brillomaster

well that's that then. after the end of 2018 i'll no longer be watching Formula 1, plenty of other race series I can watch for free on youtube like blancpain sprint and endurance, Lamborghini super trofeo and DTM. seems like a terrible decision for the fans, but probably a great deal for Bernie's pockets. Thankfully, the BTCC is guaranteed live and free to air on ITV4 until 2022... season kicks off 2-3 April, packed grid of 32 cars, 11 manufacturers represented. Oh, and no hybrids, fuel saving or tyre management, every driver is free to drive flat out for 3 ~20 minute races. Happy days!

pics when installed please! preferably a shot of you struggling to drive over a leaf or similar

my new wheels been on for 6 months now, still scuff free. but if i did scuff them, i wouldn't be that worried - cars are for driving, not for looking at.

i'm gonna see how i get on with being a cool 'uncle' for a while to our friends newborn, due in april, the first of our friend groups. every other couple we know isn't really interested in having kids. Personally i like the idea, but really don't want a baby, or a toddler, or a primary school kid... I think i'd much prefer a teenager, cos then i can pretty much just let them get on with it.

ahhh. if shes happy to be in a house with a cat poo in the corner all day i'm not sure she's the one unfortunately, sounds like you might not be that compatible... this is probably a silly question, but did you not realise how unclean she was before you started living together? she cant have started out alright and since moving in its got so bad she now cant even be bothered to clean animal crap off the carpet?

simple answer - do less. certainly wouldn't be washing up dishes after her or picking up her rubbish. I often employ the 'kick OHs mess over to her side of the bedroom' tactic. Also, why empty the litter trays before you go to work? that's an easy one for you not to do, and has a very big impact when suddenly the house starts stinking to high heaven all day! and do your own laundry - take OHs clothes out the washing machine, dump on floor. wash your stuff. problem is peoples tolerance to mess is never the same - whoevers tolerance is lower ends up doing all the work. Take the low road and live in squalor for a while, wash and tidy the bare minimum of stuff for you to get by, and no more. you may need a clothes peg for your nose due to the litter trays! Find out how bad your other half is prepared to let things get before she steps in and does something, then decide if that level is acceptable to you or not.

if you want a new CTR, it will have to be a CTR! plus, the missus's approval is worth its weight in gold, happy wife happy life. Sure there are always better cars out there if you look at used cars, but again if you want a brand new car then that's what you'll have to do. I say check the costs work for you and if you're happy paying £11k over 3 years with nothing to show for it at the end of the period, then go for it. you're only young once.

they're the replacement for MPSS, so should be good! Also consider the new GY Eagle 3 and Conti Sport Contact 6.

that's pretty cool, wonder how much it'll be. But this is the one I really want, can't justify the expense tho!

and that's not peak daily temp, its when you're driving the car. most afternoons are slightly above 7 degrees, but most mornings are still around 4 degrees here, so if I had fitted them, i'd probably still have them fitted, and change over at the start of april. but as 350zedd said, we didn't have a single snowy day this winter, so never even crossed my mind to change to winters in the first place!

whoop whoop summertime! long summer definitely, not too hot though no need for that. my favourite day of the year is coming up quite soon, the glorious moment the clocks go forward and we get to start enjoying evenings again!

many happy returns dudes!

slightly back on topic, I wonder what kids these days would do if they saw an actual Ferrari driving past, their tiny minds might actually explode! And also, just how far down the food chain do you have to go before a car is no longer called a Ferrari or a Porsche? an MR2 is got to be about the cheapest car that anyone has ever mistaken for a Porsche, can pick up mk2s and mk3s for under a grand these days.

that is true... but im not sure being the anchor for F1 will suit him? I dunno, will have to see.

but are there any drivers who are charismatic? although noted you didn't include Webber in your list. maybe given time i'll come round to Steve Jones, it might have been the shows that he was in rather than him himself. problem is surely drivers are fundamentally boring, its commentators who in most cases bring action to sports. Though fundamentally nothing will change for me as if I've recorded a full live race, I normally skip through to the qualifying report, then skip through to the race, then switch off after the podium, and since race commentary will be the same as it was on the BBC, not that much will change. although the thing I'm probably most happy about with channel 4 having the terrestrial coverage - they're gonna keep The Chain! which everyone knows is THE theme tune to formula 1 I'm actually really looking forward to the season starting again, will Ferrari be a serious threat to Mercedes, and will Rosberg be a serious threat to Hamilton? and will McLaren be a serious threat to anyone?

So, seems the Channel 4 presenting line up has been announced, and it looks to be a bit up and down... I'm pretty happy that Ben Edwards and David Coulthard will remain in the main commentary box, thought they were good on the Beeb. And I like that they will have actual drivers in the form of Webber, Wolff, Chandhok and Senna giving insights. However, not so keen on Steve Jones being the main anchorman - never really liked him or any of the shows he's done... plus does he know anything about formula 1? Hopefully the wealth of talent around him will make up for it. And of course Murray is back! legend. And Jordan is back! Not so good http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123168 I'm pretty excited to watch the new coverage in two weeks time - and not only cos we got a 48" UHD TV at xmas and it'll look really good in HD

Bedford is an excellent novice track, plenty of space and days are a lot cheaper. Actually haven't managed to do Silverstone yet due to the prohibitively high cost! if you can get across to snetterton that's a nice circuit as well, and rockingham do quite a few reasonably priced days.

that really annoys me. even worse on 4 lane stretches, when lanes 3 and 4 a full of cars, lane 2 has a car every quarter of a mile, and lane 1 is completely empty apart from a lorry every mile. solution - stop trying to overtake in lanes 3 and 4, move back to lane one and accelerate up to the speed limit, then overtake a lorry in lane 1 every mile, whilst overtaking dozens of cars in lanes 3 and 4. also, driving in the near empty lane one is a lot less stressful, oodles of space in front mean you aren't constantly covering the brakes.

and get yourself on a open pit lane! we've never done sessions because we rarely want to stay out for 20 minutes, let alone 30. with an OPL day you can come and go as you please, which means you can keep a better eye on looking after the car. At long tracks (snetterton, oulton) we're probably only doing 5 laps before coming in, at shorter tracks can possibly stretch it to 7 or 8. worst thing you can do to a car is keep pounding round and round, its bad for brakes, bad for tyres and bad for driver concentration!

conversely, we run ebc yellows on all our bmw track cars, and find them absolutely fine - no fade at all even on standard rotors. i'd be surprised if you'd need anything more than what you've got on a civic - if your pedal has gone a bit spongy then I think replacing fluid will sort it. Cant recommend ATE type 200 fluid highly enough, cheap and we've never had a problem with boiling fluids since having it fitted. Also were you doing a full 30 minute session on track? that's a lot for brakes to take, we only limit ourselves to around 15 mins on track and always do a cooldown lap before coming in.

better hope its the alignment, although symptoms starting after fitting new tyres would suggest its the tyres. I don't believe in coincidences.

OP, if you want to save money then sell the LMGT4s and buy some standard 18" rays. tyres will be a lot cheaper and be more than ample if you dont do much spirited driving.

oh yeah lets not forget a fairly important one... BOOOOOOST!

pssh we did snetterton as it was snowing... they just said 'we have the track, and these are the driving conditions - if you're happy driving in them then have at it!' only time I've had a trackday cancelled was because of thick fog that had refused to budge by midday.

some I agree with, some I don't... reasons I love cars (in no particular order) 1. national speed limit signs - or 'fun starts here' signs. normally accompanied by dropping a few cogs and flooring it. 2. overtaking. not the boring kind on the motorway, but when you come across an old biddy doing 40mph on a NSL road, and the sheer joy and anticipation that comes from the road opening up into a straight, dropping a few cogs and flooring it. 3. traction. or lack thereof. trying to pull out of a t junction quickly in cold conditions, and the TCS kicking in cos you've got just too much power to be contained by your 265 section rear tyres. 4. slow reveal cupholders. the type you push in, then they slowly unfold. man was I pi**ed when my mate broke one of mine. 5. cylinders arranged in multiples of 5 or 6. just sound better than a multiple of 4. oh and a decent exhaust to fully appreciate it.