Greetings

Questions answered correctly: 9 out of 24 (38%) Time taken: 05 minutes 52 seconds Sucks, because I need to re-apply for a British passport soon :'(

Fruit, military, weed? What are you asking us for again?

Measuring frames by the wheelbase doesn't make much sense any more. For example, a lot of long-ish frames measured with the new Urban fork will come out at 1055-1065. Such a frame would not match what you're looking for. Just wanted to make a point, it's not directly aimed at you. The 2009/2011 Pure short equivalent will be hard to come by now, you should be looking at a low BB rise for starters. That frame had around 15-25 IIRC. The Ashton is not going to be a direct alternative but a very good one though. It's around 1045 with some forks, very steep head angle so the reach is quite long. This long reach is the main difference you will feel between that and the Echo.

Can't believe how fast the Huayra was around that track. On balance a good opening episode. Can't wait for the Subaru / Volvo / BMW special.

Attended another nocturnal training session in the snow. Much more difficult this time, stages were the same but it was icy. Not knowing where you're going on such surfaces = not good. At one point in the woods, while carrying rather a lot of speed a sharp left hand corner appeared in front of me. As soon as I applied the brakes it became apparent that I was on ice so I began looking for a gap between the trees ahead but there wasn't any. So after a proper shot of adrenaline I decided I wasn't going down without a fight, somehow managed to cool down, release the brakes, get the car sideways, floored it and that was enough to keep it on the path. 4wd for the win, if this was an RWD car I'd end up hitting those trees but probably going backwards. It also makes me think that there is a lot of potential in this little thing. Until now I'd never imagine it possible to carry so much speed through such a corner and on ice. Anyway, the car seems to have some problems and since it's a Jap, I'm completely lost. There's a red light on with this symbol on it: ( ! ). The rev counter sometimes stops working (CPS?), idle is sometimes at 3k, sometimes the engine has big problems with maitaining a smooth idle and the revs jump between 700 and 2k (MAF/MAP sensor?). Sometimes if the idle is smooth, it will have a problem with maitaining set revs at minimal throttle. Any more throttle and it's fine. It drives and pulls well. Furthermore, the reason I had to finish early today was heating. The car keeps overheating. Or it's too cold. The heater rarely works (which is a problem when it's -16 outside), the engine temp is a mess, sometimes it will creep up to maximum while cruising. Sometimes you're flooring it and it's at minimum. There's no thermostat so I'd think overheating is not possible. The system is open, it's not pressurized. That's strange too? It's got an expansion tank and a manual valve between that and the radiator, when we closed it the hose popped out and it vomited coolant all over the engine bay. The expansion tank is also open, there's just a press-in cap on it which has a bleeder hose. I think there's constantly air trapped in the system, even if you bleed it, the problem reoccurs. I'm thinking blown gasket?

Do those work by creating a lower pressure at the diffuser, effectively sucking out air from under the car?

Although the line was mental, I found the first sidehop to rear more impressive. Perhaps it's because I can relate to that heigh which for him is no more than a curb is for me. The second sidehop is just silly.

Yeah, big fan of Drive. Also really admire Mr. Koenigsegg. Although if you've watched vids from said factory on Drive, you'll appreciate this too. Shows a completely different attitude to engineering.

It's funny how they haven't featured the Koenigsegg Agera (or something like that) yet there are quite a few road tests of that car on youface. Me thinks Mr. Koenigsegg is angry at Top Gear for something?

That was better than going to an amusement park

Watching that you kind of get the impression that trials has gone backwards.

Meh, this topic is silly. You're complaining about a bicycle frame with a bicycle fork. Imagine how useless a trials bike is when the fork is embedded in a concrete wall, like so: The bike weighs about 300lbs, it's impossible to do pretty much anything other than pivots on the front erm... wall. So stop posting stupid pictures.

Robin, I really think you should space those wheels out. The car looks great but I recall the wheels being hidden deep inside the wheel arch. To me personally that's a massive turn-off. No need to go all german, just have the wheels match up with the outline of the body.

XC is always an alternative but if I could be bothered to ride in such conditions, I'd ride a trials bike not an XC bike. Each of their own I guess.

Just came across this recording I made last year and got a bit nostalgic. One of my goals for 2013 is to drive that road in the S2000. It's on the way to an annual biking holiday so I'll have to post the bike to the hotel before setting off but I don't care. This road is the highlight of my year and has been since I discovered it a few years ago.

What's the difference between a snow and winter tyre? I thought all winter tyres were ready to be used on snow.

Meh, I probably wouldn't bother with winter tyres either if we had 10 days of snow each year. Summer tyres are adequate in the winter, if you're a calm driver you're not going to have any problems unless there's an emergency on the road. Summer tyres in the snow are useless though, the car gets bogged down in places you'd never think would be a problem. I couldn't even drive out of my garage on summer tyres when some snow fell and it's worth mentioning that my garage is on the top of a steep-ish hill.

What is it with you guys and cold weather? You've even benn on the news over here. Is it that people in the UK don't use winter tyres or what?

Ill. Not sure what it is but it's not a cold. Hope it's not pharyngitis, had it once before and it was a f**king nightmare. Got a headache, sore throat and spent half the day in bed, fully dressed under 4 blankets. Was so cold I had to wear a cap and wrap a scarf around my face leaving only the nose poking out. Touching anything cold was literally a painful experience. That's what you get for spending a whole day at an airfield at -10C in a car with a broken heater. Sucks

Wide angle on the GoPro means he was actually closer than it might seem. Too close would have been unsafe

Had a LOT of fun. The airfield wasn't too well organised, so we went off into the woods and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AZlj8WIQNY

Yep. Putting your beers into snow is so much safer than into a mountain torrent or the sea. Both have cost me many pints and a few bottles of quality vodka.

It still doesn't justify anything although I hope that what's happened will not be detrimental to Live Strong. At one stage he donated 0.5m dollars to the anti doping association. Clever. Perhaps all the good that he's done was a way of redeeming himself for living a lie. It can't be easy knowing that you deserve nothing you've won and that you've stolen numerous titles from athletes who actually earned them through hard work and being honest. I guess this applies to anyone who used doping in road cycling but Armstrong is the most prominent and controversial of them all.

I just cannot wait for Saturday. It's going to be the most epic day in months. In short - we have a deserted airfield all to ourselves from 10am till midnight. There's LOTS of snow and there's going to be more. There will be catering with 2 meals, about 15 other cars, 2-3 timed special stages. And I'm taking the Daihatsu on the trailer which means I'll be able to thrash it (and learn to properly use a 4x4) until there's no more fuel left in the tank and then drift around in the daily driver until I get bored (total fuel capacity is 175L on that car :bow: ). Can't wait, I'm so f**king excited!!!

Valid point I guess, but that price is amazing. I charge 9eur and that's considered fairly average, with an expensive build being about 12.5.