Ebay seller declined my offer, which was only a little lower than his asking price anyway. Never mind, the so called specialist this time seems to have done the job they were supposed to have done the first time around and replaced a bearing of some description, along with the clutch assembly, so the compressor now has a new "front end" on it. And now it works, which is even better.

Got the car back last Thursday and so far have been enjoying only 1 long, speed-limited motorway run through heavy-ish traffic and a couple of short journeys. Some trips a little further afield are beckoning, I feel.

So far though, the car feels and sounds phenomenal and I really look forward to getting to know it better and better as time goes on.

One quick Q - is the clutch really heavy in all these cars? Only driven mine, so no means to compare. It's something I could get used to but in traffic, my leg aches somewhat! having said that, the Cov meet next week will be my ideal opportunity to find out about this sort of thing.

Brilliant, brilliant car though. Loving it!