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Blimey. The HubNut YouTube channel has hit 20,000 subscribers! That’s quite an achievement.

It deserves a celebratory video, but workload means you’ll sadly have to wait for that.

This pair have had quite the year.

To be honest, I can’t quite believe it. It was only in April this year that I celebrated 10,000 subs!

It’s been truly joyous to discover that there are plenty of people who also have love for the unloved in the world of the motor car. That love has helped the channel grow, and I’m very grateful for it. We’re now running a mail order business, sending our HubNut merchandise all over the globe! It’s astonishing.

Right. I need to complete my final issue of Classic Jaguar magazine, and then I can sort out a suitable celebratory video, and really focus on developing the channel even more during 2019. There is so much I want to do, so many cars I want to capture on video and so many adventures to have with my own vehicles. I cannot wait! Thank you all.

Yes, I bought a Dacia. In Romania! Then I drove it 4000km home with my friend Rich. Yes, it was a silly thing to do.

New video! Yes, I got to drive a fantastic Matra Murena, which was a fine way to mark over two million channel views. Amazing stuff. Thank you for your support.

Right, here we go. My end of year ‘hopeless cars’ accounts.

Carried Forward

Elly the 2CV, not quite MOTd as 2017 began. ZX carried forward, but soon sold.

Honda S-MX. Purchased September 2016.

Perodua Nippa. Purchased March 2015.

In, then out

Omega turbo diesel. A fun collection caper, but it didn’t win me over. Sold.

Daimler Sovereign also joined the fleet. It was mostly broken. Elly tried to help. Sold.

Daimler replaced by a Nissan Bluebird with failed head gasket. Got it fixed. Then sold it.

Proton arrived while the Bluebird project was ongoing. It was fun, but short-lived. Sold.

The final bill

Lexus LS400 replaced the Bluebird. And how! Hasn’t been cheap, has been fun.

Honda has been working hard, now has orange wheels and is still on the fleet! 15 months now.

Nippa fast heading for its three-year anniversary on the fleet!

Elly went to France in 2017 to meet the relatives.

The Invacar! This one is really coming together.

The spares project. This one likely to depart in 2018.

So, there you go. A quick visual recap of 2017 in cars. By my standards, a fairly sensible one. Until the Invacars arrived perhaps. Who knows what 2018 will hold!

A very Happy New year to all my followers. There will be a brand new video at http://www.youtube.com/HubNut on 1st January 2018 to welcome in the New Year, and it’s quite silly.

Right. Winter is pretty much upon us, so let’s wrap up fleet happenings.

I’ll start with the Honda, as it has been by far the busiest car on the fleet this month, ferrying me up to Hinckley for a photoshoot, then to Birmingham for the NEC Classic Motor Show. It came back from Birmingham carrying a washing machine.

The trip wasn’t without fault, as the Honda managed to pick up a screw in the nearside rear tyre. I was forced to take desperate action. I went to ATS.

ATS offered quick and pleasant service to be fair.

However, it was otherwise problem free bar the fact that it’s still drinking oil. The cam cover gasket is leaking, but I’ve managed to break a captive thread, so I can’t actually remove it at the moment. For now, it’s rust-proofing the front subframe my spreading oil all over it. There are worse problems to have.

The Nippa has been working fairly hard too, having clocked up 3000 miles since MOT in March – which is quite a lot by Nippa standards. It has a windscreen wiper bush problem – as in the bush is turning in its housing. It’s not meant to do that. The spindle is meant to turn in the bush. However, it still works, so that’s a job for another day. It is due a service, but that just means draining the oil and putting another 2.5 litres of 5w30 in. No problem. He says. I did get given a lovely brochure for it at the weekend, which was nice!

A rather lovely gift.

The 2CV hasn’t turned a wheel in November. She’s hibernating, and I promised I’d finally sort out the paintwork I’ve been meaning to do since January. Elly has covered 5000 miles since then, including trips to Ireland and France, and once I started driving her again, I rather lost interest in paintwork. I must sort this out.

The Lexus has mostly been broken, as it repaid me for the recent cambelt job by breaking its alternator. I had a lovely 600-mile trip to see the Invacars, but then the Lexus decided it needed a rest. I swallowed a brave pill and, as the Lexus won’t go on my ramps, had to improvise.

Makeshift ramps – an old Dyane wheel!

A wooden ramp to get the car sitting on a Dyane wheel. Yeah, ok. Not ideal, but it’s not going anywhere. Yes, it is in park and yes, the parking brake is applied too. It’s just lifted the Lexus enough for me to get at the alternator. You can’t get at it from above really. Well, you can undo one of the fixing bolts from above, but then you’ve got to crawl underneath, while swearing, as you try to disconnect the wiring and free the thing from an impossible place.

Once out, the failure point was pretty obvious to be fair.

Broken brushes dot com.

One of the brushes seems to be melted into place. It wasn’t for shifting and the slip rings on the shaft of the alternator (just visible) are toast too. I need the car back on the road for a trip to Devon, so a recon alternator was ordered online with next day delivery. It arrived today. I must fit it tomorrow.

All this has served as a bit of a distraction from Invacar collection, but don’t worry. Next week, I will finally hire a truck and go and collect them! I’m pretty excited. Christmas may not be necessary this year. Nothing will top this.

Finally, I’ve found time to do a quick video walk-around of the Daimler. Marvel at how iffy it is!

The reason for being in France was that some dear friends of ours were getting married. Several other friends brought classic Citroens, and we had our own parking area at the wedding venue. 

Yes, that is a pair of RHD Ami 8 saloons. The groom owns one of them. The gorgeous orange GS estate is a car I did a photoshoot on for Classic Car Weekly eight or nine years ago. It now belongs to Darrin of Citroen Classics, which is where the groom works these days, handling parts. 

Following the wedding service, there was a very enjoyable hoon convoy, which saw the fleet of Citroens take to the streets of Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux, with much bodyroll and horn tooting. Marvellous. 

We certainly created quite a scene, with our British Citroens and 1960s dress code! There were many bowler hats. 

The rest of the day felt like a 2CV camp indoors, with much merriment and silliness. 

The following day, we discovered that there was a classic car meet in the Centre Ville. Excellent! Elly met an elderly relative. 

Trying to pick my favourite car was not easy. I adored this Vespa very much, and the Mustang was not without appeal. 

But this Alpine 310 has wacky wipers, and is oh so French. The Renault Floride behind it was nice too. 

Sadly, no Ami 6 saloons were present, but this Break was very pleasant. 

Finally, this shabby-chic GS estate was absolutely delightful. I would love to own one. 

After returning to the wedding venue for a lunch of leftovers, we began our gentle drive northwards to Dunkerque. I didn’t crack much above 90kmh on the autoroute.  There was no rush, and my passenger may have been a bit fragile… 

We booked into our Ibis Budget hotel, and immediately ran away from the horrid, chemical smell in our room. We left the window open in the hope that the smell might dissipate somewhat. 

An amble along Dunkerque’s long prom was pleasant enough, with an entertaining mix of architectural styles and lots of cafes. We chose one for a spot of dinner and blistered our way through an embarrassing failure of our feeble French… 

However, we did some sightseeing before we ate, with beauties such as this nice Renault 5 ‘supercinq’ not far from Elly. 

We thought that this shambolic C6 might be the most hopeless car we would see, but we were wrong. Check out those gaffer tape repairs though!

That turned out to be a mere starter though. The main course of pure Autoshite was this C15. The tinworm had left holes in the roof! 

Generally though, France was disappointingly bereft of old tat. This is a country where people would only buy a new one once the old one had finally fallen apart completely. Either more modern cars just don’t soldier on regardless, or consumerism has finally taken hold here. It’s a bit disappointing either way. 
But, holiday time is over. We’re now back on the boat, heading back to Kent, where a spell of work awaits. There will be another part to this tale though, as we still need to get back to Wales! 

For now, here’s our last photo in France.