Be Excellent To Each Other

It’s built on the same production line, so it counts.

Chonabarth?

Got the car valeted today just to get it in tip-top condition ahead of using it as an insect annihilator over the mountain for the next two weeks.

The mountain road went one way for TT at 4:30pm, and closed again precisely 7 minutes later due to an RTC, much to the chagrin of the police. I'll go up there later on (about 10pm or so) when it'll be nice and quiet.

Anyway, I appreciate these pics look much like the last lot, but I promise the car looks much shinier in real life.

Also, a video of me appraising the quality of the work for the benefit of a chum called Jamie.

I don’t know if this belongs in this thread, but one of my knitting chums posted a video of him going through a car wash in America and it had rainbow coloured foam soap, rainbow rollers, disco lights and disco music. It looked amazing.

Apparently the soap smells of bubblegum.

Maserati 250f > Triumph TR4A > Every other car ever.

Where does the Puma fit in?

I think I’d go for a TR5 over a 4A, but they are both fine cars.

+1 for 4a. They rally up real nice too

The 4a is pretty enough but try driving one 2500 miles non stop. Handles like a giant pudding.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm having both my dad's 4as when he dies and will happily fight my family for them.

Got out for my late drive last night but unfortunately there was another car towards the back end of the mountain mile, so I had to ease off from my flat out top speed attempt. Annoyingly that was the only other vehicle I encountered on the entire run.

Aside from that I did have the road to myself - (which remember, is still derestricted AND is made one way for TT, so you can use both sides of the road to corner properly, with no concern for oncoming traffic as there isn't any) - and when really pushing on in 'N' mode it's a far more impressive car than the ST.

I'm still finding its limits (I like to sort of go up one notch at a time over multiple runs, rather than find out the hard way I've pushed it too far), and I'm not in any hurry as the road is one way for the rest of TT fortnight (when it's not closed for practices and races, that is). Early morning drives (before 7am) and evening runs (10pm or later) are best as there's a good chance of getting a clean run at it. Also, during the day when there's quite a lot of traffic there are loads of RTCs so it's often closed as much as it's open. (It lasted 7 minutes yesterday afternoon before someone binned it at The Verandah.)

And the thing is, once the drive over the mountain is done, I can just put the car in NORMAL mode and it's pretty much like driving a normal sporty hatchback back over the coast.

So far, so good. i30N = Great car.

MX5 is almost ready, just the wheels left to do. Bodywork has been done and MOT has been passed with no advisories, picking it up wednesday.

They do nothing for me. Cars from before I was old enough to even notice them never really seem to float my boat, though.

Arc (and Imo) carwashes here in the UK often have this as an option, called triple foam.

It does indeed smell like bubblegum, and it seems to do quite a good job on softening all of the dirt and detritus on the exterior of the car before it gets rinsed off.

You should get a dashcam so you can show us these mountain runs. And the crash if you bin it.

Every year we get a handful of people who try to set off the wrong way against the traffic on the mountain, someone snapped this pic at the Creg Ny Baa about an hour ago.

HOW CAN THEY NOT SEE THOSE NO ENTRY SIGNS? (And they're not the only ones, you have to drive through loads more to get to that point.)

Jesus.

I have thought about getting a dashcam but it's a ballache to fit the things properly, I'd need to get a professional to install it to make sure the wires are tidy and that.

I was hoping there's be totally wireless ones that have a rechargeable battery in them but they all seem to need to be hard wired to the 12V circuit or plugged into an accessory outlet.

Yeah, just film it holding your phone then.

I don't understand why dashcams aren't standard or at least an available option on most new cars yet.

I don't fully understand why people have them.

They're extremely useful in the event of an accident, as long as it's not your fault.

If it is your fault just delete the footage

Congratulations, now you’re tampering with evidence, which is a criminal offence.

Never going to happen. Try recording an hour of video with your phone; it’ll chew up most of the battery. Too much power needed.

Worth it, though, as you’ll be keeping this car for years.

It’s my camera. I’ll just accidentally stamp on it

Good luck with that.

Just out of curiosity, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1982) [1], the police clearly have the ability to seize your dash cam immediately on the scene, and to use reasonable force to do so. So would you be stamping on it right in front of them or what? I’d like to see what happens next.

[1]: https://www.bikerandbike.co.uk/can-poli ... a-footage/

Chances are, the micro sd card will survive.

Hearthly, it’s really quite straightforward to hardwire a dashcam.
Buy a kit with a piggyback fuse and it’s just a case of peeling back the trim round the door to feed the cable up out of sight

I always love how you answer me so sincerely and earnestly. It’s adorable.

I reckon you could swallow a micro SD quite easily.

You criminal! That would be against a law!

You cannot expect me to take this dire warning seriously if you do not provide me with the legal paragraph quotation citing the exact crime I would be guilty of. I can only take seriously the Google Man. *eats micro SD...*

<sirens>.

If there’s one thing we’re interested in here, and only one thing, it’s catching bent drivers!

Now we’re sucking diesel!

You lost me at the bit where I had to do something practical.

I think I will procure the services of a proper auto-electrical engineer to do it.

Trolley jack AND epic wheel brace.

Chewed pipe off, rubber hoses and new pipe cleaned (very oily) and fitted. All good.

By the looks of the crusty deposit on the bottom of one rubber hose it look like it’s been off before and not fitted on quite right so fingers crossed that this was the cause of my recent limp modes (gradually worked itself loose causing dip/wobbly pressure readings in the MAP sensor 5cm away)

Glad I wasn't the only one that thought this. Although if the police are allowed to use 'reasonable force' to obtain it, it could be unpleasant for all.

Had another evening run last night, I was doing an indicated 135mph over the mountain mile and a motorbike came past me like I was standing still, I reckon he was pulling 175mph or more.

I saw him coming up in my rear view mirror so eased off, moved fully into the left hand lane and flashed my left indicator to let him know he could pass safely, he even took the time to flash his left and right indicator to say thank you after he'd gone past, which I thought was quite impressive since he was going fast enough to take off if he'd been a jet powered aeroplane.

(I've seen helmetcam footage from TT visitors over the mountain mile showing speeds in excess of 180mph.)

Pardon my ignorance, but that is still illegal on the IoM, isn’t it? Or is there a special law/private mountain (which sounds ridiculous, but I dunno)/exemption because... is that where they have the famous road race?

There’s no national speed limit, so outside of towns where they have similar restricts to the uk, you can go as fast as you like.

You can still be prosecuted for dangerous driving though.

I'm sure we've done this before Mimi

There is no national speed limit on the IOM, so when you see the black diagonal line on the white circle, you are entering a stretch of road with no speed limit. That doesn't mean you have free reign to drive like an imbecile, all the other rules of the road still apply.

Additionally, over the TT fortnight, the entire mountain road is made one way when there isn't a practice or race session on, as we were having loads of head on collisions, as visiting bikers would blast over the mountain, and then go back over the mountain to have another go at it, and crash into other bikers having their blast run. IIRC it was about 2005 when they brought in the one way for TT.

The mountain road has no pedestrians, no houses, no pavements, no nothing, it's literally just a road going going from Ramsey to Douglas, around the side of a mountain.

It's a derestricted stretch of about 11 miles.

I cannot stress enough I only go for it if I get the road to myself, if I encounter any other vehicles I slow down and pass at a safe speed, but if I get the mountain mile to myself I will go flat out. I haven't managed it yet this year, last night for example I eased off to let the motorcyclist safely pass me.

Current record is 152mph in my Scooby WRX STI. (I'll have a hard job beating that in the i30 since it's limited to 155mph and TBH I think I'll run out of road before I can get to it.)

Ahhh yes here we are

https://www.beexcellenttoeachother.com/ ... 52#p907752

And yes and here's that video of a visiting biker hitting 181mph (!).

Skip to 2m20s for the 181mph bit.

Goodness, I’m so sorry I forgot! I swear I have a head like a sieve! Thank you for explaining patiently, though. I’m really surprised that there’s no national speed limit. I guess if you enjoy driving at that speed it explains why you are so big on cars, as you have access to those roads.

I can’t even imagine what it would look/feel like having a vehicle pass by at 180mph.

If you’re travelling at 150mph it would feel almost exactly like someone passing at 30mph

Michael Rutter on a stock Ducati Panigale V4 on the Isle of Man for performance bike mag...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OYaSG_IoAXk

Oh, I meant from a stationary POV!

Ha, no problem Don't tell anyone here 'cause I think they haven't noticed yet, but very occasionally I repeat myself about certain things too.



Yeah if a proper national speed limit ever gets brought in (60mph would make sense if I'm being entirely objective about it), I'd decamp to a 1.0 litre Ford Fiesta Ecoboost in a heartbeat. It's only the majesty of the mountain road and getting to drive over it every day that makes me want to have a nice (and brisk) car.

The government did a public consultation about a decade ago for replacing 'derestricted' with '60mph' (kind of like a referendum really, every household on the island got a form to fill in), and 'Leave it as it is' won by a large margin.

This car's a keeper.