Dead Engine, And a focus....

On the way to Keswick one Saturday afternoon in late October we were stuck behind a slow moving tractor on the A66 in the V8 Jag.

At an opportune moment I pulled out and accelerated hard to overtake, then the car started behaving ODD! I let off the throttle but it kept up the revs. I pulled back in, cut the ignition and tried to restart but it would not play ball.

We costed to a layby, and she would not turn over. Not even a little. RAC took 4 Hrs to get to us and another 1.5 to get us recovered.

The engine eventually started at home but sounded dreadful. I am in the process of replacing it.


To keep me mobile I started scouring EBAY/Autotrader. Looking at everything from some horrid euro trash to XJ8's .  Eventual I bought a Panther Black 1.8L Zetec focus 3Dr. The trip to pick it up over in the north east was not fun as the weather was dreadful with torrential rain and flooding.

£300 bought it, and so far 5 months later I am still enjoying it's fun handling ( although it's a bit slow. It needed a window winder £40, cam cover gasket £8, rear bearing £12, and a caliper £15.  I also swapped on my Wolfrace Voodoo wheels and bought an ST170 half leather interior... MOT next month!