corozin

In the case of the road pricing petition I couldn't disagree more. The fact that 1.8 million people signed the petition gave the Government a huge problem politically and popularised the point of view in the media. Obviously the Government were never going to admit it at the time of the petition, but from the moment it closed the Government had been sent a very clear signal that a very significant proportion of the electorate were never going to stand for having a spy in the car, to the extent that it could well become a voting issue. Remember that one of New Labour's darkest moments in the past ten years was the fuel protests of 2001. Frankly the same arguments apply to ID cards as well I'd suggest, but at the moment the Government can still hide it's intentions behind the shield of National Security. I think it's only a matter of time before that idea gets junked as well, although I honestly think the decision is at least a couple of years away right now. John

Mechanically leaving the car to sit for prolonged periods of time shouldn't have too much effect on the engine/transmission side, but you may find that with enough time items like brake calipers may seize. The other item you need to be careful of long term are the tyres, which can "flat spot" and distort if you leave them for a long time (say - 6 months), but this can be minimised either by moving the car periodically, lifting it onto axle stands (to take the weight off the wheels), or you can buy nice storage dollies these days which spread the weight across the tyre, eliminating the problem. John

Kev, London isn't JoBerg ya know mate! It's still perfectly possible to spend time in London without getting carjacked!! :) I think that very much depends on which parts of London you're talking about... double dare you to park one in Brent, or Camden, or Islington...

Sometimes they're quicker than Corrado's Roddy - definitely in this case :lol: You ain't wrong Bill. About 18 month ago I was in a car with Wendy and she got proper dusted (seriously) by a V10 TDi Touaregs near Silverstone. She bloody well tried to catch is as well but it was unbelievable quick. It was embarrassing really... I've kind of hated them ever since, but at least they're not driven by dickheads like the Cayenne's all seem to be. John

Not all Touaregs are bad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50lslHZfDc

Apologies - missed your reference to it. I would have had one myself for the rebuild but I'm already massively over budget now. Doh!

If you need to get a Cat replacement, Mike Stokes Motorsports here in Bournemouth supplied me with a VR6 sports cat, made to order in July. Price including fitting - £235. An OEM catalyst currently retails at £480+VAT. Simple decision I'd say Call the Moordown branch, ask for John, and tell him "John with the Corrado" recommended them to you. HTH, John

Since you're considering changing the crackpipe over, check this out (about half way down the page) I think you'll approve http://www.fourseasontuning.com/?trim=53&type=2 John

There was a car featured in Practical Performance Car 3-4 months ago where the owner had dropped a VW 1.8T into his 15v Clio. Apparently it wasn't too big a job either. This might sound like heresy, but frankly you'd have a lot more fun car if you did that, provided you can insure the result

The thing that simply amazes me about this fiasco is that both the FIA and Ferrari are acting as if F1 didn't almost fall apart last year. For it was only about 12 months ago that the majority of big manufactuers (with the exception of Ferrari), who were so fed up with the way the FIA was managing the sport, fed up with the way that Bernie was unfairly slicing up the teams' cut of the money, fed up with Ferrari's disproportionate influence over the FIA & FOCA were threatening to all quit F1 and set up thier own top level series, leaving the FIA with a "dead duck" F1 championship. Of course platitudes were offered, Bernie quickly offered them all a shedload more cash from the pot, and that shut them up. But now here we are again only a year later, with Ferrari bending the rules whilst throwing thier lawyers and protests around the pitlane like confetti to get an advantage, whilst Max Mosely is prancing around doing Ferrari's political bidding that you can see the strings going up into the sky. All this childishness needs to stop for the benefit of all motor sport. Bringing in the big manufacturers may have seemed like a smart move for Bernie, but at the same time these big corporations are neither stupid, or dependant on F1 in the way that the "Garagistes" used to be. If Mercedes, Renault, Toyota, BMW and Honda become tired enough of Fiat's politicking, they could decimate the Formula instantly by walking away. The FIA are influenced by the thought that F1 without Ferrari has no value, but it also has no value if Ferrari have no-one to race against. One of the interesting things about last weekend was how the FIA were rather unceremoniously reminded how weak thier position is, when Lewis Hamilton apparently articulated to the FIA that if the stewards were prepared to penalise him for Mark Webber's Fuji accident, that he would walk away from F1 there and then... suddenly all the Politics (Ferrari supply engines to STR) were conveniently forgotton and the case was promptly dropped. It's almost a shame that Lewis didn't just go through with it - I'd still admire what he's achieved and F1 really needs the humiliation of something like that to make the FIA see sense. John

Ok you've nagged me enough, and I'm not good at keeping secrets from my friends. GIve me 20 minutes and YHM 8)

Well I could tell you the spec of what's going in there, but honestly we're still tweaking some aspects of the spec. Trust me though, it's going to be almost unique - certainly in UK terms, if not in Europe. It'll be worth waiting for... I'm starting to allow myself some excitement at getting it back on the road, even if it is now 40% over budget...

In what seems like a strange piece of irony, my car has been SORN'd since mid summer, and will be taxed and put back on the roads in perhaps 2-3 weeks time... just in time for Winter ! ... but then I never was one to play by the normal rules, LOL

The entire secondhand market is on it's back at the moment. It's not just Corrados.

Quality - at least another couple of weeks for Alonso to believe he has a sliver of hope before Hamilton slaps him (again) like a biatch. Nando is going to cry like a sodding baby when he loses in Brazil... can't wait :D

Yeah... I marvel at the kinds of people who go to see Top Gear live in the same way...

MkIV R32s are holding thier value so well simply because the MkV R32 looks like such a bloody breadvan. But don't take my word for it - sales of the MkV R32 are substantially lower than was the case with the MkIV, and indeed the MkV has been such a sales problem for Volkswagen that development of the MkVI is currently being rushed forward so it can be released before the end of 2008 (instead of the original early 2010 plan) BTW I was fortunate enough on Monday to be taken out in Guy's R32 Turbo (MkIV). 380bhp - absolutely fabulous :)

Yeah the Pepipoo site has been around for years but as the law has only been changed in about the last 1-2 months I personally wouldn't bet my driving licence on the advice on there being relevant now. As you probably guessed from reading the changes, the part relating to declaring the driver has been deliberately modified due to some pesky motorists either refusing to declare the driver, or (as PepiPoo used to advise) not to actually sign the form (the idea is that without a signature it's inadmissible in court). I think you should assume that both those loopholes have now largely been closed, and that if you fail to give reasonable cause for not declaring the requested details, and be able to prove why not in court, you're in for a hard time. Another way to look at it would be that the law is now clear - refusing to comply with the form's requests without a justifiable reason is now simply an attempt to obstruct or pervert the course of justice. As a further cheery-up, the same round of changes to the law also banned the use of radar/laser detectors, except where they are triggered by GPS info. Happy buggers aren't they (New Labour) ?? John

The rules on the deployment of both fixed and mobile cameras changed during the summer. There is now no requirement for a road to reach defined KSI stats in order for either a static or mobile camera to be deployed onto it. There is also no requirement to post camera warning signs in these areas any more (although in practice most forces will continue to do so as they are effective) There never was any requirement for warning signage to be posted to alert drivers to mobile units - I don't know where you got that from. There never was a requirement for mobile cameras to be painted bright colours, but the law has also been changed so that static units no longer have to be painted yellow. However I believe that in practice they will continue to be painted bright colours as it's accepted that doing anything else will be received very negatively by the public. There have also been changes made to the relevant laws so that it is now a direct criminal offence to refuse to name the driver of a Scamera'd car (6pts, £5,000 max fine I believe). There have also been changes to the funding hypothocation rules, meaning that all revenue now goes to the Treasury (who now cream some money off the top for themselves) before redistributing it back to the Scamera partnerships via local authority funding (whereas before the local authorities collected and administered the money directly themselves) Bottom line is still the same. If you get caught by a mobile camera you'll still get a ticket. John

Rather than lay my car up for the winter and polish it, keep it warm and look at it, I plan to get my car back from it's current rebuild, run it in properly, get the Emerald installed and mapped, and then drive it as hard as possible as often as possible. A Corrado is a driver's car, and it's there to be driven hard in my opinion. I don't know how so many of you guys can consider putting them away for the winter! John

Well done. Glad to hear you've broken your trackday duck at Castle Combe and enjoyed it too. It really is a terrific circuit. On the exhaust front Magnex used to do a system that fitted valvers but I'm not sure if it's still available or not. If it is, it's the one to go for in my opinion as the one on my car is now seven years old and aside from some discolouration on the box is not showing any signs of deterioration at all. From recollection the pipe size for the 16v is different to the G60/VR6 so you need to specifically chase a valver system. Hope this helps. Hopefully my own track monster will be back out at Combe in the new year once the engine is rebuilt, mapped and fully run in. John

Mate that's really awful. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. Don't give up on it completely yet - these things often do sort themselves out. John

Absolutely stunning. I wish I had relatives like yours. And a Can-Am too... my favorite...

You should be able to realise something in the region of £2k-£3k in parts provided you strip the whole car and manage to sell most of it. Thing is, tearing down the whole car is a lot of work. Suggest you research the classifieds in advance and identify the key price parts, as some bits are always particularly sought after and so it's important both to price those bits correctly, and ensure you don't break them when dissembling the car. In particular certain bits of interior trim are no longer available and stuff like the centre console housing, heating panel and the steering column parts always go quickly. Personally from what you've said I'd consider trying to smarten the car and sell it complete. It could be that £1k spent in bodyshop could turn the car into a £3k+ motor if it's together mechanically. Good luck with a tough decision John

Once the pace car got out of the way the race was a real treat today; dare I say it one of the best F1 races I've seen in many years. Worthy of special mention were Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Coutlhard, Massa, Button, Webber. Those guys showed real pace in terrible conditions even though not all of them finished. Webber's comment on being taken out by Vettel this morning on the live (uncensored) feed was a corker. Also Ron Dennis to Hamilton after he crossed the line "So Lewis I guess that wet racing crossed off then" - quality. The one thing that irritated me (as usual) was James Allen. Today the prat got too excited again and started comparing Lewis Hamilton's win today with James Hunt's title winning win in the wet at the same track (Fuji) in 1976. Except that James Hunt didn't win the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix (came 3rd) and although talented only won the driver's championship that year because Niki Lauda (who remember had missed three races that season due to his near fatal Nurburgring accident) refused to race in the conditions, along with about a third of the rest of the drivers. He won the championship by just one point. None of that is to detract from either Hunt's performance or Hamilton's today. Hamilton has shown remarkable pace, consistancy, maturity and patience under pressure this season, and based on today's performance if nothing else he deserves to carry the driver's title this year. John