Hello everyone,

Some of you will know that I have been shopping around for a new coupe for a few months now. Well I finally found the one and went to see it today. Vinci Grey LE with a few nice mods, but at a nice price due to some minor mechanical and bodywork jobs to do.

I was careful and checked it over properly but unfortunately coming off the M25 onto the A41, the drive shaft went so the rest of the journey was completed on the.... all too familier to coupe owners.....recovery truck.

While I was trying to work out what the problem was (Not easy when your not very mechanically minded) who drives by..the famous Mr Barnicle. Not only did he drive past but he went to the next turn off and turned round to come and help me. Very much appreciated and testament to the helpful nature of the club faithful.

The car was recovered to Solo (Where it was going anyway on Monday or Tuesday next week) where it will be getting a lot of love and attention and probably a bit more money than I had hoped chucked at it.

My mate said that I spent the whole time while we were following the recovery truck going on about how good the coop was until the (potential) driveshaft problem with a great big smile on my face.

God I love coupes...I dont car what anyone says and I know all my friends who dont understand my feelings for these cars will be taking the mick for weeks, but I'm still smiling now

I OWN A VINCI GREY LE

Let me know when youre finished with it.

Welcome again matey
Hope the damage is not too bad and you are back on the road soon.
Paul

cheers spit....fingers crossed its not too bad....and legs crossed.........toes....eyes...and whatever else I can cross

i wonder if breaking down an hour after buying is a record?

no - i got 5 mins from the guy's house i bought my first one from and a boost pipe blew off. he'd secured a couple of pipes with shoe laces...

thats really bad....at least should be nothing that Alistair could have known about

That's not good

still, at least it's going to a specialist and you'll have it back on the road in no time.

I've just done a 350 mile round trip to buy a car off JohnnyBravoTurbo, the coop didn't miss a beat.

You would not expect anything else of John though

The soundtrack of owning what is the best type of Fiat Coupe ever.

I'll have to keep an eye out for your coop, i work in Brackley.
Hopefully you won't have too many breakdowns, can't say i've ever had my coop on a recovery truck. (should i have really said that ????)

great video and great tune......great car

edit that post quickly richard........your tempting fate

Glad you found a lovely vinci LE djmobi, at least now you can make the car perfect for you - Its yours

Good luck with it mate, get some pics up ASAP - We need to see her too you know!

yeah, what you need to do now is turn it into a plus!!

Hey, no worries, DJ! I saw you too late as I came off the roundabout, hence the zoom up to the turnoff... Really odd that I knew the number from somewhere, but I can't remember where!

Did the pickup confirm the driveshaft problem?

Not biting Mr Proccy! Wait till you see what I post tomorrow though - You'll LOVE IT

Hey, I saw you guys pulled over, two coupes and another car! You looked like you had it all in hand.
Welcome to the LE ownership woes, everyone wants them but hardly anyone spends any money on up keep. What number have you got?

Congrats on getting yourself the best coloured LE , welcome along for the ride

glad you have one mate like i said just see it as an ongoing project and everytime you have cash do another little job and eventually you will be able to start over as in the forth bridge

hey peeps...thanks for your kind words. The driveshaft problem isnt confirmed yet, but Rick at Solo seemed to think that was a likely explanation.

I will get some pics up as soon as I can, although the for sale thread has a lot of pictures on it. The bodywork looks ever so slightly worse than in the pictures and it doesn't show that the wheels need a refurb, but other than that the description was pretty much perfect. I took my mate with me who has a mobile, dent/scratch/body repair type business and he seems to think it wont cost too much. Concentrating on mechanicals first though.

There were a few nice surprises as well like the forge re-circ which sounds amazing and the Hybrid turbo is described as follows on the receipt..CHRA, STD SWA, 360 & 60 trim comp wheel....my limited mechanical knowledge tells me that it will be worth putting an FMIC on it?????

Its LE number 179........will put it on the new register when its ready

That spec used to be known as the GTiR turbo, dont know if it still is since torque italia stopped doing them... I would put a FMIC and SIP on it and run 1.3 bar

Pondman......I put your number plate into the DVLA reg website a few weeks ago and it told me that it wasn;t available.....I wondered if a forum member would have it......Let me know if your ever going sell it.....unlikely I know but it doesn;t hurt to ask

Hmmm......
Djmobi, I'll bear it in mind when the worlds oil supplies run out or I don't want my LE anymore thanks all the same, I've only had the reg. 6 months or so sorry mate but glad to see we've both got good taste

thought that might be your answer

Anyway just imagine by looking at my car what yours would look like
There are other options available re. reg plates out there, it took me a while to decide on this one, but I'm glad I did

Mine has already got a decent numberplate on it......just not as good as yours.........mine is L3 TUR, which I like to think means LE Turbo.

I saw your le at oxford yesterday.In the Solo garage.I had a quick look but it was pouring down.

I bet it looked really sorry for itself...........little does it know its getting a load of money spent on it to make it feel better....then next week the grooming begins.

Notice I am calling it an "it". Is a coop a he or a she???

A she when driving well, and a male B**tard* when not!!