JetSet

Good news Pete

Either that or a brain haemorrhage. Only 23 years old, hope he pulls through. Pete

Yeah, congrats to Wales. They do pretty well considering that Rugby is only played at a serious level in South East Wales. Pete

Interesting to say the least. It's early days but there's definitely a compression of the midfield...and.. they are also a lot closer to the frontrunners than they were last season. Seven different teams in the top 10 and no Ferrari who will surely improve. Sauber also look pretty fast too, unfortunately Perez had a major gearbox problem and will take a 5 place drop. Encouraging performance from Caterham who have almost closed up to the back of the midfield. It's going to be a fascinating race and I wouldn't write off Red Bull as Webber has managed to save an extra set of tyres. Pete

Exactly how old are you I dunno, Caroline is pretty ancient Pete

Welcome Pete

Friendly lot around here then, my success rate must be around 80%

Yep, had mine for over 5 years . Older people also tend to cost it out better and be less impulsive. Pete

O.K, I'm with it now. Pete

I find that a bit confusing. Pete

I'm pretty sure that the old rateable values were done in the 19th century. My Mum and Dad's house, built around 1880 with 8 bedrooms, 3 acres of land had a lower rateable value than my bungalow, which was built in the 1860's but extended in 1969 when it had its ratings adjusted. Rateable values were thus set in stone for unchanged older properties. A house built in the 1970's would always have a higher rateable value than for example a similar 1940's built house (in the same area) I think the bandings were introduced in the 80's but nobody ever came down here to value the property, or my parents house for that matter. Once the bandings had been decided my parents house came out just one band higher than mine. just ridiculous EDIT, just checked the latest banding on my parents old house and it went up to Band H in 1993 Pete

Honesty sometimes pays, I once found a wallet with a few £'s cash, a Credit Card and a PIN number and got an instant £10 reward from NatWest when I handed it in . When I dropped mine a few years later somebody also handed it in unmolested. However, when I found £40 in the old style rotating bin hole in the wall machine and handed it in I just got a thank you Pete

Happy Birthday Will Pete

Welcome Pete

As I remember it we drove from San Jose, which is 30 or so miles south of San Fransisco to Santa Barbara in a day. I'm pretty certain that we set off about 8 in the morning and arrived around 6 in the evening. We had planned to to drive to Los Angeles the next day but Santa Barbara is such a beautiful place we stayed there for 2 nights. The drive to Santa Monica took another 3 or 4 hours. Keep in mind that sections of the coastal road are very isolated with few services. At that time of year I'd expect the road to be pretty quiet, in fact its quiet most of the year as the more direct route from SF to LA can be driven in 8 or so hours. Pete

Yes, but there are a couple of exceptions. Some aftermarket rear bumpers only come with the square plate option, although the front plate should still be rectangular and I've seen a few imports that have U.K style plates on them both front and back. There were also a number of brand new cars imported from The Republic of Ireland in or around 2008 but I'm not sure if they count as imports or not. Pete

Remarkable progress, amazing photos. When I came to image 27 I found it hard to believe it was the same place but the twisted stairway says it was Pete

I think its about time I got one of these Pete

I'm not too sure it'll fit the facelift model as claimed. Would be a good buy at £50 though if its not a replica (like mine ) Pete

1. martinmac +1 2. Wasso +1 (tent) 3. AgentSmith350 - The Saturday 4. Ken 5. JetSet 6. 350ZCaroline

Well, I have to admit I missed the top 100 miles, went down The U.S 17 and joined the coastal road at Santa Cruz and then did the entire U.S 1 as far as Santa Monica. Stayed a couple of nights in Santa Barbara, so it took 3 or 4 days to do the entire drive. As Stew says it's awesome, not a drive you want to rush really. Pete

Revs don't seem to drop on The Zed. From my limited experience of A/C then the bigger the engine the less the revs drop. Pete

Did that drive down from SF to LA many years ago, some of the scenery is out of this world . Pete

Not in The U.K, but in certain parts of the world do have laws against it. Pete

Yes, I remember when we got Caroline's roadster, not a single member of the vast sales team at Nissan Chester knew how to get the roof down, the only person who knew turned out to be the guy who valeted it . Anyway, I always watch for the roof warning light on the dash to go off before I move the car. Pete