350ash

Happy Birthday John!

I've now seen a photo of your brown car, lets hope you get lots of nice cleaning goodies to celebrate being a quarter of a century old (that's pretty old!).

Unfortunately you spelt storm girl wrong one of the times you wrote storm girl in your last post about storm girl so it won't help push your post about storm girl up the google search results for storm girl. Nevermind. Storm girl.

With the calculations saying you need to do 15,000 or 20,000 miles per year to break even you're assuming that all your driving is done in the shed and not in the zed. I thought about a shed before winter but realised that for me it just doesn't make any sense. I think what biscuit said: "if i did have a shed, i'd never drive it, couldn't see the point if the nice car was parked there i'd always take the nice car" sums it up quite nicely.

In a few years I'm going to be trying to get on the property ladder and so I'll have to sell the zed to help with the deposit but I'm planning on replacing it with someone that's still interesting, just a lot cheaper.

To be honest its probably done me a favour - I finally bit the bullet and applied for a managers job. If you can't beat em then I suppose you might as well become a soul-less ape who starts using phrases from the Ladybird book of middle management like-

- isolated incident (cocked up once)

- systemic issue (cocked up all over the place)

- can you liaise with (talk to)

- we'll park that one (we don't know the answer and we're not likely to in the near future)

- lets put that in the fridge (we don't know the answer and we never will - just forget about it)

- put a backstop in place (we keep fooking up MAKE IT STOP NOW!)

- the deliverable hasn't been implemented (you didn't do what we asked you....ooooooo I'm not happy)

- cost benefit analysis proved to be excessive (its too frigging expensive - find something cheaper that won't work as well)

- we're putting you an a personal improvement plan - PIP (your 1 fookup away from getting sacked meladdo - pull your socks up!!)

- the RAG status is telling us (oooooooo look how much red we've got - we're definitely fooked)

- the 'dashboard' is identifying systemic issues (fookedfookedfooked - regulators going to fine us to oblivion)

- working lunch (working but with food - your not getting a lunch and no.....I don't give a blue **** if its illegal or not)

 

ad infinitum...........

Before I started work I thought that this type of stuff was just a joke, I've unfortunately realised since though that everyone speaks like that. I reckon the worst is when an "opportunity" arises (there's a problem/issue, we don't want to admit it though but we still need to fix it). Drives me crazy sometimes.

I can't see my company blocking the forum anytime soon - they would have done so already. I only occasionally check the forum at lunchtimes but I work with Husky so there's probably been a fair few hours logged on here from our work site!

My zed is my only car but as I only do around 10,000 miles per year at the moment it's not too bad. I'd much rather get 20mpg in something I enjoy driving than get 40mpg and not enjoy it, then it would seem like a waste of money.

If I did more miles then I suppose I might have to think about something with better fuel economy but I'd hate to chose a car with that as one of the main decision making factors. My current strategy is just to not think about how much I spend on fuel, the saying "ignorance is bliss" definitely applies!

i thikn there is an alfa under there somewhere

I think there might be a PT cruiser under there somewhere instead

its okay mate its a nice car and as you say its nice from the road but for that money i think id prefer to one that doesnt need tidying up lol.

 

i have found another gt that im going to look at next week if i can see what you think:

 

http://www.redlinespecialistcars.co.uk/car.php?id=1169

Although it doesn't say so in the advert I'm pretty certain it's an import. There's nothing wrong with an import but there are some subtle differences and the prices for imports are usually a fair bit lower than UK cars - I think this one is probably a bit expensive.

I'm getting around to booking but will not be staying on the course. I'll be booking a grandstand ticket. Advice on other forums says Dunlop Bridge and Tetre Rouge are the best ones. The agent has advised ones opposite the pits.

 

Is she:

a. right

or

b. trying to unload difficult and expensive seats?

 

I've been for the last two years I haven't had a grandstand ticket either time, just a general admission one. There are grassy (ish) banks near both the Dunlop bridge and Tetre Rouge which you can sit on or put your own camping seat on. I've not been there at the busiest times (start and finish) but when I have been there there was enough space to sit down.

Opposite the pits there's space to stand but I suspect this would fill up at the start and finish. I personally wouldn't buy a grandstand ticket as I'd feel inclined to stay there, we usually move around the circuit viewing the race from different places. I haven't made it to the Porsche curves yet though so that will be the aim for this year...

A couple of my friends have alfas. One has had a mito for a year and half and I don't think he's had any issues. The other has had a 159 for around 10 months (second hand) and it's generally been good, only a couple of electrical glitches.

If the 'S' version is in your price range I'd check that out as Prodrive very successfully worked their magic on.

I reckon any slight faults it may have, and I'm not saying it should have any more than any other car, would be a small price to pay to have one of the best looking modern cars.

pm'd and paypal'd also.

Thanks for sorting this out, I just hope my car made the cut now!

I don't actually think people over 35 should be tested yearly, I was only saying that in jest to wind up a spurs supporter.

Well done

I've thought about learning to ride a few times but I like cars more than I like bikes and so spent my money on a nice shiny zed instead. One day maybe...

One point to consider in your calculations, which Stew touched on, is that your fuel economy will go down. LPG has a lower energy density than petrol and so your mpg will decrease, I don't know how much by. You'll still be saving money though as it's a lot cheaper than petrol like you say.

 

I think all drivers under say 25 should have yearly reviews

 

Oh the abuse I will get for that I'm sure all the under 25's on here are GREAT drivers

It's the old farts on the road that are the dangerous ones so I think anyone over say 35 should have yearly reviews

I'll be doing a 3 day advanced driving course at work next month which should be good, apparently you get some kind of certificate at the end but I don't know if it's IAM or something different.

I remember seeing a photo of a red 350 with the standard touring wheels painted white and I thought it looked really good. I don't know if it would work with the rays as well but I think it might.

What do you mean "not on the map"? There's a big gold star showing where it is, so it must be important

You got me wondering how far the West Midlands extends so I had to look it up. Turns out it's quite a big area:

I still reckon the meet should be somewhere near Leamington though....

Cheers Stephen and Martin, I've pm'd Martin.

... You can put foam padding around the cage to stop you hitting your head on it...

The foam padding around roll cages isn't your usual soft pipe-lagging style foam, it's a much harder, denser foam. It's not there to stop it hurting if you catch your head on the cage, it's designed to lessen the impact if you have a big collision. So for day-to-day driving it's still going to hurt if you headbut a 'padded' roll cage.

Another perspective on the TT - written by someone with whom I have high regard for in terms of objective assessments on car testing

 

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarr ... tt_rs.html

 

EVO have a TTRS on their long term fleet and although their initial impressions weren't too positive, as shown in the article you linked to, the car appears to grow on them and for an everyday car it seems to be a very good car.

Having said that I'd also go for a second-hand 911.

...

If the new one was painted in Alitalia colours though......

There you go:

I think the mk5 is supposed to drive a lot better than the mk4, but as you say you'll need to drive them to find out.

I've got a friend with a mito but the 155bhp one I think rather than the cloverleaf. He really likes it but the back isn't very comfortable (I am taller than average though which doesn't help) and I'm yet to read a glowing review about the way it drives.

Have you tried a renaultsport megane? They're supposed to be really good to drive.

I'm not 100% sure I want a new knob but it's for a good cause!

1, ChrisS....Paid

2, Russ......Paid

3, hatterjon.....paid

4, martinmac...paid

5, Ewan221 - Paid

6, Ricey - Paid

7, DoogyRev - Paid

8, Iain101 - paid

9, Rubber- paid

10, M9O OEY - paid (even tho iv got an auto but very good cause)

11, 350ash - paid

I like the look of the mark IV R32 but I've read in various places that the heavy V6 engine ruins the handling and a GTI is better. Although I think they stuck the GTI badge on a variety of cars for the Mark IV so you have to be sure to get a proper GTI.