francis

Sorry for resurrecting this one, but just wondering who's going as I just booked my ticket Any convoy action going on?

Saw you parked up, hope you enjoyed the show

Saw a blacked out Supra with some crazy blue LED lights kinda angel eye style late on Saturday night coming in to London. Anyone on here? I was in a Smart car, gave you a flash LOL

Photos? Sizes? are they the right offset for the Supra? Will they clear UK breaks?

Are the Jspec O2 sensors the same as the UK ones? If so I have a couple lying around...

If you're around for a while try and check out the drag racing scene there, I think they have one a week out in the desert somewhere! There are a couple of tuning shops out there. There's a couple of big retail outlets on the outskirts. Check out In-and-Out burger Buffet's are a must, Bellagio one was pretty decent from what I remember, MGM one's not bad either... The Grand Canyon, maybe hire a car and drive out there.... Have fun!

Hi there guys Well got back last week from a big road trip around France over 11 days in the Supe... Quite an experience, a lot of driving, checked out a lot of places and took a few photos along the way So we headed over on the ferry with SeaFrance costing a very resonable 50 quid return. Our first destination was Paris which is a fairly quick 3 hour drive via the toll roads (which cost about 30 euros). Parked up in an underground car park (of which there are many - wouldn't dare try street parking with the Supe even if I did manage to find a space!) - this cost 45 euros for 4 days which isn't too bad compared to London prices... Did the usual site seeing things in Paris over 3 days.... Stayed at a hotel called the "Au Pacific" which was basic but central and about 70 euros a night for a double room which seemed relatively good value. Took a trip out to the palace of Versailles too which is just a few miles out of town... Paris ain't cheap with the pound as weak as it is! Main courses at the most basic of restaurants start at 10 euros, a McDonalds meal is about 7 euros and a Croissant about 1 euro at most bakeries. After Paris we made our way down to the Alps for 4 days of skiing in Courchevel. We stayed in Chambery to break up the drive (around 6 hours from Paris to Chambery) which turned out to be a rather nice place with a nice town centre with plenty of old buildings and character. The following morning we made our way up to Courchevel 1650 which wasn't quite as bad a drive as we'd expected, a bit twisty but well travelled roads and thankfully no snow and no problems with traction in the Supra. Parked the Supra up in the multistorey car park conveniently next to our hotel at the foot of the pistes (Hotel du Golf - highly recommended!) at a cost of 50 euros for 4 days. Had 4 days of fantastic skiing, even took a brief road trip to Meribel to check out the nightlife over that side of town! Again things aren't cheap here, 180 euros for 4 day ski pass, 380 euros for 3 nights at the hotel (which was half price!), and 5 euros for a machine made piddly chocolat chaud up the mountain! So on the last day we had a morning of skiing, there was some light snow but stupidly thought nothing of it... Got back about 1pm to find a small layer of snow covering the roads, it'll be fine I stupidly thought! We packed our bags and took the Supra out of the garage and of course as soon as it hit the road outside the covered garage it lost traction and wasn't going anywhere! Tried to fit the snow chains, but couldn't get the buggers on to save my life... we were in a bit of a fiddle. My girlfriend visited the local garage to ask if they could possibly tow the car down to a safe level and they quoted her 106 euros which seemed like a relative bargain compared to the 3 euro cans of diet coke! Considering we had a non-refundable Novotel booking in Monte-Carlo that evening we decided to go for it... I arrived at the garage and after a lot of waiting around we finally left for the Supe but not in the flatbed tow truck they had but a 4x4... it turned out there had been a miscommunication and they thought the car was broken! I explained the situation and they came along on the way there... Luckily the guy obviously had a lot of practice putting chains on and made it look like child's play and had them on in seconds.... They thought it would be ok and said he would drive the Supra down half way and check everything was ok, so off we went.... It was obviously a lot better with chains but a little unstable at the front on the Eagle F1s! We made our way down the mountain until just before a bend and traffic jam where they let me take over and we handed over the money... Well you can probably guess what happened next... As I gently rolled the car around the corner at just a few mph it started to slide, applied the handbrake but it kept going and off we went in to the side of the road... Thankfully the impact sounded and mentally felt a lot worse than it was! Didn't seem to be any damage (later found a very small dent in the drivers wing) and after lots of umming and arring we were eventually pushed away from the side by police and sods law, after that bend the roads were a lot better! After that we cautiously made our way down the rest of the mountain at about 20mph with crazy French cars overtaking us left right and centre! To be fair we saw a lot of accidents on our way down and the only other sports car we saw all trip was a 997.. There was a 30 mile traffic jam going the other way on our way to the Italian border too! Anyway I guess the lesson to be learnt from that one is probably don't take a car like the Supra up the Alps in winter, especially not on summer tyres.. If it starts snowing, get the hell out of there ASAP... and always take snow chains! It's a shame we did the next part of the drive by night, I'd imagine it's pretty stunning scenery. We took a 14km tunnel across the border in to Italy... On our approach to Monaco there were hundreds of little tunnels on bendy roads which I'd imagine would be a lot of fun in the summer! Finally arrived around 10:30pm.... Thankfully things were a bit warmer down there (12 deg C) and took a look around town. It's a nice place Monaco, checked out the casino and harbour.. The following morning had a bit of a raz around town which was awesome, again lots of nice tunnels! Over the next few days we travelled along the south cost checking out Nice, Cannes, St Tropez and stayed a night in Antibes which I'd thoroughly recommend. Beautiful places, leisurely and quiet this time of year but still plenty of sun... Briefly called by Aix-en-Provence and Marsailles but decided to make our way back up staying at a Formule 1 hotel in Saint Etinne. These places are about 30 euros a night for a double+bunk bed... very basic but cheap and a-plenty. To make up for the previous night we stayed at a Chateau near Paris (Chateau d'Esclimont). Despite them having 80 odd rooms, we had the place to ourselves which was amazing! Naturally had to take a few photos of the supe here, just wished I had my SLR and the car was a bit cleaner! Spent the last day in Paris and then went up to Lille before heading to Calais. A great little adventure. The Supra was faultless.. can't really blame the small accident on her. A fantastic gran tourer that covered the 2200 miles with ease... Oh and people loved the car over there, they obviously don't see many around - can understand why so many UK spec's are now going over there! I took the liberty of calculating most of the fuel economy along the journey too.. here are some of the figures: 305 miles, 63.3l @ 1.27e/l = 21.86MPG 334 miles, 57.0l @ 1.17e/l = 26.62MPG 180 miles, 36.7l @ 1.09e/l = 22.27MPG (in the Alps) 291 miles, 56.4l @ 1.13e/l = 23.42MPG and lost track of the rest... A map of the route http://tinyurl.com/akeozm Most of that was either high speed motorway driving besides the Alps part... Anyway hope to do it again some summer and hopefully when the pound's a little stronger! Photos to follow Cheers, Francis (UK Spec TT6 now with just over 130k miles on the clock)

I used to think private plates were a bit tacky as time went on I began to appreciate them more. I bought my Supe with the plate C1 5PRA which is still on it today. I recent bought F8ANK which is on the Smart car LOL

Hey there guys, As mentioned in a previous post I'm planning a trip to France in a week, via the Alps for a few days skiing... I've come to the conclusion I'm going to need some snow chains for my UK Spec on standard UK wheels but not entirely sure where to get these from... Anyone bought some for their Supra? I've had a look on eBay but can't seem to find 255/40/17 listed on any of the fitments... If anyone has any ideas please let me know! Also if anyone has a fitting set they want to sell/rent out then please let me know! Cheers, Francis PS just realised I put show tyres in the title, what I meant was snow chains!

Hi there guys I'm planning a trip to Courchevel in a couple of weeks. I've asked around a fair bit and the consensus is that I'll probably be ok but would be stupid not to at pack snow chains just in case... Does anyone have a set suitable for a Supra on stock 17"s? Could borrow for a fee or just buy outright... Cheers! Francis

Hi there guys I'm planning a bit of a road trip at the beginning of February in the Supe... Calais, Paris, Dijon, Courchevel, Monaco and back home.... Just wondering if anyone's gone up the Alps around this time of year before? How are the driving conditions? It's not going to be too hazardous going up those twisty roads is it? I'd imagine they're well gritted... Cheers, Francis

Those seats look kinda cool but would the wrap around head rest get a bit annoying after a while? Ever sat in one?

They're right next to the place I take my Smart car to...Seem like a decent bunch but never seen a Supra there before.. would be interested to hear an opinions!

Hi there guys, I just realised that the deadline for one of my dormant companies' return is tomorrow. Normally I'd do it by WebFiling and it'd be done and dusted within a couple of minutes but I can't for the life of me find the "Authentification Code" I need to log in and the only way to get a reminder is through post.. Anyone been in a similar situation? Is there anything I can do to avoid the now £150 late filing penalty? Can I deliver the documents in person? (Their main office is in Cardiff but also looks like they have one in London). Cheers, Francis

Ouch... I went there the summer before last, 250 yen to a pound... I was surprised by how cheap everything was over there given it's reputation for being one of the most expensive cities in the world - a relative bargain compared to London, £2 for a McDonalds, £1.50 for a Starbucks coffee, cheap public transport, £100 a night for a 5 star double hotel room in central Tokyo.. Returned laden with shiny Nikon dSLR bodies and lenses.... Was there again last Christmas, 200 yen to a pound... still relatively cheap... I was planning on going again this spring but unless things reverse themselves looks like I'll be going elsewhere

Look great, how much did it cost?

That's the one!

Anyone on here? Body kitted Supe (plate A14 ???) going down High Street Ken around 5PM. I was in the smart car (F8ANK)

I've been looking at Ultima's recently too. I went along to thier open day a month back... they're amazing cars, look fantastic and in terms of speed there's very little that can touch them. After talking with a few owners and looking around several examples I decided they weren't for me - like people have mentioned, too many engine problems and they're a bit too much of a hobbyist's car for me, especially living in central London. All that said I'd love to have one when I have a bit more money and space! I've gone back to the idea of an Ariel Atom just finding it difficult to justify spending so much on a car now with the "crunch"

This sort of thing happens all the time. I used to buy and sell a lot of second hand electronics and despite agreeing to buy the stuff (and collect) on the day it was advertised there were several occasions when they'd phone me back and say they'd sold it to someone for a higher price. I agreed to buy some BBS' wheels on this forum in the past, got a call on the morning I was due to pick them up saying he'd changed his mind only to find out they'd been sold to another member... Like Chris says, once you've decided on something just go and get it and that's the best you can do.

Hey there guys, Well the Supra's about due for a service. In the three+ years I've owned her I've always taken her to Mark at Phoenix who did a great job, charged a resonable rate for a good and thorough job that I could trust. The question is, now Mark is gone where should I take her for a similar kind of service? I live in central London but am willing to travel a little bit... Cheers, Francis

Passed you on the A1 around 11am, I was in the red UK spec, as were you

I was there around 11pm last night and saw you with your girlfriend in a white Supra. I was in my Smart car at the time!

Yep, certainly did... Seems to be on the askmid.com insurance db

Hi there guys, Just wanted a little bit of advice.... I was in the car (luckily the smart) with my girlfriend driving and we were stuck at some lights. We were in front of a Skoda Octavia which in turn was in front of a tow truck. The tow truck didn't seem to be moving so quite suddenly the Skoda decided to reverse in to the front of our car (hitting it and damaging the front bumper) and then proceeded to drive off. Now obviously this is pretty annoying! We called up the police when we got back but apparently this is classed as an "accident" and is not something they deal with and should be taken up with insurers. The damage isn't that bad, and to be honest it probably isn't worth going through insurance but I really hate to have to pay to fix this and let that driver get away with it... Should the police at least get in touch with this person, or is there any way for me to do so? Cheers, Francis