corozin

Is this the appropriate time to mention to the original poster that I've poured just under £16k into my current car in just 4½ years. And that doesn't include the £2½k on 23x R888 tyres, the insurance or the petrol! Doh - that all works out at around £0.84p a mile to run for 32,000 miles... DOH! Oh - and it was off the road for a year of that. Add more D'ohs to that then :gag:

There was a story in the paper last week to the effect that the BBC Health & Safety had banned TG from feeding any of the BBQ food to any of the celebrities. I think that's why there were custard creams doing the rounds. So despite doing almost a complete re-run of the "new reasonably priced car at the track day 1" item from 3 years ago it wasn't a bad episode. I also liked the Reliant item. The gag where Clarkson had a map of the whole of Europe and then said he was driving from Rotherham to Darlington did make me smile.

Hi all, Well the end of the adventure is in sight as we've now crossed back across the border into England and we're crashing out in Kielder forest tonight. Earlier today we left Dundee and met up with Craigowl by the Forth Bridge and enjoyed another tremendous day of driving on the twisty stuff all the way down through Hawick and into Kielder. Big thanks to Craigowl & Mrs Craigowl for not giving up on meeting us as both groups accidentally sat in the wrong car park waiting for the others for an hour with no mobile phone contact available. We were treated to cold drinks when we did finally meet up (many thanks Iain!) and had a great time in the sun. We'll be exploring Kielder Forest a bit tomorrow, but there's still opportunity for any of you folks up in the North East to meet the gang on Sunday when we'll be at Croft circuit in North Yorkshire for the British Touring Car round. There's no mobile signal available where we are here today but if you want to meet on Sunday please text my number up the thread and we'll arrange to meet Cheers The Scottish Rovers (Chris, Wendy, Butterfly, Kip & John)

Hi all, Been a bit quiet on here I know but the access to wi-fi hasn't been quite what we were led to believe so getting online hasn't been easy. But tonight we've made it as far as Inverness without any mishaps. We're doing a write up which will eventually appear in the Sprinter and we're hoping to host up the best of the literally hundreds of photos we've taken on the CCGB website after we return. But in short we've had a blinding time so far, all sunburnt and having a great time. If you're in Scotland and available to meet us in the Braemar area tomorrow evening, Dundee on Thursday or Kielder on Friday evening please give me a call - my number is further up the thread Cheers, John (Corozin), Wendy, Chris, Kip & Judith :D

So how is that different to any other day? LOL. Seriously hope you guys don't get too wasted given you're at two weddings on consecutive days! Look forward to seeing you on Sunday :) John

Dynamat is much better stuff but I'm struggling a bit with why on earth you'd want to dampen the sound of a VR6. Frankly half of mine has crumbled away and I can't say I've noticed much of a difference in the noise levels anyway.

Yeah all good pm the number to myself and Wendy if you don't mind. She's the organiser, but I have a handsfree ) If you can put your name (rather than your forum handle) on the PM too that will help me know who you are loads please

Even though we're only a few days away from the start of the trip this weekend, we are hoping to be able to get online & check the threads here & on the CCGB website so please if you do want to meet up please keep posting. Alternatively you can also call me (John) on 07977-501128 if you need information or to ask about where we are or where to meet up. I have a car phone so it won't be illegal! I can tell you that we're all looking forward to the trip tremendously, and to meeting as many of you guys from North of the border as possible. Cheers John

Now that he's signed the NIP and the incident is over it's very easy to talk about contesting it, but in practical terms the OP is onto an almost certain hiding if he attempts to contest this now. It would have to go to court. Unless any in-car video from the Police car proves otherwise he will end up in court giving his opinion to a magistrate in contradiction to two Police officers who will testify on oath that they observed him committing the crime. Not only will lose, he may well have the penalty increased, and he'll get landed with the court costs, the CPS costs and the Police costs. The time to argue the toss was at the roadside. Ensure a statement is taken by the officer making it abundantly clear that he did not accept the charge or the penalty, put it on the record and then get it signed. Without that the OP would be an idiot to even think about contesting this.

I've been with the AA for many years now & I thought the requirements to carry a spare/fix kit has always been in the T&C? For most of us it shouldn't be a problem as we have legal spare wheels anyway. That said, there have been changes to the T&C over the years which they never seem to communicate at all until you hit them. In 2006 I had a huuuge argument with them after they started refusing to recover accident damaged cars (they seemed quite happy to leave me stranded 12 miles from anywhere at 10pm at night) and last summer I had another ruckus with them when I attempted to transport my (seized engined) car to the garage and they refused because it had been more than a week since the original breakage. The patrol guys themselves are in contrast absolute soldiers and always helpful. The AA "book of policies" that they make the central calldesk use is rather less successfully managed and communicated.

I agree. That's looking pretty impressive so far. I think you've got a lot of work to complete and have it running by August though! Keep up the good work!

Paint them every time. Powder coating is nice up to a point but if you kerb a wheel (for example) it can split and break off in flakes. If you do the same with a painted surface you can just respray over it. You can also paint the wheels yourself, which you can't do with powdercoat. As someone with satin black Compomotives I am no stranger to cans of aerosol ! Suggest you make a cutout from a big piece of cardboard to shield the bodywork if you're just doing a quick repair. Saves you having to pull the wheel off :)

Normal MO's below. But you can't have them as I had a set first ! Available in silver, white and black. But not cheap, they were £210each (in 17") about 2 years ago when I enquired about spares.

Hope it breaks lol Haha, No point in being bitter. I'll hold a thought for you tomorrow when it's in the mid-80's and I have lovely cool air blowing in the car. :D

You guys have Corrados /without aircon? You bought the wrong cars people! Mine has it. Sucks to be you lot :D

LOL, I wasn't saying that the R8 was bad, just that the Rat Rods are just so much cooler, especially the bare metal one that lights it's tyres up near the end of the clip. And I can't believe it's the only cabrio you'd love to own - don't they make Aston Martins less than 10 miles from your house? Those V8 Volantes are just dreamy :D

During the cup final today Audi ran a glossy ad for the new R8 Cabriot/Spyder. Here it is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUD385YzJa4 Am I the only person who (honestly) would rather have a rat-rod ?

You are absolutely right to consider what all the costs involved in putting your own car on track might be as they do add up. Assuming that your car is in good enough condition in the first place (suspension bushes, dampers, no trans or engine problems etc etc) then I approximately budget for a full day as follows : Trackday cost (for Castle Combe) = £165 Set of replacement front tyres afterwards = £170 Oil / filter change afterwards (essential) = £50 Brake pads = £80 (based on wearing Brembo fronts & OE rears about every third trackday) Trackday fuel for (approx) 100 track miles @9mpg = £70 Fuel for getting there & back = £60 Coffee / lunch at the circuit = £10 Total = ~ £700 (ish). It's not a cheap hobby, but it is tremendous fun. Note the costs above are only indicative. They don't include instructors, track insurance (which I don't use personally) or the wider costs of the wear & tear that tracking puts onto bits other than the brakes (back to suspension, running gear, engine, gearbox again!)

Well... strictly speaking they have misrepresented the item under the sale of goods act and you have rights in law ultimately to pursue them. Honestly I think the question is how strongly you feel about the issue. A few considerations as I see the situation : a) You may wish to keep pressing the seller if you believe they've conned you out of money as a result of this "error". Typically ABV engines do fetch more than AAA on the secondhand market. The question is whether you believe they've deliberately mis-sold it to you as a ABV to push the cost up, b) Frankly an AAA is in practical terms little if any different to an ABV provided that you transfer the inlet/throttle assembly from your old ABV to the new engine. The 2.8 capacity makes little difference. Indeed I have recently put a AAA in mine (with a lot of the old parts carried over) and frankly I can't tell the difference. Neither can other Corrado VR6 owners :D c) If the seller's attitude is giving cause for concern then confront them in a calm, factual manner, confirming your conversations in writing. Don't get aggressive or shout at them as an argument won't solve anything. Remember that you have the law on your side, and if you continue to get nowhere with them start to remind them of your legal rights - but only if you actually intend to go through with it. You can contact your local Trading Standards office for free advice on this (and they may help you with an intransigent trader) but ultimately you may have to go to small claims to enforce your rights. The good news about this is that it ultimately doesn't cost a lot of money to do (whether you think that's worth it is another matter) but the good news is that you can issue small claims summons in your own location - meaning the seller would have to travel to your court to defend the action. d) If you did go down this route you would need to demonstrate the losses you've accrued by being supplied the wrong engine. Expect the other side to argue significantly on that point. But your target is to get your money and costs back if you get this far. I don't think you want to try and force them to take the AAA back and give you an ABV - well I wouldn't want that anyway... In all honesty this decision comes down to how aggrieved you feel about the situation, and whether the costs & effort involved in chasing your rights are balanced well against the difference in money and originality involved. Frankly I think I would say to let the matter drop, put the 2.8 into the car, and surprise yourself how little different it is to your old ABV, whilst also doing what you've already done - warning others about the poor service of the company involved. HTH, that's my mega "samaritan help" post written for this weekend :) John

It's not on there. If someone had sent me details sooner I would have added it, but since it's only this Sunday I'm not sure I see the point this late in the day?

Some nice pics there John. Nice action. Also good to see that the 'black wheels' look is continuing to take off :norty:

Well here's a thought. Back in 1997 Gordon Brown changed the rules so that only cars registered before 1973 could qualify for free road tax, and then the sonofabitch locked the year in so it didn't advance. 13 years on, if the rolling elelment had been left in place, cars manufactured in 1986 would have become eligible, and we'd only be a couple of years away from free road tax for the earliest Corrados. :cry:

I know someone who has one and I can tell you that having been out on a trackday against one they are considerably faster (stock) than any Corrado. The Gordini racing (flat) blue is the colour to have.

I don't have Eibachs myself but the classic way to tell if you have Eibachs fitted to any VR6 is that the stance of the car "sits down" noticeably at the back with thier springs fitted. If you want to fix the problem I have a set of Nothelle sports springs in storage which lower the car by 30mm without making it look like Thunderbird 2 in take off position. Feel free to PM me if you're interested in buying them. Regards, John

This is true Well it's more sympathetic advice than "You should have done your homework and test drive more thoroughly before buying a car you're now saying you don't like as much as your steroided Golf". How on earth are we supposed to answer a question like that in the first place?