now i know where teh Live for Speed guys got their ‘beginners RWD car’ from

here

anyway – worst driven cars recently have been black Vauxhaul Astras

aye, MrsFlash – when i took my dad to one, it was at Elvington, North Yorks, which was the first year and only date that year they where doing one there. so it was a little busyier, but like i say they limit the numbers so you do get a decent amount of seat time.

i think on the day i managed 1 good donut… on my second to last run. wasnt able to repeat the fluke! 😆

Aldi has a mp3/cd radio in at the moment for £30 or so.

has a CD (also plays mp3 CD-RW) radio, SD card slot, USB plug, 3.5mm aux jack.

think that is just what your after.

all the main activity days are sold directly by Caterham as well as via Red Letter Days et al.

best going direct to caterham really.

depending what you want to get him.

to hire either a std. narrowbody or wide body car from Caterham Midlands or South is £150 per day.

to throw around their cars on the drift day or slalom day is about £115 for a half day or £195 for a full day. theres 2 cars, between a max of 40 people – (20 full dayers and 20 half dayers, so 60 drivers possible in total, but on 40 at any one time) you get 3 or 4 runs of the course per half day.

you do really get to rag the cars – the tyres on the cars are jap ditchfinders to you can easily get the car drifting controlably. it does live up to the strap line of ‘drive like you stole it’

linky

alternativly you can book to have the car on a trackday – but this is about £500 but inc instruction. and you can get to see how good the cars are on a track.

only others i know of are book a track – again like the caterham run one you hire a 7 for use at one of their trackdays with similar costs.

or make a holiday of it and theres ‘the open road’ in scotland which hires the widebody cars for about £150/160.

For under £14k?

Caterham, 1700cc crossflow

Ginetta G4

Elise S1

Esprit Turbo

Carlton

Elan M100

Marcos

Yes, i think you are.

I had a 1.4 Berlingo, and even tho i have a Saab 9-5 estate now… i miss the berlingo.

I thought it was fun to drive, short gearing ment it was no slouch, at least up to 60mph. swallowed everything i ever wanted to carry.

And no i’m not joking about it being fun to drive – yes it leaned in heavy cornering – but once used to that it did hang on with out understeering off the road, the steering wasnt numb, gearbox didnt feel like you were stirring porrage. went up Harewood Hill in about the same time as a Morgan 🙂

ahhh the lifestyle of the broke and obsure
🙂

are you looking at sleeping 2 couples? 4/5 singles? dunt care and all sleeping in one compartment?

i’v been trhinking about joining sky – just havnt had the £130 spare recently to have sky+ installed (tho quidco is doing £85 cash back for joining)

100BHP? WOW!

but in a car that weights about the same as a Lotus Elise…

the citroen is lighter than the pug equivalent.

both the 106s and the AX/Saxos are about equal when campaigned at Speed Hillclimbs and sprints. and very popular cars.

my missus had an AX which did about 100k miles over 8 years, inc warrington to bangor and warrington to London each weekend for 5 years.
the only trouble she had in that time was an altinator went at about 40,000miles. other than that. no trouble.

great little cars.

and hey, while we’re talking about male cancers…

no matter what your age – check your balls. very easy to do and very easy to deal with if caught early.
I found a lump a couple of years ago, which after the offending item was removed tests showed it was testicular cancer.

either you found a lump, or one feels bigger than the other/is sore get it checked by a doc.

Crikey – i drink beer, not because i want to get drunk… i drink ale, because i like the taste. Merryment is a pleasent side effect, but its a rare occasion i get through more than 4 pints in an evening.

Mass produced lager tastes foul. John smiths smooth isnt much better.

or go for the big firm and the cheaper Glow Worm but with (allegedly) high customer service and good guarantee?

the big firm isnt northern gas heating is it?

only we’ve had the rep around tonight pushing the glow worm boiler with a 5 year garrentee

TJ, We’re based in Manchester, Chester, Leeds and Sheffield but do work certainly through out England and Wales – dont know about Scotland

I’ll have a word with my collegues in Forensic on monday, see if we can help you.

Pedantry mode

‘Also you can actually get either a Bachelors or a Bsc in architecture’

A BSc is a Bachelor of Science. A BA is a Bachelor of Arts. An MB is a Bachelor of Medicine. All are Bachelor’s.

Just to clear up.

To be an architect – you have to complete a 3 part RIBA assement – the university courses are approved to cover these 3 parts.

The majority or Architecture schools in the country offer a BSc (Hons) Arch course which covers part 1. then you do a year or so in practice, and back to uni for a BA or MA depending on the uni which covers your Part 2 assessment. then after another years in practice you can work towards your part 3 assessment, which on completion you can become a chartered architect.

And at the uni went to the prof later said, think i was in 3rd year at that point, that they considered the course (BSc Arch) was a study of architecture… ie the study of design/art/concepts rather than a vocational course to train you to be Architects. I’d got smegged off with the attitude there and left, and have switch slightly in that the role i’ve more turned to is that of Architectural Techinician.

If i may – coffeeking, your oppinion is the same as alot of client – ‘well all you do is draw some pictures, why does it cost so much?’

Architects come in many types – so its important to talk to several and get a feel for them, see if they match what your after.

there are architects that are aposutly brilliant designers – but havent the first clue about how to put it together, it comes to use to do that and turn their back of fag packet sketches into something that can be built, and theres those that for the domestic work can do everything from the design (inc getting planning permission and building control approval) through the M&E and structural engineering work, and be your planning supervisor on the job.

My own practice would be no good for you – we specalise in historic buildings – churches especially. tho we have a very good forensic dept, so if anything goes wrong with your build we have specalists that can act as your expert witness. 🙂

avoid Alpha.

We have one in our house… doesnt work much.
It broke twos years ago, broke/poured water over the kitchen (happened while we were at work). got fixed.
broke last easter – went without a boiler till December when British gas fixed it.
It was running up untill 2 nights ago when something else has gone wrong.

according to the British Gas guy theres loads of Alpha boilers in our area, and they keep him busy.

Glowworm and Worcester were 2 he recommended.

i’d far rather see Katherine Legge get a drive in F1.

Tho Danica ‘Drama Queen’ antics will probly fit right in F1.
(tho she’s never done very well when the track turns left and right)

i had an elise (S 06reg with the 1.8 toyota corrolla engine) for 3 weeks through Feb.

i was doing around 100 miles a day in it, did about 2000 in that time, including during the snows (once it was pushed out of the street)

I would say, if your prepared then it is a fantastic car and i enjoyed the drive to and from work each day (even tho that is all trundling motorway) plus several long blats at the weekend (well, you’ve got to havent you)
They are VERY noisy, especially above 65ish. I’m meaning having to shout at your passenger, tho over the first week you got used to it. The pops and bangs from the exhaust on the overrun are addictive, even when your just trundling along on the motorway.

getting in an out requires a knack especially like the Exige theres a roof on.
The missus cant wear a short skirt unless she doesnt mind showing the world her smalls 😉

it takes some getting used to how low you are (and that very few people will notice you and just pull out infront of you. or will try to hassle you for a race) and how wide the car is – theres a good foot of car to the side of the passenger compartment.

Tyres i noticed were about £350-500 a set of 4

Having given the car back – i miss it alot! sure it was noisy, and cramped inside – the seats were comfortable, the suspension was firm but not jaring, didnt drink petrol too excessively and it made you turn back to look at it as you went into the office.

get one. get one now.

one of the manchester evening news jurno’s used twitter to report on the results of the manc con charge announcements – which was useful while i couldnt get a radio stream – thankfull the stream started after she stopped posting halfway through the results

hmm…

Rollercoaster, Big Dipper, Grand National, Wild Mouse, Zipper Dipper, Steeplechase, Flying Machines, Revolution.

cant think of any other nice things – TVR went not so long ago, that was the only other good thing there.

i’ll make sure i stick to vege food then

you’ll be lucky to find any. the only food places i’ve ever seen were junk food take aways (a bit of limp lettuce with your kebab if your lucky.

still the food around the pleasure beach (like Coaster’s american diner near to the south entrance of the PB is quite nice)

“Anybody know where The Ancient Mariner is off to?“

as you’ve guessed thought i’d try something different.

it could turn out very badly… or it could go really well.. but i looked as the position of the Ice Gates after New Zealand which seem to stop you getting into the good winds further south – as per the Vendee Globe race, and alot of tacking needed on the prevailing winds to the north of Australia and NZ – so thought i’d keep north of the Tropic of Cancer, till sometime nearer USA, then cut down through the doldrums.
But its a much longer course. so while the winds may get me more speed, it might not be enough to offset the more direct route.

“I live on beans so I take it the Aldi ones are a no no?“

My missus prefers their baked beans to the Heinz ones as they taste less sugary.

Also their kidney beans are fine.

Dishwasher tablets are just as good as their more fancy named branded tablets you get in the supermarkets

also most of the Aussie wine,

I would also add that the Chillian and Bulgarian wines are very good. Their wine buyers are very good and havent had a bad bottle no matter what i have picked.

the milk chocolate digestive biscuits are very nice.

oh and the frozen Crispy Duck is lovely here

theres lots of lovely things in there.

“ climate change may or may not be worsened by a third runway at HTR“

are remember this is Monbigot.

Climate Change is a Man Made Disaster… Cars are completely evil and should be banned, (unless you move to the country side and suddenly find you need one)

Planes are evil and nobody should fly… (unless your off round the world on a book signing session!)

whats wrong with New Labour?

wouldnt the easier letter (and short too) be ‘whats right with New Labour’ ?

Dear Sir

i think New Labour is good for the following things…

umm er..

regards
a peasant

used the Jib No. 2 for a bit when the winds got somewhere around 30knts or more.

my folks have always had alcohol… normally no more than a glass or 2 of white wine with their sunday meal. and my dad a bottle of beer on a friday.

He smoked like a chimney too.

But, while i enjoy a drink – i like it in moderation, and never enjoyed ‘being drunk’ and certainly i hated smoking, the same with my sister.

My folks were open about drink. I remember trying a sip of my dad’s pint of bitter, when i was 8 or 9 and it put me off completely for years, till i was about 19.

On the otherhand, my dad drinks tea like a fish…. and so do i.

Bruce, i might be interested. I’m just north of Manchester, been looking into starting w’surfing again.

I’ve got a Mistral Screamer in the garage that i’ve never used, was always too scared to make the jump to short boards prefering my Fanatic Bat 325

devs.

it doesnt matter how powerful the tredmill is.

the only force holding the plane back is the friction in the wheel bearings.
which is a tiny amount, and in no way be noticable.
heck even a man can pull a jet plane along the apron.

mikewsmith

is the result in yet? been away

yeah… twas only about 80% against accross the greater manchester area 🙂

i’ve seen a caterham with a couple of bikes strapped to the roll cage.

or theres always the Lotus Carlton.

The german options just dont excite me.

hm, and i reckon the boot of a TVR Chimaera is big enough to swallow a bike frame or 2, with the wheels behind the seats.

your day, your rules.

we suffered from my mother saying ‘your got to have this and that’ and ‘invite so and so’

we paired the list down to about 20 people for the service and a few more for the evening. did away with any speeches and table plans having a garden party, with home cooked food, and pleanty of wine and beer laid on. It worked for us.

as said – do what you want, how you want to. someone will always be disappointed and think you should have done it their way.

i remember going to a really excellent Soulfly gig at Glasgow Garage2 on the Primative tour around 2000/01

Have a look at the HTC phones – available under various names from each of the main mobile guys (the XDA on o2, HTC on Orange and MDA on T Mobile.)

the HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and Touch HD are the latest handsets. all run WinMobile 6.1, but with HTC’s own interface running on top.

When it first came out the Touch Diamond was a little sluggish, but the update that came out within a month last summer quickened things up nicely.

the basic differences is:
Touch Diamond: 4Gb internal storeage, smallest of the 3. sVGA screen, no expandable memory slot.
Touch Pro: same as the Diamond, but has a slide out keyboard and a MicroSD card slot.
Touch HD is the largest, about the same size as a iPhone. doesnt have a slide out keyboard, but does have the internal memory and expandable microSD card slot. also has a 3.5mm headphone jack so you dont need special headphones.

all 3 have GPS on board. and google maps installed (or can be installed for free if not) have opera browser

a good place for reviews: http://www.coolsmartphone.com

"Any German beer from Aldi/Lidl brewed in accordance with the purity laws."

Apsolutly – the only lagers i’ll drink. 🙂

Black Sheep, St Peter’s Golden Ale, Charles Well’s Bombardier, Thwaites Bomber, Bishop’s Finger…

should get you started (i prefer my ales more of the Porter persuasion so dont tend to drink IPAs so cant help there) Most are quite popular ales so should be found in Tescos

“where should we look for exciting high level car racing?”

British GT? Brit F3? the new F2 chamipionship & GP2

or stick with Club level racing
Classic and Sports Car Club – everything from Jags (like watching aircraft carriers do battle, very entertaining) to 60’s tin tops

750mc

Caterhams

Ma5da (MX5 racing)

any one of these will provide far better racing – alot available to view of MotorsTV if you have sky/cable

And Lemmy in the Kit Kat advert a little while ago.

Now advertising Jack Daniels i could understand 😉