Aloha,
After spending the last 4+ months in New Zealand, where I drove A clapped out Camry, A totally soulless Bluebird, A miserable Kia, and a super cheepo Honda somethingorother, I am home here in Hawaii for a week. Here, I have a really small Chevy Shitbox of a hatchback Hire car.
For various reasons, I have been through 3 of these Chevy's in 2 days! (The blue one was the worst, only went 2 miles before shitting itself)
Being on an extended trip on the old lifeboat, I closed up shop here, sold the wife's 00 and de registered and stored the 02.
Kept a battery maintainer on it and she fired up instantly, and rose back up to ride height! Magic!

I was invited to to neighbor's house for BBQ and as it is not currently road legal, I "Had" to take the 8 mile back way up the mountain (Mauna Kea) to get there.
Fortunately it is an old sugar cane haul road, and has not been repaired for over 20 years, so it is in really bad shape (Yes!!)
For a quick jaunt up the hill, it was just plain fun with 2 river crossings.

Getting to the point.......RANGE ROVERS ROCK!!!! ('specially P-38's)
It is soooooo nice to drive a real fully capable truck that feels and handles like a velvet tank.
I had almost forgotten this due to the load of tin can trash I have been borrowing, or hiring lately.

I know that you all know this, but I am still having an Adrenalin rush from a very fast descent. Too much fun!
Oh, the Home kill Beef and Beer was epic as well! :)
Cheers,
Tom

I have to drive a tin can Renault Kangoo van for work, although tin can is perhaps the wrong description as it seems to have a fair amount of plastic in it too, but getting out of that after another 200 mile round trip in a day and getting into the P38 makes it all seem worth while. OK, so mine has the basic plod spec cloth interior and is devoid of things like cruise control but she fires up first time every time, rises up if she's been left more than 5 days (as it takes that long before it even drops a millimetre) and just does what she should. I've currently got a 2014 Bentley Continental GT Speed to play with but after a 50 mile round trip in the luxurious leather interior and testing the quoted 0-100 mph in 9 seconds a couple of times, it started to feel quite ordinary in comparison. There is just something about a P38 that cannot be described.

We have number coding in Manila, which means I can't use the '38 on Mondays. This isn't generally a problem as I work mainly from home, but on the odd occasion I do get a meeting I need to go to. This means borrowing Madam's Hateful Toyota Fortuner.

She's stuck it on 20" wheels (Philippine Style) so it drives like a pig, the turbo lag can be measured in days and you just generally feel like you need a good stiff drink and a cleansing shower after you've driven it. I could go on, but to summarise, I can't think of a single redeeming feature.

I really hate Mondays, but look forward to any excuse to get out Tuesday to Sunday!

Wouldn't it be easier to swap the plates on a Monday?

Update:
The Chevy "Spark" is so poorly made that I was able to figure out why it smelled funky when I took it from the airport.....
It is a white painted SIEVE! It leaks like a .....Heck! I can't think of anything that leaks worse!, so it leaks like a Chevy Spark!
We had 2 3/4 Inches (70mm?) of rain here last night, and the drivers footwell has 30mm of water sloshing around in it, the back seats are very moist, and the "Boot" is sodden!
Mind you, this is a new car! Getting in this morning after it had been in the sun for a bit was like climbing into a dirty old sweatsock! Whoof!

My 02 has never leaked a drop!

I have made any excuse to drive it this trip, and have done nearly 80 miles....all off sealed roads as it is deregistered.......
It will be sad to put her back in storage for the next 9 months. I will feel good knowing it is here when I come back to visit.

Shoot, in a month or so, I will be in Oz and can pull the 300Tdi powered 85 Classic "Outback Bush Basher" outta mothballs and have fun there!....But that would be another forum.....
Cheers!

Gilbertd wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier to swap the plates on a Monday?

Are you suggesting I wilfully break the law? :-)

The problem is that here, false plates or not, is the feeding frenzy instigated by a White Guy breaking a law. And possibly not just once. Y'see we have the Highway Patrol Group (part of the National Police) the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Traffic Enforcers who operate Metro wide, and then the traffic police of each individual city making up Metropolitan Manila, all looking to make a Buck. So you have the potential to be pulled three times, each by a separate agency, for a single offence.

It starts to get expensive in Tea Money!

I don't mind now and again, like the PHP200 "fine" I got for an illegal left turn, the traffic enforcer cheerfully admitting they'd removed the sign, but to go out looking for it is financial suicide!

So no, I'll stick with the Hateful Fortuner. In fact when I can, I'll borrow her driver as well, so at least if I have to be in the thing, someone else can have the displeasure of controlling it.