Last week I spent a week at Thatcham for some further technical training in my job. I'm a Customs Officer at Dover and have been pulling cars apart for almost twenty years now , however modern cars are alot more tricky to work on now with all the sensors, airbags, pretensioners etc. and so a luckier ones such as me get further training.

Thatcham was set up in the late 1960s by the insurance companies in order to have a catalogue of repair and replacement times for parts for all makes and models. Just under 1% from your premium goes to finance Thatcham.

I think they're probably best known for their categorisation of security systems although they do alot of research and training there for manufacturers, repairers etc.

The training facilities were second to none and the staff extremely knowledgable. I had a great week and learnt alot.

You can visit them at http://www.thatcham.org/home.jsp?ugid=1

Regards

Steve:)

Always good when you enjoy the courses you go on

So you know the best place to stash drugs in cars then?

So you know the best place to stash drugs in cars then?

Not just drugs - anything!

I can't tell anyone though!

:P

I always used to get pulled by Customs coming through the docks with the Sierra I used to have. Thought it was very odd given that I had hardly ever been stopped in many trips across the channel with other cars. Eventually I commented on it to one of the customs officers (after having the car taken apart for about the 4th time in as many trips :eek: ) and he said that Sierras had lots of "spaces" throughout the car that were used by the less law abiding travellers . It was such a pain that it did make me think about never using it for future crossings ... although it was then knicked, used it an armed robbery and torched so the problem ended