Sorry Tom...memory playing tricks...I was basing in on that picture from the car in the scrap yard. Then, I thought about it a bit more, and thought the Touring had the standard mk1 style alloys...not steels. Double fail!

cheers

James

Hi Tom.
What a stuning car.Well done and good kuck.
Cheers Mark.

Thanks everyone

SteveP wrote:... how was the drive home?

Good fun, and luckily uneventful.

Had a bit of an issue with the radio, first it refused to leave the station it had been tuned to for the last 28 years, forcing me to listen to DJ Hildegard on "Elderly German Gentleman FM".

Please feel free to sample German radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDALOA_gcJQ

That's not me singing along, that's erm, the vario belts or something. Maybe I should dub a Ferrari soundtrack over it, and speed it up.

Tom

Eine kleine Gloria Estefan, Ach Nein!
Nice scenery and that, WRC deutschland made me think there must be some ace driving roads up in the mountains.

There's a great road which goes along the Rhine Valley from Bingen to Koblenz, avoiding the A61 motorway through the Hunsrück and Eifel mountains (which is scenic too, but I didn't feel like snow driving with brittle 17-year old tyres and what looks like the very first wiper blades). I highly recommend the drive for anyone in the area, the scenery in the vid is more the boring stuff where I dared film while I drive (didn't really want to land my nice new Mk1 in the ditch ).

Tom

By the way, how about the German Umweltplakette? I think you can't get one for a 340? It's a lucky thing it isn't needed in Bonn yet, or otherwise you would have a hard time finding a place to drive it...

They are talking about introducing the Umweltplakette to Bonn - how they're going to explain that to all the foreign visitors I really don't know. Hopefully by the time they get around to it, the car will be 30 years' old and eligible for a historic registration plate, they're exempt.

I'm more worried about the Trabi. From March to November it's my daily commuter on rainy days - and it's a long wait for the H-plate. It's the newest car I own

BTW, see also this post:
http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... c&start=50

Tom

Fuse wrote:My guess is that those were made out of Magnesium like some special wheels in 200-series.. Light material but not very durable in street use. If I remember correctly the R-Sport rims were made by MoMo. I might be completely wrong though.

I'm beginning to thing those wheels may have been made by ATS. Why?

* ATS made the GT "Black Beauty" alloy wheel in the Mk1 option lists
* ATS is a German company, Oettinger is a German company
* ATS made some very similar-looking rims, such as for the BMW E21
http://i9.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/22/00/35eb_1.JPG
http://www.resimler.tv/data/media/228/bmw_e21.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... _h_sst.jpg
(the BMW wheels are 14" 20-spoke, the Oettinger/R-Sports 13" 18-spoke)
* ATS still make a similar-looking wheel today, the DTS competition.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5391/imgp1041cd6.jpg
18-spoke, but much bigger these days (18").

Is that likely, or is this all far too speculative?

Cheers

Tom

Crikey, those ones on the eBay link are VERY similar. I'll have to get some good pics of the 'real' thing when I visit my parents at Christmas...when I'm getting your Leos out of the attic, Tom

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:...when I'm getting your Leos out of the attic, Tom

Aaaah, great They're destined for the GLT though, I've got a pair of standard Mk1 alloys lined up for the 343 for now.

Tom

Well, after an oil change, a polish, and some Mk1 alloys, the car's (sort of) ready for the German DAF club meet on Saturday:





A neighbour spotted me taking those pics: "Ah, Herr Trabitom, frohe Weihnachten! Am I seeing double?" "Ah no, Herr Nachbar, you are mistaken! This is a Mk1, the other is a MkIII, and the colour codes are different!".

He walked off, muttering something under his breath. Can't think why!

Had he seen this though, I would have understood:





Last summer I spotted this car parked outside our local railway station, and stuck my card under a wiper - the owner phoned me up not long after. A slightly lonely elderly gentleman, with no interest in the car really. He was most surprised to hear that there are people actually interested in these cars. And also that he's driving a rarity, an '81 MkII 343 DLS ...

Tom

Crikey Tom, you DO have a problem!

Is it 81 registered, or 81 model year? 81MY should be a mk1 with the mk2-style bumpers.

cheers

James

'81 registered, '82 model year. But I haven't bought it!! (yet) - sorry if that sounded misleading ... Just had a chat with the owner over a cup of tea.

Tom

Ah...not soooo bad, then?

See you on Saturday, all being well There aren't any centre caps for the Leos, but I'll make sure you'll get some soon.

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:Ah...not soooo bad, then?

Actually, it is, if I've resorted to chatting to elderly 300-owning gentlemen over cups of tea
EDIT: you weren't thinking of anything else, surely

foggyjames wrote:See you on Saturday, all being well There aren't any centre caps for the Leos, but I'll make sure you'll get some soon.

See you soon! That fine with the caps ... A car with Leos needs to have them though, it looks like someone's nicked something otherwise

Cheers

Tom