It's amazing what this car can do to a man.
I am honestly one of the most calm, calculating and unassuming young men you will ever meet, but today I've broken that facia totally.

I was supposed to have all of the money in place earlier this week so that I could go and pick up my car today, however my one bank (who shall remain nameless) today decided to inform me that they wouldn't be transferring the money until Monday (I'd already noticed it hadn't been transferred and had been hassling them since Wednesday). My calm face disappeared and I've probably spent more than two hours today discussing (still calmly, mostly) affairs with various differing levels of management at said bank.

Finally, ten minutes ago, said bank decided to transfer the money and I managed to talk my main bank into writing up a bankers draft at short notice.

Here comes my new baby!

 

Enjoy - we will want pics!

 

Woohoo, congrats! See you back here in a few hundred miles!

 

Very good news!
I trust you will enjoy yours as much as I have.
It will have been worth the wait.

 

You are probably spinning that motor as I write this...

 

hmmm - got to wait 4 weeks for mine - my car lease finished in august and i've now got to cycle 7 miles home in this hurricane!!

help help Auntie Em - it's a twister

 

Another one bites the dust....... enjoy those miles

 

Raise that baby properly now.

 

Don't like to worry you Jon but when I saw your car they'd cut a hole in the roof and covered it with cling-film... Say hello to mine while you're there please. Happy for you.

 

That's the "wife hole".
She's claustrophobic and hated the rear seats with a passion when she first sat in them. The sunroof offers enough extra light to the cabin to make it bearable for her, which is good because although it's not that often, there will be times when we'll be having three or four in the car.



First nights driving last night in the second 8 to hit the Cambridge streets. Only put on around thirty relatively casual miles, but even keeping it below around 5.5k (my self designated limit) it's a pleasure to drive.
I'm going to be doing a couple of long runs today, which will be fun.

One thing that amused me last night when I picked it up: While I was stood in the showroom, everything signed, keys in hand and waiting for them to clear a route out... I was nervous, very nervous. It's amazing though because I'm a very experienced driver, I used to to sports car reviews, I've driven the whole range of TVRs, several Porsches, a Ferrari or two, a classic AC Cobra and SAAB even flew a 93 Aero in to the country early for me to test and I've never been nervous with any of those, but with *my* nice new car, butterflies.
They'd gone after about half a mile of driving though


Am very much loving it, Godspeed to the cars of those still waiting and I'll update (with pictures) when I've driven her more.

 

Congratulations Jon - look forward to many pics!

 

Good work fella! Still loving mine......................gets to the point where I find an excuse to go somehere just to drive it!!

 

....and he's off. Brittain in first, through second to third at 50, up to 6th on the M11, and 4500 rpm at 90mph exactly....

congratulations sir, and long may the wife hole be shut.

 

This car really is fantastic.
I've put on around 200 miles this weekend, keeping it below 5,500rpm mostly and even so it's a great car to drive. I've pushed it to around 7,000rpm a couple of times and can't wait until I can let her open up fully.

Thanks to some wonderous twist of fate, it's been chucking it down for the whole of the week and then the first day I get to spend with the car fully it turns out nice and dry, giving me the perfect opportunity to get it clay-barred and polished up with my imported Zaino. It looks and feels wonderful and it's perfectly obvious too. I was going to post pictures, but my host is down at present so I'll attach them retrospectively later, they're weel worth a look though because the Zaino has done a perfect job.

I took the car over to the sister-in-laws today as her husband and their next door neighbour were desperate to have a look over the car.
On my way out of their village I hooked up behind an S2000, conveniently also in their shade of Titanium Grey. We had a good run through the lanes, nothing exceptionally fast but certainly into questionable speed territory and it hung with the S2k with no real difficulty. It was a good bit of fun and when we hit the end of the roads we were on we pulled into a side road and stopped for a quick chat. The S2000 owner was a young, attractive blonde lass and she'd never seen an 8 before (in the flesh at least) so she had a good look around while we chatted before I headed back off home.
It's also so perfectly set up, the handling is gorgeously crisp and the car tells you when you're getting towards the limit with a rather subtle "I can slip my back end with just a bit more throttle if you want", it's wonderful.

Anyway, I'll stop blathering other than to finish by saying that in the first weekend it's been great and here's to hitting the end of break in...

I'll add the images when my host becomes available again.

 

Jon,

I am looking for some decent polish and want to know more about this Zaino.

Any thoughts?

 

Zaino has done an absolutely fantastic job on my Titanium Grey, the first polishing session took around 4 hours, but the results are fantastic and as soon as my host gets themselves sorted out I'll post a couple of images so you can see just how good it looks.

The product is fantastic, the only downside is that it's only available in the States or through a very expensive reseller in Germany. Thankfully, my wife was on holiday in the States earlier in the year so I got her to pick me a package up.

 

Should we be polishing new cars so early, protecting perhaps with sealant etc but polish I understand is abhrasive?

rael

 

No, Zaino is totally non-abrasive and I asked that the dealership didn't do their own polish job before I picked it up.

Zaino do a lightly abrasive swirl mark remover, but the main "polish" is actually completely non-abrasive and gives a wonderful finish.

 

Hey Jon,

well done on getting the car. I hope you got the blond birds tel no?, don't worry I don't mind giving her a full tour of the 8 if you aint up for it

 

Anyway, as promised, here are the initial photos...


My nice new car on its travels...





The Zaino effect...




And finally, playing with an S2000 (and I can prove that at the moment this photo was taken I wasn't speeding officer...)






Pay, relax, enjoy...