I will also be amazed if 2 Mercs and 2 RBs all emerge from T1 unscathed.. I reckon tomorrow’s race is gonna be spicy! 🙂

I was NOT expecting that! Well done Merc and Bottas. Tremendous stuff 👏

That RB looked a right handful in the closing stages of qually, tankslapping in a few places. Cannot wait for the race tomorrow.

Anyone else properly excited about the end of the season?! I’m like a kid at Christmas sat watching P1!

The prospect of a close championship battle and 5 races in 6 weeks has got me giddy. I think Verstappen will get his first WDC, as much as I don’t like the lad he showed real maturity at the last GP and it’s clear he’s thinking strategically and not just about the next corner. It’s gonna be interesting!

Update

I’ve been dipping in and out of the ‘IB protester shoved with car’ thread which prompted me to update this thread as we’ve now had the work completed on the dormer roofs.

All of the dormer flat roofs on the 1st floor have been over framed, solid 100mm insulation added, boarded and a rubber final membrane directly on top of the existing flat roof. The roofer confirmed there was literally zero insulation in the existing roof – just felt, board, air then plasterboard. Shocking really.

The difference this has made is noticeable. In direct sunlight the rear south facing bedrooms stayed nice and cool on the warmer days, and on the few occasions that the heating kicked in all 3 bedrooms were bouncing!

In summary – very effective but not cheap. It really highlights the scale of the task of updating all of the housing stock in the UK. This is just 1 part of a massive jigsaw of insulating our house and it cost several thousand pounds (after the above info/research into the green homes scheme thing we didn’t even bother..)

Next on the list is insulating behind the tiles around the windows on the dormers and then the whole pitched roof which is looking worse for wear.. but that’s a LOT of cash on insulation and updating the property.. and this is just 1 house. I value getting the place up to spec and minimising the amount of gas we burn as a family but think I’m probably in a minority spending money on stuff like this above holidays and what not. As above, it really highlights the magnitude of what needs doing and the cost of it.

Aye, good point re. slowing down. I’m sure I saw a few airbag deployments the speed was so high in some cases. Crazy

Howling @mrjmt comment 🤣

I’ve very recently purchased a set of B&W floor-standers and there have been arguments.. it’s cost me a couple of grands worth of internal oak doors to smooth things over FFS.

Anyway I’ve wanted a proper set of floor standing speakers since I was 16 and I got my B&W DM601 S2s.. More than a couple of decades later I’ve finally got them 🙂

If you’re committed to the mileage long term and have off street parking it’s screaming EV for me.

120 miles in my model 3 would cost about £1.80 in electricity at 5ppkwh overnight. Even if you got 50mpg out of a nice wafty 6 pot diesel that’s gonna cost what £15? That’s 8 times more fuel cost from the ICE.

EVs are obviously expensive to buy/lease/finance but if you’re slamming the miles the running costs will sharp net that out.

I’m just staggered that a 330e will only do 20mpg once the battery is toast and isn’t a good companion on a long journey. My old M135i would do 35+mpg on a run easy as long as I didn’t drive like a total dick. However, my wife’s 320i at the time was a much better companion on a long journey.. I’d take the smaller engine in the better car over the better engine in the smaller car every day of the week. (But maybe that’s because the 1 series was so badly nailed together).

I’ve always considered myself a petrol head but after getting the Tesla 18 months ago I honestly don’t think I’ll ever have another ICE car unless I’m in the position where I have the money and space for a second sports car that is a proper garage queen and does a few hundred miles a year.

Thank you @timmys will dive into those now. Cheers

Wow. What a race. I have been thoroughly entertained start to finish. I honestly thought Merc made the wrong call there at the end with the pit stop and McLaren nailed it.

Well done Lewis, 100 wins is something else. Gutted for Norris mind, he raced so well.

Very! Couldn’t believe it when I looked up and it was only lap 12. Battles up and down the field!

Aye, the coupe SUV trend is absolutely preposterous. I mean just look at that Merc up there ^^^! It’s horrific, and that’s before you get to all the red bits inside 🤮 But they’re everywhere so someone must like them.

I categorically hate SUVs I really do, but even I had to admit recently that in a very small % of use cases they are actually pretty useful/good. My mate drove me and him on a 700 mile round trip to Goodwood this summer in his X5M and apart from the hideous fuel consumption (low 20s mpg) it was a great tool for the job. Basically a 600hp luxury van with the seats down and 2 up front. But the coupe X6 version chops out about half the boot! Madness

Good work all, had a proper giggle at this thread, thank you!

There’s one of those B16 BO55 walloper-wagons parks outside our building at work but I’m yet to spot the owner. Has a lot of the hallmarks noted above but some extras as well.. a winch or two, about a dozen additional lights pointing all over the shop, various buckles and bits of metal which are all colour coded to match various other additions, big plastic stick on wheel arches and many many stickers, my favourite of which is a an angry looking piston that says ‘life’s too short for a hybrid’ written under it. Goodness knows what he must think of all the BEVs at our place that people (including me) get cheap thru the work scheme. Oh and it looks like it’s been lifted so even higher and ALWAYS immaculately clean.

Anyway, what are those boxes on the rear quarter of the new defender?!

Good. He deserves it. I’d like to think it’ll get him to wind his neck in but I doubt it..

Di Resta saying racing incident. Herbert and Hill both saying Max could have (and should have) avoided. Needless to say I’ve been calling Di Resta worse than a pick pocket

Interesting watching the interviews with Lewis/Toto and Max/Christian. RB coming across badly IMO. Max especially was not very consistent in his responses, was all over the place and talked for too long where Lewis put his point across concisely and that was it. Damon Hill was spot on, either a professional foul or error of judgment. He was probably still fuming after the slow stop. He’s hot headed at the best of times.

Great stuff. Loving the slap on the arse for Zac! 😂
Forgot about shoeys it’s been that long

Aye I’m absolutely delighted for Ricciardo and McLaren but I’m still bouncing about that incident with Hamilton and Verstappen. Been shouting at the telly like a lunatic

🤣 indeed

Verstappen over the radio “that’s what you get for leaving no room” then just ****s off leaving Hamilton under his car. Nice

Scary that replay of the wheel on his head. Hamilton’s corner that for me

😂

Verstappen at fault there for me. He has zero foresight beyond the end of the next corner

Crazy incident. I was hoping Hamilton could reverse out from under the RB!

Well that was **** dreadful. 5 weeks without an F1 race and that’s what we got.. Very glad I recorded it and watched in 30x speed. Even at that rate I was bored!! Just hit play now and then for a pit stop and kept an eye on the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton. Shite.

Aye agreed. Get him in the race. If it happens at all!

Fascinating conversation between the race director and RB about getting Perez into the race. They’ve been told No you can’t get him in the race as he was assisted mechanically back to the pits by the truck but RB arguing that the race itself has not started

They’re just talking about that now. Need to have completed two laps minimum for points scoring. 75% race distance for full points. So as it stands no points if it doesn’t go ahead.

Conditions are awful.. not sure there’s going to be race at all if it doesn’t improve a lot.. and quickly!

Verstappen keeps saying it’s fine.. aye I’m sure it is at the front when you haven’t got multiple rooster tails making it driving through pea soup!

The Alpinestars caps with the flexfit back are generally ok for my oversized dome.. (also 62cm). Most have been fine with the occasional one that has needed a bit of pre-stretching treatment on a size 5 football. I’m a baldy bastard mind.. so if you’ve got lego head hair they may be a bit snug.

Ive had my model 3 for about 18 months and my wife has had an ID3 for about a month. The ID3 is a great little car and I agree with lister that it’s a really cool motor – I like the side profile the best. Few things that jump out at me when I jump from the Tesla the V Dub:

> One pedal driving is not possible. Tesla have done such a great job of integrating throttle and regen, it feels like a step back. Even in the higher regen ‘B’ mode I still have to use the brake pedal at most junctions.
> The interior is not as ‘premium’ a place to be with cheaper materials used throughout, but that’s expected given the price difference and not really an issue.
> Seating position is a bit high for me. Feels like I’m sat on the car rather than in it if that makes sense.
> Steering wheel only adjusts for rake and not reach which was disappointing.

Oh and lock to lock on the steering feels like miles! But the steering wheel itself is lovely. Nice compact size and not too chunky like a lot of modern cars.

Getting a drive in one is the only way to know if it’s for you.

After the sum total of 4 pints of neck oil last night in the local I had a thoroughly undeserved hangover this morning.. so have been self medicating all day.

Breakfast was a sausage sarnie and cappuccino from Greggs, with brown sauce naturally.

Dinner was a chicken sarnie, Thai sweet chicken McCoy’s and proper coke.

Tea is currently underway with a tube of ready salted Pringles, a bottle of estrella and whatever wotsits don’t make it into the bairns mouth and end up on the carpet.

Spicy meat feast pizza in the fridge for later.

The above has been peppered with a shit ton of coffee from the new machine at work.

And I wonder why I’ve got a massive kite on is.

Wow. Some incredibly poor driving there. I’ve watched it a few times now and can’t fathom how he didn’t hit you! He was an absolute delight wasn’t he.. lovely character, and very protective of his company van.

Weber go anywhere charcoal here too. Belta bit of kit. In laws bought me it a couple of years ago and it’s been hammered on camping trips and sometimes in the garden when I don’t need to fire up the bigger Weber kettle. As above, chimney starter essential – I just use the full size chimney I have.. takes up a bit more space in the car but well worth it. Hadn’t thought about a pizza stone for it but I’m gonna!

I haven’t read the whole thread but something is definitely amiss with the ‘box and I hope you’re able to get some demonstrable evidence to that end. My brother had a 2012 C350d which I drove quite a few miles in and I think had the same 7G ‘box we’re talking about here. It was lovely. So smooth you’d think it was running on double cream not derv.. some of this smoothness was potentially helped by the 6 cyl motor but it shouldn’t be much different with a 4 cyl. It had about 60-70k on the clock at this point I think. Just my two penneth worth. Good luck with it.

@pedlad it looks like the ID3 has averaged 3.6 mi/kWh in the 220 miles since it was delivered.

In Tesla money that’s 278 wh/mi but I tend to use more than that and average around the 300 mark.. so it is actually doing better than the M3P.

Now there are other factors at play here.. the Performance doesn’t have very aero wheels like the ID3 and I sometimes have the bike rack/bike/roofbox up top but more often than not it’s just the naked car. My model 3 missed the standard inclusion of the heat pump the newer ones get. I’ll be monitoring the ID3 over time.

A further factor is my wife’s lead foot and habit of driving too fast whilst also stressing about range 🤷‍♂️ (I can see exactly where she is and what speed she is doing on the app!) But this will average out across the cars as we regularly drive each other’s.

As above, I think other than using the TVs built in speakers, a soundbar is just about the most discrete option going!

I had to demote my lovely B&W DM601 S2s on stands either side of the telly into the home office (not a bad thing overall!) once my daughter developed a penchant for pulling things over and generally touching things she shouldn’t..

I went for the KEF T301 speakers and mounted them either side of the TV and buried all the cables. They’re just running stereo from the AVR but they’re absolutely crying out for a sub! They have a lovely sound but they’re something silly like 35mm thick and there’s no replacement for displacement.. as they say.. I think.

I had grand plans of buying the full 5.1 setup over time but that plan hasn’t materialised yet.. sub next for sure then maybe a centre but then it won’t be as discrete..

Loving that setup BTW @ta11pau1
Noice 👌

Cheers @simon_g. Yeah moonstone grey that’s the badger 👍. Hadn’t even thought about the auto handbrake so will have a look at that see if there’s any tinkering in the settings. Thanks

My wife’s ID3 finally arrived just over a week ago. First impressions are really good. Great little car and seems to be very frugal even compared to the Tesla. We upgraded to the heat pump, bigger alloys and the go faster stripes on the side.. and maybe the colour (can’t remember). Only slight bug is that I don’t think one pedal driving is really possible even driving it in ‘B’ (high regen) mode.. and reverse gear is a bit all or nothing! Especially reversing up our slight incline of a driveway.. it creeps like an ICE auto in reverse quite a lot. Are there any other ID3 drivers on here that can comment on this please?
Cheers

Mine arrived earlier. As above, I’m a 10 in just about every pair of footwear I own so sized up to 10.5.

They fit well.. once on, but he ankle opening is narrow. I have a high instep and they’re tricky to get on initially. Agree that the ankle opening seems be an afterthought and a weak point in the overall design.. will see how I get on but if I was a betting man I’d say this part of the shoe will fail first.

Yes. I’ve done a few trips now in my Tesla M3P (WLTP range = 329 miles). Before I get into my experience it is worth noting that Tesla calculate range displayed on-screen differently to pretty much any other EV manufacturer, specifically, the car does not take account any previous driving or environmental conditions. It just converts the energy at % charge to miles based on ideal conditions. For me this is between 295-300 miles on the display for 100% charge.

– First long trip (I had 285 miles in the battery when I left home). I just had 1 big (YT Capra) bike up top. I did ~195 miles and had ~15 miles left in the tank when I returned from my camping trip of two nights. I was REALLY taking it easy (speed capped at 65 other than few brief moments, AC mostly off, etc.)

– Second long trip (I had 295 miles in the battery when I left home) I had the bike and a large(ish) roofbox. The addition of the roof box had negligible impact compared to bike alone which was interesting. I did ~180 miles and had ~10 miles left in the tank when I returned from my camping trip of 1 night. I was NOT taking it easy this time… Using AC willy nilly and perhaps going a bit fast than I should have been.

In summary I would say go for 2/3rds of WLTP as the max you will get with big stuff on the roof! I should have been more scientific by logging Wh/miles compared to nothing on the roof.. but it’s always a rush packing for camping/MTB trips and hitting the road..