James I

Great to meet up with you all again today, plenty of track action, special thanks to Haydn for the most thrilling passenger ride in the Brisk Rover . Look forward to the next one Richard.

If you have the time and inclination you can order yourself an All Star ONE card, use this card to fill up at Morrisons, swipe your card and sign the receipt, forfeit your points on your loyalty card and you will get 4.25p per litre off the forecourt advertised price. You will also get money off servicing and tyres, well worth a look.

My Golf also shows errors, one in the M1 road works as yours and every night coming home from work, the ACC is off but heading out of Leeds at a specific set of traffic lights the bleep goes off and ACC sensor inactive displays. Not sure if it gets confused with street furniture or it just needs fixing.

The Elan would have been a good choice but Jake's car will suffice

May I ask which one of your many thoroughbreds will be at Brands? I will be there with the camera and a crash helmet....

My first outing at Oulton Park was in a MK2 Fabia, all I did to the car was to fit a decent set of brake pads suited to a track day and fitted a set of wheels with part worn tyres as new standard tyres are no good, they melt! I was more interested in learning the lines and how to carry speed through the corners with a standard car, I have to say the car performed well, gearbox was good too, as a start I would do the same again. Once the basics were learned then I changed the car to something else BUT, Sharkrider had a MK2, he changed the suspension and fitted ARB's front and rear and it transformed the car. Just go out there and give it a blast, you will probably find the auto box works better than trying to change gear yourself.

Well, photographs did follow and so did a DVD, I chose not to buy the images as the DVD was better. Since my first rally I have entered another but before I can go rallying I have to repair all the bits that broke on my last event!! Over the last week or two I have been gathering my bits and pieces, until today when I fitted them, the car is off the floor with all four wheels off, front wishbone bushes have been replaced with Powerflex Black bushes, the brake pads have also been replaced with Mintex 1144's up front and 1155's at the rear, jobs still to do, fit the plastic windows, move the battery from the passenger foot well into the boot and fix the electric fan back onto the radiator as it fell off! Here are the worn parts. You can see how the Ferodo pads have fallen apart just like the set of DS2500's I had in the Golf.

I have updated my Calendar, see you on the 14th November

I thought it was October 10th for Brands Hatch?

Incredible power Richard, all of which will create that fun factor through a manual box but I really do think it is time you should be considering a track sequential box, you have already experienced failure with the power the Yeti was running last year, the power you have now is up there with the space shuttle so a decent delivery system has to be the way forward, at least you will know you can use all those horses without consequence. Will the Yeti be going to Brands in October? I have my day booked off to come and visit so I will be there in the battery Golf, but no track car!!!!!!!

Just home after an eventful day rallying, managed 15th overall and 5th in class in very challenging conditions, lost the brakes at one point when we threw a pad from the rear calliper, managed to borrow a pad and a clip from some other entrants with a Peugeot so this kept us in the rally. I now have a few jobs to do on the car before the next outing and I will need more tyres as we used 6 in total for 54 stage miles Pictures to follow should find any online.

Good to see you had a good day Dan.

I only ever ran the RS-R's, rain, sun, cold or hot they are quite capable but you will notice reduced grip in the wet, you should also try and keep off the racing by a cars width in the wet as the track will be very slippery where the rubber has been laid down in the dry. Take the road tyres and try both, it can't hurt, as you say Dan, push on in a controlled manor and you will improve your car control and have a great time pushing the limits, lift off oversteer will be your issue so balanced braking all the way to the apex and then power on when the front is loaded up will see you through the corner. Have a great day.

First Rally booked for the 12th June, it is a tarmac event at Weeton Camp near Blackpool, car has been checked, just have tyres to buy and we're off, can't wait.

Heat will soften up the adhesive, as George says hair dryer will do the trick. I agree with you, all advertising is removed from all new cars.

Things are progressing well, I have passed my BARS test and application for my MSA licence has been sent, BARS test was very informal with discussion about timing, safety and equipment needed in the car, I did this at the Phil Price Rally School near Knighton, I combined with a rally tuition day and it was one of the best things I have done. We started the day with tea, in fact there was a lot of tea all day! A brief discussion about rallying, how to and how not too, hints and tips and then it was straight into the cars, Subaru Impreza's that had been converted to rear wheel drive and had the diffs welded up, in addition to this bald tyres were fitted to the rear. Track was marked out with cones and it was a series of flowing bends, no straights at all, our challenge was to drift the car around with only steering and throttle control, as you can imagine it was quite tricky to get the car to glide from right to left, by lunch time we were on it, most people had a good feel for it and had massive smiles on their faces. A bit of lunch and the BARS exam then back out after lunch where we had to do the same course but in the opposite direction, this too proved tricky at first but everybody got the hang of it. In between all this drifting we were taken one at a time to drive a group N Subaru on the main stage with Phil calling out the notes, he encouraged you to get on it and give it your best shot, which of course I did, the Subaru has dual controls including a second steering wheel so Phil can save his life and yours if you get it wrong, Phil also took each of us out as a passenger in his competition car for a flying lap of the stage, this was incredible! Back at the drift circuit we were now all challenged to set a time for three laps clockwise in car number 5 and three laps anti clockwise in car number 7, combined times from each run, lowest time was the winner, also had penalties for hitting tyres. Outcome was that me and a lad from South Wales set the same time so we had a shoot out, car 7 in a clockwise direction, the pressure was intense, Josh went first and set his time, then I went and give it everything, I don't think the revs dropped below 6,000 for the full run! We were then stood together for the times, Josh 81.02 seconds, me 80.08 and deemed the winner making a great end to the day. I would recommend going to the Phil Price Rally school for a day out, you don't need to take your BARS just have a day on the rally experience you will not be disappointed. Moving onto Saturday, I made a trip to Demon Tweeks, the Golf was full of rims ready for tyres and I needed to update my wardrobe, wheels were shod with Yokohama AO35 soft compound gravel tyres and I got some overalls, crash helmet with intercom, Hans device, balaclava and some patch heads so my intercom will link to the helmet, I arrived at 08:30 and left at 09:30 with a lot of goodies in bags and boxes, the seats folded down and six wheels piled high in the back and about £1800 lighter than when I started!!! Today, I will be fitting the polycarbonate windows I have for the car, spanner checking it ready for next weekend where I hope to get a rally done as I am on the reserve list, I couldn't enter before my BARS and by the time I had passed it the entry had filled up, so heres hoping that a few people have the misfortune to drop out before the event so I get a run. Here's hoping! Picture to follow. Here is a bit of classic MK2 car control by a few of the greats we all remember (if you're over a certain age anyway) https://youtu.be/Rzi1cpL2XDg

It really is dire, worse than the worst 4x4 you have ever driven! We have swapped it for a SWB 3.2 D-ID Shogun, it looks better, has more go about it and will have some value when we come to sell it.

An update on the Kia Sorento, having owned this car for a three month'ish, the time has come to pedal it on, the reasons for which I will list below. 1, Boring to drive 2, Boring to look at 3, Boring inside 4, Temperamental electrics, rear wiper works on its own, electric windows only go up and down when they want to, I am sure this will lead to bigger issues. 5, Gutless even with a tuning box 6, Noisy, acceleration creates a noise more akin to a bag of spanners being dropped down the stairs. 7, Off Road ability, or lack of it, suspension articulation is garbage, even backing into our drive it lifts a wheel, the 3 series we had before kept all four wheels on the floor. 8, Did I mention it was lack lustre, boring and dangerously vague on the road? The things meanders like a tall ship, all steering, tracking, bushes, tyre pressures etc have been checked. So to cut a long story short, the Kia Sorento is the worst car I have ever owned for many reasons, I would never consider the Kia brand again and I would deter any fellow Briskodians having a moment of madness like I did in January, to refrain from purchasing a dreadful car! Good bye to the Mule.

We have also done the from Flagstaff to Kingman, we stayed in Sedona as my Father lived there. If you are going to visit the Grand Canyon you can get a motel in Williams, this is an oldy worldy cowboy town, the hotel we stayed in the rooms were trains, it was really good, a rodeo was also on in the evening. Car choice is critical, as much as we all like a convertible, think about the heat, you will bake alive in a drop top, go for A/C in whatever you get. Think about state tax too, the further out from the city you are, the cheaper your car will be. Speed limits change from state to state, Arizona is 75mph, Kingman is a load of truck stops, petrol stations and the HUGE Walmart, that was about it when we went.

Well Dave, I think your time in the wagon is safe as I no longer have the Golf, it now resides on Dartford and the lad who bought it has it on the road, MOT'd, taxed etc, I bought a stage rally 205gti so I doubt very much if I will be attending this as we have something on that evening, I also doubt my rally car will have long enough legs for the flat out bits at Bedford. Maybe bring the Golf GTE, at least I could guarantee passing the noise test.

Spent all day on the Pug on Sunday assessing how to fit the Weber's, it was decided to get them refurbed, jetted correctly for the engine set up and fit them at a later date. So instead we took the Bosch L Jetronic to pieces to work out why the car was running so bad, on close inspection we found two air leaks, one of which was a missing pipe between throttle body and advance retard on the distributor, once these were plugged we reset the idle speed so the engine does not stall and then we looked into why the throttle response was very poor. We found that the electronic throttle mechanism was full of water, all the shiny bits were swimming! No wonder things were running badly,this was promptly dried out and cleaned then resealed and refitted, hit the starter button to instant engine start that sounds crisp when the throttle is blipped, very happy with the results. I also fitted a new fuel level sender, made a bracket to hold the brake bias control, fabricated a mesh guard to cover the oil cooler as it is hanging way out front in the firing line, removed old stickers and decals, sorted out the dropped drivers door, put a clip on the bonnet stay, found the wiring to attach the screen wash pump to and fitted a new off side rear wheel arch trim, not bad for a days work. Still loads to do, I hope to enter my first rally on May 15th, this might be wishful thinking but then again I may well be there.

Go and buy the larger disks, callipers and pads so the 110 Yeti has the same brakes as the 170 Yeti. I had a 170 Yeti and the brakes were really good, if you are concerned about your Yeti's brakes upgrade, you will not be disappointed.

I let my house last year, I paid an agent to let it and vet any prospective tenant, which they did and a tenant was chosen and moved in, rent was paid in month one but the subsequent months the rent was always late with excuses, in the fourth month we turned up at the house unannounced, knocked and asked to come in to see how things were going. In we went and the first thing that hit us was the smell, then we looked around and noticed the place was almost empty, nothing apart from a couch and a tv propped up against the wall on the floor, we discussed the late rent issues and offered to release them from the tenancy agreement without penalty if they were struggling to afford the rent, they agreed and made plans to move out, I lined a new tenant up without the estate agent and all was going well, then without warning I got a message saying they wanted to stay for the remainder of the 6 month contract. I managed to get the rent paid albeit late but my house needed a full valet! The tenant had not had a vacuum cleaner and the carpets were ruined, they had never put bleach in the toilet, the only thing that got it clean was brick acid! The oven was beyond cleaning and had to be replaced. I think you get the idea. The comments above about good references from previous landlords and did you go through a letting agent I think are irrelevant, as if anybody asked me for a reference for this tenant I would give a glowing report of the model tenant to get them out of my house! I now have a tenant who deals direct with me, she is the model tenant, she has decorated throughout the house to a high standard and is asking if she can replace the kitchen.. In Fubars case, I would turn up off spec and meet the issue head on, talking calmly is usually a good place to start but don't get taken in, good luck.

Thanks Josh, I will order some, the doors is one of many jobs the PUG needs, I noticed today when I was making the seat fit where it needs to be that the bolt that goes through the top of the brake and clutch pedal was loose, so much so the nut only had two threads holding! Tightened that up and noticed the wiring behind the dash is like a birds nest, my list is getting longer and longer.. I am sure your list is now down to finishing touches.

Josh, looking good mate!! What did you use for the door cover? My Pug has gaping holes in the door, would look good covered like your BMW doors