Latest news with #RiccisGarage
Top Gear
04-08-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Argh! Our Toyota Land Cruiser's lovely new Dakar-spec wheels don't fit
Ricci's Garage In this instalment of Ricci's Garage, we understand the importance of reading the full advert before clicking the 'buy' button Skip 3 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he's buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world This was supposed to be a very straightforward Ricci's Garage update on fitting another set of off-road wheels to my Land Cruiser, but as you can see by the images on this page, only a single wheel has been attempted so far. Thankfully, we didn't upload any audio to this page, or the rather colourful language that accompanied it would get us into hot water. Advertisement - Page continues below Annoyingly, all of this frustration could've been easily avoided had I decided to read any of the 'for sale' advert on eBay. Instead, I decided to employ the immediate excitement approach, glancing over the sizes and hitting buy it now before worrying about any of the boring stuff. The first red flag should've been the fact the images showed them fitted to a Ford Ranger. A very quick Google showed that Rangers have a PCD (the number of wheel bolts and space between them) of 6x139, which is the same as the new 250 Land Cruiser. What I didn't research was the centre bore size (the hole in the back of the wheel which fits onto the hub), and it turns out Ford Rangers have a much smaller centre bore than Land Cruisers. This was only researched upon fitting the first wheel, and the immediate rage of realising this was likely on par with having Cycling Mikey tap on your window. Especially when it turns out they look properly cool. You might like What you're looking at is a set of 18x8.5in Evo Corse Dakar wheels – a design which is unsurprisingly used in many heavy-duty motorsports like rallying and Dakar. They're even used on the winning Toyota Hilux, albeit with the correct centre bore dimensions I'd assume. What I love about these wheels is they're brilliantly rugged and give a properly purposeful look to any car, especially when matched with a chunky off-road tyre that'll sound like a swarm of bees following you as you drive up and down the M1. Evo Corse does make Land Cruiser-fitment wheels – in fact it can produce just about every offset and size imaginable – but my impatience and excitement for a bargain meant I'd gambled on these Ranger wheels instead. Now one option to get them to fit would be to run adapters which allow a different centre bore size on either end. This would be very quick and easy, if it wasn't for the fact the offset was already too aggressive and any additional spacing will make the Land Cruiser look like a very odd 1930s hot rod. The other is to machine the centre bores larger, and after a quick chat with Craig Taylor of Dyno Torque – a man who has previously saved my bacon many times while fixing my Pajero Evolution – that's exactly what we're going to do. Advertisement - Page continues below There shouldn't be any downsides to this in terms of strength or stiffness as the size increase is only a few millimetres, and if I were sensible, I'd put some more road-friendly tyres on instead. But clearly that's not going to happen because I'm an idiot, but in a few days' time we can all pretend this little mishap never happened in the first place. Until the next one. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
Top Gear
02-06-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Buying a cheap, used Mitsubishi Pajero unseen: how bad could it really be?
Ricci's Garage Spoiler: it bad. Let's all play Ricci's Garage Bingo! Skip 3 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he's buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world Welcome everyone to round 57 of Ricci's Garage Bingo, and for those first time players this might be a little different to the bingo you're familiar with. You won't find any Dryrobe garms here nor will you be listening to Jess Glynne on repeat for three hours. Instead, you'll witness a man trying to justify his automotive related horrors, repeating the same mistakes in the hope the end result is slightly different. Plot twist: the end result is always the same. Advertisement - Page continues below If you look at this month's card you'll see Ricci's Garage Bingo is littered with many familiar topics. Top left, we have 'the GT-R needs another engine' followed by 'the M6 refresh is about to bankrupt me'. In the top right, you'll see 'more off road wheels purchased' with the classic 'I've bought a car unseen and it's crap' under it. For the bottom row, we have 'sending money abroad and hoping it's not a scam' joined by 'the 911 has a new warning light'. In the middle, you'll see the red bonus ball that simply reads 'Pajero'. That's because this month's winning card really is a greatest hits of all the above. Not only have I bought another Mitsubishi Pajero, but I bought it completely unseen. You might like This MkI three door Pajero (Shogun) was for sale in the UK, but it was priced very cheaply on the UK MkI Pajero Owners' Club Facebook group. Given how popular these cars are in extra curricular activities like cash machine theft and among those with no fixed postal address, a cheap MkI is the equivalent of wearing a meat bikini and diving into the Amazon river. 'Someone is coming around to look at it this afternoon unfortunately,' the seller told me after I'd asked to buy it. Naturally, this could not go unpunished, so minutes later I'd transferred him the money allowing me to feel smug that I'd snagged a bargain. And then it turned up. Advertisement - Page continues below Its 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine runs, but rather than pistons it's powered by an improv jazz drummer who seems to be constantly falling down a flight of stairs. The paint has been reapplied using a paint roller. Either that, or an Old English sheepdog has bathed in green paint before being allowed to roll over every panel. The term 'prep' may have been lost at this stage too – no masking or sanding was used to protect parts that didn't need paint. Like the headlights. But at least they exist, which is more than can be said for various rubber trim pieces around the windows. Also, the inside now smells so strong even someone with a penchant for Chinese wet markets might consider it a bit of a hazard. And do you know what the worst thing is? I don't care about any of that, because I am once again utterly in love with a horrid excuse of a Pajero. One that somehow still has an MOT certificate, which must have been done via wifi in a previous life. I can't even begin to tell you what the plans are for it – my Pajero Evo has a blown engine and my other MkI needs more welding. What's most annoying is the fact I now need to find another MkI Pajero with a bubble shape roof to replace it. But we'll save that adventure for a future game of Ricci's Garage Bingo. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
