Last night I decided that I seemed to be reasonably lucky, in that I had managed to drive 500 miles since buying the car and everything seemed absolutely fine. At the time I argued with myself about whether or not you can tempt fate just thinking daft things. The answer to this is a resounding 'yes.'

Radiator sprang a fairly large leak coming out of work tonight. As did a number of the pipes carrying the coolant around the system. Bugger.

Are new radiators particularly expensive?

New they are about £140 IIRC You can pick up a second hand one for about £40-£50
have a look in the for sale section

also pm to countrycruising on here (joe) - really good guy who will only sell quality second hand stuff

Cheers - will do. Going to book an appointment with PowerItalia and get them to have a good look over the car. I've a feeling there may be a few things I need to sort out fairly soon.

one thing I've learnt is to never ever ever ever say out loud "the cars running fine" or similar; or even think such things... It will always always haunt you within days.