Tercel

Toyota Tercel
Plaid seats with wooly covers-
Could not be more dull.

Yes indeed, the dullness of the T*rcel has moved me to Haiku. A blue 4WD '80s family wagon, one point five litres of breathlessly reliable Toyota power. Handles like a hippo- wallowy and reluctant, at any moment it could turn and crush your skull like a watermelon. The idle circuit shutoff solenoid keeps losing power- which is fine on the highway, but not so handy at idle. I suspect its connected to the oil pressure sender, and shuts the engine off should oil pressure get too low, but I will have to find a wiring diagram to confirm that. I COULD, I suppose, just hotwire the solenoid into a known live feed, but thats cheating.

Weekend update- 3 hour stop/start (literally in the T*rcel) drive to TeAroha, burgers and muchos naughtiness (bed at 1am), slept in till midday saturday, then of for half-price lunches at the grand opening of the Palace Hotel's garden bar. Ngatea for a bit of furniture shopping, and back home for laundry, vacuuming, the baking of a Lemon Meringue Pie (which ended up being superb, and thus dinner) a movie and more naugtiness. Bed at 4am this time... that Morris is insatiable. yay!! :-D

Sunday I actually got round to fixing the T*rcel. Rebuilding carburettor on back porch while it threatened to rain on me, Rick bringing me cups of tea which got liberally flecked with grotty petrol. Yummy!! Took the T*rcel for a drive up the mountain road, the 4WD did itself proud, but the stunner was Rick driving it like a pro- no big deal? Its a MANUAL... Not once did he bunnyhop or slip the clutch, and I caught him smiling once or twice... I think Rick might be a closeted boy racer...

Fascinating nerdfact for the day- TeAroha--->Ngatea turnoff, precisely 30 minutes. Ngatea turnoff--->top of the Bombay hills, precisely 30 minutes. Bombay hill---> Symonds st offramp, precisely 30 minutes (when theres no traffic, like at 6.30am)

Brrm Brrm

I do like my cars, Im sure you've noticed. Theres something neat about using your skill to bring a big dumb machine to life, taking responsibility for the power and speed available. When I returned the T*rcel I found that Dean had left the park lights in my car on- so after a jump start I had to go for a long drive to charge the battery. *sigh* Life's tough sometimes.. The difference between the Piazza and, say, a Tercel, is wonderful. Low and grippy, adequate power, communicative steering, brakes that feed back and a strong snappy clutch all contrive to make it seem like your going faster than you are. Cruising round the waterfront or taking a blat out West is just so much fun in a half decent car that rewards good driving. :-)