Chesterfield

Exactly - as soon as the new tech comes out, they can the investment in the old tech and start with the new - beginning with the city again. Which is why we have seen city exchanges move from DSL to Max DSL, ADSL2+ and now Fibre. While semi rural exchanges have in most cases not even moved past MaxDSL. (up to 8mb) It is also laughable that upgrades from MaxDSL (8mb) to ADSL2+ (24mb) has not taken place rapidly because in many cases it is just a firmware upgrade to the DSLAM and in rare ovvasions a replacement DSLAM. BT are the sole reason that the UK are miles behind any other developed (and some underdeveloped) countries in terms of our network. They give us all thick **** and bull story about it being the old copper technology holding us back, when for probably less than half what they have spent on the minority infinity connections, they could have upgraded all exchanges to ADSL2+ (24mb) some time ago. Quite how OFCOM allow BT to continue this cycle of implementing new technology in the city and ditching the national roll out of the now "old" technology is beyond me. There are also 100mb trials taking place with both Virgin and BT now too. How long before we see the infinity rollout stopped and the new 100mb started - leaving about 90% of the country on a 5mb average. I still cant believe OFCOM allowed the Market 1,2,3 exchange rules to come in. Its resulted in two tier broadband class across the whole country. If you are on a Market 3 exchange youll probably get EXACTLY the same package from your ISP provided at a much cheaper rate than if you are connected to a Market1 exchange.

We have the basic "up to 8mb" but no sign of ADSL2 or ADSL2+ here, so Im stuck at about 5.5mb for a while yet. I know thats probably a pipe dream for most, but its damned annoying how BT roll out their technology to exchanges. An exchange up the road which serves about 1000 more people (5000 instead of our 4000) already has the adsl2+ and is on the rollout for infinity by mid/late 2012 - whereas we havent even got a date for ADSL2, never mind anything else. Yet that area is predominantly full of households that struggle to buy food never mind high speed broadband. The mind boggles on how they decide upon their rollout. No surprise that BT have rolled out infinity to London before the rest of the country even gets ADSL2. The sooner I can get a decent LLU provider connection the better. Its the only way that BT will actually take any notice of customers that exist outside of the capital. Running a competition for semi rural exchanges to get infinity enabled while the take up in the areas that they have done automatically is less than 10% shows just how much thought they have for anything resembling an out of town exchange..

I got a frantic phone call from a concerned team member, as I was working on it

Yes - it would appear that whilst attempting to remove the snow from the forum, I may have triggered a slight white out of the forum. All fixed now. Nothing to see here (well actually there is now which is a good thing). Move along....

If he had a passenger in the boot, then he should face charges for dangerous driving at the very least as well as his drink driving charge I would have thought. Im amazed his insurance is playing ball given he was driving overloaded. (good job they are though for your sake).

I think that once again we British are the ONLY ones that are banning activities to please the minority within the EU. IF we are tackling sports which are suposedly cruel, then I think there are much better places to start. Bullfightig in southern Spain for example. Ive not read of bulls being a pest, they are just killed for fun. Its about time we had a government in this country that was not afriad to speak up for common sense. I dont think any of the current lot are up to it to be honest. There are a few more important things that need sorting first before we lok at banning fox hunting.

Its also worth noting that the 430 scud with its weight loss & increased power manages 377 bhp/ton, (which is exactly the same as the new 458 italia). The GTR is "only" 300, so I'd have to agree that this was certainly the driver and not the car. If I ever took my bog standard 430 (333 bhp/ton) on a track, then I'd gues anyone here in a 350Z would have me, as I'd be driving like a novice, and probably quite slowly having never done a track day

I like the app which lets you browse the programme listing and set your sky+ box to record while you are away from home too.

Thats because I only did it about half an hour ago. About time I dragged myself into the festive spirit.

Have a look at this to work out your benefit in kind tax: http://www.comcar.co.uk/ Just taking rough figures in and not knowing the exact emissions or price when new of the cars, then its looking like this: the 530 D will be in the 24 or 25% band if its emissions are anything like the new model (if worse then the percentage will be higher), meaning your benefit in kind will be 24/25% of the price when new (including all the nice extras) - so say 25% of £40k = =£10k benefit in kind minimum. The Alfa 159 (diesel I assume) is in the 20% bracket and price when new is £26k - so your benefit in kind is £5200. If you are a 20% tax payer then thats £2000 per year for the BM, and £1040 for the Alfa at 40% you will be paying £4000 in tax for the BM and £2080 for the Alfa. So while you may not have to "contribute" any more to the company for the BM, you will pay about double the tax. The reason the company will be trying to keep the older cars and not buy new is the way that writing down has changed. Companies cannot write off the depreciation of a car in a year all at once if it exceeds about £3000. Therefore it can take many years to write off a cars depreciation, and the company pays corporation tax on money that has effectively been lost as they cant write it all off. We have fallen victim to this with the oh so brilliant residuals of the Jag. Weve lost about £10k in just over a year on each car, but it will take us maybe four tax years to write off those losses if we sold the cars now. That means this year we will be paying 27% tax on £6k per car (£3240 in total) for money which effectively doesnt exist as we cant write off all the depreciation. Over the next four years we will pay probably around £10k in corporation tax on the money which we cant write off all at once. Thats why we will be canning the company cars and getting private, its just a joke having anything above the £15-20k level on company cars as it costs the companies a small fortune.

Yup - they ramraided the coffers last year, and now the banks are looking more in depth at a companies financial info for credit, the insurance companies are wanting to swell the cash reserves again. 40% rises in a year is not solely down to a few more accidents in bad weather or ambulance chasing scammers that force cars to hit them from behind, or excess hire car charges. Its massively down to how many companies have managed their cash flow in the last couple of years. Looking at the annual reports from some insurers paints a very clear picture as to whats caused the massive and fast hike in premiums.

So the faster the better was related to vehicles, but in no way meant to intimate that the cars would need to travel fast, and the 8 minutes was just a laugh. Oh in that case I got it all wrong. You see how well sarcasm works without smilies? Anyway - thread locked - some ar already going to the ring, without stop watches.

The Nurburgring is not a track. It is a derestricted toll road with two entrances/exits. Any vehicle which is taxed and insured (although the insurance will not actually cover you on the ring) can drive on it. You could in theory drive round a blind bend at 60mph only to find a tour bus slowly making its way uphill at 20mph. The rules are to keep to the right at all times if travelling slower than others. If you take the "racing" line on the ring and are hit from behind, its YOUR fault. You promoted it as "the faster the better" We have already had to post messages of condolence to the family of one member that lost their life in a Z. We don't want to do it again, so no, its not heavy handed to say that we will not support any trips to the ring that involve any form of timing individual laps what so ever.

When I went to the ring I did 4 laps and learnt probably less than 1% of the corners. By learnt I mean I knew roughly how long they were and how sharp, and I only remembered those when I was actually on them. I got chatting to a guy who spent a couple or more holidays per YEAR at the ring doing 50+ laps during each visit and it took him a few years to learn the circuit properly. There are so many blind corners and crests its not even funny. The other problem is one blind crest/bend which is quite sharp can look on approach, identical to another which could probably be taken at three times the speed. Get the two mixed up on your "timed" lap, and a serious accident will ensue, if not death. This club WILL NOT promote any event where members are encouraged to do timed laps on the ring.

Im looking for the measurement from the part of the car otherwise closest to being hit by the next car over - so probably where the door is. Best thing to do I reckon is park the Z up, open the door fully, park another car next to it and simply measure the gap.

What Im doing is designing the four spaces so I can open a car door without hitting the car next to it. What Im using to be on the safe side is the widest car I may ever get (say 2m) plus the addition of the largest door. That means a space of 2m wide with 1.3m gap between each car, plus an extra 1.3m for the left most cars passenger side and say 2m on the right hand side of the right most car to give room for a workbench Gives a total width of 15.2m or about 50 feet. I think Im going to have to start marking things up with masking tape after the thaw and see whether 2m plus a Z door for each car is being excessive. The Z will actually not have its own door but Im thinking of having it slide over from the third door, as I dont want any more than three doors on the front to prevent it from looking a bit overkill on the garages. like this (its a british company that manufacture these so I should be ok in getting one) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Ygj21OtaU

How is that possible with a 130cm door ? I can see this garage getting large! Thanks buddy - thats a great help

They may want to pass that information onto the guys stood outside supermarkets in the freezing cold then

Hi, After a favour really as I cant easily access the Z and its doors at the moment. Can someone advise on how far out a fully open Z door protrudes from the body of the car. I know the length of the door is around 1300mm, but with the angle of opening, how far do they actually stick out from the car? I am currently undergoing a project of looking at building a larger garage as part of an extension and am looking at how to maximise garage spaces without building what resembles a row of stables or office parking block. Hopefully once the weather defrosts Ill be out with the masking tape and mocking up the size of the building/spaces etc - Im just after a couple of measurements to start plotting rough drawings on paper. Thanks for any help

The 458 makes my knees go all wobbly.

Congratulations!

Havent taken the Z out in the snow. The Altea has been great, the Jaguar has been absolutely awful. It has a snow mode, but being auto with low profile wide tyres its going to struggle to be fair. Touch wood though here in Chesterfield we seem to be surrounded by places of the country that have plenty of snow, but we have barely any at all.

You think I read even half the off topic stuff?

Seriously do people actually do ANY research before buying a car

That made me laugh out loud at work.