No for some reason it isn't listed, will ring the insurance tomorrow, rather annoyed really that I've been able to drive past the local nick and countless traffic cars that go past where I live and haven't been picked up on ANPR for the last week, no wonder so many scumbags drive around uninsured. I'm not sure if the car would have had an ANPR system because it wasn't a traffic car, they were still trying to make a radio call to check when I got in the car, the car also seemed to come back simultaneously registered both to myself and the previous owner, trust the DVLA to confuse things further!
Exactly, they should stop me straight away if they can't read my number plate, not follow me in a dangerous manner, the only reason they followed me would have been to try and get me for a more serious offense. They are perfectly entitled to follow me from a distance, just like any other road user but they should not be putting pressure on by driving in a manner that is plain dangerous, or (especially at night when you can't tell its a police car) makes people worried that they are being followed.
As I got stopped and given a producer form I have the PCs name and number, time and place of the incident and the reference number on top of it should make it easy for them to find notes the officers made. If there was a video evidence, which there may not being seeing as it wasn't a proper traffic car that stopped me it will definitely count against them.
To clarify I was never driving the wrong way! Only driving in the correct direction on the other carriageway heading away from where I wanted to go. I would be horrified if they had taken the decision to follow me so close if they thought I had been driving the wrong way down a dual carriageway!
I am sightly concerned about this happening, especially seeing as the local nick is at the end of the street, although it really shouldn't.
It was a fully marked Vauxhall Astra town car, I simply couldn't see it in the dark because of its headlights.
I've got a specialist policy because the car used as a rally car it covers all the modifications and includes road cover for rallies (which otherwise you have to pay for each rally). The way the policy works you get a cover note for the first month to give you time to submit information about the car and photos of it, I only took the policy out a week ago. Quite why its not on the police database I'm not sure but took the paperwork yesterday and it was accepted no problems.
Should I make a police complaint?
Last night I was returning from competing in a road rally. My navigator had gone home separately so I made the rather poor navigational error of getting on the dual carriageway in the wrong direction! After about a mile on the dual carriageway I came to a roundabout, which I wasn't expecting. I went round it a couple of times to establish the error I had made and which way I needed to go then went back up the same piece of dual carriageway. I was driving at about 70mph on a completely empty dual carriageway when, having just gone past the slip road I should have used in the first place, a set of bright lights approached from speed in my mirror and then sat on my bumper. I first assumed it was probably another rally competitor trying to get me to drive back in a spirited fashion, having just done a rally driving fast and wasting fuel whilst risking getting a ticket was not something that appealed to me.
After about 30 seconds the car was still very close behind me so I flashed my fog lights at it, hoping the site of red lights would give it a scare, the car behind did seem to slow down but then came back and sat on my bumper, still making no attempt to pass on an empty dual carriageway. In frustration I eased off the throttle and slowed to 60mph, still no attempt was made to make a pass. Rather worried that this brain dead idiot behind me was going to end up in my bumper I then started braking very gently down to about 40mph, still it just stuck there. I started weighing up whether I was going to pull into the layby ahead and confront someone who could have been deliberately trying to make me stop, alone on an empty dual carriageway at 11.30pm or dialing 999, and potentially getting somebody I knew getting stopped for driving like a tosser.
The last possible thing that I was expecting was my mirror to fill with blue lights! I was half relieved that I wasn't about to meet someone nasty, my feelings soon changed when I realised that I had just been intimidated and been put at unnecessary risk of genuine danger by someone who was meant to be a professional driver, let alone a police officer, and that's before we get to the possibility of entrapment/fowl play. Getting out I found out that I had been stopped by an Astra, and given the lack of white hats, I think not even a traffic car.
The explanation given was they were trying to read my number plate, admittedly it was muddy from the rally but I could read it without issue from the backseat. I don't think this explanation justifies a following a car for what must have been about 5 miles, when they were going to stop me for it all along anyway. Unfortunately I then learnt that the insurance had come back negative, this nugget of information meant I had to do everything possible to avoid getting the car seized. Having explained my specialist policy with Competition Car Insurance I think he was satisfied, that there was a reasonably high chance I was insured and rather bemused. After a good check round they couldn't find anything other than the rally bits, rather glad that they didn't consider the car I had just be rallying with defective.
Was told they had suspected I had been drink driving when they saw me go round the roundabout, must have been from a distance because I didn't see any other cars. They told me that I hadn't indicated correctly at the roundabout and could get 3 points for driving without due care and attention for it, I think its unlikely that they'll be able to provide evidence of this given how far away they must have been. Then told me I could get 3 points for dangerous driving for the slowing down, again reckon with video evidence they'd be unable to justify how close they were or that I didn't slow down in as safe a manner as I could, and also there is the argument that the slower I was traveling when I actually needed to brake the smaller the accident would have been.
In the end I got a producer for insurance and MOT, went and did it today.
Given the ridiculously dangerous driving, which in all probability was a case of attempted entrapment trying to make me speed up or do something stupid, I would fully support 3 points and a fine at the very least for any member of the public tailgating like this. I do want to take it further, not to get back at anybody, but to hopefully to stop this happening in the future. In fairness the officers who stopped me were polite and reasonable and the driver certainly seemed to feel rather small once I had a go at his driving standards, even if he couldn't bring himself to appologise. Having read a bit about it I don't want to make a formal complaint and ideally would like to be able to talk to someone who takes it seriously and can give those responsible a bollocking and hopefully stop them doing it again.
Has anyone had any experience with making similar complaints and is it worth bothering doing? Other cases on the web would suggest there is little point in bothering but normally they weren't actually pulled over and as a result don't have the details of those involved. I still have my producer notice giving all the details needed.
After about 30 seconds the car was still very close behind me so I flashed my fog lights at it, hoping the site of red lights would give it a scare, the car behind did seem to slow down but then came back and sat on my bumper, still making no attempt to pass on an empty dual carriageway. In frustration I eased off the throttle and slowed to 60mph, still no attempt was made to make a pass. Rather worried that this brain dead idiot behind me was going to end up in my bumper I then started braking very gently down to about 40mph, still it just stuck there. I started weighing up whether I was going to pull into the layby ahead and confront someone who could have been deliberately trying to make me stop, alone on an empty dual carriageway at 11.30pm or dialing 999, and potentially getting somebody I knew getting stopped for driving like a tosser.
The last possible thing that I was expecting was my mirror to fill with blue lights! I was half relieved that I wasn't about to meet someone nasty, my feelings soon changed when I realised that I had just been intimidated and been put at unnecessary risk of genuine danger by someone who was meant to be a professional driver, let alone a police officer, and that's before we get to the possibility of entrapment/fowl play. Getting out I found out that I had been stopped by an Astra, and given the lack of white hats, I think not even a traffic car.
The explanation given was they were trying to read my number plate, admittedly it was muddy from the rally but I could read it without issue from the backseat. I don't think this explanation justifies a following a car for what must have been about 5 miles, when they were going to stop me for it all along anyway. Unfortunately I then learnt that the insurance had come back negative, this nugget of information meant I had to do everything possible to avoid getting the car seized. Having explained my specialist policy with Competition Car Insurance I think he was satisfied, that there was a reasonably high chance I was insured and rather bemused. After a good check round they couldn't find anything other than the rally bits, rather glad that they didn't consider the car I had just be rallying with defective.
Was told they had suspected I had been drink driving when they saw me go round the roundabout, must have been from a distance because I didn't see any other cars. They told me that I hadn't indicated correctly at the roundabout and could get 3 points for driving without due care and attention for it, I think its unlikely that they'll be able to provide evidence of this given how far away they must have been. Then told me I could get 3 points for dangerous driving for the slowing down, again reckon with video evidence they'd be unable to justify how close they were or that I didn't slow down in as safe a manner as I could, and also there is the argument that the slower I was traveling when I actually needed to brake the smaller the accident would have been.
In the end I got a producer for insurance and MOT, went and did it today.
Given the ridiculously dangerous driving, which in all probability was a case of attempted entrapment trying to make me speed up or do something stupid, I would fully support 3 points and a fine at the very least for any member of the public tailgating like this. I do want to take it further, not to get back at anybody, but to hopefully to stop this happening in the future. In fairness the officers who stopped me were polite and reasonable and the driver certainly seemed to feel rather small once I had a go at his driving standards, even if he couldn't bring himself to appologise. Having read a bit about it I don't want to make a formal complaint and ideally would like to be able to talk to someone who takes it seriously and can give those responsible a bollocking and hopefully stop them doing it again.
Has anyone had any experience with making similar complaints and is it worth bothering doing? Other cases on the web would suggest there is little point in bothering but normally they weren't actually pulled over and as a result don't have the details of those involved. I still have my producer notice giving all the details needed.
What an uneducated fool you are :doh:
There is freedom of movement within all EU nations (which in case you hadn't realised the UK and France both are). French workers are legally entitled to come here, work and claim benefits just like you can go to France to do the same. I think few French people choose to hang on the bottom of trucks to save £20 on a ferry ticket...
Apart from still doing the needless acceleration and braking accelerating before speed bumps will load the rear of the car and cause it to crash rather than the front.
Speed bumps do are not designed to stop people, the harder you brake the harder the bump is going to be, because you load the front end of the car, meaning you run out of suspension travel and make any bits on the underside of your car slightly closer to the bump. The best way to take speed bumps is at a fairly constant speed, with no braking, this can glide over them a lot faster than most people who brake for them and go over them damaging their cars. If drivers were properly educated conventional full width speed bumps would be an effective way of making people drive at a sensible speed without damaging cars or causing them to waste fuel and time stop starting. Calling them a safety device is a different matter though, because they are distracting and will be a hindrance to anybody needing to stop or change direction quickly.
Install doesn't work for me it completes copying files very quickly and only leaves me with the uninstall files in the folder 
A lot of cars with McPherson strut suspension allow some kind of crude camber adjustment, on mk2 Golfs it is simply a slightly oversize hole allowing the strut to be positioned as to compensate for damage, though most people usually try and bolt it to get the maximum static camber. Most of these systems though will only allow for half a degree or so adjustment around the designed camber, simply to compensate wear and tear, they are not truly adjustable.
Randomly lowering a car with springs of unknown stiffness is a totally pointless exercise, bound to make things worse.
Sorry but this just isn't true, many entry level race series only allow the friction material and fluid to be changed. Standard brakes work fine if they are driven properly, your Focus driver was just being too hard on them. People raced drum braked vintage cars without issue, obviously if you put this wannabee Stig in one he'd kill himself but it's just like cooking tyres, driver error.
For the record everyday road pads and fluid on a standard 1.6 Focus are good for about 30 minutes trackday driving before the pads start to fade.
You would never choose to have a full locking all the time if you had the option of a perfect indestructible LSD though would you (assuming we're not talking about very high power endurance cars here)?
Get the GPL 2004 demo and you can install mods/new tracks to it, all you miss is the original tracks, it is worth paying £5 for them anyway though
Going to have to go and get my GPL working again now...
Is the PC multiplayer actually going to be maximum of 18 players/straight console port, I had at least assumed that the multiplayer experience would be similar to previous CoD games but with matchmaking instead of private servers, that would have been bad enough. If it is a straight console port I can't see anyway that it'll be able to compete with MW1 or CoD5
How could you possibly buy part worn tyres without realising it, surely you performed at least a very basic visual inspection of the item you bought? And presumably if it's only tyres being fitted watched them fit them? And did you not check that your new tyres were holding pressure/showing no signs of incorrect fitment a couple of days after getting them?
Good quality part worn tyres should not be worn/damaged enough to allow for failure/wear patterns like that, if they are then obviously a basic visual check wasn't performed when they were fitted.
Looks like you had a laugh. For considerably cheaper fun I'd recommend anybody to look at auto solos. I had a great time doing the Oxford Motor Club auto solo on the same car park as Jakg for only £35 for a full days action.
Brilliant fun and the course was sufficiently open and fast in places for even the Volvo (temporary replacement for the Lada) to get to stretch its legs well into second gear, and somehow didn't finish last!
Brilliant fun and the course was sufficiently open and fast in places for even the Volvo (temporary replacement for the Lada) to get to stretch its legs well into second gear, and somehow didn't finish last!
It's about £700 a set for hard endurance compound Dunlop slicks for the BMWs I work with, a slightly smaller tyre may cost a bit less but I'd still expect you to be paying over £500, the same money for a set of good semi-slicks.
Buying new is crazy if you're just buying them for the sake of going that bit faster, get some part worns in a size that is close enough and find wheels that will fit, most cars running on slicks don't run on standard sized wheels. If you speak nicely to the tyre fitters at race meetings they'll often give away tyres that people have chosen not to take back, the amount of teams that don't bother keeping tyres that would be perfectly good for spares or testing is remarkable. If you can't get rejects from tyre companies then speaking to race teams about buying used tyres is also an option, my mate who races a single seater gets his tyres for a fraction of the cost of buying them new and hald they're barely scrubbed in.
If you haven't driven on semi-slicks I'd recommend trying them first, the difference in grip is phenomenal and in character they're closer to slicks than road tyres, just you can drive on the road with them if you have too and can quite safely race on them in the wet.
Buying new is crazy if you're just buying them for the sake of going that bit faster, get some part worns in a size that is close enough and find wheels that will fit, most cars running on slicks don't run on standard sized wheels. If you speak nicely to the tyre fitters at race meetings they'll often give away tyres that people have chosen not to take back, the amount of teams that don't bother keeping tyres that would be perfectly good for spares or testing is remarkable. If you can't get rejects from tyre companies then speaking to race teams about buying used tyres is also an option, my mate who races a single seater gets his tyres for a fraction of the cost of buying them new and hald they're barely scrubbed in.
If you haven't driven on semi-slicks I'd recommend trying them first, the difference in grip is phenomenal and in character they're closer to slicks than road tyres, just you can drive on the road with them if you have too and can quite safely race on them in the wet.
You're looking at tiny tyres though.
If you want cheap, safe tyres then part worns (not remoulds) may be the way to go, there's a tyre depot near me that does them for £15 a tyre fitted and normally they're branded tyres with around 8mm of tread left, taken off on the continent either when they fail their much stricter tests or when they change to winter tyres. You'll be better off on decent worn tyres than cheap rubbish, but there's nothing wrong with cheap rubbish unless you need to drive it fast in all conditions.
You had an enormous thread moaning about your fuel efficiency yet you don't want to fit fuel efficient tyres? Unless you need the extra performance offered (you don't) then there's no point in wasting fuel with tyres that'll just slow you down.
Look round local tyre depots for better deals than online, I got Continental Eco 3s for £40, but I only went for a premium tyre because I wanted tyres that were good near the limit in the wet for rallying. By good I really mean tyres that are easier to drive on and don't behave unexpectedly when push to the limit, not outright grip. If you're driving a Proton and it starts raining then simply slow down to a sensible speed. Stopping distances are nearly all down to the driver, reacting in time, braking correctly (either hard enough to activate the ABS or not locking up when they don't have it).
On a serious side note given what Tristan has mentioned it is worth going and finding an empty strip of road and finding out just how quickly you can stop from speed even on shitty tyres, you'll be amazed at just how quickly a modern road car can stop.
Apparently they do drop off quite suddenly and can catch you unawares, according to a couple of mates who've ended up in ditches using them...
Have you looked at the coil/coil packs? They can be a drain on everything else when they start to go wrong, find a manual and check the resistances.
Other than that you may well have a mouse in the wiring type problem, the Lada disgraced itself and had to be towed back from Goodwood after the ignition circuit just stopped working. We finally tracked the issue down to a wire under the (horrible single piece) dashboard and with the wiring diagram in the manual bearing no resemblence to the car called the AA, who concluded the same thing and also didn't fancy tackling the dash in a field at night.
Apparantely three of the most common issues they have are animals chewing wiring (they're particuarly attracted to yellow wiring for some reason), dodgey connections (on new cars they often aren't pressed together fully on older cars damaged pins) and the old favourite intermittent earthing (probably your issue).
You must work for Kwik fit... :doh:
Other than that you may well have a mouse in the wiring type problem, the Lada disgraced itself and had to be towed back from Goodwood after the ignition circuit just stopped working. We finally tracked the issue down to a wire under the (horrible single piece) dashboard and with the wiring diagram in the manual bearing no resemblence to the car called the AA, who concluded the same thing and also didn't fancy tackling the dash in a field at night.
Apparantely three of the most common issues they have are animals chewing wiring (they're particuarly attracted to yellow wiring for some reason), dodgey connections (on new cars they often aren't pressed together fully on older cars damaged pins) and the old favourite intermittent earthing (probably your issue).
You must work for Kwik fit... :doh:
Back from a highly enjoyable and eventful Goodwood 
We arrived on Wednesday to find our rather Heath Robinson trailer's front axle had come completely detached, held in place only be the weight of the car on it! We managed to get someone from the Goodwood estate workshop to comprehensively weld the axle back onto the frame of the trailer (it may now have no suspension but at least it's not going to fall apart anytime soon!).
Having fixed the trailer we somehow managed to get the Elva through scrutineering and the driver took it off for a thrash down the road before going to the cricket match on Thursday (the engine had only just been rebuilt and it was MOTed the Saturday before hand). It soon became very apparant that the discs were badly warped after its last race outing (a whole four years ago!). Whilst the warped discs would be liveable we soon found they the clearance between the caliper and disc was so small that now they were warped the caliper was fouling the disc. Having heard that there was a workshop on site we optimistically thought we would be able to get the discs skimmed or at the very least mill some material off the caliper carrier. The workshop turned out to be a small hut with a vice and hammer, upon explaining our situation the high tech solution offered was a file and the little period van had to drive back to the main workshop to pick it up!
We managed to get the brakes bearable and went for practice on Friday, the car ran suprisingly well until it blew a head gasket on the 7th lap, still getting 16th out of 30 on the grid despite its early exit. The gasket had burnt through between 3 and 4 leaving a scorch mark on the head but not the block (a result of forgetting to add lead additive to pump fuel :doh. By chance we managed to find a guy who ran a head shop and two of the team went with him to get it skimmed whilst the rest of us went to a cocktail party at Rolls Royce, summed up nicely by the comment 'they make good cars for a champange factory...'. The head returned and we somehow managed to strip and clean it that night rather merry.
On race day the head arrived at our pit via wheel barrow (the ultimate prop for gaining access anywhere!) and was back in plenty of time for our race. The car ran perfectly in the race, we lost a few places due to a car stalling ahead on the grid and went on to finish a respectable 18th.
Sunday was rather more relaxed watching racing, including the mechanic of the Cooper in the photo who diagnosed a carb problem by feeling exhaust manifolds with his fingers!
We arrived on Wednesday to find our rather Heath Robinson trailer's front axle had come completely detached, held in place only be the weight of the car on it! We managed to get someone from the Goodwood estate workshop to comprehensively weld the axle back onto the frame of the trailer (it may now have no suspension but at least it's not going to fall apart anytime soon!).
Having fixed the trailer we somehow managed to get the Elva through scrutineering and the driver took it off for a thrash down the road before going to the cricket match on Thursday (the engine had only just been rebuilt and it was MOTed the Saturday before hand). It soon became very apparant that the discs were badly warped after its last race outing (a whole four years ago!). Whilst the warped discs would be liveable we soon found they the clearance between the caliper and disc was so small that now they were warped the caliper was fouling the disc. Having heard that there was a workshop on site we optimistically thought we would be able to get the discs skimmed or at the very least mill some material off the caliper carrier. The workshop turned out to be a small hut with a vice and hammer, upon explaining our situation the high tech solution offered was a file and the little period van had to drive back to the main workshop to pick it up!
We managed to get the brakes bearable and went for practice on Friday, the car ran suprisingly well until it blew a head gasket on the 7th lap, still getting 16th out of 30 on the grid despite its early exit. The gasket had burnt through between 3 and 4 leaving a scorch mark on the head but not the block (a result of forgetting to add lead additive to pump fuel :doh
. By chance we managed to find a guy who ran a head shop and two of the team went with him to get it skimmed whilst the rest of us went to a cocktail party at Rolls Royce, summed up nicely by the comment 'they make good cars for a champange factory...'. The head returned and we somehow managed to strip and clean it that night rather merry.On race day the head arrived at our pit via wheel barrow (the ultimate prop for gaining access anywhere!) and was back in plenty of time for our race. The car ran perfectly in the race, we lost a few places due to a car stalling ahead on the grid and went on to finish a respectable 18th.
Sunday was rather more relaxed watching racing, including the mechanic of the Cooper in the photo who diagnosed a carb problem by feeling exhaust manifolds with his fingers!
If you live at home you'll miss out on nearly everything uni offers. I didn't really like anybody in my flat in halls, which maybe kicked me into socialising more with people in other flats, you will make good friends if you stick to it. Forget about trying to maintain old friends, the true friendships you have will stick with you for life even if you only meet up at Christmas, the more general social crowd you know will soon disperse, people will move on and whilst it'll be fun to reminisce when you bump into such characters there's no point in clinging on.
As others have said uni gives you the perfect opportunity to move out of home and become independent, with everyone in the same boat it makes things much easier. If you just come in for lectures your unlikely to be able to see anybody for long enough to make true friends. Stick to it and join some societies, you're bound to find one full of like minded people who link you into a much wider network of friends. Whatever you do don't just sit in your room worrying about everything, you will soon get more confident and the more you try the more confident you'll get. Take all the opportunities that come your way without thinking too hard about them, you'll never get them again.
It's also worth noting that if you really want to move rooms or halls your university will go out of their way to try and help you.
As others have said uni gives you the perfect opportunity to move out of home and become independent, with everyone in the same boat it makes things much easier. If you just come in for lectures your unlikely to be able to see anybody for long enough to make true friends. Stick to it and join some societies, you're bound to find one full of like minded people who link you into a much wider network of friends. Whatever you do don't just sit in your room worrying about everything, you will soon get more confident and the more you try the more confident you'll get. Take all the opportunities that come your way without thinking too hard about them, you'll never get them again.
It's also worth noting that if you really want to move rooms or halls your university will go out of their way to try and help you.
Goodwood Revival 2009
Is anyone here going to the Revival this year?
I'll be spannering for the OUMF's (Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation) Elva Courier, watch out for us #3 in the Fordwater Trophy (last race on Saturday).
Piccy attached of the last time the Elva went to Goodwood...
...and some more
I'll be spannering for the OUMF's (Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation) Elva Courier, watch out for us #3 in the Fordwater Trophy (last race on Saturday).
Piccy attached of the last time the Elva went to Goodwood...
...and some more
The R888s are useable as a road tyre (though I wouldn't recommend it). The A048s produce a lot of road noise and wear out much faster than the R888s. In terms of out right grip the A048s are probably better than the R888s and suprisingly good in the wet (haven't driven the R888s in the wet). Overall the harder compound R888s are probably the best tyres for general track use where out right pace isn't important.
It's much easier to just use s = ut + 0.5at^2
s = -29x6 + 0.5x9.81x36
= 2.58
The same answer as J@kto's working should have given but with no rounding errors.
s = -29x6 + 0.5x9.81x36
= 2.58
The same answer as J@kto's working should have given but with no rounding errors.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG