trial rat,

its the C350 AMG sport plus with 265hp and a whopping 620NM of torques,

I think its quite legit to call a 155mph (limited) autobahn storming estate a ‘sports estate’ but then what would i know i’m only a lowly F1 engineer.

i know one thing i didn’t buy the petrol version through choice and i couldn’t afford the AMG C63 this year but i might be able to at the end of this season 😀

Late to the fight but thought i may add to the post:

I have a 8 month old 3L V6 TDI Mercedes and it does an average of 38mpg (sports estate)

my wife has a 2 month old Mini countryman 1.6 TDI it is meant to do around 45-50mpg but struggles to do 35mpg ???

?

got it cheers,

168 then.

does anyone know if the xx1 cranks come with the BB included ?

love the photos ampthill,

what year was that ?

must be some great memories to go with those great piccys

Official racing colour for French manufacturers is blue .

Germany silver, Italy red, British green etc etc

Rumour is that Caterham F1, (as you may know they use Renault powertrains), has done a deal with Renault over race engines that means that they may make a new Alpine under licence for the afformentioned french car manufacturers using there Caterham road car expertise in low volume production runs.

hey it’s only a rumour but i have heard it quite a few times in F1 circles as they say but it is worth noting that Renault new f1 power plant is a V6 90 deg much the same in design as the ‘PRV’ that was used in the alpine,

planets aligning ?

Get yourself a Bialetti moka pot, there around 30 quid for a decent size then buy ground coffee and bobs your uncle,

Easy cheap coffee, I make a 3 cup moka in the morning with Lavazza expresso ground, microwave half a cup of semi milk then pour half a cup of expresso into it.

I like coffee to be full of flavour but not to dark or strong, this seems to work for me

Use the mill, use the v blocks with stops and clamps, clock up the centre and cut it with a 8mm 2 flute slot drill, nice even cut through, plenty of coolant or mill it 0.3 under and ream it.

Basically take it to Jamie porter or have a hole off centre that looks like you cut it with a noga blade

Q to takisawa

Bit of a specialised machine your named after?

You any good at making pistons ?

A handsome tv star if ever there was.

He used to own a nightclub back in the mid eighties, the orchard country club in hazelmere bucks,

We used to go there when we teenagers and sometimes you would see him later in the evening.

Shame.

The formula is making a quantum leap engine wise but I think the cars will still look pretty much as they have in the last few seasons,
The aero package shouldn’t change that much as it’s more a case of optimizing the current thinking.thats just my opinion though.

It’s the fuel that’s the key from now on.

I really genuinely think that the new engine technology is going to make a difference. One which will filter down into common use an give us massive engine power from small amounts of fuel.
Some real beautiful cars above.
Thanks for sharing

A Mercedes c350 amg sport plus estate.

Growls like an angry lion and drives sublime.

Let the haters hate

Go to Ubud,

avoid the coast and it’s resorts, prepare for drunk aussies at the airport,

inland a beautiful place,

the smell of incense and the sound of chiming bells always takes me back there and is burned into my memory for ever,

visit the volcano Batur and the other larger one Agung in the north,

monkey forest and cremation site in Ubud is worth a look too,

It’s relatively cheap, very safe ( i had no problems walking through villages off the beaten track the locals are very relaxed and willing to engage)

someone may try to sell you something carved from wood for quite a lot of cash especially if your taxi driver takes you to a carving shop, this and the drunk fosters swigging louts is the only nuisance.

enjoy

broke both my ulna and radius to pieces 18 months ago, almost lost my hand and wrist, 12 hrs to put it back together in one sitting and 10 days in hospital,

i was riding 3 months later,

at first pain lasted and hard rides took their toll,

after 12months it got a lot better, I never feel any issue while riding anymore,

it will never be the same again and i still have a 6” Ti plate and eighteen screws, but hell who cares about that.

give it time.

Black bin liner stuff with old papers and shoved up the chimney,

Works for us and cheap

It started at over £25k !

As you say a lot of money for a mini, wonder what the depreciation will be like ?

I didn’t get the impression they were having trouble selling them.

My wife bought one two weeks ago,

Cooper D 1.6t with a chilli pack,

Well built defo a BMW , best seats I’ve sat in for a long time and headrests that you can put your head on without having to look out the sunroof,
Masses of gadgets and plenty of switches to flick, huge amount of room in the front and plenty in the back,

I find the engine wanting of torque but it’s not breathless and pulls well but the 6 speed gearbox whizzes through the ratios,
I’m used to big engines so I wouldn’t say its a bad thing, just more modern.

We drove a hard bargain and got it for 21k with her long serving golf as a trade in at £700 .

Altogether a nice car but not cheap but at least it feels like it’s well engineered,

Things I found were missing,

A sensible fuel gauge.

Torques.

An engine temp gauge !!!! Can’t find it perhaps it’s hidden ??.

My mate Paul ran over a badgers head while it was trying to get the hell out the way 🙂

Saturday night last, chilterns between wendover and cadstone,

great night riding+pint of ale at cadstone=hilarious badger incident *.

*had to be there applies.

Great night, chalky and fast trails on a warm night with some good friends.

moosive fail !

CRC if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, why did you change ? had to fiddle didn’t you eh eh eh eh

I’ve just had Two weeks driving in northern Cyprus ,

Driving over there was a little tiring as people do the oddest things, no real rules and all very haphazard,

Highlights included:
Following a woman at 50 along the main coast road who suddenly threw a 3L plastic bottle out the window which shit the bejesus out of the wife and kids,

An old woman holding up about 50 cars as she took around 4 minutes to cross the main road, she really old and hunched, a man got out to help her get on the curb.

1st thing I noticed driving on my return to the UK was the sheer aggressive aspect of driving here, the thing is over there it was ok I didn’t get angry when the woman chucked the bottle and nobody ran the old lady down for daring to cross the road,

I drive 400 miles a week to work and I see a lot of stuff but what I mainly notice is the angry aggressive way in which we think we have the right to destroy all that do not confirm to what we consider to be the correct driving etiquette,

Yep that’s a baby Robin

Wouldn’t bother with a service, sent my seiko kinetic for a service as it had packed up after 10 yrs, they charged me almost as much as I paid for the watch and it was a total waste of time, when it came back the face looked like it had been attacked with a Stanley knife ! There was loads of flecks of paint sitting on the dial and hands and some on the date window, within 2 weeks it stopped again despite having a new kinetic motor most likely caused by all the paint floating around in the case,

I complained bitterly to seiko but they would not refund any of the costs and decided to exonerate themselves of any wrong doing,

That was it for me, I don’t blame seiko as a company but the uk service centre of gross ineptitude,

I threw that watch in my draw and saved up for the watch I always wanted it to be, a sea dweller 16600, I’ve had that for 7 yrs now and it’s service is about due, £450 + any parts, but I know it will come back perfect.

you get what you pay for.

Me and 4 mates where on ‘friends like these’ with Ant ‘un Dec in 2000, we won an all expenses holiday at the Maritim in Mauritius, blinder, $2500 was given to us for beer by the producers too,

We had planned it as our last ‘boys’ holiday and somehow pulled it off, the girls were where against in the show where destroyed and left in tears as they had never been abroad on holiday before, It felt a little cruel but we soon got over it,

Can’t believe it was 13 yrs ago now !!

I have video evidence of the whole sordid affair including DV we shot during the filming of our filming including winding Dec up so much his veins where popping out on the side if his head,

black and white stoat, saw one myself in Milton keynes a few years back, it was coming out the undergrowth and was a lot bigger than i thought stoats were, my first thoughts were RACCOON !!

Turns out it was a big Stoat,

Pis hill ,

Pronounced **ss hill,

Just off the x country 25 loop near watlington, oxon

You need to work out your triggers,

Do you need glasses ? , are you eating regularly ? , are you staying hydrated ?,

Cheese ? Tired ? Stressed ?

Mixed feelings here,
Beautiful weekend with great weather, spent with my wife and girls, watched our team miraculously win at silverstone despite all the odds, but feeling sad at the same time because tomorrow I’m not drinking champers at the race debrief but will instead along with my family be laying my wife’s beloved father to rest.

Wistfully thinking of him while sitting with Helen at the end of the kitchen looking out at the garden he helped create,

Penny from GMTV in pizza express Oxford few weeks ago , no longer a milf 🙁

Dominic diamond in angry Annie’s a small restaurant in Barbados in 2002,

Eric cantona on the patio in Le St Geran in Mauritius in 2001,

Some woman from casualty in a pub in herts last week

And some bloke called Dave Cameron at a pub near chequers last summer ,

sorry got called out while writing the text for above

summary :

wrist totalled, much metal and pain for 6 months, some metal removed, metal above still remains and always will, 15 months after crash I’m riding the full Dalby red with no issues followed by 21 mls around the moors then last weekend 32 miles across the chilterns,

slightly bionic but riding better than ever, happy days

internetopticians

i have brought 3 pairs from them in the last 4yrs, they do full oakley custom sevice as well,

very quick and reliable.

you don’t say which way the hole runs ?, i take it you don’t want it through the 20mm thickness but running the long way through the 300mm length more than once , you could get 30+ holes 300mm long and reamed to finish, so thats a 180mm 5.8mm PFX drill followed by a 160mm 6mm h7 reamer 60 times (30 each side)

plus the cost of a piece of copper 300 square x 20mm thick,

thats going to cost you a good sum of cash fella

i work for a f1 team and it’s pretty bad when someone lets rip in the office, it’s known as opening the DRS flap, sometimes the flap gets stuck and you have to head for the pit to try and get it shut again,

there is a DRS zone which starts outside the factory gate and extends right into the village, lots of peeps wait until then, this results in a lot of hasty overtaking as you don’t want to get stuck in the dirty air

well I didn’t die !!!!

trails were fast and dry in woburn and the wood was pretty empty with minimal power rangers,

the wheels were faultless as i expected they would be but no ping ping ping !!!, must have spent a little more time on these, they normally go ping, but i had to make do with the sound of a brand new evo freehub, clickerty clickerty click…..much better than spokes pinging,

beautiful afternoon blast,

and top marks to Merlin, i only ordered these monday at lunch and here i am riding a set of hand built wheels on saturday 🙂

jamj1974,

I did get them with black spokes fella, always do,

they always use unpainted/anodised ‘silver’ nipples, thing is you never notice them, the spokes hub and rim black overpowers the unpainted finish and you just don’t notice it so don’t wind yourself up into thinking you need them painted 😉

wheels are fitted, i’m off out up woburn after qualifying, ping ping ping …new wheels…ping ping ping

coincidence ?

had a pair turn up from merlin yesterday !, flow ex on pro2 evo’s,just having breaky before bolting them on the bike,

i’ve had a pair of flows/evos on my other bike for 2 years no issues,

didn’t really look when i filled in the build order on merlins site, when they turned up yesterday i though they looked a bit wider then noticed the ‘EX’ after ‘FLOW’,

i switched over from mavic after a lot of years and am very happy with stans

Birbek.com

AD94.

‘The sky is overcast with continual rain and cloud, but the cold is not severe.’
(Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola, 12.3.)

yep thats the UK

Only one of my mates rides a 29er, and he hasn’t been out for over a year now, all the rest of us ride 26 and I never see any on the trails we ride , chilterns and Woburn,

I won’t be changing,