vornwend

Sounds a cracking idea :) The camera car could have a bright flashlight or flag to indicate go! I also think it would be informative for each of us to drive each others cars for a short spin - I nearly always find the first time I drive someone elses car the difference is really easy to feel and describe. Need to do this before I fit my 3.68 final drive though :wink: To be even more scientific we should have the same level of adrenalin pumping and the same music blasting :) I think weight may also be a factor which puts me at an immediate disadvantage :lol: Could neutralise that with different fuel tank loads? - This will take some planning!

Got my card today - I like it, different, and that is a good thing just like Corrados :)

Bump and see ya all there :)

Will see you there :) Going by train to allow for mulled wine and other beverages Had a quick shuftie last week as I was in New Street for meeting - looks a massive range of stalls!

I've got one in perfect nick - £10 posted?

Nice one Ed :) sounds as if the boys have done you proud. The extra torque is great but you'll soon get used to it :wink: Have you got a BMC on yet? Be interesting to swap cars for a spin to see what differences we can feel. Planning a bit of work at D&G myself in the new year (3.68 final drive to go in).

Cracking weather youy've got. Wish we had some of that here :( Colleague of mine was down from Newcastle last Thursday, left Bristol at 3pm for a flight home, delayed 3 hrs, then diverted to Edinburgh, finally got home at 3:45am on Friday morning :shock: Snow chains by January!

Might be up for this Eric as we are only an hour away by train. Apart from the mulled wine what do you normally get up to? Mulled wine would be fine on its own but if I bring the missus and nipper they may want to include other activities :wink:

Result!! pleased its turned out alright for you. Character forming no doubt :wink:

Rado looks mean 8) Like that Not sure about the Golf - what "look" are you going for? The loaded roof rack will lower your fuel economy :wink:

What I don't get is why they want to CatC/D it? What's in it for them? Is there a legal obligation? If they are willing to pay £3370 why do they need the MOT?? As I say I'm no expert but if we can understand their motivation then we may be able to come up with a cunning strategy My point about the £630 salvage value is that its actually quite low which is good because the lower it is the more you get paid out. If you said you had a quote for say £3,000 to repair it would that persuade them not to CAT C/D it? I know you'd be £370 out of pocket but how much is them not Cat C/D ing it worth to you? What a nightmare this must be for you.

What does the salvage value represent - is it what they think they could make by selling it? If so you could argue the break up value of a corrado is much more than £630 - depending on the damge you might expect to get £1500 or more with enough patience. Not a good arguement to make in this case! What's the significance of the Cat C and Cat D? Could you not get a quote for less than £3370 to persuade them not to write it off? Might leave you out of pocket but maybe worth it? What would persuade them - £3,000? Don't know if you are pursuing any other personal injury damages but that might plug the gap for you?? Not an expert so apologies if I'm talking complete bollocks!

Thanks for posting this :) Storms a bargain indeed! I thought the colour coded grills were also unique to Storms?

Second that! The appeal for me is first and foremost how it drives, then the way it looks, the rarity and association with like minded enthusiasts and the sheer bloody mindedness of carrying on driving a car that the government (and truth be known VW?) would rather have off the road :)

Oh damn so sorry to read this Paul. Hope you can get it fixed and more importantly that you don't suffer any long term damage to your health. I was rear ended a couple of years ago and I can still remember the gut wrenching feeling when I walked around the back to see the damage for the first time. I couldn't think of anything else but getting it fixed for weeks. It is absolutely amazing what body shops can do so fingers crossed you'll be able to salvage it. Keep your chin up

At least it was probiotic, they had some regard for their own health, even if not for yours! :lol: Some more statistics - this time Male/Female ratios of offences where men are more than 50% ahead of women (from 2007 I believe) TYPE OF VIOLATION RATIO M:F Reckless driving 3.41 DUI 3.09 Seatbelt violations 3.08 Speeding 1.75 Failure to yield 1.54 Stop sign/signal violation 1.53 Not saying that committing some of these offences necessarily means you are a bad driver but some of them would certainly be ones you would associate with a definition of bad driving?

Hmm not sure if I'd share this with the good lady but a quick search of insurance company related websites threw this research up on which gender is "safest" from 2007: "Before asking why women drivers are safer than men, it's only fair to ask if they actually are safer. Insurers certainly seem to think they are: "women only" insurance companies are becoming commonplace, with insurers saying they'd rather insure women because they're less likely to make a claim. They've even been able to prove it. Back in 2001, when Admiral Insurance Services received complaints about an advert with the tagline "Diamond only do car insurers for women because women are better drivers", they managed to prove their statement was correct – to the satisfaction of the Advertising Standards Agency. The company provided evidence to suggest that women have fewer accidents, claim for smaller amounts when they do have accidents, and are less likely to be involved in fatal accidents than men are. According to researchers at Brunel University, women are also more likely to comply with the rules of the road, and to remain within the speed limit. So, having established that women do indeed seem to be safer on the roads than men, it's time to think about why. According to Claire Corbett, author of the Brunel research paper, the reasons for women's "safer driver" status may be both cultural and biological. Women, for instance, are more likely to be driving with children in the car, and this may make them more likely to drive cautiously. Because of their roles as childrearers, women are more likely to be at home during the day, and therefore less likely to be on the road during the most dangerous times – morning and evening rush hours, when most accidents happen. It also means that they're likely to drive fewer miles, giving them less of an opportunity to be involved in an accident. As for the smaller claims women make when they are involved in accidents, this could also be explained by the fact that women tend to buy smaller, less expensive cars than their male counterparts. These vehicles cost less to repair than more expensive models, and therefore lead to lower claims and cheaper insurance. The biological factors that make women statistically safer on the roads, however, may run deeper than the fact that they're more likely to be mothers, with children to look after and less of a need to drive. According to scientists at Bradford University, the female hormone, oestrogen, may also make it easier for women to learn new rules, to concentrate, and to shift attention from one thing to another. Women may still be the butt of jokes about parallel parking, but the evidence seems to suggest that their motor skills could be better than men’s. Could the old argument that women are better at multitasking actually be true? And if so, could this be another reason why women tend to be safer driver? Whatever the reasons for women having fewer accidents than men, however, the fact remains that as far as insurers are concerned, women remain a safer bet. That's why they continue to enjoy lower insurance premiums, and why insurers such as Computerquoteinsurance.com are willing to offer their female customers cheaper car insurance policies." Of course statistics can be manipulated to make just any point you have and averages and probabilities are strange things. Insurance companies on the other hand tend to be quite hard headed when it comes to pricing risk over a large customer base.

I think I'd seriously consider calling out breakdown cover if I broke down on the motorway with an otherwise fixable problem , even just a flat cos the life expectancy of a driver next to their car on the shoulder does seem extraordinarily low :pale: Worked with someone who lost their father just like that.

1. Sub speed limit, on open, road drivers 2. Tailgaters, especially ones on mine where the road ahead prevents me going any faster anyway 3. People who pull out and make me slow down when there is a massive gap behind me that they could have waited for 4. As above but then make it 10x worse by not even driving quickly- almost as if they deliberately wait for someone making good progress and then pull out 5. No indicator drivers (although I give them the benefit of the doubt for thr first time cos we've all done it once haven't we) 6. When you're in traffic jam on a multi lane road and indicate needing to pull in, making the clear first move into a gap some idiot then won't let you because he would lose one car length of distance 7. Lorries who overtake other lorries and take then proceed to take 10 minutes to pass because the speed differential is so small Enough already . My missus had some as well but to be honest I couldn't understand any of them :lol:

Don't think you can far wrong with this at that price. Good luck with it

Very impressive. The more so because you appear to have done so much yourself. I do like the whole idea of over engineering things so that they last and rarely fail rather than bare minimums. Bit like aircraft engineering. Manufacturers could do it but price would probably be prohibitive and no one would ever need to replace their cars!

Back on PH, £3,295. Central Scotland. It has been lowered despite being described as 100% standard (apart from alloys). No service history, one key and has to be locked from the passenger side. Cracked wing mirror case. Neither passenger door or window will open. Not show stoppers but may help explain the price and difficulty in selling.

Around £10 from Amazon IIRC. Seems to give really consistent readings and won the Auto Express product trial

After faffing around for ages trying to get reliable tyre pressure readings last weekend I decided to buy one of these:race x.jpg[/attachment:3w458ole] Really tidy piece of kit and so much easier to use and read than those pencil gauges and I think more reliable than the gauge on the foot pump. Also like the way it holds the reading even when removed from the tyre.

Seems cheap to me but maybe not a bargain as there is no service history :wink: It was advertised earlier this year on PH for £3,999 then dropped to £3,295 - might be some issues?