Be Excellent To Each Other

I've linked to it in the 1-5k bargain barge thread on PH for you

Why, thank you kind sir.

I'd be tempted if the insurance wasn't 93.8% of how much I'd give Gaz for it, along the lines of "It'd be comfy to tool about in until it breaks, then I'd buy another".

I was at Bletchley Park yesterday - some very nice cars indeed and we managed to dodge the worst of the downpours.

You could have popped round for a tea

Were you there for the car show in particular, or just there for a visit.

I'd been about 5 years ago and had mentioned to my GF that I fancied a return trip, so when she spotted the car show was on it was as good a time as any.

The Computer museum has obviously come on a fair amount since last time but it's a shame they aren't making more of the old home machines they have set up there.

It's a pretty poor selection of games they had running and without any instructions, most of the kids that wandered in said "wow" , rushed over for a play then couldn't figure out what to do and wandered off muttering about how crap they were.

That's Bletchley Park in a nutshell. The content is amazing, the presentation haphazard at best.

You'd love the Pitts Rivers museum in oxford. it really is a pile of stuff aquired during the days of the empire, roughly grouped.

Went to my local BMW dealer on Saturday to find out how much it would be to get hold of the latest version of the navigation DVD for the M5.

"£180 please, sir!"

Sod that, I thought. So off I went, got back home and had a look on (The Triumvirate Ray - Ed) and found it there. Works fine. Shot themselves in the foot there, had it been a reasonable price I'd have been quite happy to pay for the update.

Indeed. For a further example of this, they closed all the on-site car parks except for the classic cars, but then on their website continued to say that on-site parking would be £3.
Instead of putting up huge signs telling visitors to use the train station they had a doddery old bloke in a hi-vis stopping each car that dared to drive onto site and telling them to turn round and go back to the train station.

While heading back on foot I did notice that they had put up signs.... A4 sized....

Celica is up for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0834906868

Welp, I was just on the way to the BMW dealership in Shrewsbury to get MP3 playback enabled on my CD player, and it threw an engine management light at me.

Aah well, at least that gives me a good reason to get them to enable MP3 playback for free!

Like a good, dutiful person I called my insurance company to advise them that I'd sold my bike.

As I have more than a month until it expires, I don't get this year counted towards my NCB.
As I have more than a month until it expires, I can't just let it run until September 10th and get that year.
However, as there's only just over a month until it expires, there's not enough of a refund to exceed the admin charge so I don't get any more back either.

I told the nasal slag on the other end of the line that I really shouldn't have bothered calling them at all. Certainly I could have waited until the weekend and then I'd have at least gotten another year on my NCB certificate to take with me, right? Fucking cunts.

I've had that in the past and actually had the insurance dude tell me that I should just leave the policy running so I didn't lose my NCB. Is that even legal? Can you insure a car that already has insurance on it and you don't own?

She said they can't have a policy without a vehicle for more than 30 days, and that if they did leave it running without me buying a new vehicle then the national insurance database would hold two policies for the same vehicle and could cause problems.

All I can say is FUCK FUCK CUNTING MUMLESS FUCKING FUCKSTICKS.

Is your NCB transferrable to Canada anyway?

Thinking about it, it is entirely possible and logical to insure something that you no longer 'own'. Say that you sell a bike, and for whatever reason the payment is cancelled, and in the intervening period the person who took it from you crashes it, you'd want it insured. Same thing happens between exchange and completion on a house, when both parties insure it.

If the only thing it causes problems with is 'potentially' the database, then they can GTFF.

If they've taken possession, then the bike is theirs and they owe you the money, surely? Crashing the bike is their problem, won't stop them having effectively stolen the money from you.

There's no problem with having two insurance policies on the same vehicle, and as far as the MID is concerned that's a load of rubbish - all the police etc. will be interested in is "is this vehicle insured for this driver, or not?"

It's easy to get two lots of insurance on the same car: when you switch firms and the old one balls up the cancellation. Happened to me more than once. Doesn't break any databases.

Why do you care about your UK NCB though?

I realize there's probably a time limit in which you have to use it, but some Canadian insurers will recognize a UK NCB. Given the cost of insurance over there, that's a very important thing for me!

Dropped off the Evora today to have the woolly gearchange looked at (and a few other niggles i've noticed) and have been given one of these as a loan car.

http://www.lotuscars.com/gb/our-cars/cu ... e/elise-cr

First thoughts? Its slow, impractical, and uncomfortable. Handles nice though. If I had driven one of these before the Evora I would have thought it was great, but now I just want my Evora back!

Is that a Toyota engine in that, then?

0-60 in 6 seconds is slow?

It's pretty slow for something that looks like that. It's only .2 seconds faster than the car I'm looking at leasing next, which is 8 grand cheaper and a Volvo.

It is a Toyota engine, and in comparison to stepping out of the Evora and into the Elise, it is slow. Also, in comparison to other Elises it is slow.
Sure, in comparison to a normal car it is pretty quick

And BMW are coming by tomorrow to pick up my car from work and take it back to have the EML looked at.

Not quite used a full tank of diesel in my Ibiza yet but from what I've used so far and compared to my old Mazda 323, it costs £12 less to fill due to it being a smaller capacity tank and it's looking like it'll get me three extra work runs (40ish miles) between each fill.

Which is nice.

Yep, that engine is super-efficient! Nice and torquey at the bottom end, too.

Did you try turning it off and on again?

After the run out to view a potential countryside move whilst hung over, the Twingo managed to roll the first blob off the gauge at 50 miles exactly. That's way in excess of 40mpg, probably better than 45. Not bad.

Also, we're very likely not moving to the countryside to acquire acreage* now, which means Helen's more likely to end up with a BRZ/GT86. Bonus!

* Fractional.

The first blob and last blob have always taken a lot longer to go in pretty much all my cars. The only MPG calculation I ever trust is filling to the brim, driving, then filling to the brim again. Then getting out a calculator.
The MPG readout in the Evora seems to take the average of the last 30 miles or so, which is pretty useless

Yeah, but it normally rolls off between 30 and 38.

We can still hear the floater knocking around to top of the tank too.

At least, we're hoping that's what it is.

Fair enough, extrapolate away then!

My little clock said I was getting 68mpg on the way down to Bedford, stuck behind all sorts on the A51 going 45mph in 6th. That was quite good going.

Yup, no dice.

I'm not too bothered, it's under warranty and it'll give them an excuse to code in the MP3 functionality as part of the warranty work which they may have otherwise (tried to) charge me for.

MPG-wise, I averaged 7.6 mpg on the way into work this morning - not hooning, but a 3 mile drive probably isn't enough to warm it up, and the EML might be screwing with the fuelling anyway.

Boxster manages 28mpg as a lifetime average for the car, which includes the running in period, which I don't think is too bad for a 3.4 litre atmo six cyl engine. I've managed 37mpg on a long run, driving very carefully for a laugh, just to see what I could eke out of it (no more than 80mph).

The Golf (140PS TDI) regularly does 55-60mpg now it's loosened up nicely (40k miles) and has had a major service. Can't remember the exact figure but sure I squeaked 65-70mpg on a long 50mph night drive run as well, when then coned off virtually the whole of the M6 and turned it into a 50mph zone. I shoved it in cruise control for about 60 miles lol.

What would be the best thing to do if you really wanted a high MPG? I'd imagine sitting not far behind a lorry on the motorway at 55mph would get you furthest, albeit at the cost of being bored witless.

Walk.

Strip everything out of your car, tape up all the gaps around the body work, shave yourself completely and drive naked.

Try to drive at 55mph-60mph in top gear, for long distances (e.g. quiet motorway), using engine braking where possible, avoiding speeding up/slowing down. Switch AC off, keep windows closed, turn off stuff like demisters, use your foot to very gently control the throttle rather than any cruise control system. Minimise weight in the car. Avoid stuff like roof-racks which add loads of air resistance (does anyone still use these?) Ensure tyres are correctly inflated. (I think using 'premium' fuel can help too, but I've always thought that any economy advantage is likely wiped out by the fact it's 10p a litre more expensive in the first place. Mind you, sportscars and bikes often must have this higher octane fuel)

Decrease drag - Lower the car, hide the wipers, smooth over any gaps in the bodywork
Decrease rolling resistance - change teh tyres to something that offers this
High gear so the engine is turning over at low rpm - lengthen the two highest gears

This is pretty much what VW did with the bluemotion cars. I miss mrsA's bluemotion golf,it was really good.

If you ever buy a SEAT from a bald, grinning man munching a pate buttie, burn the seats.

They used this theory to get a Land Rover Defender to do 50MPG. It involved taking most of it off and wrapping it in clingfilm.

I assume Zardoz is already au fait with that sort of thing.

Probably be much better than this from now on as I've just RTFM and found out I've had the climate control set to have the aircon kicking in all the time.

SO IT'S ACTUALLY EVEN BETTER

Just been out for another spin, it's still slow, impractical and uncomfortable, but it is growing on me Good fun round the MK roundabouts.

It was just a happy accident really.

The MX-5 has gone. Two to go.

Just filled up again this morning, trip computer read 55.8mpg average. So lets see what I'll get driving without the auto aircon on this time.

Is it anything like the one I had in my Octavia, where there's also an 'ECON' button you can press?