roboldham

Haha, yes that about sums it up! I was treasurer of the club for a few years too

Hey folks - I've not been in these 'ere parts for a fair few moons (erm years even?) Thought I'd say hello to see if any of the old bods about? I still have my Supra - but hardly drive it any more (I now also have a GT-R too that doesnt get driven much!) .... am torn between keeping hold of the Supe as I just cant let go... or selling to an eager new person that will enjoy the ride.... Anyhoo.. hello again R

G'day folks. Well I am back on the road in my Supe - been in dry dock for 2 years whilst I have moved house, got divorced, done other projects. Got a good deal on insurance from the good guys at 2Gether Insurance (they matched the NCB that had lapsed after 2 years of disuse), good deal on 4 Falkens from Camskill. Now thanks to a certain Mr Leon Green I have had a nice day of driving a lovely tight, perfectly setup motor, new tyres, suspension and alignment setup - new discs and a few other bits. Very nice to be back behind this particular wheel. Roll on cold, dry, early spring mornings... :-) R

Howdy I've been driving Supes with hand controls for 7 years now. There are lots of complicated and increasingly expensive options available but by far the best experience I have had are with the simple push-pull type for auto / tipto boxes. They give you great mechanical feel (as they're not assisted in any way) for accelerator and brake - and, as I said on Top Gear, I firmly believe I can get on the brakes faster than the lowly foot controlled drivers - except perhaps those adept at using both feet :-). I have mine positioned so that for regular driving I have one and a half hands on the wheel and light finger usage will do the rest on the controls. For performance driving you basically learn techniques for coping with the rapid movements required, maybe use steering ball - but you wont be doing any cross-arm powersliding I'm afraid - although powersliding is doable, you just need to have more finesse than these strange folk with legs that work :-) I also have a line-lock system for launching - just on the front wheels - with the release button on the centre console, although you could put it on the steeringwheel if preferred. Linelock works better with a tipto for the silly spin-up launches that really nobody ever needs to do officer. Leon uses the simple hand control and line-lock for launching his drag Supras - and he'd fit you one no worries. I have always had tipto and the Supe is great at giving you a little leeway in time to blip the throttle for changing down - but I can't see any reason why this system is not just as good for autos. Anyway - I use a company in Herts - PB Conversions, Paul is a good guy, if you call mention my name, he has done about 6 or 7 vehicles for me in the past few years - they don't do anything especially clever although they do custom make brackets and things and are well attuned to the individuals requirements- they cost about £325 I think - no VAT if you're registered disabled. Any more Qs give us a shout R

Looking behind my faceplate the socket does not seem to be the standard BT one or the ADSL one - it seems to be a different shape. What have people been plugging into this? R

very disappointing >-(

Yar, insurance is all smoke and mirrors, always has been - the only way for it not to be is to live in a communist state where the insurance is insurance and not somebody's profit margin - but we don't want that do we? Anyway - thanks for all the input folks - have decided to go with the cheapest deal in her own name so she can start earning her own NCB, bit if a leg up. It was with Direct Line and was £1067 - cheaper next year fingers crossed! R

Well if you can afford the premiums....... R

Ok, done Diamond, done Bell, done Admiral - their online quoting sites look suspiciously similar - just different logos / colours - oh, and suspiciously similar prices - all as high as most other peeps. I rang them up and they said yes, they essentially were the same company "rating different things slightly differently" - just some money mens marketing statistics going on - bloody insurance market as smoke and mirrors as the banking sector. Glad I'm not 18 and trying to insure my first motor! So - Direct Line "best" so far, followed closely by Churchill! R

Well Direct Line winning so far - £964 in my name with au pair as named driver (but I guess she wont earn proper NCB) and £1067 for her as only driver.... Still pricey but better than the £1800+ of earlier! R

It was insured in my name originally and cost £2K to add her! I have it down to £1080 with Churchill so far.... Will try Directline and Swiftcover on the offchance! Cheers R

Hi folks We've just had the new au pair start and I can't believe the price of insurance for new drivers! She's only just 18 (March) and only just passed her test (Feb) and I'm trying to get her insured, only driver, on an L reg Corolla - worth about £600, third party FT. Best price is about £1800 - bloody stupid! Anyone know any good insurance companies / ideas? TIA Cheers R

v festive

I'm leaning towards PS3 cos it's superior tech - but if you cant bloody play DVD ISOs or VOBs without transcoding then pah! Any chit chat about regarding this as a future feature? Mind you my Xbox1 does that very well with XBMC after softmodding...sooo... another fekkin box under the telly. I'm still not HD as I haven't seen a single plasma and especially not LCD TV that beats my CRT Phillips (and doesn't look like you swallowed two acid tabs and necked a gallon of special brew) - talk about a shot in the eyes, you've been tangoed - mind you I suspect nearly every unit you see in shops is set up pretty poorly.... (actually that's a fib, I saw one plasma in a tech store in Brussels but is was 10ft across and cost £70K - lord of the rings looked damn fine) R

Hi folks Am likely to buy one of the above to play GTA4 - but what may swing it is how each performs as a media player. My main requirement is to play DVD ISOs, VOBs, DivX as well as FLAC, mp3, MPC etc. from a PC based windows share - WITHOUT ANY DAMN TRANSCODING! I would ideally prefer a PS3 as it's a serious number cruncher with a future - but can it do the above natively or easily with Linux mods? Chee-arse R