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

Well now that looks bloody lovely!

wonderful simply wonderful

Defo get some track specific instruction, prob width paying upto £100 for the info, even if your a keen track day person. For the limited time that you actually get on the track (limited by numbers and time, or by how much your particular vehicle can handle in one go, most road cars only manage 12-15 minutes before heatsoak and the brakes catch fire) it makes the best of it.

Just dropped the 911 off for its annual service, they’re fitting 997 GT3 brake ducts, gear shift and a 200 Cell X-pipe as well as changing the oil and stamping the book.

Just picked up these heated STI buckets for the Forester. Just need to sort a beefy front ARB to match the rear. Any recommendations? (2006 Forester XT)

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I would direct that question to our man in Bristol

so nice...

Picked up my CLA45 AMG s/b last week. Seems to be a bit of a love/hate car, have to say I absolutely love it so far. Online, a lot of hate though. Different enough to the S3s and other audis which are everywhere.

I love the outside look but that interior is horrible imo...

Richard Scaldwell's 110-year old GN special with JAP 5.1 litre V8 aero-engine...

None of the pictures work for me, anyone else see them?

Not I

403 forbidden if i open in a new tab.

The big ipad thing looks a bit daft, but once you're inside it makes sense as it's easy to see and doesnt get into your vision too much. Could still come up with a better solution though. I think I like the ridiculousness of it with the recaros etc.

The one thing that is bugging me a bit is the gearbox in sport. When you put the foot down it just stays in gear right up into the revs, Which is fine if you want to keep going at speed, but sometimes it is just a quick burst of speed you need, and then with foot off you want it to upshift but it stays in gear with the high revs for ages.

It is really, really fast though. Handles superbly and just feels very assured.

I'd be more interested when they update to the 2018 A Class interior:

I have a 430d at the moment and I love the looks, practicality, speed, reliability and even the simplicity of the interior but BMW have definitely fallen behind Audi & Mercedes in this generation of interior quality.

Doesn’t it have a paddle you can tug to upshift? Mine does and it’s old-tech

Yeah it's got paddles. That's what I've been doing, but it's something a few folk have picked up on. It's probably bugging me more as I'm looking at the revs as I'm still running it in - very happy with the 550 delivery miles doing half that job for me.

Isn’t that all ‘sport’ modes? The mustang I hired did the same thing.
I mean it’s not psychic and can’t see the road/terrain (yet).

I've got three modes in Herman, S for standard, C for comfort, and M for manual - the latter means that it stays in whatever gear you selected even if that means bouncing off the limiter. You can also pull a paddle whilst in S or C to make a change, but it'll change up for you and will go back to changing gear itself unless you keep doing so.

It'll also (very noticeably) alter it's shifting, and how long it holds onto gears, depending on how you are using the throttle, i.e. be a bit Gary the photocopier salesman trying to make the 19:30 dogging meet up and it'll change up later and will hold onto lower gears for long time before changing.

Your advice please petrolheads.

Missus put car in for a service and MOT whilst she was away for a week's holiday and to pick up afterward.

Picking up the car finds 200 miles on the clock, petrol tank almost empty and now a penalty notice has turned up for the car being parked up on Denmark hill red lines- nowhere near the garage

Frozen sausages as a method of resolution have been considered and found lacking.

Any reason not get straight down the local police station and report it? if only to assist challenging the penalty notice.

That'd rule out getting the garage owner to cooperate I suspect, and therefore you'd be out a tank of fuel and some potential compensation for the extra miles.

I'd go and speak to the garage owner, with evidence, and ask them to a) pay for the fuel, b) pay the penalty charge, c) "make good" on what will inevitably be blamed on an employee, but I suspect what has happened to you is likely standard practice for that garage.

I'd also want to monitor the post for any further penalties - speeding fines, further parking tickets, congestion charge - and I'd make the garage owner aware that these will be passed straight over.

Thanks. Been busy with work recently, so not as far along as I'd like by now, but the front end is coming together.
This photo was yesterday, the front end is all made, dry fitted, and ready for glueing tomorrow. Grille with black wire mesh in the middle, and fog lights/ drl on the outside. Will update with photos soon.

Edit: 'Before'photo added

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Richard Scaldwell's 110-year old GN special with JAP 5.1 litre V8 aero-engine...

Hope this works: Richard Scaldwell's 110-year old GN special with JAP 5.1 litre V8 aero-engine...

https://youtu.be/8ks2e_pjasQ

It does indeed.

I just had a message from one of the techs at the Porsche garage - apparently "X-pipe sounds awesome! You will love it!", which is nice.

Has @Dammit actually preempted Porsche by building his own version of this?

https://jalopnik.com/the-porsche-911-speedster-concept-is-a-500-hp-throwback-1826678044

Hah, you can buy speedster cowls for the 996, I’ve never thought that they looked great however. Simple to fit, just need to get them painted.

I quite like the look of the “Porsche” script down the doors in the pictures, hard to know how it’d look on my car but The beauty of vinyl is that you can simply pull it off. The white front bumper would be a strong look though.