Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

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Orbit Motors
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Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by Orbit Motors »

Hope this is the correct section to post this in!

Hello everyone,

As I clearly wasn't busy enough(!) with all the other things I have going on, car related and otherwise, I have decided to take part in this year's Crumball Rally 'Drive Another Day' trip.

A brief description for those who aren't aware, the Crumball Rally sets a (loose) budget of £200 to purchase any car of your choice, meet up at the start point in Northern France and try over several days along with other participants to coax your chosen chariot to the finish point, with some daily challenges along the way. More to the point, this definitely isn't a race, it is more of a friendly endurance rally! You are encouraged to decorate your cars in a distinctive manner, often to the theme of the rally. As you may have guessed, this one is loosely based around various James Bond films.

I have decided to donate all if any prize money awarded to myself and my co-pilot from the daily challenges to the Alzheimer's Society, along with any generous donations from friends and family. This is in memory of a close family member who passed away last year after an ongoing struggle with Vascular Dementia.

I picked up my weapon of choice yesterday which was very generously donated for free from a friend of the family. It is a Xsara Picasso, 2.0HDi. It has done almost a quarter of a million miles and is still going strong. There is not one straight panel, it is largely made of gaffer tape and is full of dust. But as it has been that far already, I'm sure an extra couple of thousand miles there and back won't be an issue! The route begins in Reims and ends in Nice, travelling via many places in neighbouring countries such as Switzerland and Italy.
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I drove it home yesterday and it is still surprisingly comfortable and drives in a nice straight line. We are putting it up in the air at the weekend to check it over for any mechanical issues that may cause a safety issue and will rectify these before the trip. It has a rather loud knock from the front suspension and the nearside front tyre has seen better days, from the quick look around that I've done.
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I intend to turn it in to the Skyship 500 as featured in the film A view to Kill, which will no doubt be... interesting. Luckily I am a bodyshop tech by trade, albeit on buses, so I'm looking forward to doing something a little less serious.

Once I have set up the fundraising side of things, I will post a link here for anyone who wishes to donate, and I will give regular updates as to progress on the vehicle's transformation in to the Skyship 500, and progress on the rally itself.

For more information on the Crumball Rally, visit www.crumballrally.com

For more information on the Alzheimer's Society, what they do, and information on the condition itself, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk

(Disclaimer: The fundraising itself is organised by myself and is in aid of The Alzheimer's Society, it is not organised on their behalf. The charity has no connection to The Crumball Rally or its events)
Cheers,
Miles

Satisfaction guaranteed or your dent back!
If it just about starts and drives, I'll probably buy it.


1995 Peugeot 306 XLd
2007 Citroën C6 Lignage

2003 Saab 9-5 3.0 V6 TiD
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bobins
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by bobins »

That sounds a bit of a wheeze :lol: Best of luck with it...... you may need it :rofl2:
I don't know what your departure point from the UK will be, but if it's Portsmouth then you might want to consider a small diversion on the way down and call in at Amberley Working Museum and see if you can recreate the Main Strike Mine scene from James Bond where the airship was flying around the mine. The 'mine' entrance still retains its Main Strike Mine nameboard and if you sought permission in advance you might be able to get a photograph by it :)
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CitroJim
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by CitroJim »

That's absolutely awesome Miles :D Delightfully bonkers and guaranteed to be huge fun!

Do enjoy and keep us posted on progress and the adventures you're sure to have en-route :)
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Orbit Motors
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by Orbit Motors »

Well, I fired up the airship on Saturday and it started first time as always. Plan was to take it straight to my brother in law's unit in Derbyshire to get it up in the air, inspect everything and make a list of parts we need to get it to a condition where we are confident of the least chance of breakdown.

I decided to have a crash en route instead! Turns out a Xsara Picasso is exactly the same width as tram lines. I'm used to driving on them as I work in Nottingham, but it was absolutely pouring it down at the time and I must have just caught the road wrong going around a bend, as somehow I managed to flick the front end sharply to the right and started to skid, so I turned in to it which stopped me fairly quickly (albeit dramatically) but unfortunately smashed the nearside rear wheel in to the kerb on the opposite side of the road. Amazingly the tyre still held air afterwards so I was able to move it somewhere safe to put the spare on. Amazingly it was the only damage too, I was expecting all manner of issues as it felt quite a bad impact.
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Damage to the wheel after I removed the now broken trim

Luckily nobody was in the area so nobody saw me, and more importantly nobody was hurt! It also confirmed the plan to fit new tyres as the car is surprisingly unpredictable in terms of steering in the wet. It currently has a mix of old ish Yokohamas and one Michelin that has a sidewall full of cracks.

Anyway... when I eventually managed to get it up in the air, we had a look around and the car is surprisingly solid underneath. It has had a new exhaust front to back (including a new eurocat) at some point fairly recently, and apart from one area that has been welded on the nearside outer sill, which seems inevitable on these cars, it has no areas of anything other than light surface rust. A very functional and reliable car it seems, and having been in one family from new, it appears they took care of the important stuff and it owes them nothing for the mileage they got from it!

The only issues we have found are the nearside inner track rod is excessively worn (that will explain the vibration at speed), and the offside track rod end has also seen better days, so a pair of inner and outers it is. Front discs are lipped and it appears one of the offside pads has started to break apart. By pure chance, I happen to have suitable discs and genuine pads in the garage and they now have a use! Other than the above, we will give it an oil and filter change, an air filter and some other bits to make the journey more comfortable (such as repairing the blowers, which aren't working at all). There is also a water hose from the radiator that I'm not happy with, it looks like it won't last too long so I've ordered one as a preventative measure.
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Having a gander...

In a quandary with tyres, I don't see the point in buying Ditchfinders as the phrase "buy cheap, buy twice" is usually true, but as the car is likely to be scrapped on return, it would be a waste to scrap it with nearly new decent tyres. I could remove them and sell them, or keep them for something else, but I don't have anything else on the fleet that fits them. What's irritating is the Xsara Picasso has a very small allowance for offset on wheels, there are only limited options available. I'm surprised they opted for tyres as narrow as 185 on a car of this size!

That's all for now, just waiting on the parts I've ordered now! And I need to go and buy some paint.

As a side note, for anyone interested in donating, the Justgiving page for the charity event is now live here: tinyurl.com/438parkh. All proceeds go directly to the Alzheimer's Society, and if you are a UK taxpayer, Gift Aid tops up your donation for free. Any amount, small or large is hugely appreciated, and will give aid for people with dementia and their families, and towards research on the condition.
Cheers,
Miles

Satisfaction guaranteed or your dent back!
If it just about starts and drives, I'll probably buy it.


1995 Peugeot 306 XLd
2007 Citroën C6 Lignage

2003 Saab 9-5 3.0 V6 TiD
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CitroJim
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by CitroJim »

Excellent and following with great interest Miles :)

I will certainly be donating...
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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Michel
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by Michel »

If you were nearer to Reading, you could have the 4 alloys with "ok" tyres on that I've just taken off my Xsara Picasso. I've put the 16" wheels off my dead C3 Picasso on it.
Orbit Motors
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by Orbit Motors »

Morning everyone,

I'm still here, honest! The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy both car related and otherwise, and I've not had much time to post, but now I have a quiet Sunday morning this is an ideal opportunity.
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Gathered my parts required for the Picasso over the last couple of weeks courtesy of Parts In Motion on eBay (a good range of mainly service parts, but plenty of other bits too particularly for PSA stuff), and some bits from my local GSF. Ordinarily I wouldn't buy "Dr!ve" branded oil filters, but it was what they had in stock and I'm not sure how much difference it will make in the couple of thousand miles more the car is expected to last.

New wipers were a bargain at about £2 each, the reason being they wipe well for the first few months and then are garbage, again, I would only usually buy Bosch or Valeo for my own car, but DriveTec ones will do, keeps costs down, and anything was better than the worn out torn scrapers that were on before!

Managed to drive to the unit without crashing this time, in preparation to carry out the required work. Unfortunately it didn't entirely go to plan, as the inner tie rods proved absolutely impossible to extract as there appears to be no way of placing a suitable spanner or other tool on the inner end go turn it out of the awkwardly placed steering rack. Eventually between us we decided looking at the ball joint we will just have to put up with it. It is worn, but nowhere near the point of any danger of it detaching.
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Unsurprisingly, the air filter condition was not helping matters in the mechanical side of things, the idling has been somewhat lumpy and the car felt even more underpowered than it already was from factory. £6 and 3 minutes work later, it was improved massively. Why so many people do not do such basic maintenance tasks is beyond me!

On the cosmetic side of things, I've been busy with plywood and a jigsaw making winglets and a tailfin!
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With red and green lighting on their correct sides of course... the wings will of course be quickly detachable as it would be irresponsible to drive with them attached, they are purely for aesthetics during the rally photo stops etc!

Obtained some wheels last weekend from Crawley which are off a Peugeot 2008, very good price and nearly new tyres all round! We offered them up yesterday and they fit, albeit quite close to the arch on the rear. They have an ET20 offset which is, on paper at least, the upper permitted limit for the car. I believe the original steel wheels are ET18. These are half an inch wider at the rim and have 195s instead of 185s. Just need to obtain some bolts now as they need to be flat faced and not conical.

That's all for now, more to come soon!
Cheers,
Miles

Satisfaction guaranteed or your dent back!
If it just about starts and drives, I'll probably buy it.


1995 Peugeot 306 XLd
2007 Citroën C6 Lignage

2003 Saab 9-5 3.0 V6 TiD
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CitroJim
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Re: Xsara Picasso Skyship 500 - The Crumball Rally

Unread post by CitroJim »

Awesome :D
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...