Well some good news, whilst the shell is beyond repairing the car is going tomorrow to a chap who has a 1.7 nasp auto, LHD french car.
He wants it for spares.
His story is he bought his white one many years ago with a cambelt failure for 150euro, he put on a used head, cambelt etc and has been running it all these years, but auto's are rare in France also, so he wants the auto box and whatever else he can salvage, he loves the 480 and wants to keep it running for as long as possible.
I'm pleased that someone will make good use of it, he was a lovely guy and I'm happy to accept a poultry 50e for the car, especially given how near impossible it is to scrap a car out here, without papers it needs cutting into small bits lol.
He runs his mainly on E85 ethanol which out here is 70cents or there abouts; remember the saab 9-3 ethanol model? - never took off in the UK because there was so few ethanol outlets, yet in France every supermarket has an E85 pump.
He said it can be difficult to start on cold days so he puts in 10e of super and fills the rest of the tank with E85, the cost to run is less than a model diesel lol.
Which means I will try the same with the big old 940 turbo, because at 23-28mpg expected if I can half the fuel cost it makes it a cheap bus to smoke around in.
I'm pleased there was a happy ending for this one, it really was too much to keep alive but it keeps another(s) alive and couldn't have gone to a nicer fellow who is a 480 nut.
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