docwra

TBF, when there are kids involved the women tends to get the better deal .......... or at least can manipulate the better deal anyway.

Realised the other day that my 135i was a bit good and a bit expensive to keep smashing 20K miles onto a year. Business is also going quite well so I thought it was time to treat myself ....... First up was a test drive of an Alfa Giulia QC - amazing car, very quick and felt lovely on the road. Unfortunately test drive was pretty short and didnt give me much of a chance to open it up much but if it had been 45K Id have put a deposit down there and then. Unfortunately £65K and a £22K GFV doesnt add up. Next was an M2, I manged to find one to drive but when I told them I wasnt going to buy for at least 6 week they said they'd rather not put miles on it, fair enough I suppose. Beautiful car but pretty uninspiring interior, no way to turn TC fully off and 11 month waiting list ........ and still a crap GFV, how does that work? Also much slower than my current steed, doubt it would handle as well either. Considered Cayman 987/981 but then realised there is no point in having to make a decison which car youre going to take to the Nurburgring, particularly if one is depreciating heavily. So the decision to buy a diesel luxobarge was made! Following an epic FB thread narrowed choices down to Range Rover, Jag XJ/XF, 7 Series BMW or a phat Merc. Realised I already have a Range Rover, tested an XJ but it didnt ride that well (big wheels), XF would be great as a single car but wasnt really special enough, Mercs were all a bit too sensible or V8 and mega juicy. Drove an E65 730d and loved it, but then this happened: For those that dont do a recognise on sight (why would you, theres only 64) its a V10 VW Phaeton. Some specs: V10, twin turbo diesel - 308hp, 550 lb/ft at 2K RPM Air suspension, 4 damping settings, 2 ride heights 18 way electrically adjustable seats with heat, aircon, 6 way adjustable lumbar and massage Draughtless 4 zone climate control, passive heating (wood slides down over the air vents) Double glazing, 4WD, intelligent gearbox, HBA, EBD, CDC, ASR, ESP, EDL, ABS And its genuinely awesome - the only car that rides like it is a Rolls, its faster than my brothers 123d and over 100 getting on for as quick as my 430hp 135i and is returning over 30mpg despite being driven like you drive a new car totally silent at 80mph, totally isolated from the road, its a weird experience. Even the missus likes it, its easily the best luxobarge Ive ever traveled in and the best Bahnstormer Ive driven - looking forward to a quick jaunt over to Ostend next week and I bet it doesnt even notice it. Only concern is if anythign goes wrong (a single injector is £1K and it has 10, for instance) but you only live once right?

I should probably start a new thread ....... its pretty epic.

What car? A V10 Phaeton, obviously :lol:

It might not be on the manuals, only the autos? FWIW I have it on my BMW and bloody love it, bet it saves a lot of clutch too.

Should probably put this to bed, after massive research (well, 10 minutes) last night it seems the only answer is to use a Dension box that plugs into the multichanger cable, I cant change the head unit as it also does climate, suspension etc. In theory I should be able to BT anything I like into the box so might get one of the Revo satnavs above anyway just for lols Where theres a will theres a way .........

Ive just bought myself a new car that doesnt have Bluetooth, I was originally going to get a Parrot type of thing and use it for handsfree, playing music and DAB radio through my phone - before anyone suggests it I cant replace the head unit for various reasons, mainly that it doesnt have one But then I got to thinking maybe theres a better approach that doesnt rely so much on the phone - maybe a unit that has a DAB tuner built in, can take SD cards for music and integrates into the car stereo too, perhaps a nav system as well - the one in the car is a bit dated, A bit of searching turned up this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capacitive-Countries-ProActive-Lifetime-Updates/dp/B00A4BQAYU which seems to do everything other than DAB and appears to integrate into the car stereo, but would a 3G tablet install have the same or more functionality for less money? Last time I messed with ICE was a while ago, any input would be appreciated

I ran HSD's on my 350 and was very impressed, they were much better than standard suspension and I would argue actually improved the ride too, Ive used at least 10 different sets of coilovers on various cars. Ive just had Meister GT1 fitted to my 135i and Im similarly impressed, only just had the car set up on them but again the ride is very compliant but they are dynamically very good indeed. Spring rate information for reference: BC's are 10/8 HSD Monopros are 14/7 HSD Dualtechs are 12/11 Meister R (dual) 10/8 Meister R (single) 10/5 Tein Street 9/9 Ohlins NIS 10/7 Cusco 10/7 HKS Hipermax III 9/9 Apexi N1 10/8 Tanabe Sustec 10/8 Megan Track 12/10

The cheapest solution is to drop it and see how it drives, I didnt go for any camber adjustment on mine but also fitted ridiculous big wheels which might have offset the changes a bit.

Good to see so many positive comments about the chemistry when FB seems to be full of slatings. To anyone that says that, all I say is: watch S1 of old TG. Then S2, then S3, its painful. Having a car reviewer that can actually drive, why has no-one else ever thought of that?

Jesus man, she sounds like a proper psycho Dont suppose youve got contacts for any of her family or friends? Id be fcuking livid if my daughter did that to someone .........

Aye, Spa is quite literally awesome, the Ring is scary. When it rains you can still drive Spa at a reasonable pace as well, not so much Nur ..........

No, I think he has his own best interests at heart the same as the rest of the EC TBF the EU has worked reasonably well for 24 years despite the horror that is the EC, things could be a lot worse.

At that point, the whole eu is flawed imho, a special little member only club with its own interests at heart, not the individual member states. Thats like saying Guardiola is a crap football manager as he cares about the teams performance rather than an individual player. The point of the EU is that its one state, not a collection of individuals.

The word is reciprocal, an agreement has to work in two directions. The second word is negotiation, you dont play poker with an open hand. Its not a clusterfcuk, its the way that humans do business and this is a business arrangement at the end of the day. Without wanting to offend anyone, if you believed the £350m a year to the NHS, the control over our borders and the control over our laws then you really shouldnt be getting involved with this argument.

Pedal feel and modulation are as good, if not better than lesser stuff. Ive never had brand new RS29's but the Carbotechs and both CL's I felt were better in every respect (other than noise and dust), Id say the RC5's are better than the CL6 for feel and both the CL's very, very slightly edge the Carbo's for ultimate performance. Ian is the man at Carbotech, http://www.carbotech-europe.com/ hes very helpful and makes pads to order - tell him docwra sent you, he might be surprised

Yep, its just fear and self preservation kicking in - drifting in an empty carpark anyone can do, doing it on a track with walls is a lot more harder and streeto still scares me even though I know Ive got the ability not to put it into a kerb. The best guys I know nearly all learned on the street, when they were too young/stupid to be scared, the only guys that run them close generally have a motorsport background from a very young age. I see it on track sometimes, the guy in front geta bit wobbly and shuts everything down and spins when in reality just relaxing a bit and keeping doing hat hes doping would be better.

The bit that everyone seems to be missing is that anything thats confirmed before we start negotiations weakens our negotiating position. Tusk is already rubbing his hands as he knows that EU people staying in UK is now a requirement, he could potentially request we pay £150 per individual that crosses the other way in order to allow it to happen. Lets say there are a million journeys each year, thats £150m that youve just spent of our newfound non EU budget. Its basic negotiation, and this is why the Lords, the press and the electorate cant be promised anything before discussions start. Why Theresa couldnt have just pointed this out to the Lords I dont know........

Mondello is in Republic of Ireland

http://www.clbraking.co.uk/ for me, DW didnt stock the sizes I needed

For theft? I wouldnt bother claiming as the excess would be more. For accident? Dont think the stereo is going to be considered as it doesnt affect the cars performance.

I didnt tell my insurance company as I didnt consider it a mod anymore than a new stereo, a turbo timer or a different brand of tyres. Like others have said, half of modern cars already have a similar feature, it doesnt actually improve or reduce performance so whats the big deal? Sure, it might make you accelerate faster but so do heavier shoes

Fair play mate, thats easily the best way to do it and Ive just done exactly the same on coilovers despite having run probably 10+ manufacturers over as many years. I have a problem with traders giving advice on "the best" stuff though, as they are not going to be recommending other peoples products and their advice is generally anything but impartial. Your own first post proves this, anyone who has used a variety of brakes will tend to steer clear of EBC and yet a qualified professional is telling you thats the way forward. *gets drum out* Discs dont warp, they can sometime have buildup of material on the friction surface. A fierce session with decent pads can sort this, alternatively there is a trader on here that can offer a disc skimming service, Id go these routes before swapping out quality hardware. I did 2-3 trackdays and probably 10K on them IIRC, no problems at all. That said Ive just chewed throuygh a set of pattern discs on my 135i in less than a year with the CL6, only one trackday and similar miles.

Its weird this, about half the taxis in Amsterdam (and a few other places) are Teslas, I see about 2-3 a day including the guy who works in the office next to me, California and SF particularly is awash with them. Other places dont even know what they are, crazy.

Pulsars will become collectors cars, Im sure of it. Batshit mental, rally bred and most importantly, rare and rusty. Perfect