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gangzoom

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Everything posted by gangzoom

  1. You can choose to refuse medical therapy, even if means you will die (provided your of sound mind), and patients regularly leave hospital with palliative care (drugs to control pain) so that they can die at home with their family and not in hospital. Assisted suicide however is a completely different matter, and as some one who works in the health care sector it’s something I will never have anything to do with (be it legal or not). Since the first thing all student doctors/nurses are taught is "do no harm". You will be amazed at how families/relatives will start squabbling over money/property when some one is dying (most of the time even before their relatives have passed away), I cannot imagine for one second you could legislate a law for "assisted suicide" where you could be sure 100% the other party involved absolutely had nothing to gain. It's very easy for people to say they will do X or Y when they are in a certain condition, but until your actually faced with your own death it’s all meaningless. Even though in my job I have to face death on a regular basis I still have absolutely no idea how I would deal with death if I was faced with it my self. As some one has already said these are very sensitive issues, and people (rightly so) get very emotional....Though just the thought of BUPA opening up a private "assisted suicide" clinic is enough to make me cringe ...However having a better palliative care network is definatly needed, even the best cancer hospices are run via charity funding.
  2. Cheers for the comments about the car!! Still if it wasn't for me wanting 4 seats I think I would be in a 370Z now M3/Impreza/Evo were all none starters, the wife hated the bonnet vents and refused to even sit in it. My wife drives the 335i quite often (she refused to drive the Z because it was too flash), and I don't think she would like the kind of attention a M3 would attract....the next closest thing I could find that she was happy to drive was a £35K+ Golf R, which is basically a very very expensive Golf GTI but with 4 wheel drive As much as I hate the way most people buy BMW for the brand image, I have to say BMW do seem to know how to make good drivers cars....just a shame most owners simply don't appreciate how good they are as driving machines
  3. Z has been gone for 8 months now and have done all the mechanical upgrades/mods I wanted to the 335i and have got use to the car now over B roads/M ways had some free time so thought I do a little write up… Performance: The N54 engine stock is not short on power; I’ve added an uprated intercooler and a tuning chip (JB+) which gives me more than enough power. Some people have said the tune/remap on the engine “completely changes the carâ€, I wouldn’t go that far, but certainly pulls much harder from 3Krpm to the redline. In its current form I can reach license-losing speeds a bit too quickly for my liking so not really after any more power. Delivery of the power is super smooth, and not very turbo like, there is a small hint of turbo lag but above 2.5Krpm it just pulls all the way to the red line. The sound produced by the straight six isn’t too bad either, even with the stock exhaust. My 335i comes with a 6 speed auto with paddles. Never had an auto before and have no complaints. For town driving it's a breeze, and in “sports†mode the paddles do a good job at letting you hold on the gear till the red line. Forge intercooler before been fitted Handling: The most obvious problem with the car stock is a lack of a LSD. When I first bought the car even with the engine in stock form if the road surface had the slightest hint of moisture and wasn’t silkily smooth the dashboard would light up like a xmas tree every time I floored the loud pedal. The LSD has really transformed the way the car can put its power down, and I would say is a “must buy†upgraded before anything else. The rest of the suspension set up is fine, can be crashy at times (I have M sport suspension with 18in run flats) but not really any worse than my previous 350Z, and a lot better than the Integra Type R. Though not as communicative as the Integra when its comes to steering feedback the car is amazingly fun to drive, quite often I forget I’m in a luxury 4 door saloon, in fact the car feels lighter on its feet compared to the 350Z and has slightly better turn in. The rear end is a little less communicative than the Z, have had a few occasion where it has stepped out a bit sooner than I had anticipated but its all good fun. LSD been fitted Comfort/Particularity: The main reason for me getting rid of the 350Z was the fact I wanted to be able to carry more than 1 passenger at the same time. To this end the 335i is simply amazing, 4 doors and large boot meant I could take the wife and in-laws on a 200 mile road trip over xmas without breaking a sweat. At motorway speeds the engine is running minimal boost, and easily gets 35-40mpg (when driven harder on B roads this falls to 20-25mpg). The road/wind noise at motorway speeds is minimal, and compared to the 350Z seems like a limo. Add to this heated seat, voice control, Built in sat Nav, Parking assist, 2 zone air con, excellent media system (after I upgraded the speakers) the car is an amazingly good motorway workhorse as well as been good fun on B roads. I was amazed by this mpg reading, need to stop driving like a grandad Looks/Reliability: Never been a fan of how the E90 3 series looks, nothing wrong with it but there’s one around every street corner which looks identical. In way it’s quite the Q car (debadge mine), and my wife is more than happy to drive it despite it actually been more powerful than the Z. Unlike a M3 I get hardly any unwanted attention, but can go almost as quick when in the mood. If you read around the forums your think the N54 engine in the 335i is going to fall apart the moment you leave the show room. Mine has had no problems so far, and just flew through the MOT with no warnings. I bought mine from a BMW dealer mainly for the 1 year warranty for extra piece of mind but haven’t needed to use it once. BMW servicing is however a complete joke, the servicing department looks like the departure lounge at Heathrow and their main job appears to be trying to squeeze you for every penny rather than look after the car. When I made some enquires about “official BMW performance parts†was told by the clueless “servicing assistant†they don’t recommend upgrade because of reliability issues, even though these are official BMW approved parts along with the rip off BMW pricing (£1-1.5K for a 20bhp “powerpackâ€). When I than asked about a slightly stiff bonnet catch and squeaky drivers seat (all both needed was bit of oil in the right places) another “assistant†appeared had a discussion amongst themselves and than told me they would need the car for the day to fully investigate. Even if my car needed major work doing I’m not sure I would trust the local dealer to go near the car since the only thing BMW main dealers care about is profits. Needless to say once my warranty expires I will not be going back for main dealer servicing. Overall: Given the my car is now probably putting out 300-310whp, looks sensible, can carry 4 adults all day long, able achieve 40mpg on Motorway runs, and is the same insurance group as my old 350Z I couldn't be happier. In total I’ve spend £22K on the car (£19.5K for the car than LSD + Intercooler (both fitted by Birds in London) + Tuning chip + small exterior mods + speaker upgraded), given you can now pick up early E92 335i Coupes for £12-13K these things are shockingly good value!!! May end up spending another £1-2K on ICE but than that's it, any spare money is been put into the M5 kitty Amazingly the “new†F30 335i still has the same engine as the E90/E92 so the only 3 series faster than a 335i will still has to be wearing a M badge. How I bought her... The back end now with some extra spoilers, and badge removed More recently avoiding going out in the snow
  4. http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/3510551.htmThats £50K off the new price
  5. Spent 1.5 hours dropping my wife off at work last night (usually takes 15 minutes, about 5 miles so not really walking distance). Some of more junior colleges didn't make it in over night which is just about understandable if they lived out in the sticks, but apparently 2 people called in at 9am to say they couldn't get to work for the AM shift....considering this morning the buses were running its a pretty lame excuse for been a lazy ...but given its the NHS they'll still get paid
  6. My wife got me some tickets for my 30'th, so don't know how much the tickets cost, apparently the same price as Silverstone GP tickets (she bought me those too for a previous birthday ) I've been to Singapore once before, the city is clean and safe. Theres plenty of shopping to be done, and Maylasia is just over the border (the last I went I drove from Kula Lumpar to Singapore). The atmosphere for the night race looks just amazing really cannot wait I've booked some accommodation already, £70 a night small 3* hotel from Thursday to Monday. Flights into Singapore for that week seems be a £200 more expensive that normal, so I'm planning to stop by some where a week before, either HongKong or Kula Lumpar. The cost in total isn't going to be cheap, I reckon £2.5-3K in total for me and the wife (Flights, Tickets, Accommodation, Food, Spending money). Probably add another £500-800 to that if stopping over somewhere on the way.
  7. Plenty of the white stuff in Leicester. Had to drop the wife off at work for a night shift...plenty of lorries/BMWs/Mercs stuck by the side of the road. Had no problems in the Civic with 17inch summer tyres, the ESP did kick in when the back end started to drift whilst going down a hill
  8. I get the same feeling driving the wife's Civic. All very nice looking at the MPG reading but just cannot put up with the engine rattle, and 4K rev limit. Luckily i've convinced her to get a petrol car when the Civic goes
  9. Cheers Mitz, hope your looking after my old Z well That's a lot of air-miles!! I've already told my wife I'm more than happy to buy her some F1 tickets to reciprocate the gift...She's been wanting to go to NewYork for ages, 2013 New Jersey sounds perfect
  10. Stayed at a posh hotel for my birthday last night, had a row of expensive cars parked out front including a R8, a Bently, and countless German 4x4 monsters (with my wife's civic squeezed in between them ), but the Aston just stood out. Elegant and classy without even trying...must own one day Back on planet earth, did get tickets to see the Singapore GP
  11. Congrats on a potential purchase....Not to sound to boring but may be the finance companies are trying to tell you something about getting into more debt on something which is guaranteed to depreciate The Z is a fab car but defiantly costs more to run than a FN2 Type R, why not get a slightly older car (say 05), which will be cheaper to Tax and depreciate less, plus the loan you'll be taking out will be smaller and easier to pay off.....that way your wouldn't run into the problem off been in neg equality like you are with the Civic
  12. gangzoom

    New Car!

    The new 3 Series is much more than a face lift, the current E90 has been on sale since 2005, and the F30 is a complete redesign. It's suppose to be lighter, stiffer but roomier on the inside. There is a new engine line up (apart from in the 335i for some reason) and have whole load of new gadgets (like a HUD which includes sat nav info). Having said that I can find no fault with the way my 335i drives cannot really see how BMW can improve on it, and a saving of 8.5K compared to the new model is a great deal. Totally agree its a bit disappointing BMW weren't more adventurous with the styling of the new F30, it looks basically the same as the E90 from some angles Enjoy ur new car
  13. You have to use M mode since the auto metering system always overexposes the moon. The exact setting depends on your lens, the light, and how still you can hold the camera. I used f 6.7, expo 1/100 sec, ISO 200 using a 300mm lens. Good luck
  14. The 550D has a better sensor than my 450D so you should be able to get some fab shots...but remember for every "amazing" looking photo someone posts theres probably 10 rubbish versions of the same shot that no one else will ever see apart from the photographer...I know this is true for me, to get the shot below I took about 20 shots all with various settings and only 3 came out as any good!! There is no secrets to taking photos, just lots of practice/expermenting with the settings and sometimes you just get lucky The shot below was a random snap taken by a friend who just borrowed my camera to have a play, never held a DSLR and knew nothing about the theory of composition etc, everything was set to auto, he came back with alot of bland shots, some out of focus ones, but also some fab ones...moral of the story if you take enough photos some are bound to turn out well
  15. Saw this on another forum...been tempted by Cat C/D repaired cars in the past, but never again!! All these are write offs, the Mustang is a C the other 2 Ds Don't think I could live with buying something so damaged and feel happy, no matter now cheap
  16. You only need HDMI 1.4 cables if your device makes use of the "Ethernet Channel". Which at present is ZERO device. All other features will work with your bod standard HDMI 1.3 cable £5 cable from Tesco. HDMI cables are the biggest rip off ever invented, how salespeople are still getting away with pushing £70 cables for non existent benefits is amazing http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hdmi_1_4_faq.aspx#5
  17. Go and get your self a 335i or M3, quicker than a Z but with back seats
  18. I've got one with my Z in..feel free to do what you like with it
  19. I've got some M&S Dipole speakers (5kg each) as my rear surrounds mounted on some pretty solid speaker stands, and lots of effort to hide speaker wire etc...even so when we had some friends over within 5 mintues the 5 year old had some how managed to dig out the calibration mic for my Denon AVR, unpluged my network drive and started to play with the ethernet cable Luckly she didn't go near any speakers but I had visions of a very squashed 5 year old along side some broken speakers..... When ever me and wife decide to have kids the cinema room is going to be well and truely out of bounds
  20. The Renault was a serious contender when I was looking to replace my 350z. Even got as far as getting part exchange numbers from a Renault dealer. On paper it looked great, easily faster than a 350Z, 3 seats in the back, well equipped, good looking and I could have picked up a pre reg model for £23k. But when I went to actually see one, the thing felt so badly built I didn't even bother taking it for a test drive My 2nd ever car was a Peug 106, bits use to fall off every 4-6 monthly for no reason and the Megane certainly didn't feel any better built. Still I had no doubts its a faster car than a 370Z, especially if it was driven by some one unskilled like me, but I wouldn't spend my hard earns cash on one.
  21. It was great fun, still cannot understand how there aren't more accidents on the roads there with cows just wondering around, lorries going the wrong way down the lane, 4 cars all abreast on a 2 lane road!! Started off in Patna which was essentially hasn't changed much in 20 years, the first 'shopping centre' only opened there 6 months ago. Ended up in Hyderabad which had a 12 lane highway that makes the M1 look like a B road, and a giant Microsoft building dwarfed our hotel. People there were panicking because GDP had fallen to 8% as compared to 9% 3 month earlier, it's a country of complete contrast, you have to get ur self there at some point to experience it!!
  22. Are the tickets out yet? Cannot wait for it, loved going to Silverstone a couple of years ago, but the atmosphere in Singapore looks like its on another level The lift is pretty cool, given that the lift at work takes the same amount of time to do 4 floors . I took some pics at the top with a wide angle lens, its amazing to think only 20 - 30 years ago it was all desert!! I loved the Dubai skyline, its so surreal it might as well have come out of a comic book!!
  23. Just come back from a 3 week trip in India I have to say the its probably one of the most beautiful counties I've been to so far. The Taj Mahal is the most magnificent man made structures I've ever seen and comes close to matching some of sights I saw in NewZeland. I took countless photos of it but none of them do it any justice, if anyone every gets the chance to go to India, you have to visit the Taj and see it in real life to appreciate the craftsmanship!! Anyways here are some pics, I took over 22 gigs in total On the way back we stopped in Dubai for a few nights...amazing that can be accomplished when money is no object, saw more Ferraris, Porsches etc in one night than a decade in the UK, still the thing that struck me the most was the skyline, the Burj Khalifa really does make the place stand out, all of a sudden skyscraper in places in NewYork, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur all seem a bit pathetic in comparison!! I've been lucky the last couple of years, no kids and some wangling to get leave sorted meant in the last 12 months I've managed trips to NewZeland and India, next year doing Dubai again but going for longer probably than on to KL or HK or Kerala depending on time. China via the Singapore GP is also almost a certainty next year. South America, and South Africa are 2 places I defiantly want to go the year after, than maybe Iceland but the wife thinks that would be too This got me thinking, would you rather spend £1K on mods for the car or £1K going to see another part of the world??
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