Would you love to read the tale of Adrian being absolutely miserable? All you need to do is join the party by becoming a member. His misery is worth it, I promise.
Would you love to read the tale of Adrian being absolutely miserable? All you need to do is join the party by becoming a member. His misery is worth it, I promise.
Part of the low fuel mileage could have been those aggressively flat tires you mention!
Those valve caps probably have to be cut off and replaced. Dissimilar metals fused together, penetrating oil or heat may get lucky, but doubt it.
No it is a design not really blocked
‘I was also getting the Ferrari ready for sale’
You are SELLING THE MONDIAL?!?!? Why?!?
Or have you found a new object of desire? Something a bit more Gothic horror? Like, say, a murdered out Rodious that is inexplicably ULEV compliant?
https://www.theautopian.com/heres-what-it-has-cost-me-to-run-a-classic-ferrari-for-three-and-a-half-years/
I mean, yeah, but it’s a Ferrari. What did you expect? Are you getting a beige Camry to replace it?
I’m very disappointed. I’ve mentioned it several times in various articles INCLUDING THE ONE I JUST LINKED TO.
A Capri 2.8? Okay, it’s no Ferrari, but it’s also no Ferrari. Hope you find a good one! In black?
That’s the plan, but I will possibly settle for dark silver.
No it will be reliable
No he is going to fall in love with a Rodius
You just need to write more Ferrari content and expense the operating and maintenance costs!
Frankly I would never trust car content from a guy who can afford to own a Ferrari. Unless Top Gear
Assuming that is sarcasm? Cause Top Gear is about as untrustworthy as you can get for primarily car-focused content.
Three unbelievably rich guys pretend to be poor. I am poor.
Was also dismayed to read that!
I’ve never met Adrian and I never expect to, though he did hurl a rather spicy insult at me in the comments once. It always gave me pleasure to imagine him tooling around the U.K. in a Ferrari and made me wonder if I could engage in such madness as well. Then I return to reality.
Oh, it’s not madness, not if you know what you’re getting into–and have a good mechanic. I’ve put nearly a thousand miles on mine since getting it back from the shop and I haven’t had a single issue. Do your homework and join the club!
You’re not special I insult everyone.
The Rodius is long
With many a winding curve
That leads eyes to who knows where, who knows where
But it’s strong, strong enough to carry Torch
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
I read all Adrian’s posts in Jeremy Iron’s Scar voice
Brabham BT52.
Someone has good taste.
Gordon Murray was the focal point of the FoS this year. There were loads of his F1 cars (interesting) and some of his road cars (boring) in the paddock. @ me in the Discord I might have a few more images
What an enjoyable Saturday read! Your writing chops are consistently among the best in the Autopian-sphere, Adrian. And that’s saying a lot, because the rest of the team aren’t slouches, by any means.
The Valve Cap Incident (which would be a great name for a punk rock group, btw) gives me an idea for some Autopian merch: a small glove box tool kit with a few essentials that could be sent to each Autopian staffer and could be purchased by the rest of us plebes to support the site. Something stylish and nice, though, not a set of cheap-ass Harbor Freight crap. Maybe through a co-sponsorship arrangement with a reputable tool company like Gedore… no, wait, there’s only one brand appropriate for this task: King Dick! I’d cough up some serious bucks for a leather-cased set of Autopian/King Dick tools.
How is this tool company not more famous? Why do I want their tools? Amazing
I’m kinda scared to google “King Dick tools”.
I don’t know what you’re on about. “King Dick” is just a totally normal, not at all unusual name for a prize-winning bulldog. 😀
I dunno, a Harbor Freight cross feels right for this group. I mean, David loves his HF foam cannon, right?
I have my dad’s old King Dick torque wrench, yes there has been plenty of entendres when it comes out of the toolbox!
Great read, Adrian. I appreciate you suffering on our behalf!
Adrian, I love your writing, but unless David literally has OCD and is OK with you discussing it, this chunk of sentence is not OK.
No need to be offended on David’s behalf. I’m capable of offending him all by myself.
I’m offended on my behalf, as an actual OCD-having person. For pretty much the reasons indicated here
Adrian makes a convincing argument that he is one of the most entertaining writers at the Autopian. And that some things (the odious Rodius) simply cannot worm their way into your heart no matter how useful they are.
Well Adrian ever the pessimist or half a pint split rather than half a bint drink. There are better ways to look at this. You had a lot of stuff to keep you occupied as opposed to getting bored. When one day was not long enough life gave you 3 days to accomplish it. Now missing notice of tires under 10psi is on you Mr car guy. And while I applaud your unique and fashion forward sense I hazard to suggest the guy selling the Rodius might have had a few qualms meeting a tall goth clad in black with painted nails sporting a Mohawk. Not judging but hey look at his side too. And even though you had many tasks at least you didn’t have to go into the office and do a real job. Lol Jk I kid. But it does seem if had you taken the time to do a cursory inspection and maintenance 90% of the problems would have never happened.
Marvelous.
That was an excellent read! Sometimes meeting your enemies just confirms they’re your enemies.
There is some wisdom in keeping your enemies close. In the case of the Rodius the opposite is true. I want it as far away from me as fucking possible.
For your list of nicknames, may I offer “Grodius”
Grodius to the Maximus people in their 60s will remember this
Scrotius
One of the races on the 24 Hours of Lemons schedule every year is the “Scrotium 500.” I’ll let them explain why.
https://youtu.be/ODMjvvVZK8Y?si=W_FEOlwNJZ2XCQpI
Or Gonorrhodius
Thanks Adrian – yet another great article. Writing like this is why I’m a member. I’d much rather spend time on a Saturday morning reading Adrian’s eloquent and well placed bitching about the Odious (I’ve seen one in person – it’s BAD) than yet another article from the other site about how purple cars cause male pattern baldness in teacup pigs.
I also enjoyed the article but can you post a link to the purple bald pig site? Asking for a friend
No! Don’t want to get banned!
I feel for you I’ve been there
There can never be an excuse for a purple car. Well maybe the commodious odious roadkillious
Purple cars can be great. Depends on the car and purple.
Show me and make me a believer. I see horrid Pontiac Firebirds, the stuff of nightmares and small body parts
Lotus Aubergine Metallic. Gorgeous color, even better in person. It goes from a very deep purple indoors or in the shade to a brilliantly bright purple in the sun, and it’s just amazing.
Not sure if it looks good cause it is a Lotus or if the color enhanced it. But I’ll give you that one. I wouldn’t own it but I also wouldn’t kick it out of my garage
I bet you are white, black, or grey? You people destroyed proper car colors.
Yellow, maroon. Gulf Blue and sadly a white Hyundai Ionic commuter car
Also your moniker is one of the best looking Fiats. Period. I would like mine in campagnolo green
Pontiac Thunderbird do Google plum crazy purple
I assume you meant Firebird
Yeah domer ever seen plum crazy purple?
Now I have after checking the inter web. The Firebird in later iterations just seemed to be trying to hard and I don’t like it in purple. However I will def change my mind for the old school purple GTO
I’ll need someone to explain how this could be “low emission” by any definition. I know nothing of ULEZ other than what the acronym stands for and Clarkson’s rants on the subject.
In short, it’s not, it’s a database error that is working out in Adrian’s favour. Transport for London (TfL) gets vehicle data from the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency). The data they provide to TfL can vary, and it’s quite clear that it’s not always accurate. There are other cars that have also been misclassified.
Well that’s disconcerting – wonder how many errors go in the other direction? Cars that should be compliant but aren’t listed…
I’m just guessing but I assume that 90% of the time it ends up on the back of a lorry so zero emissions
It’s definitely a weird one, but if you live in/near one of the cities in the UK with a ULEZ zone, it makes the car worth at least a couple of hundred quid more
One more week of misery, and then the shite box will be sold?
Or is there an XPEL location in the UK for further shenanigans?
And another fantastic article by Adrian! The king of darkness never disappoints!
Thank you.
Adrian, you do know how to turn a phrase. If there’s one thing the Odius did for your readership, it’s that.
I’m assuming there was wisely no attempt on the way back to see if the Rodius could do the ton? (I’ve wondered if Adrian’s goth sensibilities have any touch of rocker influence – he doesn’t strike me a mod).
Those tire valve caps are pretty common here in the States; they finger-twist off like normal ones.
I don’t think it will, but I’m very careful because I have six penalty points.
Well, then, that settles it. You have to drive it to Germany and take it on an unrestricted section of Autobahn.
Get some side by side shots with David’s Chrysler Voyager too – I’m sure he’s getting frequent “when can we hold the baby?” emails from his folks there and will jump on the content idea to help defray costs.
Is that a British way of saying you were afraid of chipping your nails? Not very impervious to pain Goth attitude.
Are you and Emma Watson having some sort of competition?
One of my exes lived in the same apartment block as Rupert Grint and he always had cool cars.
Maybe the Rodius will keep you on the road
We tried twisting them off the Rodius and they weren’t budging. It’s almost as if someone used Loctite when they put them on.
That’s to keep the air in, duh.
My 2010 MB TPMS valve stems went crusty crap. Pressure dropped while on a trip, I stopped to add air, had to use pliers, stem crumbled, had to put on donut spare! Bought 4 new TPMS valves, had a shop do both rears with new tires and stems, they told me the other old one crumbled on them! I’ve seen other crusty stems before, but never had them crumble. So if they use MB stems, have replacements on hand.
So DT can haul a transmission on to a airplane in carry on luggage but 1 owner and 5 employees of the Autopian staff doesn’t have a pair of plyers? I’m thinking my suggestion of a group project of writers and car afficianados to decide on a perfect car person safety pack needs done. This could help solicit advertising from car tool companies
What do I look like to you, some sort of grease monkey?
Actually here in the US you look like an Indian character in our rip-off of Ghosts. He is a great character but a 300 years old virgin. Hopefully you can do better. He could be your twin.
Makes sense. See, I thought this might be about Adrian’s nails.
Found out recently that my grandfather glued in the license plate bolts on my grandma’s car. That’s going to be a fun challenge when it comes time to get that off!
They do twist on, but the more… economical ones aren’t made of brass and are thus subject to galvanic corrosion, making them massively more difficult to twist off.