Avignon Motor Festival.

The Avignon Motor Festival is an annual car show/swap meet and is the largest of its kind in the south of France. This year's ran from March 28th to the 30th. The swap meet was absolutely huge (I found some carbs for my GTV!) and the show had some amazing cars. Here are some of the highlights.

GS Birotor.. very very rare car, only about 900 were made and most were destroyed. I'll go into the history of it in a later post:


Salmson 2300S.. Salmson is one of the forgotten French brands, along with Voisin, etc:

1972 Renault 5, one of the first ones to roll off the production lines. Early models like this one had a dash mounted shifter like the Renault 4 did.

Citroen GSA Club:

Renault 5 Alpine that competed in the 1000 Pistes rallye:

Renault 20 4x4 that won the Paris-Dakar in 1982:

Alfa Romeo Alfasud Estate:

NSU Prinz 4L:

Stock Renault 5 Alpine Turbo:

I took around 200 photos so don't hesitate to contact me if you want a different shot of a car or just more photos.

2CV4.

I saw this early 70s 2CV4 in downtown Avignon. Despite being in a bit of a state it still had a valid registration and insurance slip so it's still somebody's grocery-getter. That's quite an inspiration.

300TD.

I saw this Mercedes-Benz 300TD in Avignon. I took the photo after the market there had ended and the owner was packing his stuff into it. The rear suspension was blown out (common on these), it was dented and rusty, etc, but it's still going strong like most W123s are.

I was in Avignon for the annual Motor Festival. Some of the cars there were absolutely breathtaking and will be the subject of numerous RWP posts in the near future.

Road test: 1991 Toyota Corolla

A couple of summer ago, I needed a car and ended up buying a 1991 Toyota Corolla from a friend. Having never owned a Japanese car before, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Wow, what a surprise.

The interior is very well built and holds up well. You'll never see torn seats or cracked dashes in these. The plastic used inside is durable and will never break (especially not the door handles or the window cranks), you can tell Toyota designed and built this car to last a long time.

The free revving 1500cc 4-cylinder provides all the passing power you could ever want and enables the car to keep up with even the most high end cars on the market today. The five-speed manual is precise and geared just right. Alternatively, you can opt for the sporty automatic with its quick shifts.

It's pure bliss to drive. You really feel in touch with the road. It's glued to the road at freeway speeds and especially if it's raining outside. It corners beautifully thanks to the fine-tuned suspension. It never gets stuck or loses traction in the snow.

Toyota went the extra mile when it comes to rustproofing. I have never seen a spot of rust on a Corolla, or any Toyota of that era.

The downside to owning a Corolla is that since they're so well built, they're very rare to find in junkyards if you need spare parts. But that's cancelled out by the fact that the chance of having to replace something is slim to none.

I sold this car in December 2006 and I regret that decision to this day. Due to it's rarity, values will skyrocket and it's sure to one day become a very valuable classic car that loads of people will lust after.

Bleeding green.

One afternoon I noticed a pool of coolant under my 300D. Further inspection revealed it was coming from the water pump. This car had all of the service records since new (it was a 1979 with 195,000 miles) and the words "water pump" didn't appear once so I believe it was original to the car.

The process is pretty straightforward, you don't even have to mess with the timing like you do in other cars (I'm looking at V6 Alfas here.)

1) Drain the coolant and remove the upper radiator hose.

2) Remove the bolts that hold the fan to the fan clutch. Use a box-end wrench but make sure it's a six point, NOT a twelve point. A twelve point sometimes won't get them off, I know-- I tried. Remove the fan, the fan clutch and the alternator belt. Removing the fan shroud isn't necessary the it gives you more access, I recommend it.

3) Remove the water pump bolts. Coolant will undoubtedly spew out so have something under the car ready to catch it unless you fancy having green snow on your driveway. Once the bolts are off, use a mallet to pound the water pump out of its housing.

4) Scrape off the old gasket material with a razor and dry it off. Spread gasket maker material around the pump and make sure not to go around the bolt holes. Put the new pump in its housing and tighten the bolts. Put the fan and its clutch back on (with a new alternator belt) and tighten those bolts. Put the radiator hose back on and fill the coolant. Check for leaks when it's all together.

While you're doing the water pump, change the thermostat as well. It's cheap, easy and a good precaution.

W121.

For as long as I've been going to visit my aunt's family in Toulon (an hour east of here) this Mercedes 190D has been parked down the street from their house. It's in decent shape especially when one considers that it never gets garaged. While I've never seen it move it's always parked in a different spot so I assume it still runs.

Saab vattenpump avhjälper

For about the last 5000 miles I've suspected the water pump on my 1993 Saab 900 was going to fail. The obvious thing to do would, of course, be replace it. But since I'm a poor college student and also generally pressed for time when it comes to doing more than topping off the perpetually dripping coolant, I didn't. This all came to a head on Easter Sunday when the original factory water pump with over 179,000 miles on it finally said "to hell with it" (in it's own metallic chirping sort of way) and released copious amounts of coolant all over a parking lot. In anticipation of the pump's immanent demise, I did get a replacement earlier in the week, which was conveniently sitting in a box behind the passenger's seat. And so, that day, I used my cheap Wal*Mart sourced emergency kit tools to replace the pump in the parking lot by my building. In my wisdom, I opted to leave my nice Craftsman toolbox with all the nice Craftsman tools in it at home - over 200 miles from my aging, high mileage car.

A long time ago I went through a spree of removing non-functional, heavy parts from my engine bay. Basically, my entire air conditioning system. This made the water pump job much easier since the AC compressor was not sitting right on top of everything I needed to get to. 

The process was more or less as follows:

-Gently push aside old, brittle, and very expensive rubber cooling hoses that are rubbing against alternator, and loosen rounded off alternator adjusting bolts. Also loosen power steering belt.

-Remove belts from pulleys, swear at car as you smack knuckles into firewall (Saab 900s have a backwards mounted engine remember)

-Remove water pump pulley, then remove water pump bolts.

-Whack water pump with tire iron so that it breaks free from housing and dumps gallons of coolant all over parking lot and your feet.

-Realize that you don't have a razor blade to scrape old gasket material off of the housing. Go up to your room (on the top floor of your building) and find that you have left your keys in the car and your door is locked. Then, go across hall and ask for a razor blade.

-Using the X-Acto blade, spend the next hour or so leaning into the fuse box and scrape all the old baked on and wet gasket material off the edge of housing. 

-If you're lucky you still have some gasket maker stuff from a previous project still sitting in your trunk. (and you never thought of getting any before committing to doing the pump job anyway) Use this to stick new paper gasket to new water pump, and install. 

-Since it's Easter Sunday and everywhere is closed, re-use one of the ancient 15 year old belts for the time being since the auto parts store only stocked two of the three required new belts at the time you purchased the pump a few days ago.

-Top off windshield washer fluid tank and use the now empty jug. Fill with water from a drinking fountain and pour it into the coolant tank. You don't have any new coolant since you never thought to get any on the way back to your building. Then, drive car very carefully, while keeping eye on temp gauge, to Wal*Mart (only place open on Easter) and buy coolant and top off tank. 

-Have a drink, then go finish some graphic design project due tomorrow morning.

EDIT: photo changed to more appropriate one of all-swedish products