I spent an hour and twenty on Saturday morning walking to where I had left my car. Good day for it, but my justification wasn't that I enjoy a walk. It was that paying for a cab twice in a 12 hour period was stupid, but paying for a third was just getting beyond a joke. There was also the combination post night-out cognitives having all the clarity of the Beijing horizon and trying to save those "Can I get a lift?" phone calls for when a car inevitably breaks down. (Sup, Marc.)

The walk was quite pleasant, enjoying the scenery that you don't see screaming by in a car. Like some poor bloke on a bike getting booked for no helmet and having to walk his bike into the distance while the police sat in their car congratulating themselves on another criminal apprehended. That always makes me laugh. Like riding a bike isn't embarrassing enough, you have to add a helmet to the mix. Full face helmets should be compulsory.

The previous night had actually been a surprise. Surprisingly good. Generally Friday nights seem to run out of steam pretty early. If you've made it to 0130 without any casualties you're doing pretty well. It was a girl from work's 29th ( 21 + 8 ), but there was only me and a girl representing along with a bunch of her non-work friends. We both expected it to be a non-event, hence I drove. The bar tab changed my mind fairly quickly. We later relocated to the Chalk (aka, the Hair Club for Men) and the night blurred into a mess of bourbons, MGMT, loud talking and far more than the usual quota of breast fondling. I would have called you, but you know, I thought you'd be busy.

Sometime around 3am, we got taxis and went home. Some hours pass and I'm walking to fetch my car. On the way I'm taking a peek in everyone's driveways seeing what the flavour in the area. Mostly Magnas, it seemed. The occasional LX Torana on blocks, which gets the imagination running. I've always (not so secretly) wanted a horrible Australian built V8. These days they are collectors items, or at least the rarity of them is starting to make up for the lack of features, reliability or rust-free panels. Too much money, in my opinion. Also, I have enough terrible cars.

Then I noticed this other vehicle. Parked, on a front lawn, expired rego. Went over and took a better look. Knocked on the door of the house, asked the owner what the deal was, how much he wanted, whats wrong with it, can I take it for a drive, etc. Now, I haven't mentioned the make or model. That's because this is a really stupid idea. However, that's never stopped me before. Its all kinds of wrong, which makes it perfect. I'm torn though, I know I shouldn't, but there is a niggling Ben Stiller in my head telling me to "Go ahead and do it".

I should put up a poll here. With a 100% reader response, it'd be something like 2 votes "yes" and 3 votes "no", I'd imagine. My next post might be a bit more interesting though, or not. Stay tuned.

Eventually, I found my car and went and picked up the Pajero (or rather Magna) inlet manifold from an aluminium welding place. I had to get the throttle body flipped to the other side of the plenum so that it wasn't hard up against the firewall. I removed the existing carby manifold, and gave the EFI manifold a test fit. Which it didn't - both the fuel rail and the thermostat housing fouled against the firewall. And not by a little either. Clearly the people who wrote the EFI guide for Astron-powered Pajeros didn't consider that fact important. The solution, of course, was a hammer. So, Greg and I spent the next hour smacking the shit out of the firewall with just a bit of cut and welding for good measure. Thankfully, there is nothing on that side of the firewall to worry about, brake lines etc are well clear and the engine bay is big enough to get a decent swing. Its just a shame we didn't have a sledge hammer handy. The rest of the job was pretty easy though. Magna EFI gear was clearly designed by Australians. Designed for no patience and big hands. Now just need to sort out the loom and fuel system, that will be easy right?

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