LagondaNet

[Mitrovic]

Tomorrow, 7.11.2009 should be a meeting of Francis, Adrian, Arthur an me in our wonderful little city of Murten.

After Bruxelles Alvira and Black Lightening should meet again, may be Arthurs car will join us, too!

Zoran

[Vincent]

After two months sleeping together, 13295 sadly took part from Alvira yesterday...
But 13034 has just arrived, to get some cure and recomfort near 13295...
Nice and pretty car, cool to drive. I'll let you posted soon about its return to life !
_________________
Welcome to Paradise ! (FRONT 242)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS30BC3D5WM

[Lagondanet]

Zoran

I do so much wish we could be there with you!
I have not been out in my car since the beginning of September!
What is the matter with me?
Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mitrovic]

Yes Roger

You need to move "Golden Lightening"!

[Lagondanet]

Just done 20 miles (merely). Brilliant!
(& discovered the drivers window has stuck shut. C'est la vie!)

[Vrije]

I made 1000 KM last weekend with 007, drivers window most of the time not working(shut0,
Pulled out 059 yesterday, got a flat battery and afterward no moving window ,but open!!!!. how about bad luck/timing it was raining like hell.

Love those lagonda's!!

Harry

[Mitrovic]

It was a wonderful saturday!

First time I used heating on my car, and indeed it works!

The weather was poor, but Francis arrived at the meeting point with his wonderful car, after having done some 1400 kilometers in 2 days. ( Great job Vincent ). He was missing one wiper blade having lost it at high speed in France!
We went to Oldtimer Galerie, where I had bought my car back in 2004:



We continued in miserable weather to my "ex-chicken-farm" which is my garage, to have some fun:



In the evening we met with the rest of the Lagondalovers, in a excellent restaurant in Murten. We had a really good time as you see on the picture. Interesting topics, not only about the Lagonda:



From right: My wife Priska, Thierry ( friend of Francis ), Arthur, Francis ( the modern day adventurer ), Adrian, Petra ( Arthur's wife ), and myself.

Arthur was brave, he joined us with his lovely car, too:



It was a superb day! Go enjoy your car and yourself, life is too short!

Zoran

[Francis]

Guys,

I am now back in Montréal after spending a wonderful time over in Belgium and Switzerland (not forgetting my flash drive thru France).

I was first picked up by Vincent at the Charleroi airport on Wednesday November 3rd, as he was kind enough to drive about 100 kms to greet me there. I was all up in arms because Air France had not forwarded my luggage to Budapest earlier that morning when I arrived there and was franticly trying to get the suitcase to reach me somehow. Vincent and Françoise, from her office helped to contact Air Lost Luggage, as I prefer to call them! to arrange my luggage to meet me in Geneva the next day.

I thank them for the help they so gladly provided me. We then went to a wonderful restaurant with Gaëlle, their daughter to cap that long and eventful day I had.

The next day I went to Vincent's garage to take delivery of Alvira after all the work his team did on her. She is now back in full form thanks to their dedication.

As always on Lagondas some issues lingers but only of the minor nature. Lights here and there on the inside and the last issue of the ventilation control that should be address as soon as we figure out the part supplier for that lever device. Vincent suspect it comes from a Ford Bronco. I will investigate a bit later.

I when away from Tournai at 2 pm and drove thru France to Nyon, near Geneva to arrive at 9 pm that same day. A total of 801 kms an average of about 115 kms/h for the trip with all stops included!!!

I started slowly and had to drive cautiously thru some rain but really drove around 140 to 160 kms/h while on the road.

Alvira drove superbly! I frequently took her up above 180 and did about 4 or 5 peaks above 200kms/!!! there was still room to get her to drive faster, just my worry of getting stopped restrained me... the engine temperature was steady at 70 degrees the whole time.

At one point I lost a wiper blade driving 180 (in the light rain) but did not stop to pick it up again...so for the rest of by trip I wrapped a yellow cloth to the end of the wiper blade stem not to scratch the windshield.

The pin that holds the blade to the stem is very hard to find now a days. I will look for it here in Montreal and bring it along with me on my next trip.

After getting to Geneva, I went on to Zürich and back down to Mürten before driving back to Geneva. A total of 2100 kms all together in 5 days.

The issues are: one liter of oil per full gas tank (500 kms), as predicted by Arthur at the Lagondafest last summer...

Arriving in Zürich we encountered heavy traffic for about an hour, bumper to bumper driving stop and go every 50 meters. At that point I had filled the car up 3 times without checking oil, I only did that after filling up the fourth time and added 4 liters... So In Zürich traffic the engine heated up to 98 degrees in the last ten minutes.

Some water had transferred to the overflow tank and actually filled it full.
After transferring it back to the radiator, I noticed that no water was lost as I managed to fill it to the max with the over flow container.

On Monday night, just before storing Alvira for the winter in Thierry's garage, I drove him from his place of work in Lausanne to the Geneva Jaguar dealer while he needed to pick his car up from a routine service appointment. We encountered heavy traffic once again on the way in, and mostly on the way back to Nyon, about 35kms away from the Geneva dealer.

While stopped in traffic the temperature went up to 98 degrees and only came down to about 85 when I could drive at 100 kms/h towards the end of the journey. The thing here is that before that, on highway drives the temperature would be steady at 70 degrees...

Do I need more oil since I filled Alvira up with gas twice more without checking the level and also did not check the water to see if some water transferred to the overflow tank. I will have to check next time I go to Geneva... I was a bit too tired to go inside the engine bay and play around in it in my business suit...

Over all I do not think it is a major problem, I think I just need to be carefull in city driving conditions.

Any ideas?


Francis
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Alvira's keeper

[Francis]

Here are some pictures I took in Zürich, at the Oldtimer garage and in the garage where Alvira is spending the winter:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/Francis200261/DanikaA12Ans?authkey=Gv1sRgCOaV1Kj_utaOGQ#

The Zürich pictures are from a spot just off ParadePlatz, the exact spot where I saw a Lagonda for the first time in November 1983. This was the spot and time when I told myself that I would one day own one of those stunning cars.

The others show Thierry and Zoran just before we had that wonderfull evening at the Kaserei in Mürten with Adrian, Arthur, Petra and Priska.

Francis
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Alvira's keeper