RELIANT SCIMITAR GTE
RUN BY Ryan Standen OWNED SINCE July 2023 PREVIOUS REPORT Nov 2023
It is all too easy to focus on the negatives of classic car ownership in these reports. In fact, whenever Iʼve come a cropper, I have started reframing it as ʻcontentʼ rather than another problem to solve. Howʼs that for positive thinking?
Luckily, though, I donʼt have too much ʻcontentʼ for this report. Instead, Iʼm far happier to share some more cheerful stories.
Mum hasnʼt been the Scimitarʼs biggest fan since the big, gold lump started living rent-free on her driveway. Our last outing together ended with a conked-out condenser in a local pub car park and a lift home from my sisterʼs boyfriend (thanks, Ollie), not the fish-and-chip dinner on the beach I had promised. Thankfully, the second attempt to convince her that I hadnʼt wasted my money – and that the oil stain on the drive is forgivable – was more successful.
We set off early for the 2023 Concours of Elegance, with the September sun certainly making the task easier. Our drive to Hampton Court Palace doubled as a good excuse to stretch the Scimitarʼs legs through the Hindhead Tunnel and explore the noise from the stainless-steel exhaust: the Ford V6ʼs low-speed warble morphs into an eager bark above 4000rpm. I was lucky enough to go on my first trip to the Alps last summer, and Hindheadʼs subterranean bypass brings back memories of the tunnels that thread through the mountains on those twisty passes – a daydream thatʼs quickly shattered when you exit the 1.2-mile borehole on the A3 to the south of Guildford.
We eventually rolled up to join C&SCʼS pre-1990 car park outside Hampton Court Palace beside an impressive selection of cars that included Porsches, Jaguars, a Rolls-royce and deputy editor Aaronʼs BMW 325i. After a day spent ogling multi-million-pound
rarities and one-off classics, we grabbed coffee and had a troublefree drive home. I think she might be warming to these classic cars.
The following Friday night the Scimitar was back in action, this time as a Goodwood Revival taxi service to pick up some family members. Iʼll admit the Reliant stayed at home when it was my turn to don the fancy-dress mechanicʼs overalls and head back the following day. The train from Portsmouth is too convenient, plus my barely suppressed inner child enjoys nabbing the upper front-row seat on the vintage double-decker bus that whisks you from the station to the circuit.
It hasnʼt all been plain sailing, though. Fast-forward a few weeks and Septemberʼs sunny weather was a distant memory as the looming Storm Ciarán prompted me to cover the Scimitar to shield it from the worst of the wheeliebin-wrecking weather.
I know thereʼs some debate over whether a car cover is a good shout or not, but I hadnʼt had the chance to patch up some leaks around the door sills and rear window, so figured that covering it was the best option. Following a pretty rainy week, I peeled off the cover to discover misty windows and a mouldy dashboard. Iʼll ditch the cover next time.
Another nagging issue is the low oil pressure at idle. The gauge itself is sluggish and the needle appears to lag behind engine revs, so Iʼm hoping the problem is with the gauge rather than something more troublesome. Nonetheless, I swapped the 10w/30 oil for some fresh 20w/50, which went some way to fixing the problem but didnʼt resolve it completely.
Further investigation revealed that the oil-pressure sender pipe has been chopped and bodged together with a larger-diameter pipe and cable-ties. Right, thatʼll be it. Iʼve ordered a new pipe from specialist Queensberry Road Garage; fingers crossed that will sort it out. Watch this space.