Spend, Spend, Spend

In the space of a week the Mentor enjoyed some expenditure, with most of it being on out-of-sight components. But it goes well, it stops well and there’s been a slight cosmetic tweak too.

The Going

Modern day rarities – there are around 30 Mentors still on the UK’s roads – can suffer from a lack of parts. The Special’s Mentor’s exhaust snapped last year but local workshop Will’s Garage managed to put things right.

But there’s the problem of speed bumps and Carmarthenshire County Council’s obsession with them could spell an end to that repaired system. The solution would be a bespoke stainless-steel system and help was nearer to hand than we thought, thanks to Swansea’s ProFab Exhausts.

They took the Mentor in for an on-ramp inspection and gave us a highly acceptable price. There were many options including width and number of tailpipes: we opted to keep it stock but as result have some ideas for the Cuore and the Nippa.

Fitting the new system took four hours. It fitted perfectly, the noise level is bang-on and, if you were underneath, you’d see it looks great. ProFab definitely gets a Special thumbs-up.

The Stopping

Exactly a week before our exhaust replacement booking the Mentor almost entirely failed to proceed on the M4, courtesy of binding brakes. It wasn’t entirely surprising because during our time the front brake calipers have (and had) showed signs of going home.

Stopping power was good and the pedal feel was always excellent, but on that M4 trip it was clear the brakes were than firmly sticking, and especially on the nearside front wheel. It was lucky that with some searching we found Birmingham-based Shaftec had them on the shelf and they were with local workshop Will’s Garage the following day: we’ve now got fully-refreshed proper stopping power.

The looks

And it was back to Birmingham for some Mentor cosmetic re-freshing. We weren’t entirely pleased with the registration plates. They were the original dealer-fitted ones but there was sign of de-lamination and the more we noticed that, the more niggling it became.

Our solution was a set of reflective pressed steel plates from The Number Plate Centre. They were delivered two days later and we fitted them with sticky pads rather than bolts. The result’s a cleaner look and one that’s subtly different, which is what we were aiming for.