steve_16v

I went today for the 3rd year in a row and it was excellent as always, shame the Corrado stand only had three cars there but I had a good nose around them all and they were all beauties! And no pictures do that Speed 12 above justice, it's just got so much presence it's unreal, car of the show for me There was a lovely 6r4 on show with the metro/austin club

My car was insured by Kwik-fit last year and you got a free MOT test and oil service with it, can't say I had any trouble with them. The car passed without any advisories and not long after when I had it in for service at a specialist garage they confirmed there was nothing wrong with it. Actually that's not all strictly true, they did wrongly fail it on the reverse bulb being out because the tester hadn't engaged reverse gear properly. In their defense though, the gearbox doesn't always engage reverse gear properly, I know when it happens but someone who's not driven it wouldn't know. I think they do vary wildly across the country though, some branches are probably best avoided whilst others are perfectly fine. I was ripped off from the Exeter branch years ago but haven't had any trouble from the Preston one.

Have to admit, I did think it was a hoax when they said both of them broke, shame, they were (and still are) two of my favourite cars ever, the F40 looked immense going sideways :)

It's purplemonkey79 Don't really play much anymore but had a quick look at the recent updates and seen they're stopping people gifting cars worth over 1m. Had a look on the net to see why and it seems there's a way of getting cars for free, if you copy your GT5 save file to a USB flash drive, start GT then send someone a car, you can then exit GT, copy your save from the flash drive back to the PS3 and hey presto you still have the car in your garage and your friend still gets the car. Essentially it's copying them. Give it a try and see if it works, ideally before the 3rd of March as that's when they're stopping people sending expensive cars

Saw a blue 'L' reg (think it was a vr) driving out of Preston about 1ish, had a space saver on the rear

I think Alex will have been referring to the generic discs from GSF (which are pretty crap), those Brembo Max will be fine. They're not really what you'd call an upgrade but should be at least as good as OEM. If your existing discs are in good condition at the moment there's not much point changing them though (unless you're fitting bigger ones), the pads are where you'll notice the most difference. Also, if it's still on the original hoses they'll want changing by now, ideally with braided ones.

Had to change the settings a fair bit for the b-spec mode, my ai driver kept ruining his rear tyres after 4 laps and spinning out on the twisty tracks and on Daytona would get in front then drop to last place in the last two laps ... bastrd! Managed to win it with the aid of this guide, the same settings also work well for a-spec http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/941103-gran-turismo-5/57796526 Sadly they're not prize cars, you have to buy them from the used car dealership, they're pretty rare though, I've only seen them once and couldn't afford them at the time. The Toyota 7 race car can beat them easy enough when you tune the engine up, you'll get that for winning 'Like the Wind' in b-spec Another good thing about b-spec is you get given a red bull X2010 when you reach level 35 :)

Yeah no worries, there's no rush. Just takes practice to drive without the aids, I use the pad as well and once you get used to it you'll drive much faster without them. Doing the AMG driving academy at the moment and tried using the ASM in the wet race but found it slowing me down too much to get better than bronze, turned it off and comfortably got silver :) There are exceptions though, I always leave ABS on 1, and set TCS to 1 in 300BHP+ 2wd cars. With the top spec racecars (X1, F1 & LM) I use TCS 6 and 'skid recovery force' on, otherwise you just can't control them with a pad. Oh yeah I've got a Mercedes 190 Evo 2 going spare if anyone wants it, never realised you got one as a prize car when I bought it, it's never been driven since it had an engine rebuild and chassis overhaul.

Sent you the Ferrari earlier pal, not sure if it keeps the settings but if the max speed is set to 140odd mph then it's how I set it up for Monaco. It's a challenge but it's a fun one, there's room for mistakes to be made in the race

I did but didn't have the Jag at the time so used the Toyota 7 to win it, my b-spec driver struggled even with that, he was ok around grand valley but really struggled to overtake round Monaco. It's one of those that you're better off leaving til they're a higher level. Well rado-steve is borrowing the Toyota 7 so you're left with the Ferrari, I just had a crack at it myself and won both races with it. Monaco was ruddy close though, had to adjust the transmission, suspension, aero & LSD to win it, even then I had a Chapparal up my chuff for the last two laps and had a heck of a battle staying in front, was like Senna vs Mansell years ago! It's great fun to drive though, I turn the aids off except traction control and ABS left on 1 it's a feisty old thing, beautifuly balanced though. You could always turbo it as well. One thing with those historical races I noticed, the starting grid is random so if you get the Chapparals near the front exit the race and load it again, if they get in first place they'll just disappear into the horizon, but the AI struggles with traffic so if you can get a few slower cars between you and them it's easy enough to win.

Good stuff, I did the Laguna Seca 200 miles the other day, used a Red Bull X1, 90 laps averaging 53s per lap doesn't take long! Sent you a FR on PSN btw This my garage now if anyone wants to trade stuff http://www.mygranturismo.net/9735 I'm after both Chapparals, RS200 rally car, Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak, Lotus Carlton, Maclaren F1 GTR race car, Jag XJ220 LM and XJR-9 LM

Oh yeah I said I'd lend you one of mine, what's your PSN ID? I need to add you as a friend first (mine's purplemonkey79). Wouldn't worry about that, rado-steve tried it with the chrome jag but it doesn't have a manufactured date so the game doesn't recognise it as a pre 1970's motor :( I'll lend you one of my other early racecars, you can only send one car a day though and I said I'd lend Peebee one first so it won't be til tomorrow. Let me know if either of you has a preference, got three cars capable of winning the historic races, Toyota 7 race car, Jag XJ13 and Ferrari 330 P4.

I can lend you one of mine but not til tomorrow (you can only send one car per day it seems), although if you're on facebook you can get one in about 5 mins from the link I posted on the last page. It really is dead easy, all you do is install the Sony GT5 app, play one game and at the end of it challenge some randoms to beat your score, you then get a free PSN code that gives you a free XJ13 race car (20m from the dealership) The game itself consists of watching a rally car go round a 2 min course and taking pictures of it along the way, your score doesn't even matter

Yeah I think that's the word I was looking for :) Probably makes a few tenths difference a lap but just looks weird (to me anyway)