Andy665

I'm up in Telford. Always want to wave at fellow Corrado owners but when you're driving something other than a Corrado (I was in the Passat) I'm always concerned that you look like a tit :lol:

Think I saw this today, about 3.15 by the Mercedes dealer just outside Sratford Upon Avon (on my way to Listers for an interview), looked stunning

The guy I met tonight with the XK120 has an Alfa 156 V6 which has never had the heads off and doesn't use a drop of oil. Apparently its never left him stranded - not bad for a car with 242,000 miles on the clock.

Does make you wonder why a manufacturer can't produce a small 2+2 rear wheel drive coupe in a stiff two door bodyshell, bung in a small capacity high revving engine with about 180 bhp, fit a basic switchable traction control, switchable ABS, hydraulic power steering, keep sensible sized wheels + tyres so its nothing but grip, keep the weight down by steering clear of most luxury items but keep elec windows and central locking. Price it at £17,000 and watch the enthusiasts flock to it

Cheesewire - here what you're saying and completely agree apart from UK dealers raping customers - its actually BMW GB who are doing the raping, BMW dealers operate on the same (small) margins as other dealer networks

The last people I'd ask for information on the new Scirocco (or any other new model for that matter) is a dealership. Volkswagen staff are going through launch training for the Tiguan in early November and they have still to receive any information on the car from Volkswagen, no spec, prices, nothing.

That Audi A1 looks just look like a Suzuki Swift with an Audi front grafted on - prefer the Suzuki tbh

Brave choice of colour - looking forward to seeing more as it progresses

bcstudent - that was on a standard Cupra (R hadn't been released at that point). Had a piggyback re-map by Upsolute, after the exhaust was fitted it was RR'd at 238 bhp. I had the re-map done first, the big difference was the exhaust, really freed things up, I always think the 1.8T seems strangled at the top end, the Milltek seemed to improve things masively

Probably the worst proportioned car ever put into production (IMHO), just when you think that the 1 series hatchback was probably a momentary styling error on the part of BMW they go and introduce this abortion. I have no doubt that the twin turbo 3 litre and the twin turbo 2 litre diesel are superb engines but I could not bring myself to own such an ugly car.

Well done, I loved every minute I had with mine, only problem I had was with chronic stonechipping, believe it was a real issue with the dark metallic blue. Get a Milltek and a re-map and you'll have a very quick car - once mine had been done I found it would wind round to an indicated 160 (obviously on a private road), probably a true 150.

The fight goes on to Brazil, Hamilton now only 4 points ahead of Alonso and 7 ahead of Raikkonen. Lots of mathematical possibilities for the Brazilian GP. Race started with most drivers on intermediates and Hamilton was romping away from second place Raikkonen at about a second per lap. Intermittent rain for the first half of the race meant that moving to dry tyres was not an option. At Hamiltons first pit stop he did not change tyres, even though they were looking pretty worn. Raikkonen then started to challenge and eventually passed to take the lead. At this point Hamilton was really struggling and Alonso, in third, was catching him at about 2 seconds per lap. When Hamilton was eventually called in to the pits to move on to dry tyres he ran off the pit lane and beached the car in the gravel trap - race over. Martin Whitmarsh (CEO of McLaren) admitted afterwards that the team should have called him in 1 or 2 laps earlier than they did, it was clear that the tyres were totally shot, the right rear was down to the canvas. Hamilton said that he could only feel how bad his rear tyres were as his mirrors were so caked in dirt that he couldn't actually see the tyres. Chinese Grand Prix result - 56 laps 1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 2. ALONSO McLaren +9.8s 3. MASSA Ferrari +12.8s 4. VETTEL Toro Rosso +53.5s 5. BUTTON Honda +1m08.6s 6. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1m13.6s 7. HEIDFELD BMW +1m14.2s 8. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m20.7s 9. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m21.1s 10. WEBBER Red Bull +1m24.6s 11. FISICHELLA Renault +1m26.6s 12. WURZ Williams +1 lap 13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap 14. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap 15. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap 16. ROSBERG Williams +2 laps 17. YAMAMOTO Spyker +3 laps R. KUBICA BMW +23 laps R. HAMILTON McLaren +26 laps R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +31 laps R. SUTIL Spyker +32 laps R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +45 laps Championship Table 01 Lewis Hamilton 107 02 Fernando Alonso 103 03 Kimi R

I have started to use Poorboys products a fair bit recently to accompany my Chemical Guys, Sonus and Carlack stuff. If the Trim Restorer is as good as the other Poorboys stuff and the Chemical Guys New Look Trim gel then its well worth buying

I think the Alfa itch needs to be scratched at least once in a lifetime - I did it twice, cost me fortunes both times but still glad I did it :lol:

I know the 2.5 V6 had the option of a slightly oddball automatic transmission that was a conventional auto but with a weird selector arrangement, that IIRC was like a normal manual gate - from memory this was branded as the Q system, some people think its a 4 wheel drive system but Q4 was never offered in the UK on the 156 (it was on the 155 to special order in LHD and that used the Delta Integrale drivetrain and the 159 is offered with a bespoke Q4 system).

Did I hear my name :lol: Lovely car, had ours 18 months and apart from a failed MAF it hasn't put a foot wrong in 20k miles. Lovely V5 burble once you get a decent exhaust fitted, the Milltek on ours is lovely, great fit but you need to get the 4Motion rear valence fitted (about £45). Handling is soft as standard but I fitted Konigsports and a H&R front anti-roll bar which cures the issue of standard rubbing issues on the standard anti-roll bar if you lower more than about 30mm. Not the fastest thing around, ours is the earlier 10V version but apparently the later 20V is not much quicker (a 1.8T is quicker) but the noise is so much nicer, pretty economical too, 2,500 miles to Italy and back saw me average 29mpg despite running at 100mph+ for hour after hour

Don't suppose anyone knows if I can get a big bag of interior clips and fasteners from anywhere - want to strip the interior and re-fit it, replacing missing / broken clips and fasteners etc

Corozin - couldn't agree more Going to use mine through the winter, its taxed and insured so it would be rude not to. Am going to spend some time getting in to the nooks and crannies to get it up to a standard where I will not be disgraced in a show and shine competition

Finally starting to be as clean as I'd like. Yesterday saw me finishing the machine polishing and waxing, fitting the chrome plated door latches and locks, cleaning the headlining with Megs APC (it was much dirtier than I thought!!!) and fitting a pinstripe below the side rubbing strips. Want to get some 15mm spacers behind the rear wheels now, they dont sit quite as well as I'd like.

Finished machine polishing, chrome plated door catches fitted, cleaned the headlining with Megs APC and a simple pinstripe applied below side rubbing strips

As per title, looks like a good programme buried away with zero publicity, preceded at 4.30pm by "The Greatest WRC Drivers"

Nothing life as good as it sounds and certainly not now that I do do the amount of travelling - very much UK based and restricted to Volkswagen Group activity - for now :lol:

Had a good look at this in a couple of Fiat showrooms when I was in Italy earlier this month - its a very pretty little car, far better looking than the gawky looking latest Mini. Demand is sky high at the moment, the factory in Poland can't keep up with the orders, on looks and cuteness alone it deserves to be a winner - glad to see Fiat getting back into the habit of building good small cars. Just so happens that a 1/43rd scale new 500 is Noahs first toy car :lol:

I was responsible for running the European launch event for the RX8 and writing all of the dealer training material so have a reasonable amount of experience with them, including driving development models in Hiroshima and Laguna Seca. Fuel consumption isn't great no matter how gently you drive them, low to mid 20's is about all you can reasonably expect. The Renesis is a completely new engine and theres little scope to upgrade the powerplant as an owner but it is certainly pretty reliable, certainly no less so than a conventional piston engine, after all there are only 3 moving parts in the engine itself. The engine is supposed to use oil, a mist of oil is sprayed continuously into the rotor chamber to lubricate the rotor tips, an RX8 that didnt use oil would concern me more than one that did. I actually preferred the engine characteristics of the 192PS engine to the 231PS, the 192PS was designed to be a lot torquier (comparatively speaking) than the 231PS and is a lot less frantic. Build quality is very good althought the interior plastics and especially the hard shells of the seat backs on cars with leather trim scratch incredibly easily. Handling as standard is a bit soft with more body roll than you might expect but its very controllable, the three stage traction control is pretty decent and at least you can completely disengage it if you really want to. I think a lot of the horror stories have come about as a result of people buying RX8s when they have been used to BMWs etc where you never need to lift the bonnet, like any engine, if you neglect it it will cost you money and the Renesis does need to have its oil checked pretty regularly - I would look to buy one with a full service history and ideally a full Mazda Approved warranty - just to be safe.

Obviously an early car - seen on a trailer towed by a Transit on southbound M6 late afternoon today. New looking twin tailpipe exhaust, non standard alloys, colour coded chin spoiler and debadged grille. Looked straight but in need of a little TLC