NeilMH

Thanks for the link Will. Jerry - yes I'm very near to Caterham (Old Coulsdon). Neil

I don't have any decent pictures yet Will -- but as soon as I do, I'll find out how to post them. I used to go to the Goodwood breakfasts on a regular basis. If there is any way I can get to the December one I will. It may be my imagination but I am convinced that the roads in Surrey are significantly worse than those in Sussex or Hampshire - it makes a nice change not to be cringing and gritting my teeth every time I see a rut that I can't avoid. In the Elise (an S1) it always looked as if I was trying to get heat into my tyres! Hello Martin - not yet - I may even leave it until the spring - it seems like its not a big deal. Neil

Having had a Westfield, then 2 Caterham 7s in succession and then an Elise - for the first time ever I took my time looking around and testing different cars. What I wanted was the same feeling of an "event" that I got with those cars but without some of the compromises. I worked my way through a reasonably long list and ended up with two short list contenders - Alfa 147 GTA or 350Z. In particular I wanted emotional content, a good compromise between ride and handling, an engine that sounded good, performance levels not dissimilar to what I had before but with some creature comforts. I had a leaning towards the 350z because I had driven one on a Jonathan Palmer day and I loved it (it was torrential rain and I barely spent any time facing the way I was supposed to be going). My concern was how would it drive on the road and in particular would the roadster be wobbly compared to the coupe. To cut a long story short, I've bought a roadster and I love it. It's completely standard, low mileage, full history. My particular preference is for the standard size wheels and 45 profile tyres which I have (due to the 1950s style East European type rutted roads we have in this area), but I drove another on 20s and was surprised by how good the ride was even on that set-up. I also found that the roadster seems to drive in a very similar way to the coupe - but I understand that the 350 was always designed with a soft top version in mind. One thing that has surprised me is that you seem to get a good reaction from other drivers - even the tyre people seemed unusually pleasant - in a similar way that I had with the Caterham.... so far anyway. It seems to be a car that people like/don't resent. The only thing I've done so far is to change the 040s to 050As (ATZ) - the backs were near the legal limit anyway. Anyway - it's good to be here. Neil