Seriously?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I suspect as i've indicated further up Alan, if he'd put a sensible set of alloys on, the basic EFi conversion to miprove reliability and driveability and then used it to at least have some use from it and then sold it, he would firstly have got at least some of his moneysworth out of it, secondly been more likely to get a decent price and thirdly, most importantly would have had a more saleable car to start with!

It would have still looked near standard from the outside and also under the bonnet and those that "buy with their eyes" wouldn't have seen anything wildly amiss.

As things stand at the moment, i agree that £6k is about top-dollar for a 240 series unless it's really special but in fairness, we didn't get any special 240s here except the 1977 Jubilee model, 50 years of Volvo - not HRH Queen Elizabeth II but happened to be the same year.

You know Dave, I don't think any of those things would have been worthwhile, and if anything would have reduced the motor car's appeal and therefore value. I'm guessing the seller bought the car for about £3000 as a recommissioned but a bit rough car. He/she says it needed bodywork (and therefore paint) to the rear wheel arches - and he/she seems to have spent £1,200 on that - so far so good. At that point the car might have been worth £5,000 (and cost about £4,200).

The rest was entirely bogus. The market has shown there is no demand whatsoever for FI, special camshafts, £800 exhausts, bling wheels and boy racer tyres on a cooking Volvo 244 DL. Without the shill bidding the motor car might have made less than £5,000 - so the £6,000 of modifications limited the market and so probably lowered the price a bit.

From a personal point of view this has been an interesting observation regarding the RB project. I bought the motor car for about 2 grand and have spent just a grand on it (although that includes 2 sets of tyres, the single biggest ticket item at about £400). the motor car might be worth something like £4,000 to £5,000 now (although I can't think of any reason it would be for sale in my lifetime). That tells me I'm ahead of the game, and apart from tinkering (which will never stop) there is no point investing any more in the project beyond good maintenance.

:-)

Alan

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Yes and no - i think!

I have vague memories of the Jaguar powered powerboats in the late 80s/early 90s and heard the figures of 900bhp used in the same sentence. However, those had twin engines so i think it was probably 450bhp each.

Found this online, somewhere in it there is a reference to the powerboats :

https://www.jaguarheritage.com/uploads/2018/01/MARI.pdf

Something in the back of my mind says there was a tie-up between TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) who primarily tuned Jag engines for the race track and powerboating but i'm not sure on that. Seem to recall figures of about 700-750bhp from the TWR V12s but i also think they were in the region of 7.0-7.6L capacity and tuned for cars rather than boats.

Doesn't seem to be a subject that's all that well covered on t'internet sadly!

Super comprehensive bit of research chap, my hat is raised!
Locally David Mellor, a BRISCA champion, reputedly bought a Ford GT40 type engine for one of his cars . This was of marine origin. When fired up it was found to go backwards. Something to do with twin engines counter rotating.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You know Dave, I don't think any of those things would have been worthwhile, and if anything would have reduced the motor car's appeal and therefore value. I'm guessing the seller bought the car for about £3000 as a recommissioned but a bit rough car. He/she says it needed bodywork (and therefore paint) to the rear wheel arches - and he/she seems to have spent £1,200 on that - so far so good. At that point the car might have been worth £5,000 (and cost about £4,200).

The rest was entirely bogus. The market has shown there is no demand whatsoever for FI, special camshafts, £800 exhausts, bling wheels and boy racer tyres on a cooking Volvo 244 DL. Without the shill bidding the motor car might have made less than £5,000 - so the £6,000 of modifications limited the market and so probably lowered the price a bit.

From a personal point of view this has been an interesting observation regarding the RB project. I bought the motor car for about 2 grand and have spent just a grand on it (although that includes 2 sets of tyres, the single biggest ticket item at about £400). the motor car might be worth something like £4,000 to £5,000 now (although I can't think of any reason it would be for sale in my lifetime). That tells me I'm ahead of the game, and apart from tinkering (which will never stop) there is no point investing any more in the project beyond good maintenance.

:-)

Alan

We're at a similar point from slightly different angles Alan. My ethos for retrofitting EFi would purely have been reliability and driveability. However that could be achieved more cost effectively (and closer to the cars original spirit) with a Weber conversion, usually a 32/36DGV and i belive i've pointed you in that direction a couple of times for the RB, first was when you were having idle problems and second as a possible upgrade to make better use of the AW71 gearbox.

The big point i was making is that sensible modifications may not necessarily enhance the value of the car but they won't detract from it either - what they will do (if done right) is improve the saleability of a car.
For example, replacing a worn out cam with a slightly warm one but more suited to autos and tow cars that bosts the low-down torque would actually be a desirable conversion to many. However to the person who really isn't bothered, it won't make a huge amount of difference to how it drives, just a bit more responsive and lively.
Ditto on the carb, not a necessity but if it's been done and works as it should, a nice enhancement. Strombergs can be troublesome beasts anyway so many owners will have changed (or at least thought about it) the carb at some point, probably for an SU as that would be more or less "off the shelf" in a breakers yard - or would have been 30 years ago at least!

Whichever way you look at it, £6k is about the ceiling on a 240 at the moment, you're certainly well ahead on the RB and that's the best way to be. If you get close to the value of the car and suddenly the values plummet, you're in negative equity if you're looking at it as an investment opportunity. Also if something goes wrong and it needs an expensive reapir, you have to hope that once done the values stay bouyant and that nothing else expensive happens. Also worth amortising the costs over the years of ownership to see if those costs are acceptable even with the "new" repair it needs.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Moomoo

Super comprehensive bit of research chap, my hat is raised!
Locally David Mellor, a BRISCA champion, reputedly bought a Ford GT40 type engine for one of his cars . This was of marine origin. When fired up it was found to go backwards. Something to do with twin engines counter rotating.

I'm sure he wasn't backwards in coming forwards to complain!

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I'm sure he wasn't backwards in coming forwards to complain!

That's terrible.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Moomoo

That's terrible.

Possibly but apt nonetheless!

Seriously though, some GT40s i believe had backwards running engines because of being mid-engined and having alternate gerabox/transaxle arrangements. Whether that's true or whether i was spun a yarn by the person who told that to me i don't know for sure.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Whichever way you look at it, £6k is about the ceiling on a 240 at the moment, you're certainly well ahead on the RB and that's the best way to be. If you get close to the value of the car and suddenly the values plummet, you're in negative equity if you're looking at it as an investment opportunity. Also if something goes wrong and it needs an expensive reapir, you have to hope that once done the values stay bouyant and that nothing else expensive happens. Also worth amortising the costs over the years of ownership to see if those costs are acceptable even with the "new" repair it needs.

That bit we do agree on Dave, 244s (245s as well) top out at £6k at the moment - and that is probably true for all 240s. That much is very relevant to Andrew in his search for a 240 - there is not much point paying £8,000 for that motor car from a dealer in Wellingborough, however nice it may be, if it is priced £2,000 ahead of the market (unless one has no concern for money of course - in which case there are better cars than 240s to be had).

The RB isn't an investment, it is a hobby, but at the same time I wouldn't want to think I'd wasted too much money on it. At the moment it is a sensible balance between cost and fun.

:-)

[loki_the_glt]

Originally Posted by Moomoo

Super comprehensive bit of research chap, my hat is raised!
Locally David Mellor, a BRISCA champion, reputedly bought a Ford GT40 type engine for one of his cars . This was of marine origin. When fired up it was found to go backwards. Something to do with twin engines counter rotating.

It was also true of Rolls-Royce Merlins. Rolls-Royce refused to sell one of these engines to a "wide boy" so he bought an ex-services engine instead. Upon installation he found it ran counter-clockwise, complained to Rolls-Royce about it because he didn't want 1 forward and 4 reverse gears in his car, and was told "caveat emptor"!

The other entertainment in similar vein concerned a gent who fitted a Hillman Imp steering rack to something with recirculating ball steering but installed the rack backwards. Fortunately he found out before venturing out onto the Queen's Highway!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

This one reminds me of the ****mobile in 'Trailer Park Boys' (an excellent Canadian TV series available on Netflix). It must be the very bottom of the barrel for cars that are still roadworthy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154589462...QAAOSwzzFhK9zm

The seller sounds like a good Volvo bloke, and has been pretty candid in the rubric and the sales description. This motor car seems to have been a faithful old friend; maybe someone will try to save it, but I can't help thinking it ought to be allowed to die now, a bit like a 15 year old dog that wanders out to the orchard one day and passes away peacefully under an apple tree :-)

That old bus made just over a grand in the end, which slightly surprised me. I thought it would top out at £750 - I suppose it is getting quite close to qualifying as an historic vehicle, which must have been worth the extra £300.

:-)

[Moomoo]

Just spotted this enigma. Been off the road 10 years odd.

Not the saloon, the estate. I should not be allowed to use an iPad!:confused