RobinJI

Got to agree about VTEC's, they've got a really droning sound to them, no life to it, just lots of noise. Having said that though, when standard they do sound nicer than most standard cars, it's just when modified (especially with the retarded exhausts they always seem to end up with) they sound really soul-less. I even think my 1.8t sounds more interesting, and I think they're pretty dull themselves! (I fully intend to fit a center-box to my car soon.) I made an office chair out of one of my old Scirocco seats, with the seat height adjustment acting as a recliner, it's pretty cool but like you say, they're heavy. With wheels it'd work alright, but as it is it has to be pretty stationary, must put some coasters on it sometime. I fitted a new lambda and a spare MAF I had earlier as my car's been running rich and as a result killing it's oil with petrol contamination and getting awful economy. I'd been getting 24mpg average! Just popped over to the next town to meet a friend as an excuse to check it's sorted and managed 38mpg on the way there and 43mpg on the way home. Cuffed with that, definitely sorted and it actually seems a bit better than before! It feels nice and responsive again as well so that's a success. I changed the oil even though it was only about 2k old too, to remove any fuel that had found its way in, which should help to clean the engine out a bit more, I'll probably change it a few times this year just to make sure the engine's spot on inside as an alternative to a flush.

Have a look at the Sony. For £140 to £170 It does 1080 @ 170deg or 120deg, 1080 @ 60 or 30 fps, 720 @ 120, 60 or 30 fps. It has a wi-fi link to android/apple phones to preview, and you can control all the settings from that, as well as buttons/screen on the side. 60m waterproof, standard tri-pod mount. And it has built in digital stabilization when on 120deg angle, which seems very effective, and saves some of the processing on the videos. It's also bloody good in low light. They use a separate battery too. I really do think they're just as good as the go-pros up to the black, and they do a fair bit of what the black does. Being from a reputable make the build quality's good and parts are easy to get too, they're not some random Chinese brand that might disappear/go out of fashion any second. I'm far from a hater of go-pros, they're great, but in terms of value for money I think the Sony's way ahead, and definitely a proper competitor for what it'll do. I will say the contrast's a tiny bit better on go-pros, but only a little, and the way it's out's easily sorted in post processing.. This was straight off the memory-card, un-touched. Youtube's spoiled the sharpness a touch, but you can see the steadying working well, the mount's solid and you can see it moving the frame around from the way the bonnet's moving (the rattling noise is the cheap e-bay special mount):

Unless you specifically know he's after a 'gopro' rather than just a genral action camera, it may be worth looking at the Sony HDR-AS15. I got one a little while back and I'd say it's a better camera than all but the black go-pro. Certainly better value for money within your price range.

Engine speed / gear ratio = prop speed (1000/2.1 = 476.2rpm) Prop speed / final drive ratio = wheel speed (476.2/4 = 119rpm) For torque, multiply rather than dividing. Also, for anyone interested in engines, this is a cool concept: http://pixelbark.com/13045/how-the-duke-engines-increases-the-efficiency-of-the-internal-combustion-engine Not sure if it'll be of much use in cars, but it's really cool to see blue-sky ideas and new ways of doing things like that being developed in an industry where it's all too easy to assume the only means of progress is refinement of the current methods.

Yeah, I definitely won't be installing Linux on her computer! I can't be arsed to learn anything new on mine at the moment, let alone teach her it! (when I come to build a desktop for CAD and photo/video editing I'll look into it, while I'm still fooling around with a cheap laptop, I don't care if it's not at it's technical best.) There's no way I'd have entertained them personally, I'd probably have told them to insert their phone/computer somewhere uncomfortable before hanging up. Unfortunately I wasn't home when they phoned, and being pretty inept with computers my mum was worried she was going to loose the use of her laptop, so did what they said until money was mentioned, when she said she'd have to speak to me first. Thanks for the advice guys, it sounds like I'll be reinstalling windows then. Am I right to think she'll be safe to transfer photos/word/excel documents off it before reinstalling it all? I don't think there's anything else on there she'd need to keep.

Thanks guys. Bing, what do you mean by restoring it to a previous point? I'm sure she'd have no issue with doing that, the laptop's only really used for word processing, e-mails, and basic web browsing, but if a restore point's something you have to set manually I highly doubt she will have. UKHippY, I'm not sure we have the windows disc for it. I was away when she bought it and my brother sorted it all out for her. He lives a couple of hundred miles away and can be a pain to get hold of because he works nights a lot of the time. I'll see if he knows though. The network devices will definitely be staying disabled until I'm 100% happy this is sorted, I'm guessing that should be enough to ensure there's no connection made they can use?

So when I got home today my mum was pretty shaken up having had a phone call from an 'IT company' who were saying something would render her computer unusable in 2 hours unless she followed her advice, inevitably they eventually asked her to pay for some service that'd stop it, but in the mean time they talked her through a load of stuff to do on her computer. They left a phone number (standard London number) which I called to find a fairly plausible sounding IT company who had no idea what I was talking about, and insisted they never cold called. They said they were Dubai based. While I was on the phone to them (on the home phone) my mums mobile rung so I appologised, to and thanked what I think MAY have been a real company and answered the mobile. They guy was clearly the same guy as earlier (my mum had said she needed to talk to her son before she'd give any details/pay any money). I asked where the company was based and he said London. Failed that test. The number he was phoning off showed on the mobile and home phone as '404001234567890' Just a little suspicious! They blurted a load of crap mentioning something about an 'end user agreement running out' and I hung up on them. They knew my mums home and mobile phone number as well as the post-code (well, they sort of knew the home number, it's only 10 digits and they'd added an 11th). Which is kind of worrying, but then again that's fairly normal marketing list BS stuff. I guess some not-so-honest company shes used in the pasts sold her info. She wasn't foolish enough to give any details or pay anything, but part of the talking through they did included getting her to open a file that instigated Windows Remote Assistance (through the command prompt to make it less obvious), and I'm a little worried they might have done something to her laptop through it. Luckily she doesn't even let her browser store passwords, and her online banking's all done with a chip and pin machine thing. Sadly she can't remember exactly what they did, besides supposedly showing her some reasons why her computer was supposedly about to have a massive melt-down if they didn't fix it. I'm guessing/hoping they were just trying to show off how amazing they were with computers to get here to believe they were being truthful about these errors they needed to fix. Maybe they'd have done something to make it look like it had packed in if given the time? (The first thing I did when she started explaining what happened was shut-down the laptop.) I turned off the router then fired it up and disabled all the network devices before starting the router back up. I've got it running a Virus and Malware scan at the moment (AVG & Malwarebytes), but I'm not really sure where to go from there. I had a look through the recently accessed files and the only item in there (besides her normal use) was a text file called the company name they used ('Support guys' real official sounding ) which I've shredded. There's also a file on her desktop called 'AA_v3.log' which she thinks is new, I keep shredding it, but it keeps coming back. The file type shows up matching as 'Text Document (.log)' in its properties, but I haven't dared open it. I'm going to speak to the IT guy at work tomorrow, but if anyone's got any advice it'd be greatly appreciated (the laptop runs Vista I'd like to have piece of mind that she's secure on it in the future. I've told her (Oh, and guess what, no random unexplained complete failure like the bell end tried say would happen!) Thanks!

Jardo, I was wondering what had replaced the derv A3. Type R? Also, strikes me as a little ironic after your ranting about turbo's earlier in the week! haha. They do look like fun. As said, get some pictures up. Skoze. Awesome, that is all! Oh, and I went and took some pictures on Monday night because I was bored, I was pretty pleased with this one, shame the car was filthy! I was wondering the other night what the deal was with 'upgrading' to LED bulbs. I keep seeing trouble-shooting from fitting them on forums, and although I do get why LED's are 'technically' better than normal halogens (lifespan and power-consumption), I fail to see the real world implications. Lifespan doesn't really bother me; I've been driving 6 years, and I've had 2 bulbs blow in the ~117000 miles I've covered in that time. Plus halogen bulbs cost like 50p, it's hardly a big deal if they blow once every 3 years. Power consumption adds up to about 0.3bhp used by halogens with the dipped beams on, going up to a MAX of ~1bhp if you're breaking while reversing with your hazards and high beams on in a car with 4 high beams, 2 fogs and 2 reversing lights, so it's hardly a massive amount to save. I've heard of them being used on racing cars to allow the use of narrower (and therefore lighter) wiring, but never really got retro-fitting them to a car designed for halogens. I'll gladly be proved wrong though if anyone knows a good reason for using them?

It's Southern Old School, not SW Oldschool by the way (Pretty sure that's the meet you're on about) I do have to stick up for Jardo on this one though. There are well behaved car meets that are held in car-parks, and having been to a few of the ones he's on about, they're definitely some of them. There's always one or two pricks, but the majority of people at them were well behaved and just chatting/looking at the cars, not driving around or even running them. Sadly the majority are utter bollocks though, and they do make a SH*T backdrop for photos. I don't see it as 'realism' any public place is just as 'real' in my eyes, and with that in mind I'd rather see them at the coast/on the hills/ on the top of a multi-story with clear views in the background. If you're stuck with the retail-park there's usually at least areas without fussy looking adverts all over the background.

An interesting debate looked like it was about to start... then Jardo happened. Jake, a cam-belt on yours will be easy enough. A half decent 1/4" socket set with a mix of deep and normal sockets, and allen key sockets/drivers for the rachet will make life a lot easier when it comes to getting the belt covers off. Access is tight, but with the right length of socket/extensions you'll find it's not too bad. Remember there's the diesel pump to time up too, as well as the camshaft as it's timing's critical. As said, mark everything first and it should be easy. At least you'll have a manual tensioner which makes life a lot easier than the 1.8t's these guys are talking about. Shame it's not a petrol, the 8v 1.6/1.8 VW lumps are non-interference so you can't damage anything by getting it wrong. Back to the 'replacement for displacement' comment, bing, if you're talking about the car he referred to as 'my shed' I was pretty sure it's a 2.3 turbo volvo, so a 2.1 pinto would be quite a downgrade, even with some posh parts On that subject, I'm kind of tempted to go down the supercharger route rather than turboing the MX-5, just for the throttle response. I've never driven a supercharged car though, so I don't really know how comparable they are to a larger NA lump. Or do I just stick throttle bodies and a few other N/A tweaks on it and have some slow fun, eventually followed by more displacement.

I went scuba diving with a guy who had similar dreads, they looked insane underwater and he kept coming up with coral stuck in them! Very worthy cause. My mums side of the family's Scillonian so I really do appreciate how important its service is. I'll try and make sure I donate something soon as money permits. It might be worth getting in touch with Rich Pearson if you're not already, he's been heavily involved with Falmouth Uni's event organising and may be able to point you in the right direction.

George, sad to hear it's been troublesome, out of interest, what was up with your current exhaust system? I'm glad Nikki and Bill have lived up to their reputations/excelled themselves and turned it into a potentially positive situation though! Sucks. The good news is, tomorrows not very far away. The Scirocco's got a new CV joint on there now so's back on the road. It feels so much better for having done the wheel bearings over the weekend. The whole thing feels much more solid and less crashy. Sadly I think there is a very slight rumble coming from the only bearing I didn't replace, so that'll need doing sooner or later. With those sorted as well as the larger grippier tyres and slightly raised suspension I did last week it feels much better. As long as nothing goes wrong any time soon I think it's at a stage where I could start adding more power without the car loosing its balance. I'll have to keep an eye out for a k03s. That said the MX-5 will take priority in terms of tuning once I've picked it up, so the Scirocco will probably only be seeing tidying up and maintenance for a little while.

I've got a Sony HDR-AS15 which has been spot on. Very similar spec to Go-Pros (1080p, 120fps, 30m waterproof etc.). It streams live and very smoothly to phones, both when setting up and still when recording. The lens is a hugely wide 170deg viewing angle, but that can be cropped down to 120 and keep 1080p, plus when cropped you can set it to smooth the video by moving the frame around to steady the shot, which works really well. Plus it mounts to a standard tri-pod mount, which is nice and universal. I'd have said it's a better camera than the go-pro 1/2 and would sit somewhere between the black and silver 3s. However at £170 in my eyes it was way better value than any of the Go-Pros. Example video, not sure what the rattling is, the sounds generally very good on it. The camera was rigidly mounted, and you can see the bonnet moving around as it steadies the shot to keep the view in front smooth/level:

Adam, you're largely right about that shifting, it's a mix of the loading on the box at the time and the cars traction. You can only really shift dog boxes clutchless when you're going pretty flat out. The issues down shifts more than up shifts, so if you're braking hard and crashing through a few gears it's usually easier to stick the clutch in than match the revs perfectly through multiple gears. On the up shifts it's mostly his first shift or 2 out of a corner, where it sounds like he's short shifting because the car's struggling for traction, using the clutch will give a smoother change to unsettle the car less (sequential/bog box shifts like that really do jolt the whole car quite violently) as well as allowing for the fact he's not making a 'normal' shift where he'd know the timing to rev match through instinct, plus the box might not like it too much at those revs anyway. It does depend on the car, but he's treating that very much as Ben has to the Sadev in the rally car. (Only Ben's not quite at that level yet ) Just got home from Bristol on the back of a recovery truck thanks to a 1 year old CV joint exploding. Lots of hassle and arguing over the phone with the RAC because my car's modified, which wasn't fun, but they got me back in the end. Certainly won't be renewing with them though if it takes a 2 hour argument on the phone to get them to abide by their own terms and conditions every time, I'm less than impressed. Looks like I'll be fitting a new (quality brand) CV joint tomorrow evening then. Can't wait to get the MX-5 so I've got a back-up car and don't have to rush around to fix this sort of thing. I've been recomended ADAC recovery, anyone tried them?

Well that sucks Dann. Don't give up on helping people out though, just choose them better! A large portion of my friends I only know because I helped one broken down couple on the road-side on my way home from college one day. They invited me to a mates workshop to use the ramp/tools as a thank-you and now a few years on I've gained a great group of friends. While we're on the subject of oversized aero, this is how 'my' MX-5 looks right now! BIGGAYWING! (To be fair to the chap I'm buying it off, he is a knowledgable guy, and I'm sure given more time with the car it would have evolved to something a bit more serious.)

I like that Dan, more my sort of thing than the pokey BBS, looks very smart. Should look even better with a slight colour change. Does anyone have any suggestions of satin colours that'd look good on the MX-5? I'm going to rule out black (I just don't think satin black suits MX-5's) and Nato green (A friend had a nato green one). I'll probably end up using Montana Graffiti paint as it covers really well and's easy to apply, also that's what's on the car now, so I know I won't have reaction issues. At the moment I'm thinking of their 'concrete' colour which is kind of a dark brown with a slightly gold tint. These have been painted 'concrete': 'Cassis' which is a dark blue: Or I kind of like the idea of a pale miliraty colour like 'Duck season': A quick Photoshop to try out ideas: I'm not much of a fan of the holes in the bumper, so I may replace it before chucking any paint on.

There really is no way of knowing with the belt, could go tomorrow, could last 3 more years. It's why service history of the belt's changes is so important, because if you don't have history to show it's been changed recently, to be sure it isn't about to go really you have to change it. Luckily for an old diesel VW it's only about £40/50s worth of parts and pretty easy. I'd get it sorted soon if I was you. (I can't really talk though, the belt on my 20vt is running with the assumption 'it looked new when I bought the engine' must change that!) As for the spring coming loose, that's fine and pretty normal with coilovers. All 4 springs do it on my Scirocco, as long as they re-seat again without being guided/helped when the cars dropped back down it's not a problem and will pass an MOT. The only odd thing's that you say only one side does it. If you don't like it doing it, coilovers usually come with helper springs which are small super-soft springs that take up the slack when the car's in the air, but are full compressed once the car's weights on it. On mk1's these often get in the tyres way when lowish and end up removed. They're pretty cheap and available separately if you do want to fit them, although there's no real ill effects from not having them, just a floppy spring when the car's jacked up.

Haha, hey! I'm quite enjoying having a boring normal desk job actually! Especially the part where I get home at 5 with loads of energy still. ;D I'd lend you the BGW that's coming on the MX-5, but it's the sort with a different angle of attack in the middle to account for the different direction of air-flow off the roof of a coupe/saloon car (at least I think that's why the center section's different?) so it'd look REALLY silly on the A3. Speaking of which, I'm getting really excited about the MX-5. 5 and a bit weeks to go. Can't wait to have the freedom of having a back-up car so I can get some work done on the Scirocco, as well as the extra fun of the little Mazda. I know it's going to feel VERY slow at first though.

Gave the Scirocco some much needed love today. I've just started renting a garage just out the back of our house in preperation for getting the MX-5. I've given up on my Mini project for now as I'm just not in a position to finish it for a long time, so with that going the garage will be used as a place to put all the bits that are worth selling so I can pull down the 'shelter' it's currently under in the garden. Hopefully enough of that will have sold by the time I get the MX-5 and then the garage will just be used to keep whichever car I'm not using in. I took the chance of having an empty dry garage and a free saturday to give the Scirocco some much needed attention. I started out by raising the front end 8mm and removing 5mm of spacing to make way for new slightly larger tyres. Popped into town and got a pair of Toyo T1-R's put on the front in 195/50R15 to replace the 195/45R15 Federals that were on there. Big improvement in ride comfort road noise and grip! I've been wanting to do this for ages, just haven't had the cash spare to justify replacing perfectly legal tyres. Pleased with that and seeing blue skys when I got home I decided to give the car a massive clean. It's been hugely abused this winter and used as a bit of a workhorse. I gave it a good wash outside and in, even pulling out the rear bench and boot carpet to sponge down years worth of crap out of the boot's nooks and crannies. I also found out that Muc off's brilliant at cleaning roof linings and sun visors, as well as basically everything else in a cars interior. No fancy detailing-world stuff going on here, I cleaned the whole car, engine bay, interior and exterior with Muc off, turtle-wax and some industrial engine degreaser. I did get a bit fancy and use rainX glass cleaner on the windows and a micro-fibre mitt on the exterior though, very unlike me! I'm really pleased to have it looking presentable again, I may even get some pictures if it stays clean long enough. It's now in the garage drying out over-night ready to have bikes thrown in it again tomorrow.

Did you draw flames in the dirt? I hope you drew flames in the dirt.

I've found RainX works well at motorway speeds, but as my commute's down back roads and through villages I'm generally doing 40-60 where the water's not really 'flowing' off the screen. At about 30 the droplets are basically stationary, which makes sense, the wind's trying to push it up, its weight's trying to push it down. It's way easier to see through the water than before using RainX though, so I'm pretty pleased with it considering I've used a fraction of a £7 bottle and it was really easy to apply, just wondering if there's much improvement to be had from the higher end stuff.

This is where that picture's taken by the way: https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.064621,-2.927063&spn=0.002053,0.005284&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.064792,-2.926767&panoid=xjxDZH2wSJMfV14VYgg3Fg&cbp=12,57.19,,0,-0.09 Pretty mental to think how deep that is there. It's going to be a hell of a mess under there when the water finally subsides. Luckily for the most part these area's aren't very heavily inhabited, and most people live on the high ground as that's where the settlements had always been. I think the reason why's been driven home pretty clearly this year!

Except that the one in the bottom left's what it actually is, if not worse. That picture works well for the flooding I've seen around London though. There's a big deal made over nothing from what I've seen. Down here though large areas genuinely are screwed. For instance, 2 pictures in my news feed on Facebook at the moment: London: Oh no! the curb's underwater! Somerset: OK this is the worst of it, but there's a LOT of stuff underwater down here. I'm just lucky enough to live on high ground.

Yeah sorry, it was meant tongue in cheek. The media always make anything vaguely bad seem much, much worse than it really is. Although in this case, a lot of people down here do have it really bad.

Cool, I may well give it a go sometime in that case. Cheers for the advice.