Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

There's such a leap even from "track" cars to race cars. Unless you're racing at clubman level, and even then you go from a standard 6 point cage to some pretty complex roll cages.

Ultimate race car:

I can't stop posting pictures of this 240z:

Chap who is building it reckons 1,000 horsepower at the wheels.

http://www.rx7club.com/build-threads-294/4-rotor-fc-build-974831/

Reading up on turbo'd rx7. There was one place that built the official turbo for the UK.

There are drag people that get 1200bhp out of the pretty standard ish engine. 700bhp is easily possible on standard engines.

A possible convert? 330 hp in a 900 kg Mazda 818 or rwd 323 will give you a car that can pass the 1/4 in 11 seconds and will wheely. The pics of the 4 rotor engine show creation of the peripheral port, the ultimate in Na tuning although no good for street use. The hp increase from 7500 to 10 k is something like 100. Virtually un drivable below 6 k, the Australians describe driving a heavily ported motor at low rpm as pig rooting. My wife could not drive my Rx7 as that was ported and just driving slowly in traffic you had to drop the clutch an rev it, other wise it would buck because of the over lap, it was like constant whiplash for her and my daughter. Shame she couldnt drive it properly.

Your mate's Rexy went well today. They were in third at one point.

Cool, he will be pleased. Im watching it on youtube. I know Nick Padmore who races the Lola t70, i think he won his race.
Was it good? I stayed home and cycled with the kids.

The races were better last year. I wore enough clothes so I enjoyed it a lot more. A friend is auctioneer for Bonhams, who managed to get us passes for today's racing, which was a bonus. We got tee a stack more racing today.

The Saturday night party is also really well done and worth a visit.

Nick(s) Padmore and Swift are the two most exciting classic racers. The prototype sports cars are my favourite. 60s endurance racers (917s etc) were exciting to watch. Clear winners were the 70s touring cars (again).

Sounds like you have a very good contact there. My brother raced a radical many years ago and Nick p raced with him, Nick karted when at school and did the Fiesta challenge years ago. Now one of the most sought after drivers in historics. I don't know if ill go to any meetings this year, i did le mans classic 3 times and loved them but i am hoping to do a few vintage cycling things which are a priority.

Jealous of you....watch a few bits and that made me hate (really me but transference) you more it really isn't as good watching it on telly. You see more of the action but less of hat is going on/atmosphere. Was supposed to go, was supposed to be helping a friend, but decided against it.

To be fair, it has already laughed in the face of my initial budget.

@Dammit my boss needs a contract booking number off you for the past two hours I have just lost!

Haha! Ferraris are footballers' handbags.

Wow, since when did car insurance become so eye-wateringly expensive?
As a student five years ago I insured my MG ZS (sorry, I only bought it because it was cheap) for 300 quid a year.
I have been working abroad since then, coming back next week, looked at car insurance for a little 2005 Fiat Panda and it's 500 quid. For a car with less than half the horsepower. Add my partner (who only recently passed her test) and it's over 600. Same location, same mileage, same NCB (zero in both cases, since they won't accept foreign NCB).

And for what it's worth, here in NZ I have been insuring a 4.0l Ford Falcon for about a hundred quid a year, including my partner on a learner's licence.

It's just ludicrous.

The roads are a lot quieter in NZ. Insurance is expensive because you might damage someone else or their expensive car. It's become less about what you're driving, more about what damage you could do with it. It is a racket though.

Nah really my point was why has my insurance gone up so enormously, despite ostensibly being older and wiser and driving a car in Insurance Group 1.

Insurance in NZ is cheap because there's no such thing as personal injury claims - well that's partly why anyway. The accident rate in NZ is actually higher than the UK. But insurance in the UK is still outrageously expensive compared to Europe, or the US, or the UK five years ago. Why?

Probably two things: the heinous ambulance-chasing industry, and the number of illegal drivers causing carnage.

My insurance is about to go up 60% because of my new postcode, it's scandalous

Your postcode or the insurance? #ICMFP

Crash at Goodwood.... driver walked away with broken collar bone

https://www.youtube.com/embed/021GVfHJ_YE

the car was wedged in the ped tunnel and they had to close it! there was a cobra that took a pretty big bang from the barriers, too.

cobra bang

Jesus. Tipping the odds.

That was reminiscent of Alonso in Australia.

Lower speed but no safety cell.

My insurance in N16 is nearly quadruple what it was in RM11.

RM11 is Romford, how can Stoke Newington be quadruple Romford you ask? Apparently every cunt claims whiplash in N16 so the value of claims is to blame.