Chesterfield

At five quid a pop, I'm not surprised people aren't exactly flocking to the newsagents to grab a copy. That's more than some paperback novels and the same cost per month as adding the package to sky that has discovery, Nat geo etc. Id never accuse sky of being good value for money, but discovery and national geographic each month for the same as one magazine

Its a good job they made Daley put a top on to receive his bronze medal, you wouldn't have been able to see it. I know hes been training in Australia etc, but seriously, how much tanning and teeth whitening? Still good on us for getting yet another medal At least we can celebrate our athletes. In China, the state sponsored TV is apparently only congratulating gold winners, and not mentioning silver or bronze medal winners.

The difference between the single clutch (ala 430) and the double clutch (458) is quite a margin. The single clutch F1 box was/is just a fancy electronically controlled manual clutch. So in auto mode you still got that thump from the back of the seat when the car changed gear for you. If you flick the switch to sport or race, use the paddles and drive agressively then you get a real sense of the gear changes and throttle blipped to match. The 458, although it matches revs etc, it seems to just slide into the next gear - no clonk on the head from the headrest. Yes you get the noise, you get the sudden acceleration/deceleration, but it seems a bit more "artificial". That is also a criticism levelled at Lamborghini given the overseeing by Audi, that they have become somehow sterilised. I hope to test this for myself in the near future with a couple of test drives. The 430 felt like it was on edge all the time, it certainly felt planted to the road, and it felt like I could tell if I ran over a 5p piece I got that much feedback when in the right mode, but it also felt like something was going to snap or pop at any time. Whilst it was perfectly capable driving round town, it never felt like it wanted to be there. Whereas the 458 feels a little bit more comfortable wherever you take it - is this a little bit of the "sterilisation" that various reviewers have spoken of in regard to these double clutch systems and the strive to make them more "every day" use? I dont know - Im hardly a motor journalist - but Im guessing for somebody who drives cars hard, they may not like the way that some of the feeling has disappeared. Having said all that, as I have only ever done my first track day in the last couple of weeks, and never really driven any car particularly hard, Im hardly a person who puts a car like the 430/458 through its paces, so your results may indeed vary.

Although Ferrari has moved on quite a bit, and the 458 is a step up from the 430, Im not overly convinced by their attitude toward customers. Although I had a relatively pleasant experience with mine, they werent interested in sorting a couple of the issues mine had under warranty. Bearing in mind my car had only just come out of the 3 year manufacturer warranty and was still in the extended warranty for the 4th year (a £4k warranty from Maranello I may add), at the time I tried to claim for moisture in the headlamps, they couldnt care less. The peeling protective layer under the bonet and in the door shuts which is common on 430's was also declined by Ferrari, but done by the dealer as a goodwill gesture. You would have thought as this was my first Fezza, they would have done a bit more to keep me loyal to the brand. Admittedly they did invite me on several days out and factory visits (although not free), It did stick in my throat that they outright refused my request for a couple of new headlights on a car that had less than 3000 miles on the clock. Needless to say I am skipping the 458 and have my name on the list for one of their competitors cars now. I think you may be dissapointed with the 458 drive. Not that it isnt quick, it certainly is, but compared to the single clutch, the double clutch box in the italia makes it very smooth, and almost elastic like on acceleration.

Short of it being some local antivirus or cookie issue, Im not certain what could be causing this. If it were widespread or something that was an issue server side, then we should be seeing a lot more users with these issues. Have you tried with a different PC from another internet connection?

I take it you went 20mm front and 25mm rear

I think what gave it away for me was that it has F430 written on the wrong wing mirror. Other than that I can barely spot where this differs from the real thing.

He's definitely putting that in neutral (pulling both paddles), but also looks like he's going for reverse too (button for reverse is down in the centre where the handbrake is). Weird.

Hands up who, if they could run at 27mph, would not seek out speed cameras in 20mph zones and just take the pi*s. I know I would.

60mph is 27 metres/s to reach 27m/s in 6 seconds requires acceleration of about 4.5ms^2 In short, at 60mph you will have covered around 81m. the remaining 19m taking just .7 of a second at the 27m/s if acceleration stopped. Zed will cover the 100m in or under 7 seconds.

Thanks all Yes, this is the real birthday and not a test of the forum Had a card and prezzie from Lewis, a meal out with the family and a round of golf with my brother to look forward to. Great day, even if it does mark another year gone

According to an SQL search, number of registered users visiting in the last month is 1380, number posting in last month is apparently 768.

I have to say I am far more impressed than I thought I would be. We have not let the side down and I'm being reminded just how much we have to be proud of in Britain and how much we have given to the world. Here's to you Britain

I have to say I am far more impressed than I thought I would be. We have not let the side down and I'm being reminded just how much we have to be proud of in Britain and how much we have given to the world. Here's to you Britain

Times are hard for the insurance companies dont you know Dan - they are probably doing it at 20% per 3 points full stop now. Regardless of whether its 3 or 9 you have. They must have some fancy calculators, as they appear to have 70% no claims discount, but then 3 points bumps up your premium by 20%, but I shall suspect thats 20% of the original price before your no claims discount. Whichever way you spin it, its a private industry that the law dictates you must use - so we are never going to get a fair deal, ever.

Hi, I must apolgise, we did indeed get a nice letter from Hope House thanking us for our donation and raising of money from our trip to Wales (it has thefigure on there, but does not include the online donations raised). I have been meaning to scan this in and post it up, but sadly life has been rather busy both with work and at home, and I have not got round to it yet - but yes we did receive a personal thankyou and acknowledgement for our efforts. I shall add this to my to do list to ensure everyone gets to see it. Regards, Chris.

Its also worth noting that you should not overtake another moving vehicle when you are in an area of zig zags. As the other vehicle was exiting the space, you had to give way, as overtaking would have been an offence in itself....

Some cool cars there The steering wheel is on the wrong side of that "GT40" though

Snap!!!

just 161 GT4s registered.

Knowing next to nothing about bikes, wouldn't the weight of the thing and the effect it has on making manouvres more difficult be affected quite a bit by how much bulk the rider has to push/pull said bike with? i.e. a rider weighting 10 stone trying to shift a 250 KG bike is going to have a harder time than say somebody weighin in at 20 stone who shifts 120 KG around with their legs every day? Not that I am the slightest bit interested in a bike, although the thought of riding some big fat lazy bike across the states sounds appealing - but would probably still rather do it in some soft top car instead.

The way to change the social attitude toward drinking, is not to make it needlessly more expensive for those who know how to behave. Its to make the punishments and repercussions for those that dont, worse. An ASBO is like a swimming badge, and has no stigma attached whatso ever - at least not a negative one. Making them dress in pink overalls and go litter picking would have more of an effect, but that would no doubt be against some European namby pamby rule somewhere. Just like in the US, removing guns from all people, just to tackle the idiot element is the easy knee jerk route imho. They need to be smarter if they want this to stop happening, but although gun crime is far more common in the US than it is in many other develped nations, they are a LONG way behind many other countries - South Africa, Mexico, Jamaica, Columbia, Brazil etc.. It is illegal to carry a knife in the UK, yet we still managed 4 knife murders a week in 2011, with over 32,500 knife crimes in the year. Outright banning something will not make the problem go away overnight. In 1996 (the year before the UK handgun laws were changed) there were a total of 3347 Handgun offences. In 2011 the number was 3105 - hardly a drastic reduction. Plus consider in years like 2003 it was over 5000. http://www.gun-control-network.org/A018.htm www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN01940.pdf

Although a tragic event, I dont think a knee jerk reactioin affecting every person in the country is the right way to go. Thats what our governments would do. Too difficult to deal with the rogue element, so lets give everyone a kicking to make sure we kick the rogue element. Look at binge drinking and the recent law in Scotland. Too difficult to deal with the trouble makers, so lets have minimum pricing for Alcohol and kick everyone. The story about the increase in road deaths among young drivers - whats the answer? Lets look at the speed limits on rural roads... Negatively impact everyone just to make sure you cover the real targets that need eductaing or slowing down. Banning handguns in America would just never be feasible. There are so many millions of them in the hands of the public that it would take decades to collect and destroy them all - hundreds of thousands of them would end up in criminal hands, leaving the rest of the public with no way to defend themselves. In our country, only the most hardened of criminals will have a gun. In America, a shop lifter will have one. Far from solving the problem of allowing guns into the hands of the stupid element of society - trying to ban handguns in the US will ensure that ONLY the stupid and undesireable have them, which would be an even more dangerous situation than it is today.

I don't think there are that many similarities to houses at all. Houses for the most part are not deprecating assets. That is the key with car finance of any kind whether purchase or hire based. Finance options that have deposits and guaranteed future values are just fancy hire arrangements, you can either cough up the final payment (normally the guaranteed value) or hand back the car. therefor making it no different to a hire or lease scheme. The only way you purchase the asset is if there is no option to return the vehicle and you just make x payments for x years and you get the asset at the end. Any car loan at all is buying you nothing but time in the drivers seat until the amount you have paid exceeds the amount the car has depreciated, regardless of how it is structured. For me ive not financed for two reasons. One, there was nowhere that the capital could have been invested at the time that would have offset the extra costs of the finance over buying outright and Two, because when I bought my first "flash" car the fezza, I didn't want people doing a quick hpi and it coming back showing outstanding finance, call it a pride/ego thing but that as/is the reason I don't finance. If my position was different though, I could see the benefit of a hire scheme like these to ensure I was in a new (and covered by warranty) car. Though I would be having the same debate as to whether it is worth it compared to keeping my older car and owning it in time..

Its like this.. a ) buy car outright for 35k, sell it two years later for £28k. You have no car and have £7k less in the bank than you started with b ) hire car for £250 a month with a £1k deposit then give it back two years later. You have no car and have £7k less in the bank than you started with. With option a however, you have all your £35k tied up in the asset. With option b you have the ability to use the other £28k as you wish. In reality option b will be a premium over option a, but if you can use the remaining £28k over two years to invest and offset thet premium you are better off. Horses for courses.