Ben-B

Yeah I think most of us will have done that, and I agree, you learn more about car control doing that... I used to do it in the retail park car park in the evening, not late at night, but like 7pm when everything is closed and the carparks empty... loads of open space, no kerbs or lampposts to hit, no other cars or even worse people that you could hit... whilst having fun, you also learn so much more about understeer, oversteer, spinning, drifting etc, so that when it happens on the road, you can feel it coming, predict it more and the "recovery" is more reflexive than it would be to someone who doesn't know immediately what's happening. There's been a few times where I know that if I hadn't been "fooling about" in the car park, then I'd have completely lost the back end and smashed up mine and other peoples cars... Big difference between having fun and being wreckless, and we were never wreckless in the carpark, and certainly not on the road, cos if you are, then you'll kill yourself and/or others in weather like this

Finally got them fitted, and I know I've been raving about them before I even fitted any this year, but MY GOD! I think they probably have more grip in the snow than my summer tyres do in just rain. After going to the local independant tyre garage this morning and getting them fitted for £20 in the guys back pocket and a few beers (as opposed to the £10 + vat per corner that they "quote"), I then went in search of a snow shovel. That involved Homebase, B&Q and Halfords carparks, and I just could not get stuck. I tried, I tried hard... I even managed to drive 5 metres into thigh-high snow before the car wouldn't go any further forwards... but reversing back out again wasn't a problem. The look on peoples faces as I ploughed at 20mph into foot-deep untouched snow in B&Q and then just abandon the car get out and walk in was priceless... one of them said "you'll never get it out now", I told him "just watch me" I then got back to the car, continued forward through the snow and got out without a problem... much to the annoyance of the BMW X-5 who couldn't even get out of snow half that deep hehehe I'm now not at all worried about getting stuck in the snow, but I'll still try and get work to put me up in the hotel all week, cos cooked breakfast and free hot dinners every day will save me money on food and lots on petrol.

Sorry to thread hijack, but what's that?

VTEC - all that lag and no boost... it's like waiting for really bad sex! VTEC - less torque than my wheelnuts and of course... VTEC kicked in y0! In all seriousness though... VTEC is bulletproof... Can't beat them Japs for reliability, Honda is untouchable when it comes to that. They are quick, very happy cruising at over 100 on the motorway, can do 120 without realising it... Really need thrashing to get anywhere though

Work at Eastern Airways, Humberside Airport. Here in Lincolnshire is apparently some of the worst in the country. Caistor (where my flat is) apparently made it onto the national news... I last was at the flat on Tuesday morning... been hotel'ing at the airport ever since, working til 2am then back in again early in the morning. Car is still there, the snow is above the bonnet, and last I looked out the window it was STILL snowing... hopefully can get to the dual carriage way and then I'll be able to at least make it back to Sheff city centre, even if I have to park up and walk the rest of the way.

Not this year. Last year I span the car 360 degrees down a hill in snow, never even touched the brake pedal either... was crawling in 2nd gear at around 5 mph when I hit what I think was a speed bump, back end went one way, I steered the other, as it straightens up I let go of the wheel so it'll straighten itself and round we went the other way. Fortunately just hit the kerb at the bottom of the hill, but cos of the snow it was only about 2 inches above compacted snow level. This year it's not been so back, even in the rado which currently has summer tyres on it still (winters are with the courier, too snowy to deliver them, oh the irony). Was a little lairy on the way to work, especially with wide tyres and stiff suspension, a hell of a lot of bump steer, but at one point I managed to get the rear tyres to follow the front ones... Only had one iffy moment where instead of understeering straight on at a bend I managed to turn the front in but the back decided it wanted to go even faster. That was in about 4 inches of snow... another 8 has fallen throughout the day, so the car is stuck at work, as am I, and the rest of my colleagues... the road from the airport is closed either way, so we're stranded here.

Saw this and thought of winter tyres :cuckoo:

Cor bloody hell, an inch of snow. Don't know how we're coping here in Caistor with over a foot. I know what you mean though, I couldn't get off my girlfriends drive without a push, and that only had 1 cm of compacted snow... yet driving from then to work yesterday/today wasn't a problem in about 4-5 inches. However it snowed all day since I got into work, and the snow is now up to my bonnet, and the churned snow on the roads is about a foot deep, with the untouched snow twice that nearly... Leaving the car at work until friday, if I manage to get into a hotel I'll be lucky, and if I get a lift home I'll be even luckier... looks like I'm on LFES! :notworthy: If only everybody else had that sense. It's so true that until you experience it for yourself, you won't believe just how much of a difference winter tyres make.

Once again I could really have done with my winter tyres today, still not arrived but I only ordered them a few days ago... hopefully they'll come this week, then at the weekend when I'm home I can get them fitted. Can't wait to not worry about getting stuck on the back road between where I'm staying and work

high voluntary excess?

I feel I should admit that I myself had a moment... where the whole car slid a bit on an adverse camber corner, and ended up running onto the grass bank (was only about splitter height above the road, and was doing about 5mph, so no damage caused to wheels, tracking or underside of car... but there is a lot of grass and mud on the sump and axle :lol:)

I honestly think it'd be safer with four summer tyres than winters on front and summers on rear. I've seen cars spin on snow/ice when going no faster than walking pace with mismatched tyres... you could end up hitting lamposts, cars, people, kerbs... no matter what speed you go. Four winters or don't even bother. Hopefully mine will be here soon, passed 3 crashed cars on the 8 mile stretch of road between my work and house... saw two more sets of tyre tracks going straight off the road into the woods. (To put it into context how "busy" that road is, I only saw one car coming the other way on the 15 minutes it took me to get from turning on to turning off it, so 75% of the cars I saw had crashed!!)

They'll still be loads better than the best summer tyre mate..... all winters are just soft and have loads of sipes to increase traction at the end of the day 8) Yeah I've had first hand experience driving my dads car, he had budget winter tyres on and they were miles better than the Goodyear summer tyres on the same car, at least they were when it was below around 10 degrees, or wet. On snowy roads you could drive up no problem whilst people were struggling to walk, and going down the same roads they gave you complete confidence that you wouldn't lock up and skid to the bottom Hopefully mine will be decent, the Nankang summer tyres I had on my old car were alright, so hoping these winter ones are too

The road to work this morning was treacherous... so icy I could feel the car sliding all over the road. Decided enough was enough, and I had to get winter tyres... as the road this morning "wasn't that bad" compared to when it's really winter. Decided I couldn't wait til payday either so persuaded the missus to pay for them whilst they still had them in stock. Not much selection for 17" wheels, and I ain't buying some new wheels (and new brakes to fit under smaller wheels), so ended up going for Nankang Snow SV-2 in 205/45/17... £63 each delivered. I've got a friend who can fit them for me at the cost of beer. They might not be the best, but they're certainly gonna be better than the tyres I've got. Gonna probably get them fitted to my (moderately knackered) TT Comps as I won't mind so much if I slide into a kurb with those

Sorry mate, only just spotted this.... I did look into 17" winters and 205/40 = None. 205/45 = Expensive. 205/50 = Plenty of choice, but will look ridiculous. 215/40 = A few available but expensive. 215/45 = More choice but, again, will look daft. Looks like the most cost effective way to do this is 17s for summer, 15s for Winter. If I could fit 15s over the Brembo's I would... If I could be bothered to, I'd stick some 288mm brakes and 15" wheels for winter, but not got time to do that this year

Not sure... Occassionally I notice that after turning on the ignition, the doors lock... then open when you turn it off. So sometimes you can't get out the car with the engine running, other times you can... I'm not sure why, but it's the Toad alarm that's doing it I think. Not had any problem with the alarm, and it's not much of an annoyance, (apart from getting locked out) but I'm not gonna do that again!! I think people like that should be sent on lessons to learn how to park considerately. Far too many of them frequent my local Tesco's :mad2: I think I'm tempted in revenge to just block them in one day , not give them QUITE enough room (maybe a foot too little to get out) when I come back from work at midnight and don't leave again until lunchtime... and claim ignorance saying I thought they could fit through. Only downside is if they're selfish enough to park like they did, they're probably selfish enough to force through the gap damaging my car in the process. Perhaps one of those straw-things or a playing card on the wheel or driveshaft so that it sounds like something's broken on the car hehe

Locked myself out, with the keys in the ignition. Someone parked so close to me I couldn't get in the drivers side, so got in the passengers side, leaned over and put key in the ignition, straightened the wheel and took the handbrake off to let the car roll forwards. Put handbrake back on and got out to walk round to drivers side... door wouldn't open... nor would the passenger door, and the keys were in the ignition with the dash lights flashing. Had to call the AA out, guy had his extra long wire coat hanger effort which reached for the keys and let me back in... just annoying really and I blame the c**t who basically blocked me in by leaving no more than 10cm to open the drivers door.

Anybody (Kev) know what size is best for 17" wheels... I can't go smaller due to brake clearance. I would look myself, but I've just got home from a mental day at work and I plain can't be arsed to do anything

Not today, but fairly recently... came to some traffic lights on an uphill, pulled the handbrake on and the mechanism came off in my hand, one of the bolts pinged off the windscreen and the centre tunnel ended up in the passenger footwell... Handbrake still works, but not too effectively, and it's a ballache to get it on... it works though so it'll do for now, gonna sort it on my week off, as I bought spare mechanism from Neil who's splitting his.

Haven't been any updates for a while due to breaking my laptop then starting a new job. Only just got round to updating, but not many pictures I'm afraid. The Compomotive MO5s went on in the 2nd week of October. Big thanks to the local friendly Toyota mechanic who spent an hour swapping the tyres over for me in exchange for beers. The OZs were sold at the same time. Unfortunately the other day due to parallel parking with a dirty side window & wing mirror, as well as the fatal combination of running late and being annoyed, I slightly clipped a kerb with the rear one already, but it's barely a mark on there so not too bothered. I have now purchased the 6-speed Gemini Motorsport 6-speed box as well, which is sat in the garage. Just need a Helix paddle clutch and a billet flywheel then I've got the transmission sorted. The other day, at some traffic lights on a hill I pulled the handbrake on and the whole mechanism came off in my hand, as one of the bolts pinged off the windscreen... still works, but the ratchet mechanism isn't fixed down to the car, so it's kind of awkward to get the handbrake off. Bought a spare mechanism and centre tunnel off Neil who's breaking his VR so will fit that when I get a chance, probably during my week off before xmas, as I don't have much free time before then, and it's not an urgent job. And finally after playing petrol station roulette, I managed to get 411.4 miles out of the tank before I bottled it and stopped to fill up, only took low 60-something litres though so looks like I had more miles in the tank averaging nearly 30mpg including 15 miles a day to/from work on twisty country roads. Pics will be posted as/when I can (be bothered)

Duty Operations Controller for a UK-based airline. Some of the daily tasks include: - making decisions about whether to send the flight on time, or delay it in order to prevent it having to divert (particularly relevant as we approach winter, and the weather means some destination airports are not "within legal limits") - flight planning (producing the Air Traffic Control flight plan, as well as the plogs [pilot logs] for the flight crew) - constructing new routes for new non-scheduled flights, or modifying current routes (Purple Routes [royal flights] or Military Exercises in the airspace) - liasing with LMC (line maintenance control, basically the aircraft engineers) with technical issues reported by flight crew - liasing with the Crewing department about Duty Period and Flight Time problems due to delayed flights (there are VERY STRICT legal rules with regards to how long flight crew and cabin crew can be on duty) - any emergency declared by a flight is dealt with directly through us, and we "run" the incident from the very start until we declare it "closed" and loads more that I've not bothered to include, or have forgotten about. A lot of responsibility, and at times, a lot of stress too. "I don't get paid anywhere near enough to do this kind of $hit" - a quote from the guy I replaced when I started the job. It's not what I want to do forever, but I still do find it really interesting, even if I am in work for 12 or more hours at a time, from as early as 4am or finishing as late as 2am, on a regular basis. The experience over the next few years will be valuable for my long term career goals.

Yeah there are Bill, but I've also started a new job last week so not had much time to get round to it, and I've only just got myself a new computer after the last one died. In short... I've got the Comps fitted to the car, and I've got the 6-speed box. I'll do a more detailed post, with pictures, soon, hopefully.

hate it when a little plastic double-ended hose connector breaks and your coolant blows everywhere... ...especially when you're wearing a brand new suit cos you had a job interview. Fortunately, I was on my way back (from Humberside Airport) from the interview, and the hose blew off near the Childrens/Hallamshire hospital... close enough for a friend to rescue me with some toolkit and water... could have been worse, could have been 50 miles away from home and got the AA to tow me

Hot Tub Time Machine - 6/10. Was something to do for an hour and a half. Funny but not hilarious. Definitely no Hangover

Ooooh that's how mine will look I guess