[ home ]

BERT 26 + Future Ponderings
Scotland Road Trip IX

The following entry consists of photos from this year's BERT and text of the musings that have occurred during.

the youth of today

I officially retire next year and my pension kicks in. Part of that is a lump sum of cash that I probably shouldn't spend on a car. But I have form on this, when I had enough money for a house deposit back in my early 20's, I was made redundant and had to return my company car, so I blew it on a car. When I next considered buying a house, well, I blew that on a car also. Indeed when the whole partner thing didn't work out in my 30's, I may have changed car soon after. Cars have been a constant thing throughout my life that's brought me joy and contentment. No longer having a job or any meaningful income has somewhat stifled my car buying. Well that and doing some rather expensive stuff with race cars and travelling, as I figured that if I was going to retire early maybe I should do the things I would have done while I was still young and (relatively) fit enough to do so.

All of which rather long windedly brings us to now. BERT 26 is over and during it I had some time to ponder where I am in life and what I want to do next. The MX-5 has done 80k miles and is starting to get a little tired. It's been scruffy since the day I bought it as it wasn't treated particularly well by it's first owner. Where I can polish it up to look really quite decent and mechanically it's really solid, it doesn't change the fact that the suspension I fitted, which was 2nd hand, is starting to get tired again. It's not bad to be fair, and you can only tell when pushing on. Indeed, in daily driving you'd not even notice, but it's happening so maybe a couple of years left in that before I could do with some new shocks and springs. The driver's seat bolster and cushion corner have now worn through and look terrible. The seat works fine still, but on the whole looks rough. So that's two things I'll need to sort shortly on the car if I keep it.

I think I have four options. Starting with the cheapest, which is of course to keep the MX-5, fit some newer suspension and replace/recover the seats. Then just run it until it no longer passes an MOT, scrap it, then jump into the Ronda (I have a backup). This is the most sensible option if I can remain strong.

But I am weak when it comes to having some money I shouldn't spend on a car available to me. So option number two is replace it with a garage queen MX-5. There's one up the road at the moment, under 20k on the clock and it genuinely looks like a new car that's never been out in the rain. This would essentially reset the clock and give another 10 years of reliable, reasonably priced sports car motoring. It would essentially be the same car I already own, but it is by far the easiest option.

Then there is the option that I know works; a Boxster. Ideally that'd be a 981 because from driving them, they are the best all round convertible sports GT that you can buy for sensible money, and still compact enough to work on Scotland's single track roads. The one I drove had such a good lid that I genuinely couldn't tell the difference between my 987 Cayman and the 981 with the lid up. It is a simply brilliant car, but they are surprisingly expensive. The one I want, the GTS, is so far out of my budget it's not funny. That said the boggo car and the S are still belters. It's also good in both manual and PDK so the gearbox wouldn't bother me either way.

For slightly less money however, I could bag myself an F-Type V6S convertible. This is tempting me greatly. They're gorgeous. They're fully on the GT end of the spectrum, which is probably not a bad thing given my age/condition, and they're something different. All the other options I've mentioned I've owned or owned versions of. The Jag would be something new and I need to try one to make me realise that the Boxster is the sensible option. Well the MX-5 is, but I've had one for 10 years and the thought of having a different one for the next 10 is good, but it doesn't excite me.

So there it is, I have less that 12 months to make my mind up as to what I'm doing. At this point I honestly have no idea which way I'll go. Every option has it's appeal and none of them jump out as the way forward. I suppose the next thing I need to do is drive a Jag.

[ page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ]
[ back ]