Yes, manual choke Tim.
The hot starting issue has been annoying me for a couple years now.I think I've narrowed it down to fuel evaporation. I've had a lot of advice form the good folks on here! I think she is running a bit hot due to a lean mixture. The last emissions results showed 0.49%. The co2 should be more like 1.5 - 2% I think. Anyway, the lean running puts a lot of heat up into the carb causing the evaporation. weirdly, the car starts instantly if you switch it off and on again (when it's fully warmed up). if you leave it for 10 minutes or longer it'll take a good 10 seconds of cranking before it splutters into life.
I'm not brave enough to fiddle with the mixture myself but the local garage have offered to have a go whilst the cars hooked up to the emissions reader to see if they can get the co2 up to 1 or 2 %. This may or may not solve the problem!
The other thing I've never worked out is if it's been converted to Unleaded or not. I use an additive and assume it hasn't been converted but I might be wrong. I did run it on plain unleaded for a while and noticed no difference! If anything unleaded would make it run leaner???? I wish I was a bit more technically minded!
Otherwise she's in really good condition. I think she's one of the very last models with the old 150c suitcase block having been registered in April 1988. I didn't realise the grey tweed was rare now. She's a vision in grey! like if John Major had a hand in the design
The paintwork is virtually flawless and the interior excellent with very little wear. The cars always been garaged as far as I'm aware and only has 66 thousand on the clock. I'm the second owner, the first being a gentleman in Stockport. He had it serviced religiously by the same garage. The service book has stamps all over the place since they ran out of space a long time ago! Everything works as it should. I've replaced the battery, leads, sparks, filters and recently the front spheres which were getting hard.
Rust is not an issue yet. There's a few spots here and there but nothing serious. I've treated/repaired it where required. The two main spots were the rear exhaust bracket and the offside rear sill end which was holed (now patched up)
I've had her at a few shows up here and am planning to go up to Aberdeen in a couple weeks to the How Many Left? show. Should be a laugh (if I get there) it's 172 miles so you never know.... I've not done such a long journey since driving back up from Stockport 4 years ago.