Stutopia

There was much rejoicing when the £100 fines were announced last year, now someone's tasted the long shaft of the law. Looks like they've really gone for it with this one too, 5 points and a gorilla fine. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11690110/Motorist-becomes-first-convicted-of-hogging-motorway-middle-lane.html A motorist has been fined almost £1,000 and hit with five penalty points after becoming the first person in the country to be convicted in court of hogging the middle lane of a motorway. The driver, who was behind the wheel of a Citroen Berlingo van, was stopped by police in West Yorkshire, after persistently refusing to move out of the central lane of the busy M62. Traffic police said six drivers were forced to brake and swerve to overtake the vehicle, which was travelling along the eastbound carriageway near Huddersfield on August 25 last year. Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that the driver had numerous opportunities to move into the inside lane but failed to do so. Instead he was said to have driven in an “inconsiderate manner” for several miles, causing inconvenience to other road users. The driver failed to turn up to court and was fined £500 in his absence and ordered to pay £400 in costs with a £40 victim surcharge. He was also hit with five penalty points on his licence, sending out a strong message to other road users who flout the law. • Penalty rates low for tailgaters and middle lane hogs It is thought to be the first time a motorist has been convicted in court of a lane hogging offence since the law was changed in 2013. The Government introduced on the spot fines of £100 in an effort to deter drivers from sitting in the middle lane when there was an opportunity to pull into the left hand carriageway. Researchers claim the problem results in a third of motorway capacity being wasted, causing congestion and traffic delays. PC Nigel Fawcett-Jones from the Road Policing Unit of West Yorkshire police said lane hogging was dangerous and caused congestion and inconvenience to other road users. He said: “It reduces the capacity of roads and motorways, and can lead to dangerous situations where other drivers 'tailgate' the vehicle in front to try and get the lane hogger to move over. "Members of the public regularly tell the Road Policing Unit that lane hogging and tailgating are real problems on our roads and this conviction shows that the police and the courts understand the public's concerns and take this offence seriously.” Figures obtained last year suggested that despite the introduction of the fines, very few drivers were being caught, with cuts in the number of traffic police being blamed for the failure to enforce the rules. A spokesman for the AA said motorists generally would welcome news that a motorist had been convicted in court for the offence. He said: “Drivers will be saying Hallelujah that finally someone has been prosecuted because lane hogging causes a huge amount of frustration. This also sends a message out to drivers who think they can get away with it that the police are clamping down.” Where are the UK's worst spots for lane hogging? A poll of more than 2,000 drivers found 43 per cent of hoggers said they drove in the middle lane because it was an “easier way to drive” and “saves me changing lanes”. The Direct Line research released last August also disclosed the worst stretches of motorway in England for middle lane hogging. M4 J5-J6 westbound (Slough) 27% M1 J4-J5 southbound (Watford) 26% M4 J7-J8/9 eastbound (Slough) 24% M25 J4-J5 clockwise (Sevenoaks) 22% M25 J12-J13 anti-clockwise (Cheshunt) 21% M4 J2-J3 westbound (Brentford) 19% M25 J18-J19 anti-clockwise (Watford) 19% M25 J16-J17 clockwise (Gerrards Cross) 17% M4 J5-J6 eastbound (Heathrow) 16% M25 J16-J17 anti-clockwise (Gerrards Cross)12% Sorry if pearoast.

You mean the splitter I linked to? Nah. I meant the washer jet nozzle that's body coloured. You could plastidip that to match up. The eBay splitter was good, I just didn't like the black wrapping round the edge of the bumper, but that's just me. I generally prefer colour coded aero over black , except where there's a natural break in the bodywork. Like the inside of the "mouth" in your pic. Basically as per the crap photoshop below, left hand pic.

Have you not read his posts? He lays it on pretty thick.

DON'T use the primer if you ever want it to come off. You could go mad and buy the glossifier too, if you wanted to preview a non-matt finish. Not used it myself though. http://www.plastidip.co.uk/product/aerosol-spray http://www.plastidip.co.uk/product/glossifier-aerosol-spray

Edit: One can. Done. Just plastidip the body coloured one whilst you're at it!

What Paddy said. It's dead simples to use, particularly if you're not looking for it to be long term, only a test viewing.

Sold - thread locked

A well earned retirement and a very well earned THANK YOU.

Keep the end bits body coloured? Needs a can of plastidip to test

I don't usually encourage blacking up these days but...

Improvement. Maybe do the splitter bit too

I'd go big storage then. The 6 is more than capable.

Depends on what you're storing and if you live somewhere where cloud storage is a simple, always available thing. If you can access the cloud all the time then there's little point having your phone full of photos and music and other media, because you can stream all that stuff. However, if you need local storage as your connectivity is gash, get the big storage one. The 6 is plenty fast enough and if you "don't need the latest one", get the big storage one as that seems to be the only real requirement in the original post, i.e. "more memory".

Car looks epic. I want that workshop too!

Ambushed in the prime of life. Today is the most dangerous day for the apex predator... Congrats!

Looking good.

Stepping away from what constitutes democracy. Does anyone know what happens to UKIP after the referendum? I mean they are a single policy entity, even its name reflects it's one idea. So, if the people vote to leave, they have no raison d'etre, we will be independent, thus achieving their one policy. And if the people vote to stay, their one policy will have been overwhelmingly rejected by the people and they'll have no mandate.

Indeed, but not as expensive as getting it wrong, so I chickened out and went safe

Got my dome ones from Evo-r when I was ordering some other goodies. Expensive for LEDs but they look decent. http://www.evo-r.net/product/LED-DOME/ Be super careful with the dome lights, very easy to short with some LEDs and then you've got a BCM issue to solve.

Nice work, you've really gone for iron the engine bay plastics

Sold - thread locked

Provisionally sold.

Yeah. PM inbound.

I picked up 30 of these 187x265mm tiles for the doors and boot to cut out some road noise and rattles from trim plastics. I used 15 today, so I got 15 left which is enough to do front doors, sub enclosure and a chunk of the boot's metal surfaces. Looking for £15 incl. postage for the remaining 15 tiles. They're easy as pie to work with and stick well and can be cut with scissors. Product info here: http://www.silentcoa...-2mm-mat-sample Not for hardcore, 5 of them weigh about 1kg!