The Ariel Atom

It's not that I want an Ariel Atom. I plain and simply NEED one.

Step 2 and step 3

Step 2: Repaint BMW. Status: Done
Step 3: Sell BMW. Status: On going.

Road review: Vasco da Gama bridge

Vasco da gama bridge

Type: Highway with 3 lanes
Landscape: 9/10
Pavement: 7/10
Car: Audi A4 van 1.9
Length: 17.2 km
Speed limit: 120 km/h

This is one of the longest bridges in Europe with stunning views over the Tagus river. Feels very woobly even on a car with a great suspension, which is made worse by the frquent metal links among slabs. Do not take a car with even the slight sporting suspension to this piece of road.

The curse of the sportscar owner

Haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I'd put up this reply that I posted on 986forum.com to people complaining about reliability issues.

"My own view is that, unfortunately, sports cars are at the same time expensive but a bit unreliable. One cannot think about them like one does about buying a 7 series BMW or a really nice Merc sedan. problems just come with the territory. I used to be into the BMW z4 until the 987 came out (personally hated the 986 headlights). The issues that the Z4 have are countless, including a well documented failure in the steering system when the car spent a few hours under the sun. Compared to the main Z4 online forum, this 986/987 forum is reassuring. It has an order of magnitude of problems reported with the car than those reported by Z4 owners."

Sports Car Market > SCMSearch

Sports SCMSearch offers a great service for car collectors. It allows you to use e-mail technology to query their database of collector cars and returns search results by email as well.

How to get in and out of an Elise with the roof on

Here a great video showing how to get in and out of a Lotus Elise. LOL :-)

Boxster: Steps 2 and 4

Step 2: Repaint BMW: Ongoing
Step 4: Get 70 000 Euros: 3000 Euros

Cars that I plan to buy in the next 10 years

1. Porsche Boxster 987 Grey/Cocoa/Cocoa

2. Lotus Elise Artic Grey/Red

3. Ferrari F430 Red/Brown

4. Lamborghini Gallardo Yellow/Black

Six steps to Lotus

Goal:

Get one of these:




Process:

Step 1: Buy a cheap used car
Status: Completed: 1990 Toyota corolla liftback (like the one below)



Step 2: Repaint BWM
Status: Completed

Step 3: Sell BMW :-(
Status: Completed

Step 4: Get 45 000 Euro
Status: 0 euro

Step 5: Order Lotus Elise 2006
Status: Pending

Step 6: Pick up Lotus Elise 2006
Status: Pending

Umbropelling - what's in a name?

Above all else, I love driving. The night time, the time at which the world retires to the shadows, is my favorite time to drive. That's why I decided to name this blog 'umbropelling'. It comes from juxtaposing two latin roots. Umbro- means 'shadow', and -pell means 'to drive'.
This blog chronicles my history as a driver and has some (hopefully) useful information for fellow drivers in Europe, especially Portugal.