rabbitstew

There was an article in the Daily Mail about a couple who did that a few months back! I remember thinking how mad they were!

Interestingly enough my "benchmarking" was done against a 997 turbot which proved very slightly quicker than my car on one of the lower power maps, good feeling isnt it? BTW, have you sold the 123 yet? My brother is after one (and the wife but she can wait) Well i will be doing about 16k a year in it, so to be fair I will kill it mileage wise, but even so hopefully the deprecation wont be huge. We shall see when I come to sell it. I am part ex`ing the 123d for it so that will be gone tomorrow afternoon. The 123d are cracking cars, your brother will love them. Mines the M-Sport. Interestingly the suspension on it is actually harder than the 997 on standard settings. I did consider having my 123d remapped as you can get 300bhp / 400ft/lb out of them.

I did hear endless tails of reliability problems, but to be fair, had I a garage to keep it in, and could afford to keep the 123d as a daily then I might have gone for one. I am actually waiting to see how my friends react as none of them have anything remotely like this. Whether they will think ive won the lottery, or whether they will be jealous, or think if of me differently than they did before. Will be interesting to see.

Well after having my lovely BMW 123d M-Sport Coupe for 4 years now and covering 60k trouble free in that time I figured it was time to get something else. I had found myself occasionally thinking about getting another high performance petrol car as I did miss the performance of my old 350Z HR Roadster which I traded in to get the beemer. Id think about it for a few days, then as the 123d is such a good car id forget all about changing it. 0-60 in 6.5 and 50mpg cant be grumbled at from a dirty diesel. One of the main reasons I sold my 350z was that it was costing me something like £1200 a month in depreciation and running costs. I do 80 miles a day and at 24mpg it was killing me. Especially when back then super unleaded was about 100quid a litre or something stupid. But then again, id remember the excitement of driving home from work each night, the noise from the engine, the revs, acceleration. All the admiring looks etc... all through rose tinted glasses and somehow forget about the running costs.. But what would I get. That was the other thing. Nothing really jumped out at me. RS4? I wasnt inspired much by the 370Z I had for a week as a loan car from Nissan. GTR? C63AMG? Maybe, but they depreciate like mad and the mpg would kill me. Corvette? New Mustang? Focus RS? Lambo Gallardo? Not a fan of Jags. Maybe an M3? 1M? M2? Clio V6? The list of stuff I considered was endless. The main steering factors for me was: 1) Has to live on the drive as I have my rusty old project car in the garage. So it needs to not stand out and call attention to it too much. (Okay so my project car is maybe worth 5k so logic might say why not keep that on the drive and park your much more expensive motor in the garage.... but I dont think like that. ) 2) Has to have 4 seats as I need to fit toddler & baby in the back. 3) Be "sensible" and reliable enough to use as a daily driver. 4) Have "reasonable" mpg. Which I figured 25mpg at todays prices might be "acceptable". 5) Be quick. Budget really wasnt an issue (as such), it was more about the deprecation factor. i.e. whats it going to cost me per year over the next 2 years. As we know, man maths is a wonderful thing and after doing a lot of research ive ended up buying this: Its a 997.1 Turbo Manual. Funny thing is, I have never really been a fan of Porsches. They all look the same... which actually turned out to be one of the reasons it ended up on my list. I figured left on my drive it wouldnt stand out as much as say a bright green Gallardo might. Especially in black which was a must have colour for me. Anyhow, once I put the Porsche on my short list I spent around 9 months looking and reading up on them before I found this one. Decent ones get snapped up pretty quick, so when this one turned up not far from where I live I was around there viewing it within a few hours of it appearing online and snapped it up straight away. I collect it at the weekend so ive not had chance to play with it much, but have to say the test drive was fun. Was a weird experience having spent so long looking at and reading about them to finally actually see one closely in the flesh and sit in it. Initial impressions was just how noisy the cabin is. I thought my 350z Roadster was noisy. This is mental, even at low speeds. And how weird is it having an engine behind you? It sounded like there was a lorry right behind me all the time. I think having phone conversations whilst driving will be a thing of the past now! Anyhow, the first time I floored it to overtake a car, I knew straight away I was going to buy it. To say its f**king quick is an understatement. I believe it was Docwra on a previous thread, when I was saying how quick my R1 is and id struggle to get a car that quick - and he said "about 500bhp would do it". He wasnt kidding. This thing is the only thing ive ever driven which actually does feel as quick as my R1. Anyhow, I collect it at the weekend and to make things a bit more "interesting" ive not told the wife yet. hahahaha! I told her ive bought a new car and that its black but thats it. Should be interesting seeing her reaction! or maybe even As a side note, my 2nd choice and it very nearly became my 1st choice was the 1M. I figured if I got the same colour (black) as my 123d Coupe then the wife might not even notice that id changed my car!

Glad its going well. As Coldel said, it varies depending upon their ages. For the first 6 months or so they tend to sleep most of the time, so you can get loads done whilst they are sleeping. Its just the night times which did me in. Having to get up every 2 hours every night to feed them. Unfortunately we had to bottle feed, so it was me doing all the getting up whilst the wife slept soundly. When they start crawling it all changes as you have to constantly keep an eye on them. At least by then they are in their own bedroom and sleeping through the night (if your lucky) they also tend to have an afternoon nap so you can get the housework etc done then. Then when they start walking & playing more then you really dont seem to have any spare time at all as they want you to constantly play with them and wont let you sit still for a second. You cant even go out & wash your car as they will want to try and help you. And the tantrums start, the fits, crying & screaming... At least by then they are talking and you can have some really funny conversations with them. All good fun. Im expecting baby number 2 to arrive in a couple of months so will have to go through it all again...... oh the joy! EDIT: Holiday wise, we werent brave enough go abroad however when they are a baby its quite a good time to do it as they sleep on the plane etc. and you dont really need to take much with you. We have stuck to UK Holidays. Once they get slightly older it becomes more hassle as the amount of stuff you have to take becomes unreal. When we go the car is loaded up to the brim with toys/bikes/clothes/travel cot/nappes etc etc.

just like my missus! Thinks the perfect night in is just watching telly and expects me to sit there with her. Theres some right crap on telly these days. The sleep thing is something I also really struggle with. I think its because im always on the go solid from 6am right up until I go to bed (as ive detailed before in another thread). I wear a fitness band and sometimes it says that in a whole day the longest ive actually be idle or not moving has only been 10mins! Mad. So when my head hits the pillow at bedtime, its the first time ive actually had chance to reflect on things and my brain goes into overdrive thinking about all the stuff I need to do but havent had time to do that day, things i need to do in the morning, what things i have to do later in the week etc. etc. etc. The other night I lay there for nearly 3 hours before I finally got to sleep which means you wake up shattered the next day after just 4 or 5 hours sleep max. Ive not tried any pills but a good bottle of vodka seems to really help send me off, but thats not ideal every night.

Your right, "your not alone". Loads of people suffer from depression. In my experience I find sitting down and working out exactly whats causing you to feel depressed, then listing what you think you can do about it helps. There are always options, some are not viable, others might be. If there really isnt an option at the moment then you need to workout what you can to to make things a bit more comfortable until there is an option. It is so so easy though to let things just get on top of you until you dont think you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Also its easy to turn to other routes to try and make you forget about the problem, like drinking / rec drugs etc. Then it just builds up and builds up and whilst you might feel a bit better sometimes, it ultimately doesnt help and they are actually making things worse. It is very hard though to get your head around things, which is why so many people use counselors etc to help talk them through things. Not something id fancy - as personally ive never been one to open up about my real feelings/problems to anyone, so id find it a bit too difficult. But it works for a lot of people I know. Personally I know I always feel better when I have some sort of mechanism to help take my mind off things. So for me, motorbikes, working out, clay shooting, running, playing computer games or working on cars. As I have found out recently - when im unable to do any of these, and my life just revolves around the same daily non rewarding things, i end up feeling like crap. But, when I am able to do some of those things I enjoy, it takes my mind off things, helps me de-stress and my whole general mood & outlook on life is so much more positive. The 3 items you mention about resolving.. Relationship Problems... when I had this, the answer was to move on. Hard, but ultimately works in the long term. There also is the worry "what if i dont meet anyone else" etc... but you will. Concentrate more on trying to find new friends rather than a new partner etc and dont jump into anything too quickly. I usually find partners through work or friends, or even match.com. But there are a lot of wierdos on there so you have to be careful. Loneliness - depends on if this is linked to the above, i.e. your fedup not having a companion. Or if its just not having mates to have a pint with. Getting back in touch with old mates I found helped and resparked the old friendships. Also joining new clubs or gyms, biker meets, car meets. If you go somewhere where you are going to meet people with similar interests to you, then you have loads to talk about and soon make new friends. Guilt over mistakes mate - this is a big one.. Regret. Lot of people say no point in dwelling on the past as there isnt much you can do about it now but its easier said than done. The way I see it (and it doesnt always help me) is that I did whatever I did back then for a reason and it seemed like the right reason at the time. Very often tho it might have been temptation and you knew it was wrong at the time but you still did it - and now you are older & wiser you regret that. Another true thing I find is that you also tend to look back on some things with rose tinted glasses. Good luck mate.

They had 50% off all their professional range on bank holiday monday. I popped in there for some car shampoo and spent ages trying to find a tool I dont have already in order to take advantage of the offer. Unfortunately couldnt find anything I needed! Gutting really as i paid full price for most of my stuff over the years.

£1200 for 2 cars is an awesome price if you ask me. I was paying nearly that just for my zed when I got it back in 2011 and thats with me having 20 years ncb. Even now, I cant afford to insure 2 cars, and so im having to sell my current car in order to move the insurance onto my new one.

Yeah im coming down with that as well atm. Started feeling it Sunday. Aching all over, nose running etc. On the positive side I have managed to spread my workouts out over the week this last week and am feeling loads better for it, having a full days rest to recover between workouts.

Maybe they arnt interested as theres no witnesses or something I guess. I never forget when I was 17 and I drove past a stationary car once which was sticking out of a side road. I didnt realise it but somehow "apparently" I managed to slightly catch the back corner of the other cars bumper on my passenger door. As I didnt know, I didnt stop. First I heard about it was a few days later when the police turned up asking who had been driving the car as it was involved in an accident. Both the copper & me couldnt see any damage at all on my car or where I had apparently "hit" the other car. In the end I noticed a small barely visible pencil line mark on the passengers door, about 3 inches long which wasnt there before, so we could only assume that might have been caused by the "incident". Anyway, the police took me to court as the other drivers best mate conveniently happened to be standing on the side of the road and said he witnessed the whole thing. He detailed how he saw some woman with long hair (err im a bloke with a shaved head), hitting the side of the other car then speeding off. The other drivers car had already been involved in another accident previously and already had significant damage to the back of the car & bumper which clearly could not have been caused by my car due to the lack of damage to my car but thats what they were claiming had been done. Anyway, as a 17 year old who had never been in court before and had only just past his driving test the polices lawyer ran rings around me and the magistrate joyfully gave me 10 points on my shiny new license and of course fined me plus all the lawyer costs etc. It was made slightly better by my insurance company laughing at the other drivers fraudulent claim and telling him where to go, however 10 points on your license at 17 certainly made getting any car insurance very interesting for a very long time afterwards.

I would love to but can't this year! I went couple of years ago and got a photo with Ronnie Coleman though My ex was there that year, she sent me a random text out of the blue asking if I knew someone called Ronnie Coleman whose into bodybuilding. I was like "errr.. yeah of course, everyone knows him" and it transpired she was working on a stand near where he was.

Supps help. But no replacement for good calories! Daily diet example? Very true. Since I increased my calories and sorted my diet out a bit better I made some great progress over last year.

Thats mad. Ive had 2 S2`s, 1 S3 and now had an S5 for the last 2 years and never had any problems at all with the charging ports. What do you do to them?!! As a side, have you thought of using wireless charging? I cant remember if the s5 has it built in, but i set my s3 up for wireless charging for peanuts. Just lay it on the charging pad and off it goes.

Ive always had android phones since the early days of them. Last few have been the Galaxy s2, Galaxy s3 and currently ive the Galaxy s5. Cant fault them really, never had any problems at all. My battery lasts a good whole day of use. Ive a spare battery I got for a fiver, so if needbe I can quickly swap it over. Ive a 64gb microsd card in it, which is miles of space. However, I just sync everything with google, so I dont seem to use much storage space. The advantage with this is that when I get a new phone, i just login with my google id and all my music, photos, contacts, pictures, emails, everything are automatically there. The one plus 2 is a really good phone and excellent value for money. My friend has one and raves about it.

Yeah thats what i figured. Tbh when i do a 3 day split I usually do push-pull-legs but also throw a 4th workout in just for arms & shoulders. What im going to try for the next month or so though is doing opposing muscles in the same workout. I know Arnie used to rave about it. So i`ll superset back/chest one day, then biceps/triceps another and then probably do legs & shoulders on a 3rd day. Ive not tried this before as I figured id not probably have the energy to do a heavy chest & back workout at the same time, but we shall see how it goes. Doesnt hurt to try something different for a while.

With regards to the exhaust, the coupe exhausts will fit the roadster. I did read somewhere that the exhaust on the roadster was "tuned" to make the car sound better! (when you are driving about with the roof down etc!). The roadster is different underneath to the coupe as it has various strengthening braces to compensate for lack of roof.

I thought it was only my wife who did that!!!

Ive just started using an app called Jefit to keep track of all my workouts. Dunno why I didnt consider using an app before, as its much better than scribbling everything down in various notebooks - all my sets/reps/weights etc. Anyway, been keeping up with the workouts over the last few months, although ive noticed ive not been able to increase the weights much, if any, and ive not seemed to have the same intensity that I had back in Jan. Im also feeling totally shattered all the time and recovery seems to be taking forever. I think its my current workout routine which isnt helping. Basically ive had no time during the week to workout, so ive been cramming a whole weeks worth of workouts into the weekend, which leaves me on Monday virtually unable to get out of bed as im so knackered and aching. When I can spread the workouts out during the week and have more rest time between them I make more progress. This next few weeks im going to try and workout every other day, although working out at 8.30 at night after work when your shattered is a bit of a struggle. I also need to review again what supplements are out there to see what can help give me energy & make me recover quicker!

I feel for you. I had something similar many years ago. Woman pulled straight out of a side street and knocked me off my motorbike. She immediately admitted it was her fault and she hadnt seen me. I had 2 witnesses who both said they couldnt believe the woman pulled straight out in front of me etc. etc. I passed it all over to my insurance company thinking it was a clear cut case. Insurance company messed about for months and didnt even bother speaking to the witnesses until about 8 months later, by which time they couldnt remember much. In the end after much haggling in court between solicitors & insurance companies the final outcome was 50/50 liability. It also meant I lost 2 years NCB as I never had it protected. On the plus side, the estimates from the local garage to have my motorbike repaired were on the very high side, so when I got 50% of the repair costs from the insurance company, I managed to repair the bike for not much more than what they paid. Ive been thinking of a dashcam for my car also recently, so thanks for suggesting the blackvue, looks good!

Cracking cars. In my family we have had the earlier 306 1.9 Dturbo for many years - it was one of the first "hot" diesel hatchbacks you used to be able to just crank the fuel pump pressure up which gave it more power. My ex gf had a 2000 306 2.0HDI for several years and I had the newer 307 2.0 HDI for a few years. Have to say, they have been the cheapest cars ever for my family to run. We used to get 60mpg out of the 2.0HDi without any problems. On the 306 2.0HDi, the timing belt tensioner went so had a new belt kit fitted and the brake light switch under the brake pedal went - nightmare to replace! Other than that it was cheap reliable motoring and nothing else went. I did hear however after we sold the car the turbo went on it for the new owner. On the 307 2.0 HDi I had no problems at all with the engine. Only thing which went was the top mounts on the front suspension, which cost me a tenner to replace - the car started making a clunk over bumps when they went. I remember a mechanic mate saying that the biggest problem on the 306 2.0Hdi was the injection system, and that they occasionally went and cost the earth if they did - how true that is/was i dont know. All in all, nice cheap cars to run. One thing to note, when we were looking at 306 2.0HDi`s the performance seemed to vary drastically from car to car! Several we test drove were totally gutless. Was as if the turbo just wasnt boosting at all. Then others, you could noticably feel the turbo kick in and the performance was actually quite good. This was all around 12 years back when the cars were still fairly new and had low miles & few owners - so it wasnt a case that some had been "played" with.

I remember seeing one in the showroom of a garage near me a good few years back for £12k. I considered it briefly, but decided against it in the end as I wanted something quicker. Still dont see many of them about at all. Saying that, I saw a convoy of about 4 on the road last year, presumably heading off to a show. That caused me to do a few double takes! "Look, theres a delorean!, omg theres another one, and another one, and another one.... must be as common as muck!"

Depends on how you define "best" really. I think the most fun car ive ever had is my Renault 5 GT Turbo. That was great fun modifying it in every way possible to increase the performance & handling and then seeing the results on the road as you left much more expensive/powerful cars for dead. I loved it so much I never sold it and still have it in my garage 21 years later. The best for running costs had to be our old Peugeot 307 HDI. Ran it for 2 years and the only thing which went was the top mounts on the shocks which cost me a tenner to replace. It also returned over 60mpg and could do 600+ miles out of a tank full. Best, as in best all rounder has to be my current BMW 123d Coupe. Does 0-60 in 6.something, and still gives me 50mpg on average. Lovely comfortable commuting car whilst giving you loads of fun if you want to give it some stick. Everything feels so solid and well made, its a joy to drive. With the M-Sport suspension I find it actually handles better than my 350z did and I seem much more confident in pushing it on the bendy roads. I think it`s a great looking shape and running cost wise the only hit ive had is the depreciation which works out at around £3k a year.

I did that. Was okay until you did an emergancy stop and the speaker flew forwards with such force it nearly took your passengers head off - or if they ducked would go through your windscreen.

Mine was the HR so only had the one belt. Nissan took well over an hour and a half to do it and charged me £80 when I had the first belt shred on me at 22k miles. When the same thing happened again 20k miles later, I bought a gates belt, and using just a 1/2 t-bar to move the tensioner off and a small allen key to lock it, the job took me just 5 minutes. That was my first time too, and that 5 mins included getting the tools out of the garage. Id certainly do it myself again, if you take your time you`ll find it straight forward.