Chesterfield

I have to dissagree with the "tiring on long journeys" point. Having covered just over 2500 miles in two weeks on the Euro trip, including two single day journeys of over 400 miles, and one of 380, I feel I can speak with some experience on the matter. After each of those journeys I can conclude that I got out of the car feeling a whole lot less tired than had I done the journey in my Golf, or even the Altea which is a little larger. It may well have been the French motorways, as I also feel they are a lot less tressful to drive on than our own. The 350 eats up the miles, perhaps not as easily as some executive saloon or boat on wheels, but I do not feel the 350 is any worse than a typical family hatchback for taking its toll on long journeys, and in my opinion better than some. The wind noise I do not think is high either, however Im comparing this to my previous Golf (aerodynamic as a brick), our Mazda MX5 (v high wind noise), and my previous cars (typical 90s brick like design). It is probably higher wind noise than the altea, but there have been specific design elements put on the altea to reduce wind noise (windscreen wipers hiding in the A pillars for example). Average MPG of 19.8 I can beleive if they did quite a lot of urban driving. We averaged well above that in Europe, but that was majority extra urban. If you care that much about MPG, you dont buy a car with a 3.5l engine in the first place.

Yup - google, yahoo etc. They can be a pain as they screw up the most ever users online stat, but now that they are blocked from the bandwidth heavy areas, they dont cause as much trouble as they used to!

Dont forget also, the area was hit by a hurricane around 24 months or so ago, which means a lot of the seafront bars and complexes with beach bars etc will have been newly renovated. The beach bar complex we had in Cozumel was all brand new, most of the resorts took the opportunity during the rebuilding of beachfront complexes to refurbish most of the resort at the same time.

hey took the dollar for just about everything - to be honest we put most of the trips on credit card, I cant remember how much we spent in total, but trips and cash for tips etc probably came to about £500 for the both of us. If you are planning on swimming with dolphins, add a few more pennies and if you do swim with them, go for the full package that normally includes a good hours swim with them, rather than sitting in a petting pool etc. We did it some years ago on the other side of Mexico in Puerto Vallarta, so didnt do it again in Cozumel (island 30 mins from Cancun). For taxi rides into the town in Cozumel and in the shops they took the dollar. They are geared up for the cruise ships which dock almost every day. If its similar to our experience, local markets and souvenier shops have two prices - one for days when a cruise ship is in and the rich americans are wandering round, and one for when there isn't a ship in. Your aiming point for any haggling should be at least half the price on the ticket regardless of the day. The people are generally very friendly, though if they sense you are buying (a carrier bag with purchaes in), be prepared to be heckeled from every other shop in an effort for you to buy from them also. My advise would be if you are wanting to buy stuff, spend a day wandering round and deciding what you want, then go to the specific items you want on another day to conclude a deal. If you wander round with purchases from one shop, the heckling from all the others trying to get you will wind you up so much you'll want to smack someone. The generaly are polite though and will take no as an answer. Ive been to other destinations (on in particular was jamaica) where they will actually try and take you by the hand and drag you into their shop. In Cancun and surrounding areas they know that tourism is the main revenue generator for the area and have learnt not to bite the hand that feeds. So expect pleasent and friendly heckling! The tour of Chichen Itza is great. Its worth going on an organised tour instead of making your own way there as the local knowledge of the site is invaluable and the guides will explain the various buildings and their purposes. All very interesting. There is a ferry over to Cozumel from Playa Carmen, that is the island we stopped on, its about a 40 minute trip. Not a massive ammount to see on the island, but if you go over there and hire a car for the day $50 ish, you can drive round the entire island in 40 minutes, get to the other side of the island and you can have acres of beach to yourselves if you want to get away from it all. We had a great time in Mexico, both several years ago in Puerto Vallarta and more recently in Cozumel. I would have no hesitation or doubts about going back to that country again in the future, hopefully we will again one day, but there is a lot more of the planet to see - with any luck it will be as pleasant as both of our trips to Mexico.

Have a look how far Xel-Ha is away from your resort. Its an eco park south of cancun. It is without a doubt one of the best snorkeling days I have ever had - its normally bundled with a trip to Tulum (mayan ruins) but id give Tulum a miss and sped the whole day at Xel-Ha, especially if you plan on going to Chichen Itza (spectacular ruin of mayan city). You can do underwater walking, with weighted helmets (sadly I cant do anything like that due to part of an eardrum missing), snorkeling, swim into caves etc etc. Its a great day out. If you have an underwater camera, take it. If not you can buy disposable underwater cameras, you need to get pretty close to the fish, but trust me that wont be a problem. I swear I almost soiled myself when swimming amongst small rainbow fish, I turned a corner and some 3ft purple coloured snapper thing with a gob the size of my fist was staring me in the face. Luckily it was a veggie, and just wanted to have some of the fish food I had in my mitten which you can grab for free from the various feeding stations dotted around the place.

Still working on mine

As I can actually contribute on topic - here goes. I have no idea if it makes any difference, but I intend to change the plugs in mine at some point in an attempt to stop one side of my exhaust becoming carboned up quicker than the other (dodgy burn in one bank maybe?) As I have a true dual, and one side seems to be burning differently to the other (or one cat is damaged), I end up with one very dark exhaust and one silver - which then makes it look like some chav chariot with a fake exhaust on one side. Trick is at the moment to keep wiping the exhaust every time the car is put away. PS. yes it was on purpose.

Nope - dealer did not have any, and also said that they would not get one to match as the ones fitted to the 350Z were unique, and all but individual to each car. Im not really surprised that its a hell of a lot easier than my dealer made out. They have struck me as a little workshy before now. However I did get it sorted in the end, and I went to the manufacturers of the tool that the AA have. 2 minute job and they were all off.

They still break - it seems to be down to crap solder, (now lead free so its more brittle). Ive had this happen twice, both times swapped for a new one at the shop I bought it at. There is however another issue that the breaking xbox causes, any downloaded content will not work on the replacement box if you ar offline - so for example, any arcade games purchased online from xbox market place will be unavailable unless your account is signed in to live. An example would be if you take your xbox off line, and you have a downloaded car in your garage on Test Drive Unlimited, then the game will not work. You would have to go online, sell the car, then try playing offline. Also, any other users accounts on the box other than the primary user, will not have access to the content full stop. So if your othr half enjoys playing an arcade game on his/her own account instead of yours, then they wont be able to. MS has been working on a fix for this for the last 18 months (apparently ) So, just something to be aware of in case you decide to take your replacement box away from a broadband connection at any point.

It all sounds to me like the ANPR system is a bit crap. So rather than do the screamingly obvious and improve the character recognition on the ANPR system (crikey even adobe can read handwriting). They go the long winded way round and try to alter all the number plates that cant be read by it. Hows about we spend some of that £15 million left over from the speeding fines in upgrading the ANPR system, so that coppers can then spend more time doing what they probably enjoy doing, detecting, preventing and resolving "real" crime. The answer is of course that like most public bodies they would get crap value for money, not bother questioning it, and the quote for tweaking the ANPR system would probably run to well over the £15 million. Whereas I can buy a copy of adobe that can read even my squiggly handwriting for less than a couple of hundred quid down at PC world. The mind boggles

I think the attraction is personalisation. For instance I have my first initial and then a number and letters which spell my surname, Tracy has similar (well come the wedding next year the plate will match her surname anyway ) As for different font or style on plates that dont actually spell anything, Im not too sure, perhaps its a styling thing, just another mod I suppose? Im currently runing the Altea on its 07 plate, and have no desire what so ever to mis space or alter th plates in any way - but when its a series of letters/numbers that mean something to me then yes I may tweak them.

The maximum penalty is confiscation of theplate and £1000 fine I think (at leat thats what I remember it saying on the notice from the DVLA). It obviously gets on my nerves the fact that the police are obviously under instruction from higher powers to pay attention to these "offences" (no doubt because of their instant revenue generation). I mean seriously, turning round at a motorway junction and then fight through traffic to give someone a tug for a slightly incorrect plate? How pathetic. What gets on my nerves even more is the blatant double standards shown by the DVLA themselves. There are certain number plates that will spell names or words if mis spaced alone - and these numbers sell on the DVLA's own website for huge sums of money compared to "normal" personlised plates. They price them this high because of the very fact that the digits can be mis-spaced, yet then go on to allow prosecution and fining of individuals whn they do the very thing that they have increased the value of the plate for in the first place. Its completely pathetic, they can spout this terrorism lark all they like, its complete and utter BS, and the pwers that be have spoted an opportunity to rake in more money from the good old motorist. How on Gods green earth anyone can suggest an illegaly spaced numberplate on the front is illegal because you could get away with a hit and run is well beyond my comprehension. How does that rule apply to Motorcycles? It wouldnt have got me off the fine, but if I had been in your shoes Val and the copper had used the hit and run argument to justify your fine for the front number plate, I would have asked what would happen if somone was the victim of a hit and run motorcyclist and any witnesses only visible side of the vehicle was the front? Ive been done twice for number plates, once on my plate and once on Tracys'. The first time I was driving through our town centre on a Friday night on my way home. The cop car actually followed me past a pub where two bouncers and three youths were getting into an altercation, preffering to stop me a few minutes later to issue the £30 fine. Ever since then they can come up with any argument they wish to try and justify these £30 fines for number plates, none of them wash. Its all about cash generation and easy targets. Unfortunately its the powers that be increasing paperwork on more serious offences, decreasing it on these type of offences, and setting financial targets - the end result is inevitable. We will simply see more of these offences "dealt with", rather than others. Eventually you will be able to get away with stabbing someone in the face, safe in the knowledge that the police will be far to busy dishing out £30 fines and producers for trivial motoring offences. All of the above are my opinions and not necesarily the views of this web site by the way. and breathe.....

As its a driving offence, and you can almost hear the treasury rubbing their hands together, expect a lengthy ban and a very large fine. In fact, looking at it, the punishemnt for speeding, loss of liscence and possibly income as a result plus the fine, seems to be a harsher penalty than you would get for a first time offence such as assault where you would probably get a smaller fine and a stern talking to. Such is the British justice system and the great big cash cow motorist. Although that doesnt condone speeding - 140mph in any vehicle, especially a bike, is just asking for God to click his fingers and clock your card out.

Sounds like someone who cant use his own discretion to me. I can understand the reasoning, but sounds like a bit of a step too far. More probable is the fact that if ANPR cant read the plate, they cant automatically generate fines from the nice little yellow boxes that hover over roadworks etc. Seriously, what sort of terrorist is going to try and hide in a bright frigging blue 350Z with bling wheels and a dodgy number plate. I know these people havent got the brains they were born with, but thats just plain stupid even for a would be terrorist. How excatly will ANPR help track vehicles used by terrorists if they dont know the number beforehand. Moreover it would take a pretty dumb terrorist to try and hide by putting an illegaly spaced/font plate on a car, which is just asking to be tugged. Sounds like the goold old safety camera partnerships have spotted how they can use current events to encourage police to ensure more cars can have the £30 fines applied automatically. Mines stopping as it is and they can have the £30 if they so wish. What a pathetic and useless stance. Is it any wonder the law abiding citizens in this country have all but lost every ounce of faith in the policing when the police are under instructions to be as harsh as this on these sort of issues.

Is it a condition that all MEP's have to undergo a lobotomy once elected to their position? As correctly pointed out by the Register, the top speed of a vehicle has about three tenths of bugger all to do with its emissions level. Which has a higher Co2 rating - the 350Z or a Hummer H1? And which is the slower? Do these people actually spend any time what so ever thinking through their ideas, or are they all complete and utter blithering idiots?

Ive got to take mine in too. Over 20 and up to about 35 you can hear a distinct knocking and feel it slightly through the front end. Certainly a knock in time with the rotation of a wheel, front drivers side I believe. Checked the tyres out fully as there was speculation that it could be rumbling caused by feathering. (myself and Val trying to figure out what it was on holiday). Ive yet to change the front wheel for a spare I have in the garage and check the tyres out in detail, but Im coming to the conclusion that its a bearing, and not a defect in either of the front tyres. I think it happened when the front end hit some cave sized pot hole in Nice on the euro trip.

Fines - large ones. Several years ago - in fact well over a decade ago, my old man got done for speeding in the states - he had the choice of either a $200 fine, or attend a "drivers class" for half a day. He chose the drivers class, knowing full well we were going home the next day, so never went to the class and never paid the fine. He was concerned that the next time we went to the states he would get pulled up on it at the immigration control desk. He didnt. Things may have changed, and if enough visitors to the states just never bothered going to the classes, they probably removed that option and now you may just get a thundering great fine.

Once enough time is found, the intention is to create a propper local/regional meets section of the forum and link all regular meets to the calendar - making it much easier for members to find & subsequently attend these regular meets. Congratulations on sorting the first South West one - hope everything goes well Oh and dont forget the pics!

Nearer the date once the final layout is decided we can put a map on the site for people to download. We will have the banner up on the plot so you will know when you have found the right area. Just look for the logo and you know you are in the right place.

Now bearing in mind I know next to nothing about wheels I thought you could get proper sporty wheels in 20" Work and Volk make 20" rims. Work Meister S1 come in 20" Porsche Carrera GT has 20 inch rims on the rear.

The google earth data for my road is about 4 years out of date or perhaps a little more, as the road for my previous home (about 300 yards away) is just a dirt track that has been set out in the field. The MS maps.live data has different versions though. The standard aerial view is again maybe 4-5 years out of date. The birds eye view though has my decking completed and the paving I put down to the side which means it cannot be any older than 10 months.

Good find Also another site maps.live.com run by Microsoft has some good aerial photography too, and in some areas goes into furthr detail still (it allows you to switch to birds eye view in those areas). http://maps.live.com It also allows you to look from various different angles too on the birds eye view. I often use it in addition to google earth, and its very handy when househunting, you get a good idea of the plot etc.

This is still on the topic of the floods in Chesterfield but deserved its own post.. This is one route home I tried from work on Monday before turning round as I was warned it was a little deep. about 30 seconds after I turned round, this police van passed me going in the opposite direction toward the flooded area. This is what happened.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvdpYgX4f7Q

Yes Tracy liked/likes it. She didnt want to take the Z to work until it had her plate on so that when it first turned up in the car park people knew it was hers. She did not pick it, but I had done a bit of research first, asking what she thought of my brothers plate (his is exactly the same as hers, but with a different letter S for stephen rather than T for Tracy). She thought it was nice and looked good. Once I had bought it, I waited a while and then went on the DVLA website with her to "check" and see what was available. When I tried searching for the number I had bought it came up as unavailble. So I suggested that we cant have that number as someone else has bought it. I could see Tracy was dissapointed that she couldnt have the number. Therefor I knew when she unwrapped the plates that I had made up for her and discovered that the person who had bought the plates was actually myself, she would be happy

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