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

Too early for Thameslink? Doesn't that run all night?

I've since used non-valet parking and it's been fine, just don't let them drive your car and they can't crash it into anything.

what's the cost for a week's room and board in an airport car-hotel?

It's 3 buses and 165mins to get to Gatwick from mine, or a 50 quid uber in one direction only.

Looks like it's about £82 to use the Gatwick Long Stay for 8 days which isn't horrendous considering I'd have to do Gatwick - Clapham - Surbiton to get home

For me it's a £60 cab each way, makes much more sense to park there. When they don't crash your car for you. I use the short-term parking for day trips to the continent and that's very convenient as you're parking practically in the terminal.

Have you looked at the hotels? Get there the night before, park, get drunk, get the courtesy bus in the morning.

You can also check in your luggage the night before, which makes the morning a bit less painful.

Anyone done an egr bypass on any of there cars? Kit is cheap so have ordered one for the bm.

Only thing I am thinking is next mot it could fail on emmissions?

It's looking quite a bit cheaper to just drive up in the morning and park in the long stay car park for the week. Most of the hotel deals i can find are more expensive or stipulate that they want to drive your car to a secure off site storage location, which i'd rather not.

And slam it

Spotted a modern one a few weeks back on my way to Brighton.

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Wheels opinion?

I don't like them.

My dad has them and they're too wide on the rear for a narrow body and they have a janky offset on the front. They also need a tiny lowering to look right.

I like em. They'd be my choice

Bought them, £350 for all four, so the tyres will cost double what the wheels did (leaving out refurb costs).

I'll keep the 17's and put winter tyres on them when I've killed the current ones.

One for BRM....a titchy 318ci, 900 hp NA! Fast forward a bit for some vicious high-winding small block ford action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfP9k_d2Mg8

Using the Michelin tyre finder thing on it's website recommends a 285/30 R18 tyre for a 10J rim, which seems very wide to me - I'd expect a 265 on that rim width, albeit with maybe a bit more sidewall.

Does the small sidewall require a wider overall tyre?

i.e. on a front which is 8" wide and a rear that is 10" I'd expect to run these:
Front: 225/40/18
Rear : 265/35/18

So I suppose my question is whether a 285/30 is equivalent to a 265/35?

Tyre size calculator here, at the bottom is a list of minimum & maximum widths of tyre for each width rim, at the top you can put in your standard tyre size then what you fancy on the right and compare rolling circumference for a close match :)

edit
285/30 18 has 197.5cm rolling radius
265/35 18 has 201.91cm rolling radius so the wider 285 will be smaller and your speed will be 2.3% less than indicated on the speedo.

http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-calculator

https://youtu.be/hViplB84We4

Unfortunately my Mac is blocking the Flash plugin on that page, thanks anyway.

preferences > security > plug-in settings > flash > LFGSS > allow on this page. it blocks it on all domains by default because flash is shit.

Did that, it says that the version of Flash on my Mac has known critical security vulnerabilities, so I try to download an updated version, which takes me to Apple's Safari page, and gets me no further. I give up.

Willtheyfit.com

@Dammit, I'm sure you know this but the sidewall rating is a ratio or percentage of the tyre width. I'd be inclined to have a tyre with slightly over sized radius as it'll fill the arches better and ride better. In theory....