Long wait, large cheque

The car's finally back. It's taken ten phone calls and two large cheques but the short story is that the car was OK but not perfect and I had the opportunity to make it so, so I did.

The speedo problem turned out to be a differential problem. I don't know a lot about this so when told the seals and bearings were knackered I started to glaze over and say things like 'yes, sounds good' and 'expensive but probably worth it'. The car has now been returned to me with a rebuilt differential and a speedo that works.

I was also told that the oil pressure issue was something called an oil pressure relief valve. Again, no idea but it costs £200 to fix and now it works apparently.

What does this actually mean for me? Well it means I have spend the thick end of £1200 including pickup and delivery of the car and I have correct oil pressure and a speedo that works. On the face of it this sounds like a lot for a little but actually it's been a good value spend.

When I bought the car, as you get with any second hand purchase, 100 miles of driving threw up some issues a 10 minute test drive cannot. You start to notice things when you've been in the car for a while. Little things that start to annoy you and small items that quickly become big issues. So my first 120 miles was really a shakedown - a proper driving test. I had assumed that, given the TVR is basically a mass produced kit car, it would have one or two foibles. So I set aside £1k on top of the asking price for the first round of work. What I sent away was a 80% car. What I got back was a 100% car. Nothing needs doing on this motor for a while now and it drives like a brand new car.

My experience has been that I parted with about a grand, and got a car that doesn't stall when hot, tells me what speed its doing all time (reducing the need for unslightly sat nav on the windscreen) and starts when I need it to, everytime, without fail. It also makes a better noise than it used to thanks to some tuning by Chris Draycott Motorsport during its time with them.

As someone who is an everyday owner and a weekend driver, this is money massively well spent. I know that if I had left things as they were, that speedo issue would have annoyed me enough to want to sell the car. I know that the stalling due to low oil pressure would have made each journey a nervous expeirence not a joyous one, and the whine from the diff would have put me off getting in the damn thing at the start of each day.

As it stands, I come home from work and want to turn the key. I want to drive it 250 yards up the road for milk. And I want to enjoy it. After all, why do we buy these cars if we aren't prepared to get them to a level where we CAN use them daily. The financial cost of that is minimal in comparison.

The weekend approaches and I am considering taking my 2 year old out in the Chim for the first time. So expect a report soon written with one hand as I break my wrist trying to get the car seat in.....

Happy driving, people.