will want to put 3 new locks in at a price of around 5 grand. I'm well on the way to fixing them now at a cost of half a tin of switch cleaner.

Back in 1998 Nigel Mansell got done for speeding in a Bentley Continental turbo, he was clocked at 92 on the A303 in Somerset. From memory the F1 world champion was pulled by the local plod in a Volvo t5, the copper driving it was aged about 14 and probably hit 120 or 130 to catch our Nigel up. One of the papers at the time gave the spec of the moustachioed gentleman's chariot of choice, something that somehow stayed with me. They mentioned that despite weighing 2 1/2 tonnes the 6.75 litre turbo charged charger could do 0-60 in 6.5 seconds and storm on to a top speed of over 140. That sort of thing has always impressed me in much the same way I was impressed when my half Brother first came home in a Jag 4.2, when I was more accustomed to the performance of my parent's 1300 Cortina. I like big numbers, especially when they relate to issues of petroleum.

The trouble with working on rare and desirable vehicles is that I always get a raging case of the "I wants". Every time I drive to and from Malc's in my incredibly reliable, practical and boring Insignia I often feel a bit down. Nearly all my life I have had an obsession with nice cars, it started when I was 8 years old and my eldest Brother, John, came home with a brand new 4.2 litre Jag XJ6 in leaky botty brown. It had leather and electric windows and this thing called air conditioning. It was nearly silent, rode like a magic carpet and went like nothing else my developing brain had ever experienced before - my folks had a 1300 Cortina at the time. I still remember the number plate - JPL444K. I also remember the time he parked it outside his house and it caught fire, they took the remains away and gave him another one. Anyway, I digress, I have had a number of Jags since then, a series 2 XJ, a couple or 3 XJ40's, a 4.2 S Type, a disastrous xf diesel and my peak Jag - a 2001 XJR supercharged monster. That one was Paramount Performance tuned with a straight through exhaust and smaller supercharger pulley, it had the 155 MPH speed limiter disabled and was tuned to about 440 BHP. I have had a couple of Range Rovers and a Porsche Cayenne 455 BHP twin turbo job that delighted at every prod of the throttle. Perhaps the most fun car I ever owned was an MG Montego turbo that had been very heavily modified and would humiliate just about anything and everything. Now I have an Insignia diesel. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good car. I have owned it for 18 months, it cost just 2 grand, it has never let me down, the last mot needed just two shocks at 50 quid and a pair of tyres. It's quiet, comfortable, easy to drive, it does everything you could want of a car and with tax at just 35 quid per year and over 60 MPG on a run it is the most sensible car I could possibly own right now.