Lady Elanore

So 3 weeks ago during a very heavy spell of rain I hit a submerged pothole, or perhaps just a deep hole and suffered a blow out (I was in my 3008 PHEV). It was around midnight and I was in the middle of nowhere, so as you can imagine it was a fun night. The sidewall suffered a pinch puncture and of course, no spare wheel these days. Anyhoo I eventually got home on the back of a low loader, grabbed a couple of hours sleep and started to ring around for a new tyre. It's an unusual size for an E-Primacy and so, after the afore mentioned 3 weeks, I still have a car abandoned on the street outside my house with a flat tyre. Nobody in Britain seems to have the requisite tyre. I've rung Michelin, Peugeot, local Peugeot dealers, Blackcircles, ATS, Eurotyres, even Kwick fit and Halfords, you name them, I've rung them. Today, Michelin claimed they have some tyres supposedly coming in to the country. Peugeot are zero help and today rang me, but hung up as I answer the phone on the 3 ring bleep!!!!! Rang them back and got an Indian call centre that was zero help. Peugeot have been less than useless. I'd probably rank Liz Truss as being more use at this point. Of course, I've been offered 'regular' tyres in the correct size, but I have a new, reasonably expensive (for me) car that came with 'alleged' correct tyres for a PHEV, so why on Gods earth would I not want to complete the set and have the same tyre put back on the car. It's a salient lesson perhaps and one exacerbated, almost certainly, by the current conditions that have been affecting the world for the last few years. But it's rather annoying to be paying for a car that I can not drive and Peugeot, who said they were all about helping their customers, have simply stuck their fingers in their ears and gone "la la la". Not a happy bunny. I'm almost contemplating buying a full set of all season tyres as I should at least be able to get replacement in identical spec in the future.

If the car is a stellar thing to drive and the price was right, it should find a home with the car enthusiasts. But the main problem is, I just specced one up and for about another £5k (in the real world) you could get yourself an M3 or possibly an M4) with similar spec, more room, a good deal more power and a lot more torques. It's not a cheap thing, but I expect the overall performance to be good. It may well be the purists choice over the RS3 or A45 CLA, but its price is putting it within striking distance of not only the M4 but also the Cayman GTS and even the F Type 450 (RIP soon 😞 ) Joe Achilles will probably buy one

OMG, it just got worse. Stop already My eyes!!! https://www.carscoops.com/2022/10/2023-bmw-m2-performance-parts-allegedly-shown-in-new-photos-give-civic-type-r-owners-the-goosebumps/

Maybe the design team got really smashed one night and said " I dare you to...." and somebody took them up on the dare.

The rear looks horrendous and I've looked at different colours too, it doesn't get better. Funnily enough it's the rear of my M3 I don't like either, too much plastic moulded shapes and protrusions, the front however I like (M3, not M2). But BMW has really lost the plot with the new M2 imho, it looks awful and not in a good way like the original flame surfaced 1 series. At least there was design language on show, the new M2 just has junior school fantasy bodykit mouldings on view. It's the fact it looks so cheap that I think is a mistake, it had better drive well to be forgiven.

Well there's a surprise, a car that is less attractive than the new m4 To be fair to the car, it does seem to be colour dependant, but it does look like a Dimma kit from the 80s Overall though, it's a poor show compared to the rather smart RS3 saloon and Mercedes A45 CLA. I'm sure it will drive well, BMW are on a bit of a roll in that regard at the moment, but honestly, I'd rather take the 240 Xdrive, at least on appearance. The old M4 looked lovely, the new one looks like a weird Mustang and similarly the old M2 looked quite aggressive and 'terrier' like, the new one looks like... well, the dog's dinner that the terrier ate.

It's worth buying a second car that can reverse flow (back feed) your house. The car will be paid for and effectively free at the end of this winter

@Luckypants When I retire, an EV will be a consideration (I'd still prefer hydrogen), but not all of us have a lifestyle that can accommodate a full on EV yet. I'm impressed at 7.5p/kWh @wyx087 Some of my colleagues have gone full EV, but they have also stopped taking work more than 150 miles from home, unless it's a multiple day booking and is somewhere which gives them flexibility to charge at some point. You have to appreciate that days are often 12+hours long and travel to and from digs and to find food, soaks up a fair bit of time too. It was possible to charge up using the mobile generators that we use at work, but then one day, a small queue developed and the bosses said "enough", buy your own electricity

Knockhill 2011 Ginetta - the images are a lot sharper if you click on them ...and a bit later

Wow £27,000 for a nearly 4 year old Jimny. Excellent

Just heard the terrible news that Chrissy Rouse has sadly succumbed to his injuries and died. He had a terrible accident at Donnington in a round of the British Superbikes last weekend. He was only 26 years old.

I don't understand why it isn't. You can buy petrol with an app on your phone at somewhere like Esso, once you state your pump number, or you stick your card into the pump at say a Tesco or similar. It's not rocket science

Wow thats close. I think the platform they use now is a 5 minute walk. Funnily enough, it is the proximity of that railway line that prevents Man Utd from expanding that side of the ground to match the others.

I don't think there has been a public train platform there for many years? Certainly I don't recall one.

You only did half a job though

Just a phone picture from a twilight walk around Sale Water Park it would have been nicer without the pylons

You see, white wheels make your car go faster

You might find this interesting https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/audi/quattro/

Dino 246 GTS my favourite all-time car, but at least I could pretend I might one day be able to afford the 208 (not the Peugeot version )

I've just watched that. There were one or two very tempting cars there (if I had any money left that is ) loved the yellow Ferrari 208. Who wouldn't like a 2.0 V8 The modded V12 E type looked great value too

I've never been convinced by people who sell me the 'electric dream' based on cost. If fuel keeps coming down and electricity costs hit projected numbers, it's definitely cheaper to run a diesel. Personally, I think my colleagues who go on about the cost savings haven't really understood why EVs are coming. I'm trying to persuade my father to fill his coal bunker for this winter, as he can still purchase coal for a decent price. Could save him a lot of money, but he won't get his finger out

I'm sure I have a portable Sony 1 bit CD player somewhere in my 'cave of frightening old bits of tech'.

Trying to move big heavy boxes is a lot harder than I remember. Definitely an age thing. I do like to buy hifi by weight, though. 30kg or so, in a big smooth cardboard box with no handles is a bit of a nightmare really, as is unboxing and moving into position without scratching the speaker or destroying everything a knee height with the ridiculously large (after fitting) bolted on plinth. That was a faff too, as you can't easily tip the speaker upside down and you can't fit the plinth while the speaker is upside down in its cardboard box either. I had a similar problem with my telly. Still, it's amazing the solutions you come up with when you have to. Obviously, I refuse to have anyone help me The other slightly odd thing is I suspect these will be the last front pair of speakers I ever buy, as my age means they will probably last me until the point when I can't really appreciate fine hifi 😞 Figure I need to sort all this sort of stuff over the next few years and while I am still earning a living. Maybe my hifi will appear in a thread like this one many years into the future, when everyone has an inductive coil fitted in their cochlear and google contact lenses. It does raise an interesting question as to what will be desirable in the future. Cassettes are even making a comeback today, but I see no love for early CD players for instance. Quality amps and speakers (assuming parts are still available) will always be worth something, but will people really care about DACs for instance?

I was funnily enough, but it wasn't me as I wasn't in the Beemer and I don't have a private reg. I was also travelling much closer to the speed limit

Spent the day (actually the last couple of days) testing loudspeakers. Having only had a couple of days off in the last eight weeks and nearly all of those days were well over 12 hour long ...and saying in shoddy hotels 😡 I have treated myself, or rather, (cough cough) my business has acquired some new monitors. There is a small chance I may listen to them in a personal situation rather than a professional one of course . But it was great to listen to the differences in some of the last bit of truly analogue kit left - speakers (Obviously vinyl and tape still exist, but there isn't as much of it about and pretty much all new recordings are done as digital masters these days). The great thing was I could listen to a recording I actually helped make!! It wasn't my ears that made the magic happen on those recordings, I was just the hired help for rigging and editing annotations with the orchestral score, but I was there when it was created, so it was interesting to see (or hear) how close I could get to the original sound. Ended up driving to Carlisle to listen to some today and wanted to buy an opened box set, which this morning I had asked to hear. When I got there, I was told they were sold!!!!! Luckily, they did a great deal on a brand-new pair of the same model for only a small increase in price. I did still try some other speakers and Peter Tysons were kind enough to even open a brand-new set of Monitor Audio 300 Golds for me to listen to (I didn't buy them in the end). The open box set of those M.A.s that I had also was interested in, had just been sold that morning too and once again Peter Tysons offered to match the price of the opened box set if I wanted them. Excellent pricing and they were super easy to deal with. Thoroughly recommend them at their Carlisle branch.