Originally I intended to restore my P38 and use it at weekends as a toy.
However, after driving it around the farm and generally having fun with it, I'm leaning towards doing it up and using it daily.
I used it when I bought it for a few months as a daily and loved it, however she was a tad faulty back then lol.
Am I crazy?
I guess making a P38 reliable is the hard bit lol
H
Mine's a daily and it does an unholy amount of miles for a 21-year-old vehicle. Not nearly as much as Gilbertd's though ;-)
Mine's a daily - about 9000 miles p.a. on LPG
Bordeaux 2001
Daily, in the region of 22,000 miles a year for the last 9 years. Get the LPG system sorted and you won't even worry about the cost of fuel.
Daily? yes..probably. It depends on your routine. Put it this way, I think they're great for what they are but I wouldn't use one as an ambulance!
Buy two and drive them every other day :)
Then when you need to fix something you can learn it once and practice with preventative maint on the other one!
Mines also a daily driver, though living across the Atlantic from the best parts sources, I need a good back up. It's probably my favorite vehicle to drive that the I've ever had (about 45 years of driving), both on and off road.
Harv, if you spent 45 years driving an S2A then I'm not surprised you love the P38 so much :o)
Quite true, though I've only been driving the 2A for 25 years, part of the time as my daily driver.
Out of the six or so years I've owned it, it did a three year stint as daily. Never a problem.
Now she's back to a weekend toy/
Mine has been pressed into daily service since I bought it two and a half years ago. Mines a diesel but I still love it.
@Smiler Out of interest what's the story behind your mention of PPC mag? A long time ago a different mag (Iirc Car Mechanics mag) did a big feature on LPG and I gave them most of their tech info for a free plug lol.
Have been using my P38 as a daily since September when no1 son passed his driving test and nicked the wife's car so she nicked mine. At the time I thought I was out of a job so thought I'd be fine not doing a lot of miles. Turns out I have kept working (for now) and am spending £100 week on petrol!!
I have loved using her as a daily (apart from the fuel costs - no LPG) but have now bought a cheap runabout to use as new daily. This means I can now take P38 off the road - MOT is due in December so need to get some stuff done. I was nervous of starting any pre-MOT work before having a backup - every time I've done work on her it always takes twice as long and something usually breaks ;-)
She is beginning to 'lose' coolant more markedly so think that at some point I'm going to need to invest some ££££ with Turner Engineering - as my long time 'retirement car' I will happily spend £5-7k when time and funds allow but that is some way off!
oilmagnet477 wrote:
She is beginning to 'lose' coolant more markedly so think that at some point I'm going to need to invest some ££££ with Turner Engineering - as my long time 'retirement car' I will happily spend £5-7k when time and funds allow but that is some way off!
If it's anything like mine, it's pouring out of the front of one or other of the heads where the gasket is about as wide as it is thick ;-)
I drove mine into work today after not being in it for a week or two. I had been driving it every day for months on and off over the last year or so, but I finally got my actual 'daily' sorted (again).
I love driving it around town... but christ is it slow when it comes to DCs or the motorway :)
Is that with a poorly V8 or have you got the BMW diesel motor in yet?
Lpgc wrote:
@Smiler Out of interest what's the story behind your mention of PPC mag? A long time ago a different mag (Iirc Car Mechanics mag) did a big feature on LPG and I gave them most of their tech info for a free plug lol.
I am one of their 'Staff Car' writers. Practical Performance Car magazine. I'm supposed to be writing about the Scimitar but the P38 manages to make regular appearances. The magazines director Kevin Leaper has been building a Range Rover classic purposely to be run solely on LPG. To this effect has has been building a high compression V8 for it.
Gilbertd wrote:
Is that with a poorly V8 or have you got the BMW diesel motor in yet?
Still with the poorly V8. Haven't had the time to continue the M57 investigation yet - but it is still on the agenda.
Nearly needed it again this morning mind you - BMW was considering not starting with no glow plug controller and near zero temps.
-3 here this morning, strangely the P38 was appropriated by SWMBO due to heated seats and windcreen!
Sloth wrote:
Gilbertd wrote:
Is that with a poorly V8 or have you got the BMW diesel motor in yet?
Still with the poorly V8. Haven't had the time to continue the M57 investigation yet - but it is still on the agenda.
Nearly needed it again this morning mind you - BMW was considering not starting with no glow plug controller and near zero temps.
Give it some up the nozzle with some Easy Start, that'll make it start lol.
Freezing this morning and evening (and yesterday) here :-(