Martin Keene

Both penalties were fair and if I was Schumacher I wouldn't kick up too much because he could have got much worse. Alonso got 1 sec for the brake test and another 1 sec for overtaking 1 car under yellow. Schumacher got 2 secs for overtaking 3 cars under red, so the stewards could easily have made that 1 sec for each car, or even worse because overtaking under red is the biggest no-no in motorsport... But, all that said I would like to see the video footage of Schumachers incident, because it wasn't shown, and during his interview he seemed to be indicating the one of the cars he overtook was Alonso and that Alonso had braked and Schumacher had gone past before he could do anything. Which if true is a bit naughty on Alonso's part...

A good coat of plain white elmusion will do it...

Ding... Car manufacturers do *everything* for cost reasons. I'm not saying the dunlops will have less grip / less noise / better wear /etc, but if they do it will have been a very small factor compared to the potential cost saving. At the end of the day they are building cars to make money...

Hi Darren Have you found the Westfield forum yet? Martin PS: Aplogies if you have...

We *need* some pictures of that... Is it matt black as well? We are 2 drivers, 3 cars... Octavia vRS Westfield Puma (SWMBO) Other half is thinking of doing her bike test, so we might add a CBR 125 to that list as well yet...

Most people think spare bulb kits, hi viz jackets, warning triangles, ect and all that get are legall requirements in France. But it is an urban myth, take a look... Requirements for driving in France from the RAC The *only* things legally required are a GB sticker if you don't have Euro plates, insurance green card, and headlamp convertors... Everything, and I do mean *everything* else is advisory... And I'll bet you won't find any of it in a French car if you pulled one over!

They are way sticker than anything mentioned above. I have got Yoko A048R fitted to my Westfield and they are similar to those. Only tyres I know of that are noticeably stickier are Avon ACB10, Formula Ford wet which is also road legal in certain sizes/compounds, and Avon CR500, which was specifically designed for the Caterham R500. I can only comment on the A048R, but the 888 are supposed to be the same. In 'normal' wet conditions I find them better than the Yoko A520 I had fitted to the Westfield, but I always had the feeling that the Westfield was never heavy enough to push the tyre through the water to the surface to find the grip. Where as the A048R, being softer seems to be able to. However, in 'very' wet conditions, with lots of standing water/puddles/etc then they get a bit interesting because they simply don't have enough tread or depth of tread to cut through the water and end up riding on it instead.

Not directly. But a lot of people run them on Westfields. Don't expect to get much life out of them... 3-4000 road miles as been know to finish them off. So I reckon you'd be doing well to get 2000 miles on a Fabia. All this assumes they are the same compound, I'm not aware of other compounds for the 888 yet.

Thinking outside the box for a moment, is it possible to move the door at all?

I had an Astra, a late mk3 2.0 16v sport, and I was quite happy with it until I started to do some work on it myself and found out quite how shocking the engineering was... For example: 1) the front lower wishbone is held in with 2 bolts. Very good. Except the rearmost of these 2 bolts is the only bolt on that holds that corner of the sub-frame to the car as well... :eek: 2) Changed the alternator, and in doing so found the live feed (as in permenent, non fused, direct from battery with 1/2" cable) to the starter motor was 10mm away from the engine block and un-insulated... :eek: :eek: Wrote it off a few weeks later. Somebody said "Aren't you upset about writing the car off?" Nope, best thing that ever happened to it...

I saw it in the paddock and didn't even give it a second look. So find any old picture of a white G reg transit and it will do just fine...

2nd time for me and we have got the perfect solution for it. Drive down friday am, spend all day friday doing the paddocks, supercars, exhibitors, etc. We then spend Saturday am watching the first run up the hill, from the ijnside of turn 2 and the go and watch the top paddock for the saturday afternoon. Doing it this way means we see everything in the paddocks *and* everything go up the hil, it because we aren't there on sunday the crowds are nice and manageble. Oh it helkps that I mates with the deputy marshall for the top paddock and when we watch the top paddock we are actually in it... My goodwood programme from this year is nearly priceless. It has been signed by Alan McNish, Charlie Boorman, Petter Solberg, Nigel Mansell and Sir Stirling Moss. And there the ones I got, also bumped into Colin McRae, Tom Kirstenson (spelling?) Mika Hakininen (spelling?) Anthony Davidson, Jackie Stewart, Mark Webber, and a lot more I've forgotten... Bit star struck!

Interesting, proves mine was indeed built wearing 16" wheels, not the 17" that I have always had a niggling concern that had been nicked in the past. Maybe the dealer was telling the truth that the first cars were built with 16" as standard...

My '01 Y plate also has a faded boot spoiler, but the rest seems to be holding up nicely. Nice to read that they polish up well, because that is on my 'To Do' list for the near future...

Going to Lake Como in early October, hoping to squeeze a run in...

Classic... :D :D

I nearly wiped out a barn owl not long ago... It flew out of the hedge, over the bonnet and ending up what seems like inches, but it was probably more like a few feet from the windscreen.

A tyre weighs a *s##t* load more than 3-5kgs. The lighest tyre I know of is a crossply Avon ACB10, and they come in at 5kgs for a medium width, 13" diameter job. It was designed as a Formula Ford tyre, but they now make many versions of it and it is the most extreme and grippy road tyre you will find. But, they cost a fortune, last only a few thousand on something as light as a Seven and wil throw you into a hedge if it even looks like raing. I had some 14" wheels, with 195/60x14 tyres, on my Westfield that had a combined weight of 16kg. I upgraded to 13" wheels, which weighed 5kg by themselves, and adding a 185/60x13 tyre took the combined weight up to 12kg. If your saying the wheel weighs 11kg, which seems a reasonable number, then I would estimate the combined weight would be at leat 20kg+.

I assume you were trying this in the Nissan and not the Skoda?

Just the 5 litre tank would be an improvement...

Nope, I should have been sprinting at Curborough, but I bumped the Westfield a month or so ago and it is awaiting new body parts and a bit of TLC. Have you ever been to Prescot before? If not your in for a treat, there's a quaint sort of English-ness about the place and it is set in some superb scenery.

In which case the is a cleaning fuild available, any Pipercross stockists should have it, clean filter with it and wash off with water. They do not need cleaning anything like as often as you might think. The primary filter media on a Pipercross is the oil on the outside not the foam, so provided it is well oiled and not so caked in **** you can't see the foam any more then it's probably fine. I haven't done mine PX600 on the Westfield for years...

Just spray a nice even coat of oil over the surface which gets to see all the crap. Don't now about cleaning cotton ones...