corozin

Yeah and has made himself look a prize twat in the process.

Not 300mph, but 300mpg. Telegraph Article

In fact what you need to do is get your own insurance company's legal department onto her Insurers. The other driver is responsible for the damage and drove thinking they'd get away with it. The insurance company should take a very dim view indeed of that. You have the numberplate and witnessed them driving off. With luck there will still be some corresponding damage on the other car as well. But let the insurance company deal with it, that's why you pay for legal protection. You should also report it to the Police. I'm unsure this counts (legally) as leaving the scene of an accident but if not it may well be criminal damage. Even if the Police don't do anything, get the Police incident number to your insurers to prove you've done it, and to show them you are serious about pursuing this matter. HTH John

That's right. Like anybody was watching Dancing on Ice instead eh? For me last night's highlight was that Transit Van.

My vote, surprisingly perhaps for me, would also be to keep the 16v. Point to point on A roads they're not really a lot slower than a VR6. Plus with petrol at £5.50/gallon right now...

You know GSF parts so well :lol: I stopped buying stuff from GSF a long time ago for this very reason. I don't necessarily need genuine parts every time, but some of the cheap chinese cack that GSF sell are not only inferior quality but in my view can be downright dangerous on a performance car. The final straw was a pair of front bearings I bought & had fitted in the middle of 2009. They lasted only 10,000 and 11,500 miles respectively which is just disgraceful. Not only that but if one of those things collapses at high speed then it's curtains. The second bearing failed whilst I was in Scotland and I had to nurse it 600 miles home. Interestingly my VW specialist has also stopped using GSF for the same reason. They mostly source from TPS now as you get genuine parts every time. To to the original point I was going to say that if VW didn't put such ridiculous mark up on thier genuine parts there would be a much smaller market for counterfeits. The difference between the prices at TPS and VW for genuine parts exposes the outrageous profits VW try to extort from thier customers. The counterfeiters are trying to rip people off sure, but Volkswagen aren't exactly far behind them IMHO.

Well despite the article first appearing the the Daily Mail (that bastion of serious honest reporting) it would be nice to think that the eggheads may have discovered a realistic alternative fuel that (unlike electric) won't involve recharging every 90 miles. But Andy665 makes some good points. The potential breakthrough in technology gives real cause for hope, but potentially has a lot of political and lobbying interests up against it. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, the process of turning into fuel is not simple, but it's genuinely encouraging to think that there could be a genuinely clean fuel out there which could be used in existing engines. But over the past 30 years Governments all across the western world have become more and more dependent on petrol taxes, and in the past 10 years the dramatic increase in fuel taxes have been hypothocated on the basis that they are encouraging us to use less fuel and pollute the world less. Stripped of that argument how will our Governments look to defend thier tax income? How will the public react if a Government set taxes for the new fuel at least the same level? But thinking ahead one positive benefit of this new fuel (if it can be made to work and produced in commercial quantities) is that we may be able to stop pandering to the whims of the OPEC nations in the far east and be fuel independant again. We could bring our troops home, and let the Arabs get get on with fighting each other without needing to defend oil interests out there. We could also be freed of the need to run environmentally risky deep water oil drilling operations like the deep water horizon - again a real benefit.

The future of fuel may be artificial petrol. Start praying they make this work folks : article here

Drown it in a bucket. Then fix it to a pike and put it at the end of your drive as a warning to others. I read Lord of the Flies once.

Did the feds try and take any fingerprints off the car?

For gods sake wouldn't it have just been easier to start a thread on here to gather names rather that trawling for new members for your facebook friend list? I just despair sometimes. Everyone wants to own thier own little "club" rather than join in and use the online groups that are already full of people.

There is no such thing as an insurance group for a supercharged VR6. They take the basic premium group rate and then decide a premium loading to apply to that based on thier view of how significant the modifications are. So they could add 25%, 50%, 100% - whatever. It's a subjective matter. One of my early jobs as a youngling was at an Motor Insurance Broker. The process hasn't changed, trust me.

I've done a lot of PH events in the South & South West and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact if anything a lot of people take the poseurs with the exotic Italian stuff with a bit of a pinch of salt. The 911 owners also just admire each other and disappear up thier own arses, but then they do that at all shows. But aside from that aside I've found the PH bunch to be great bunch of real enthusiasts. Good fun, up for a drive about (quickly), generous at the bar and genuinely interested in the variety of metal which attends PH events. Putting a Corrado into a PH meet always gets interest I find, because they're so rare now and a lot of petrolheads always thought about having one, but never had one, and the novelty of seeing one again kicks in. "Blimey you don't see to many of these about anymore" is a comment I've had a few times, as is "bloody hell listen to that, what have you got under that bonnet?" is another. It never occurs to many enthusiasts outside the VW scene that a VR6 can make a noise like that. I enjoy educating them. :D

When you consider that bike derived V8's are commercially available from around £14k, charging £150k for one (admittedly powerful) one in a £38k Atom does seem to be taking the piss a bit to me. If you wanted a £150k trackday car you could buy a race ready Corvette C6R or Mosler for that kind of money. Seriously. And no matter how quick the Atom is they're nowhere near as bonkers quick as one of those. Remember how quick that Aston Martin race car was around the TG track? Seem to recall it was 8 seconds quicker than the Atom.

Hi, - Low to mid 15s unmodified - Gp19 or Gp20 depending on which company you go to. I think the ABI recommended is Gp19 (for VR6) - Low to mid 6's unmodified and depending on how aggressive you are. - Quoted at 1,235kg dry (VR6) - You can probably find one with leather for the budget you're after but you will need to look around - [added] No the chassis don't rot unless the car has been damaged and badly repaired. That's a good point (they weren't built in Daganham!) Seriously if you are wanting a drag racer or street racer a VR6 isn't really the best choice. They're not that quick off the line, not cheap to run, drink petrol, and are expensive when they go wrong. Check my blog link below if you want to see how much a hard used (in this case track day'd) car can cost you. HTH John

Mate you shouldn't be asking me. The last time my car was in the bodyshop I spent three days in the bodyshop helping them do the work! But since you ask - yes I think you probably are that bad. As evidence I offer the article you put in the Sprinter last year describing the respray of your black VR6. I rest my case.... (seriously good luck with that repair mate) John

I believe it was sourced at TPS. Would also have been a trade price as it was a garage who purchased it. That's the figure on my invoice anyway! And yes, I did specify a Bosch item when I booked it in.

It's easier to post progress on the forum than having Kip phoning and calling round every two hours for an update! "how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... how's the car doing?... " :D :D :D :D :D Only kidding mate

Final update As I suspected work kinda got in the way of making any phone calls last week and so I ordered a genuine Bosch replacement which was fitted today. Frankly given the way this one spins the engine I would advise that it's not really worth looking into ordering anything else. I'm also seriously wondering if the old starter was even a Bosch one as this one spins much better than the last one ever did in the five years that I've now owned this particular car. Indeed I think it's also stronger than the starter I had in my original VR6 (M100 VRG) which I had for seven years prior to that. The Bosch part came in at £135.30 ex-VAT with two hours labour.

Loved the Yeti Satnav gag. Very quick, very funny.

You may be right that it's a petition that will be largely ignored, but still we have to at least try. I suspect that if bloody Mumsnet kicked off about it something would be done. Motorists just aren't a demographic that politicians feel they have to take notice of. Fortunately the press are starting to run with this issue at the moment so every bit of extra heckling adds to the noise. If we can at least encourage the media to keep on there is a chance that at least the next rise will be stopped.

Quentin Willson is petitioning Downing Street on Tuesday for the scrapping of the planned April fuel tax rises, and the introduction of the price stabiliser that David Cameron promised us before the election. For what it's worth, support them by signing the online petition at Fairfuel.co.uk

If your car is correctly registered at the DVLA then the other companies that take feeds from the DVLA (such as insurance companies) should also have the same details. If that's not happening then you need to contact the DVLA and tell them. There could be a chance that if the data is not on the insurance (MIB) database then it is also missing from the Police systems too. And you don't want that, really you don't. HTH John

The 458 is really pretty. However whoever designed the FF must have watching Wallace & Gromit or Only Fools and Horses before they designed the FF. It's got "bread van" written all over it.

Aw don't say that. The Police will know where to look for me this year... :)