Ekona

Indeed, they were very wrong to penalise Nico for that.

Cry for me Alcocko. Your tears of despair fulfil me. Well done Seb, great race!

Just drive to the conditions, as you always should. Winter tyres can help, but not driving like a muppet will help far more.

Amen.

Seb doing it the hard way, but it's a cracking race from him so far.

Ferrari to not fit Massa's brake pads, drives straight into the back of Vettel off the line? Would any oe be surprised?!

Your English is better than a lot of the native speakers on here! Welcome along Paolo

Carpet, foam, old jumpers, anything like that will do. Don't forget to tuck the wing mirrors in too!

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think it needs a set of Lexus-style lights on the rear. Too much red, doesn't work with the colour of the wrap at all IMHO. Aside from that, I really really like that colour, good job matey. I'd be tempted to do the brake calipers the same colour, or swap them for a set of Project Mu ones...?

Park closer to the left hand side, and carpet the wall on the right. There is plenty of room if you do that, even with my tiddly garage and back when I was nudging 17st I could still get out that way. The Porker is even tighter, luckily I'm substantially thinner now though!

Not on a basic random searching of people going airside. It should all be to the same level, but it never is. Intel is the only really effective way to stop attacks, random searches are essentially useless and are only a minor deterrent. There was a cracking article on the subject by a chap who did the federal level security in the US just after 9/11, shame I can't find it now.

I'd find out all the details before asking an offer. You'll possibly need new tyres too, something else to consider. If they're the perfect sizes and can be repaired, £400 is a bargain. If they're going to rub and scrape and one wheel is borked, then it's miles too much. Need more detail really.

The trouble I have with airport security, and working at Stansted means I deal with it several times a day, is that there is no consistency. Sometimes I have to put my yellow jacket through, sometimes not. Sometimes they want the van emptied, sometimes not. Sometimes they want to check your passes, sometimes not. It makes for a jarring experience when one minute you fly through with a bit of common sense as we only came through 5 mins ago, and then just because there is a DfT inspector standing there they want the bonnet lifted, every toolbox off and x-rayed, stripped down and shown the special glove etc. That's extremely irritating, believe me.

Don't, we've got just the two moggys but I'd love to have more if I could, but they're terrified of just about anything else so it wouldn't be fair.

I like your kittehs, they look so angry and mean yet so puffy and lovely A friend of mine picks their one up next week, such a massive head on a tiny little body, so cute!

They have the exact same security rules as every other UK airport. It just depends on whether the person on security knows they're being watched by their superiors or are on camera as to how detailed the search goes

Since that's the second time my Currys reference has been picked up, I would like to clarify again by saying that the Lakeside one isn't a generic crappy Currys store, it's their European super branch and as such carries slightly better stuff than the one in the high street.

I feel for them actually, it must be quite irritating having all these people moaning at you but knowing you don't have the budget to do anything about it. Okay, so they could've done more when they did have money, but that's another rant. There is only one group of people to blame for speed cameras, and that's those that speed. If no-one did (or at least did it in place where the authorities couldn't or wouldn't put a camera), then it would cost more to do than they would get in fines so it would be stopped dead. It's as simple as that. Every time you speed on a dull straight bit of road, you're encouraging them to place cameras.

A vicious one at that In my defence, it's only the terminally stupid and inept that I have no time for. I love everybody else

Now that's just crazy talk!

Trade in of £17k is fair, £1k to prep and £1k to haggle down on would leave a sale price of £20.5k on a £21.5k list price, so a profit of just £2.5k tops. Risky buying a ragtop in the winter, the dealer could have it on the forecourt until April and lose all profit in it.

Sorry, what I meant more was that if it was a paid-for forum then you could dish out free subs to those who submit a guide or other incentive like that. My idea of getting paid directly for it was just a blatant attempt at profiteering!

He's wrong. A car will always use less fuel in a higher gear at a given speed, that much is common sense. What will alter is that you won't be able to react as quick in the higher gear, but that's another debate on road prep entirely. Why would a car doing 60mph at 2k revs in 5th use more fuel than the same car at the same speed doing 3k revs?! Crazy. More revolutions = more throttle = more fuel.

You'd be surprised about Currys, I know I was. The guy who runs the department was head-hunted as he used to run his own specialist shop in London selling silly stuff to footballer with too much money, but he certainly knew his stuff and they did me a deal that I couldn't even beat on the internet. Rich, don't get set on anything in particular yet until you've heard it, regardless of looks or price. You'd be amazed at how quickly your head can be turned once you hear the difference in person.

Having done this myself in the last couple of years, here's what I've learnt from between my budget and Mark's budget (which, as you know, is significantly higher!): Whatever you intend on spending on the amp, spend at least double on your speakers. Amps have features that come and go and get better with technology, but a good speaker is a good speaker for many years. My speaker set cost me around £2K, but that's for 5 plus sub and they'll last me for many years. The AVR was £500, and whilst it's still very good there are extra bits I wish it now had (more HDMI inputs for one, more optical slots for another) but I can spend another £1K and get a waaaay better unit without having an AVR that's much better than the speakers. Room setup is everything. Until Mark's latest addition of a sub that's the size of a small car, I would say that my setup costing a tenth of his was better for playing movies as it's in a more compact room, filled of more general crap whereas his is a lovely great space. That said, his wees all over mine for playing music, so again it depends on what you're looking to specialise in. I went for movies on purpose as that's what I use it for more than anything. Go and play! Seriously, get down to Lakeside Currys and speak to the main guy there, I think his name is James if he still works there. They have loads of AVRs and speakers in stock, and you can pick and match them until you find a solution you like. Even if they're out of budget, it'll give you an idea of where best to spend your money. You can do the same at a Richer Sounds or a specialist, but basically you're looking for somewhere that has the most stuff in stock and setup. Don't be afraid to spend a few hours in there fiddling, I did at Best Buy before I walked across the road and purchased from Currys instead as they did me a better deal. For reference, I have a Pioneer VSX-920 (now superceded) as my AVR and Kef iQ-series speakers (90 front, 30 rear, 50 centre) with a Kef Kube2 sub. The Kef speakers are known for being a bit bright so you wouldn't want them with an AVR that did the same, however it so happens that I like my sounds like that so it's a combination that works well for me. Don't forget to add around £200 for cables, connectors and bits, depending on size of room. Having done the surround sound for tellies three times now, I wasted my money the first two times and should've done it properly in the first place. If you want someone to come shopping with you give me a shout, I'm due for an upgrade on my AVR at some point next year so I could do with looking myself.