Ekona

Does it come with a brown paper bag? Enjoy the new car dude

Cripes, that's a dull video. It's like they asked a YT newbie to knock something up, not impressed at all. It even manages to make the glorious V8 sound a bit boomy and uninteresting. And those wheels are ghastly. Black loses all the detail on the spokes.

@StevoD particularly likes the door handles on the 488

"Cheaper" being relative of course!

Exactly. All about the blaggability, just need to show a bit of willing. Although in fairness I only drove the F12 because I got invited to a day out courtesy of the dealer, it was the 458 and FF I was actually looking at at the time. Much easier to blag a drive in the cheaper stuff...

If you've never driven an F12, you really must. I wasn't even close to being prepared for just how much noise Ferrari let come into the cockpit, it's utterly mesmerising. Although the uber-quick steering nearly caught me out at the first roundabout

Nope, just a couple of cottages and about three or four farms, but they're all set back or really well sighted. Ultimately unless the autopsy shows heart attack it really has to be driver error. I hate him for being that careless, but at the same time I'd have driven it the exact same way I assume he did. The more I look at that logo on that guide, the angrier I get. When I've calmed down and can compose something reasonable I think I will. I just don't get who thought that was a good idea to do!

Found a picture, it’s the middle green one. Okay, so not as big a logo as I remembered, but I still say it’s bad taste.

Thanks guys. You lot are genuinely amazing people. I drove the road today. It’s like every other NSL country road anywhere, and there wasn’t a single extra mark anywhere to see where the accident happened. There’s nothing special about any of it: no super tight corners, no blind crests, no hidden junctions. Nothing. I’d drive that at 60 or more every day of the week and not bat an eyelid. It just makes everything seem so much more random. I don’t get it, I just don’t. The Police gave Rob a guidebook on how to deal with death after a car accident, from both practical (funeral arrangements, coroner courts etc) and mental (how to cope with loss etc) views. Helpful yes, but the front cover is boldly emblazoned with the BRAKE logo as I guess they sponsor it. Now maybe it’s just me, but I find that to be the single most distasteful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. By all means pop a logo inside somewhere, but on the front cover taking up 1/3rd of it?! Utterly repulsive. Even Rob, who is hiding her obvious pain with black humour, just said to the police officer who gave it to her “Are you f***ing kidding me? I really don’t need to told to brake right now!” whilst almost laughing at the insensitivity of it. I rarely complain about things, but this might just give me cause to do so. Or am I overreacting?

235i over a Golf any day. It may not be any quicker, and it may ultimately be just as generic, but I bet it feels a damn more special every time you rev the six over a four.

Cheers G. I'm going to pick Jo up tomorrow from Rob's, and I've decided to make a detour to see the road where it happened. I know it sounds odd, but I just have to see the place for myself. Not to lay flowers or anything, and I may not even stop, but I just have the urge to go there. I won't be telling anyone else I've been there though, as I'm not sure they need to know really. Is that too weird? I mean, I'm going anyway, just wondering.

That would seem to be very light. I’m guessing the accident meant that sympathy was found. Hard to watch though, given events of the last day for me personally. There but for the grace of god etc.

Gets worse, now looks like they didn’t even have mortgage life cover for whatever reason, we’re hoping it’s a mistake but it’s now getting to the point where you couldn’t make this stuff up. Had a bit of a moment at work earlier, back to feeling numb again. Rob has spoken to the police and the coroner, sounds like a combination of him going too fast in an NSL and clipping a bump in the road. Took off, clipped a tree, then rolled the car several times. So hopefully it was quick. Sorry to keep posting morbid stuff here, but for obvious reasons I’m keeping it off social media and I’ve nowhere else I feel comfortable offloading.

Thank you all for your kind words, I know it’s a cliche but it’s really helped. Managed to get to work today despite just a couple of hours sleep, oddly I’m not remotely tired so I guess this is shock? I don’t know. Coroner and family liaison officer are round now apparently, so I guess we’ll know more soon. Just so, so weird this morning. I just don’t get it.

I've no real idea where to start here tbh. I'm exhausted, mentally and physically, and I still have to get up for work in the morning. But I need to vent, and you guys on here are like friends to me (some of you are actual friends to me!) so sharing is caring and all that. Just puts everything in perspective Had a call from the wife this afternoon whilst I was at work, in tears. She told me that she had to go and see Roberta, her best friend, who lives about 2.5hrs from us. Now Roberta has a history of miscarriages, and at this point I immediately knew what was coming as I know she's quite far along in her current pregnancy. I was wrong. "Andrew's dead." Andrew is the name of Roberta's husband. F***. Just f***. To save a long story, he died in a single car accident this morning on his way to work. 3 miles from the office, his car left the road and hit a tree. We literally have no more details than that right now, as the police and coroner are still investigating. They didn't tell Rob(erta) until half past five this evening when she got in from work. She went the entire day without knowing her husband was dead. She's due to give birth to their first child next month. Andrew was only 29, and they were only married two years ago. Jo was matron of honour at their wedding, whilst I did photographer duties. We were there the day that Rob and Andrew met, at another friend's wedding. Andrew stood about 7ft tall, and must've weighed about 18 stone. The guy was an American footballer, and you would absolutely believe it from the size of him. Yet he was an absolute gentle giant, and went out of his way to help me find work last year by putting words in and getting my CV in the right place. All he ever wanted from life was to have a kid, and know he's dead. 24 hours ago, he wasn't. My mind just cannot comprehend that right now, at all. A lovlier, nicer guy I've yet to meet. You watch a film where the hero dies leaving his pregnant wife behind. Hell, you even read about it on the cover of trashy women's dailys. But it doesn't happen in the real world. Ever. Except it did today. We drove to see Rob this evening, and I've left Jo there with her for the weekend. Sitting there with Rob, who cannot cry any more tears today, and watching her delete all Andrew's stuff off the Sky planner because she can't deal with the series popping up randomly on her, and listening to her call people and tell them matter of factly that her husband is dead, absolutely filled my soul with a horror I never thought possible. Discussing what happens with Andrew's car (does the insurance pay out? Will it cover the loan? How much does she have to pay if not?), and what will she do with all his RC cars in the garage, and then will she go and see his body when it's released to the family. These are things that I don't even know where to start. I mean I do, but how does someone grieving deal with that? Now I've massive issues happening in my life too right now (some of you know), but they pale into nothing compared with this. Literally nothing matters right now. I can't stop thinking about the accident. Was he on his phone? Did he just lose grip? Did someone carve him up? Did he die instantly, or did he sit there bleeding out knowing he'd never see his unborn child? And thinking about that poor kid growing up never knowing his father just brings me to tears, and I don't even have kids. We know that he fitted new wheels the other week, so was he not used to the new tyres? Or was he just going too fast? I'm not sure we'll ever know; I've no idea how in-depth an inquest will be. I'm not even his wife and I want so many answers. All I know is that this always happens to other people. Not this time. RIP Andrew mate, we'll look after Rob and the little one for you now fella.

No, I don't see that at all. Then again, I don't necessarily see privatisation as a bad thing. I've said it before, but we should be charging people for missed GP appointments, and we definitely shouldn't be providing things like paracetemol, ibuprofen, cosmetic surgery, gender reassignment and PReP on the NHS. Now I don't disagree that perhaps in the long term it may well be cheaper to do some of those latter things, nor do I disagree that in a perfect world with unlimited money they should all be provided. But right now, it's not workable. And yeah, I appreciate it's a drop in the ocean, but it's about changing perception that the NHS should cover everything for everyone all the time. Means test it if you want, I'm okay with that.

Exactly what I use too, utterly superb bits of kit that you know you can rely on. I just plugged mine into the cigar lighter though as I’m lazy

True, but then so is the 6 series but I’ve proved that can be made to handle very well so I reckon the same is doable to the Monaro

So basically euthanasia solves the problems? Excellent!

Not for me this year, not with the state that LMP1 is in. I know there’s more to it than that, and the atmosphere & extensive drinking habits are equally (if not more) important, but I’m not encouraging the ACO by going myself. Porsche Curves is a great place to watch from though, just a shame it’s such a trek back to the main area! I love watching the night racing from there, some great views.

Blimey, not heard Paul’s name for years! Didn’t realise he was still going.

Nope, the light nimble one where the roof drops right down and actually handles properly Gearboxes on them ain't that bad!

Bumpety-bump for the new year! Also because I've had the MOT done now so she's all good until Jan next year, plus I couldn't resist taking her out for Xmas so she ticked over the 123K mile mark Well, it would've been rude to leave her sat at home on the quietest day on the roads all year. Still absolutely gorgeous to drive, still making wonderful noises, still up for sale. Does it hurt to say that I'm open to offers, or is that just really obvious anyway? I *may* be interested in a trade too, but it would need to be either a mk1 or mk2 MX5 or a mk3 MR2.

*slips Col the fiver as promised*

I’d use it to close the NHS down and start again from scratch. No one will ever be able to fix what is so fundamentally broken, regardless of money thrown at it. We’re way past fixing now.