Ekona

If negligence is proved, yes. Exactly the same as over here, but in that case it's your insurer who coughs up.

I've jump started all my cars at some point, Porker included. Realistically as long as you don't connect the leads the wrong way there's very little chance of damaging anything.

Frick! Everyone okay?

What if some random drops fluids and you have no idea who it was? Or you end up in a multi-vehicle accident with UK & euro drivers, with no clear person to blame? Or you drop fluids and a biker comes off and is crippled for life, and you have to pay the £250K bill? Either way, you're coming out of it many thousands out of pocket. Not worth the risk anymore, regardless of how careful you are personally.

Head gasket was my first thought, could be any number of things though. Cracked rad, dodgy water pump, loose hose... Take it a normal garage, one you can trust, it's only a Mini and doesn't need particularly specialist knowledge to service. No offence

You can't. It's physics, innit.

Oh bugger

Either of those do you?

I'd be astounded if they didn't. I'm 9.9% sure they'll fit, I've yet to see a seat that doesn't as the stock ones are huge. Interesting choice, any reason you're going for ones with side head restraint?

He wasn't too impressed no, he was the only one that was sitting still so there was a queue of people lining up taking pics of him basically And as promised, yesterday's video.

Trust me, that was by far and away the most expensive one so far, about 3x as much as all the other ones! Just for note, I'm staying here tonight and it's only costing me 50EU including breakfast.

Cheers dude, I hope it's entertaining enough to read, I'm missing quite a lot out but there's just so much footage and pics here and the laptop and interweb is too slow for me to get too much up each evening. I'm off to a place called Zamora tomorrow, pretty much direct for here. Hopefully I'll get there by mid afternoon. I did, no choice sadly due to the time constraints. Besides, if I did everything in the one trip I'd have no need to come back again would I?

Day 6 Wow. Did I make the correct decision last night to forego driving roads in lieu of visiting Gibraltar or what! Had a good run down, barely any traffic and I didn't bother setting up the GoPro nor TomTom either, so the cabin seemed very spartan and more natural. Eventually managed to get into Gib at about 2pm, weather was stunning. I've a short vid of that (well, me driving the whole of Gib pretty much) for later, so I won't say too much. And finally, the furthest south in Europe I've ever been myself, and I'm pretty sure my 911 has ever been either: That's the Europa Point lighthouse behind me, which is the only UK lighthouse not on the mainland. Sadly the hoarding means you can't see Africa in that photo, but I can guarantee that it was as clear as day to see. Very epic sight. So now I'm pretty much halfway, and as I've yet to clean the car you can see the full horror that is the body count on the numberplate: That's going to take some shifting to get it off the bumper and bonnet, I can tell you. I'm not too worried really as there's a seriously thick coat of wax protecting the paint, and even if it does ruin it which is possible in this heat, I've budgeted for a front end respray this year anyway. I then popped into the nature reserve which is waaaaay up on top of the rock, and the roads you need to use are barely big enough for two vehicles and incredibly steep, far steeper than a sports car should be climbing. The 911 was okay, although I was a little concerned at the stress I was putting on the PDK 'box so left it in 1st gear and used the revs to get me up rather than the torque in a higher gear. Probably not an issue, but a bad place to find one out. Could've done with an LSD on one very sharp corner too! Why was I in the nature reserve? Why, looking for these guys of course: Monkeys! Real Gib monkeys! Actually, they're apes, but it's more fun to shout "MONKEY!" at them in a PG Tips-stylee than just say ape normally, Had a wander around the caves there too, but I was running short of time so didn't see the war tunnels or other cool bits. Next time. The hotel I'm at tonight is stunning, old Victorian style and I've just had a mahoosive buffet dinner, t'was very much appreciated and I'm now sat in the room with dos grande beers por favor writing this. Going to get an early night I think and leave earlier tomorrow, no fun drive was planned any way but the hotel is a fricking expensive one that I splashed out on, and I want to get my money's worth

From yesterday: Today's update will come after me supper.

No power for the laptop though

Also, I have wifi on the balcony!

'Tis my own silly fault for leaving it so late before trying to organise it, would've been great to meet up with you

Day 5 Sadly today's hotel has bumped from the pikey hotel room to the posh apartments, which means I have no wifi unless I sit in reception (like I am now) and I don't fancy doing that all evening, so have bought some beers and am going to watch the football in a bit. As such, only pics today and no vids Today took me further down the coast, via Valencia and Benidorm to Just outside Cartagena. This meant oranges, orange Brits, and then some more orange Brits. It also meant... VALENCIA F1 STREET CIRCUIT BABY!! Yup, that's me sat on pole, where hopefully Lewis will be sat next year in his 2014 championship winning car (okay, a man can dream) for the Spanish GP. Surprising how much of it remains open, I could probably have had a good wander around were there not guardia just round the corner blocking a road off, and I didn't know if I was allowed to park there for long or not. Getting towed away would be really bad. Also, whilst driving through the countryside I randomly came across this parked up and had to get a couple of pics: That's an impact bumper era 911 from (I think) the late 70's, although it could be an early '80s one. Either, way it's beautiful and it was just sat there, no owner in sight sadly. Makes my car look a bit of a biffer! Spent the late afternoon wandering around Los Alcazares, which meant strolling along here: ...and having one of these: Such a hard life. Also, topless sunbathing ftw. Not from me, I hasten to add, nor did I get any pics before you ask! I'm giving serious thought to halving tomorrow's run which was due to take in some more mountain roads and heading straight for Algeciras, which means I'll be able to cross into Gibraltar and tick another box off. In fact, that's made my mind up, I'm going to do just that. Mountain driving is awesome, but I think a day off will do me good.

Bloody Wiggos everywhere!

I really, really love my GoPro.

Are they not just facelift lights sprayed up?

1. My local bloke charges £10 a corner for cash. Some pay more, some pay less, I'm happy with that figure as he's a good bloke and I trust him. 2. Pass, others more local can probably help more. 3. Separate, I'd go somewhere specialist and get a proper job done personally but if you just want the car back within Nissan specs then pretty much anywhere can do that for you. Expect to pay anywhere from £50 to £100.

ARGH I WENT TO GET SOME FOOD AND THE F*CKING RESTAURANT IS CLOSED ON SATURDAYS - THE GIRL ON RECEPTION LIED TO ME!!!11 :rant: I got them to make me a cheese pizza instead, and it was alright actually. Still a bit miffed though, even if the lass did ring to apologise.

Day 4 Guess what went wrong today? Yup, nothing! Breakfast was good, albeit shared with a massive group of German or Scottish bikers (no idea what language they were speaking, it was one or the other) and I had a great run down. The coastal road was cracking (vids to come) and the sun was glorious. I stopped off on the top of a particularly scenic bit of road and sat there reading a magazine, watching the traffic come past which included a 991 cab (who waved) and a last gen Mustang (who didn't, but the V8 was to die for). It made a nice change to have time to spare, I can tell you. Had a good run to Barcalona, and found the Nou Camp without too much trouble, although someone should probably mention to the locals that it might be a good idea to stick up at least one sign post telling you where it is. It was brilliant, you can tell just how passionate the locals are about their club: The season has ended and there were still loads of market traders outside selling shirts, flags and scarves, and fans were just hanging around the stadium chatting with each other. Top stuff. *EDIT* Whoops, there is one more game in La Liga, and Barca are at home today. F*cksocks, if I'd known I'd probably have gone and watched them. Hotel for tonight seems promising, clean and has private locked parking (at 7EU per night, natch), and there's proper cabled interweb access in the rooms. You can take the nerd out of Essex... Oh, one sad thing: I got chocolate down my nice new pink t-shirt