sasha@lazytrips

Windows 7 is the only decent thing that came out of Microsoft since XP Pro and judging from the pictures Win8 is really not what I need for a complex multi-monitor set up so think it's gonna be a pass for now.

You said that you have "just" put them on. I'd give them a little bit of time and see how well they perform when you have to do an emergency stop coming round a sharp bend at speed during strong rain. Some racing team might be using "Neuton" tyres in a drift series, but I'd bet that they aren't going to be the same tyre that they're selling at £80 a pop online. I'm sure I'll be proven wrong, but I've heard about a new budget tyre that is better than anything else on the market at half the price of the cheapest reasonable option before and somehow they didn't quite catch on. In a huge market like tyres, unless there has been some ground-breaking innovation, you generally get what you pay for as if there was a way to manufacture great tyres at that price, I am sure somebody else would have lowered theirs too.

The sort of people who would consider purchasing unknown budget tyres for their sports car tend to be the sort of people for whom the sole satisfaction factor is the price of said tyre hence why there are only positive reviews. I honestly struggle to believe that any manufacturer is able to produce anything even remotely reasonable for half the price of other budget tyres in the same size - it's not magic. In my humble opinion if you choose to run non-standard wheel sizes, you should only do so if you are able to afford to put proper rubber on them as otherwise it is a pretty pointless decision.

Obviously so would the owner of the Chimaera.

horses for courses, but the wheels will stick out like no tomorrow unless you have a widebody kit and the stretch on the 265 tyre will look completely idiotic.

Not really worth the discussion as soon as people begin saying things like "but it's slower than a GTR or a 911".

Is it too late to join and take Zedley on a trip to the Alps mid-march?

I went on a reverse version of exctly what you just wrote up there in December You'll have a ball. If plans permit, check out some of rural Luxembourg - some proper mint roads through the hills.

Chesterfield's post is great, but just to add my 2 cents: I would highly recommend staying at the newer end of the strip as the hotels further down can come across as much more dingy and dated with everything from size of rooms to carpets and overall decor as well as the halls, etc. By newer I mean the end with Aria & Cosmo.

And you never know... Rumour has it that some people who go on photobucket might win an iPhone 4S although I have personally not heard of anyone who did.

You too? How bizarre.

Or a Ferrari 355/Viper SRT-10

Had exactly the same story in Belgium in 2010 except it was a white van. About 10 inches of thick snow on the road, everybody going at around 30mph in one lane of the motorway (it literally felt like northern parts of Canada) and this one smart guy in a van decided that he's gonna go into the fast lane. He lasted 200 yards before writing it off into the central reservation.

So it has a supercharger, failside bodykit and some aftermarket wheels. Irrespective of personal opinion on whether those are nice or not, £8-9k is all it's worth unless there is a one-off buyer who has more money than sense. Unfortunately 95% of any money you spend on mods is irretrievable when you come to sell the car.

*presses BID for a laugh.

Mileage is low which is good, but the price still seems reasonably high given that this is a non-GT car. Granted it has a lot of extras, so if they float your boat it could be a good deal, but I am a sucker for heated leather seats and cruise control can come in handy. Those also look like anniversary edition wheels which are highly sought after and very expensive, so if you like the rest, you might be onto a winner.

out of interest, what is the most HP & torque that a forum car has produced without an engine swap? Anybody know?

I know that you've got 2 weeks to wait, but

It's Bernie Ecclestone's policy that no testing is to be televised. Not sky's fault. As for the cars... it's pretty hard to tell right now. All we know is that the Mercedes engine seems to be pretty epic this year as all cars running it are doing reasonably well irrespective of the aero packages or anything else. Red Bull seem to still be doing reasonably well in the aero department and Ferrari thus far does not look all that promising although with Alonso at the wheel you just never know. Bring on the first race!

One other thing is this: I am probably quite different to most people, but for most people's usage, one decent top-end card will cover all their needs for quite some time. I bought what was a pretty decent (almost top of the range) card at the time with the intention on buying an identical (but much much cheaper) card in 2-3 years time to get a huge boost in performance for virtually no outlay.

I've got the i5 2500k processor and generally very similar on everything else (built my computer almost exactly 1 year ago. On the parts, My only suggestion is to have a read of the graphics cards - I am running 470GTX (bought for SLI) and I have a premium motherboard (had a number of features I wanted at the time including some funky BIOS options). On the whole, building your own computer wins hands down. You get infinitely more for your money, you know exactly what goes into the box & you can plan for future upgrades and reuse high quality components. In addition, my 1 year old computer still feels, runs and functions as though it was brand new (touch wood) - this will not be the case with mass manufactured units which in my personal experience deteriorate significantly faster.

Good luck with it. Not all flashes mean you got done. I got flashed in Belgium at significantly more than you and nothing happened

770 is pretty good. I've got a clean license, no accidents, am 26, have a load of no claims and all that jazz and still pay £650 or thereabouts. That's the way the industry is...

I bought an 04 GT car with 48k miles about 2 years ago. I'm now hitting 100k and loving it.

I didn't know you were a truck driver.