Digsy

Very likely a knackered alternator. When mine went the battery light was pretty much the last warning lamp to come on. Other telltale signs would be oil level (orange oil can) coming on at low rpm, and catalyst temperature is you have an NA.

Tremendous though this is as a project, I think anyone buying this should expect to become part of the development process. I'd love to know more about the engineering behind it - and not just "we picked this part from here and that part from there and put them together". There really ought to be some serious number crunching behind something as complex as this.

This: External drive with RAID. Relatively cheap, upgradable if you pick the correct unit, and simple to maintain. I have two ReadyNAS RAIDS. My 4Tb unit holds all my data inlcuding my media library, and is RAIDed across 2x 4TB disks. My older unit has 2x 2TB disks and stores a backup of everything apart my DVD rips. The two NAS's talk to each other and handle the backups between themsevles so there is no need to run any kind of backup software on my PC. I think the cloud storage will wait for everyone to get reliant upon it and then start jackingup the prices. I am using my free OneDrive allocation at the moment for (non naked) pictures taken with my phone.

I was wondering this also, and on the face of it, it would seem possible. The only thing that bothers me is that "regular" BT master socket facplates have a removable section specifically to allow you to easily connect the extension wiring, so it seems odd that the fibre mater sockets do not. Maybe there is a reason why you shouldn't? I would probably just give it a go, though. If you do it right it will be no different (electrically) to plugging in a multiway adaptor. If the magic smoke comes out you can always remove it and plead ignorance

That's not a stock Supra. Facelift indicators and front bumper trim, but non-facelift head lights. Also, white pained wheels.

Hmmm. Well if Kistlers still roll in at four figures plus the cost of the DSP then its no surprise that no one outside of OEM world uses them. I thought that AVL came out with a kit aimed at hobbyists and small businesses a few years back?

Just wondering why none of the big-power tuners with money to burn don't invest in a set of Kistler spark plugs and engineer things like this properly before you get anywhere near wrecking an engine? Thumbnail calcs for head bolt cover factor aren't difficult but you do need to know what cylinder pressure you are going to be running (plus the mechanical properties of the bolt, but the bolt supplier should be able to tell you this, and if they can't they shouldn't really be supplying bolts). Incidentally, over torquing a head bolt can be just as bad as under torquing, as all that clamp load still has to be transmitted down the bolt boss and into the flame face. If the surrounding head structure isn't stiff enough then you will just deform the head and/or the cylinder bores. Its also perfectly possible that the head flame face simply isn't stiff enough to stop lifting no matter how hard you nail it down at the corners, unless you fit an exotic seal around the combustion chamber, as CW has already suggested. Regarding flame face surface finish, I've expressed reservations on here before about getting the surface finish right after skimming. Unless you want to pay to take the head to a third party lab to have the surface finish checked independently, I'd be surprised if many machine shops could absolutely guarantee getting the surface finish right. However, most head skims do seem to work. I think the issue here is what is going on inside the combustion chamber and not the surface finish.

Ran my SZ as a daily drive and my only car for 9 years, clocking up about 18,000 miles per year (about 6 years longer than I planned to keep it!)

Well, Audi has an online finance calculator. Comparing PCP and lease like-for-like with the same term, initial deposit and annual mileage, yeah you will pay through the nose for PCP because the deal is so short. However the Audi calculator still says tha car will have over £20k of value left in it at the end, so that part still doesn't stack up. Also, if you have £6k to put down, then the monthly payments should be under £300, not over £400. If you extended it to 4 years (which I understand you may not want to do) the payments would be about £280 per month and you would still have £16k value left in the car at the end. Maybe your local Audi dealer is trying to pull a fast one? These deals are available nationally, so it is not like they can put one thing on the website and then offer you something when you walk in the door.

That all sounds very odd. None of the main dealers I visited (VW, BMW, Ford, Skoda, Vauxhall, Volvo, Merdedes) specified a default or minimum amount for the deposit. As far as I could tell It could literally be as much or as little as I wanted. It doesn't sound right that Audi wants a large deposit AND large monthly payments, and then are still saying the residual value will be low on a short deal with average mileage. Maybe its becaue on such a short deal they cannot make enough money off the finance on a 2-year scheme. Is this PCP on a new car or a 2nd hand car?

Hmm, OK well that's not what I found (lease versus PCP) but I guess it differs for individual deals and different cars...

Are you comparing finance for buying outright to leasing, or finance for a short-term PCP and then simply handing the car back at the end of the deal? The latter means you don't have to worry about selling the car again, as the dealer simply takes it off your hands (provided it is in good nick - same as a lease scheme).

I know you said "no PCP" but when I looked into getting my last car there was practically no difference between the financial side of getting a car on lease or on PCP. The initial outlay (deposit or initial rental) was similar and the monthly finance or rental fee was about the same. In fact I initially set out to get a car on lease but changed my mind and went for PCP because I couldn't see any advantages for leasing. A lot of PCP finances chemes also throw in the first few services now, as well. I got a Merc B180 Sport Executive for £3000 down and £356 per month with three services thrown in, over 4 years @ 20,000 miles per year. Plus I have the option of using the a proportion of the resale value (supposedly about £8000) of the car as a deposit on my next one. I just looked at a leasing website and the equivalent lease deal is: £2873 down (9 months rental), £319 per month, 4 years, 20000miles no servicing - and obviously no residual value. I think maybe leasing makes more sense if you run a business. Have a colleague who is self employed and both he and his wife (who is an employee of his company) lease their cars.

IMHO these semi-legal subscription based services days are numbered. I can't see the providers letting these loopholes stay open for long and I certainly wouldn't base a long term media solution around them if there was any significant outlay involved. If it only costs a few quid to set up then fine, enjoy it while it lasts I guess, but I wouldn't want my personal details linked via my subscription info to anything shady just in case someone decided to have a crackdown. Before smart TVs, back when HTPC's were "cool" (or as cool as they ever would be), there was no easy way to add Sky to a single box solution. Despite claims to the contrary, every thread on AV Forums which started out as a "here's how to do it" eventually dissolved into constant updates on "how to keep it working as Sky keeps changing things". Even the phone app I used to set remote recordings on Sky was being updated several times a month as Sky kept changing the way the boxes validated their account details, until it eventually stopped working altogether.

Probably because the overall callout on Supra spares is now very low, and if the tooling for complex parts like lights is still being replaced or re-furbished then the amortisation of the tooling cost over the remaining parts quantity will now be disproportionatly high. The tooling doesnt get any cheaper just because fewer people are buying the parts! If Toyota wanted to increase profits or screw over its customers they would do better to add £1 to the cost of a set of Yaris brake pads rather than add several hundered pounds to the cost of a Supra headlight.

If she's not bothered about passing her test unless you buy her a car, and the car also has to be something you would want to drive, then why not consider buying yourself a second car and just adding her as a named driver? Who will be paying the running costs? If it is you then it may as well be your car

My external drive supports USB and eSATA and has its own power supply, so its only the data side I am concerned with. I checked by mobo manual last night and it says the on-board SATA ports support hot plugging, so I should be OK with just the cheapo adaptor cable / plate.

I would like to add at least one eSATA port to my home PC. Is an eSATA port simply an internal SATA connection rouetd to the back of the PC - i.e. you just need an adapter cable linked to a backplate as per THIS. ...or is eSATA something completely different and therefore you need a proper eSATA controller, like THIS. I have plenty of spare SATA connections on my motherboard, so I don't want to buy a controller card if a simple adapter will do. Thanks! *EDIT* I know that if I want the drive to be hot-swappable (which I do) then the simple adapter option will only work if my mobo supports hot swapping, so maybe that answers my own question: I will only need the full controller card if my mobo won't support the hot swap feature.

I've used some of that software they use on Time Team to do a reconstruction based on the photo. [ATTACH=CONFIG]213574[/ATTACH]

Just playing devil's advocate here but how do you know this? Social media? One of my FB friends once shared a post showing some very disturbing images of the aftermath of a coalition air raid. Turns out they were all from different and completely non-related events around the world. The image that showed the jets bombing the target was CGI. A complete fabrication. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but if civilans are being killed in their hundreds on a daily basis I would have though it would be common knowledge by now, regardless of the lack of mainstream media reporting, and there would be no need for these fabricated stories, designed to drum up even more hatred for the West.

Or the deliberate targetting of civillians, which is a very relevant topic given the rise of terrorist action round the world. Most of the major players in WW2 staged major air raids on civilian areas. In fact it may have been Britain that started it, both by accidentally bombing resedential areas during raids targetted on German industry and shortly after by deliberate action. The bombing of German cities by British bombers is what caused Hitler to switch from bombing military targets to UK cities during a critical stage of the Battle of Britian which gave Fighter Command time to regroup and recover and ultimately win the battle. America also bombed Germany and later on Japan. Japan obviously could not bomb Europe and America but I think they have a less than stellatr record with raids on countires that they could reach. Hitler also wanted a bomber that could reach America but it came too late in the war to be useful. Finally, the ultimate development of the V2 would have been a true ICBM with global reach. The strategic targetting of civillians by all sides remains a controvertial issue to this day. I'm not a big fan of revisionist history, especially by people who have had over 70 years of peace in which to review all the data and debate the actions of those in command at the time. But the fact all powers who were able to do this actualy did it means that in the prospect of a global war an equal deterrent is required to maintain a balance. If one side decides to publicly state that there is a line that they are not willing to cross in defense of their country (or their allies) then all an enemy has to do is be prepared to cross that line. This is exactly how terrorism works. In a "symmetric" war, combatants fight combatants and if combatants fight civillians on one side then equal retalliation can happen. In an assymmetric war (i.e US vs Vietnam, Russia vs Afghanistan, ISIS vs everyone else) one side sees the general populace as legitimate targets whereas the other side cannot justify targetting anything other than combatants. I would go as far as to say that no nation has ever fought an assymmetric war and won a decisive and lasting victory.

Possibly relevant article on the BBC website today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36852805 It will be "interesting" to see what happens if America heads back to being more a more isolationist nation, as they were pre WW1 and pre WW2. They weren't exactly champing at the bit to get into either (not having a pop at the Americans here - that was just their policy at those times). I don't think that Roosevelt's first reaction when he heard that Pearl Harbour was being attacked was "Hot diggety! We're all gonna get rich out of this!" Besides, post WW2, America supplied about $120bn (in today's value) of aid to Europe in the form of grants and low-interest loans under the Marshall plan. Its difficult to find an accurate figure for the cost of the war, but it runs into the thousands of billions. They also taught the Japanese how to mass produce cars (based on their bomber manufacturing techniques), and look just how that ended up

Germany disallowed themselves any home grown nuclear arsenal by signing up to the Non Proliferation Treaty. However the US does station air dropped tactical weapons on German soil. They don't have a strategic capability.

Anyway, forget the missiles. This is the scariest thing I've ever read [ATTACH=CONFIG]213441[/ATTACH]