FTBBCVoodoo

Oh yeah... Good spot. Tyres are on the correct sides. I doubt it makes that much difference so not gonna lose much sleep over it. Will get them swapped about when tyre change for Nurburgring later this year occurs. Cheers.

End result.... Wheels repaired and resprayed in "Shadow Chrome" by 'The Wheel Specialist' in Dorset. Very pleased with end result. Photos don't do justice to colour. Wheels change from silver to black depending on which angle you look at them from. Just need to wash it now :-(

Suspension components all good :-) Geometry all good :-) Brand new Conti Sport 6's on cold winter roads... Not so good :-( Will be taking it a bit easy until scrubbed in. Wheels apparently repairable and no buckling. Will be repaired and resprayed (all 4 to match) on Thursday.

Different sizes bud 275/30 on rear & 245/35 on front.

My friend was delivering my car back home from it's MOT (He runs a garage) when someone pulled out in front of him and he took avoiding action resulting in a hefty whack against a curb on the drivers side. Result is both wheels in need of repair and 4 new tyres needed after only going on back in August. Did consider only replacing offside tyres but my tyre friend noted that I would then be changing 2 tyres each side every 6 months or so and also the good tyres were at 50% (after the Nurburgring trip) so would clear water at a vastly different rate to the new ones. So new Conti Sport 6's in the 275/30/19 and 245/35/19 combo have been put on (again!) today along with realignment. My buddy is paying for tyres and wheel repair refurb and the realignment. Now do I stick to original colour or go for something a bit different seeing as I am getting a refurb effectively for free?

Some good points there. When it comes to car valuation, the hardest thing to prove if it's stolen or damaged is proof of condition. This is where the market value comes into it. Say someone had a car damaged by fire. The car may have been spotless but neither the person making the claim or the insurance assessor can prove/see the spotless condition and the market average of age/mileage/spec applies. To your point about a valuation band. This does happen. Generally (and this is very general) a cars value is in brackets of say for example 20k steps for the insurance underwriters. Say your car is worth 21k when you buy it, it could then also be classed in the same bracket as a 39k car and the policy is priced accordingly. When testing quotes, the price will be based on the individual's risk profile (age, profession, location, history) alongside the cars risk profile (power, safety features, cost of repair). I doubt you will notice much difference running a quote on a 2008 ISF compared to a 2014 ISF for example (sure I can be proven wrong here). In terms of insurance going up each year. This is the insurance market as a whole. Our lovely friends over in the EU passed the gender neutral law which meant that Male drivers couldn't be charged more than a female driver (after all, we are better drivers yeah ;-) ). This drove prices down for a while. But.... several things have happened which have meant that insurance companies have all agreed (and they do converse about this) to incrementally increase their prices year on year. Some reasons for this and in no particular order and in no means a complete list 1) Cars now more expensive to fix. This will only increase while the Pound is struggling against the Euro as most spare parts to fix damaged cars are purchased and imported from Europe. 2) Insurance Fraud. Occurs all too frequently in all insurance industries. 3) Insurance company return on investment. The 1% profit on car/home policies would historically be put into government bonds with an interest rate of 3%. With interest rates being so low, there is no no return on investment from said bonds. This has caused insurance companies to invest elsewhere. Brexit happening has meant that a lot of these investments have had little or no return whatsoever. 4) Weather. Such as flooding (as you are well aware of). With your note regarding they would rather your business goes elsewhere. It's generally down to risk appetite. A company for instance may target over 40's who drive 1.4L Civics. They may have a good few years making money and want to make more so they increase their risk appetites and start to target over 30's who drive M3's and so on. Once they find the correct balance that works for them, they will then sometimes price existing customers out of their company as the customers risk profile no longer matches the risk appetite of the company. On a side note.... Those lovely meerkats that everyone wants. Insurance companies pay them £50 per every policy that is taken out with said insurance companies regardless to whether the policy cost £50 or £1000. Approx. 60% of an insurance companies policies are sold through agg sites such as go compare, confused, meerkat and such like and obviously have nothing to pay out should the policy be sold at a loss. So top tip, start a comparison site to make money. Oh, and all the comparison sites are actually owned by insurance companies.... #justsaying

1% profit is on average. I am aware of a case last year where a driver seriously injured a cyclist and the drivers insurance company are paying millions in continued care for the rest of the cyclists life. A £400 policy obviously didn't make a 1% profit in this case. In terms of commission, depends on insurance company. Bigger insurance companies generally employ their own assessors and no commission applies. Smaller companies can outsource if they haven't got the manpower. But... as you are quite rightly doing, you should fight until you get a desired outcome. Good Luck :-)

I'm afraid that unless you paid more than £3200 to insure the Clio and more than £1800 to insure the Lexus then the insurance company made a loss. Believe it or not, on average an insurance company only makes about 1% profit on every car policy sold.

I have been running yellowstuff pads for a while. Great on track and on road. Little squealy before bedded in but a lot less noisy than my friends 458 with Ceramics ;-)

I have ever just completed 11 laps of the Nurburgring in my 2008 ISF with it in Sport Manual mode. Not a peep of an issue with transmission. No AT Oil temp warning or gear change issues. It's a good one.

Didn't have to hide anything. My brother went on with 3 GoPros attached to his Golf

Lap 11. Not best lap. I was a bit naughty with the Cooper S at start as he annoyed me somewhat by indicating right but pulling left near start. My overtaking move on him was way too aggressive for a tourist weekend so lesson learnt not to let emotion get the better of me as I almost stacked it 5 corners in :-( Also don't know how biker was at end of lap. Didn't look good. Hope he/she is ok.

Well it's been an eventful weekend so far. So far 11 laps completed in ISF within 2 days. I can report the following.... Conti 6's - Great tyres.... BUT.... once they get too hot they slip and slide away more than a Paul Simon tribute band. If you are tracking your ISF with these tyres then recommend driver aids on until tyres cool down if they are getting too hot. This occurred after 3 straight laps. 1st 2 laps car was massively in shape. 3rd lap, my backside was going like a rabbits nose. EBC Yellow Stuff Pads.... Not a single complaint. After being run in, no squeals and these things have been a treat on the track. Oil.... Oil Temp went 1 bar from top of temp gauge on a couple of runs. Soon cooled down to 3 bars after coming off track but possibly something to be aware of if coming over here while it's hot (28), high, and a long old track. A chap in our group who (believe it or not) is an experienced race driver managed to have a major car failure in his Fiesta ST which resulted in a near miss which is now quite famous around the Ring. God knows what the 458 driver saw/thought but both drivers did well to get out of situation. We also discovered the 3 litre glass of BitBurger. Thankfully track isn't open again until 5pm Monday evening so time to sober up.

We are back in May next year if you fancy an ISF mini meet ;-) I thought I would be a rare beast.... There is a bloody gorgeous UK 58 plate white one flying about. Spoke to the guy a few times. Nice bloke. Not sure if he is a member on here.

No sound checks I witnessed. A Gumbert Apollo (spelling?) has been flying around the track sounding like a jet and made it on. My brother got pulled up in his MK1 Golf by scrutineering as it was too low so we had to raise it up a tad. Tourist weekend. DTM here at GP track as well so it's an eclectic mix of things to see and do :-)

A running topic which I will use (Internet connection depending) to update you all with pics, videos and so on from my trip. 1st proper video from the Ring. 3rd lap of weekend. Had 3 passengers and the lap was ruined by a See You Next Tuesday who decided to brake test me and weave all over the track. The Conti 6's had begun to overheat a little by this point so traction control was on for this lap in case they went a bit pear shaped. Please ignore my language :-(

I wanted a white one :-(

@DT_Racing I will start a running topic once I start the trip. I am leaving Bournemouth for the tunnel at 4am on Friday so will be an early one. Will be taking laptop & GoPro so will upload pics & Vids (via Youtube) as the weekend progresses as long as everything goes to plan :-)

Had "Lichelle" detailed today before her trip to the Ring on Friday. Hopefully there will be nothing to "polish out" before, during or after the trip apart from the driver and passenger seats ;-)

Soz... not Soz ;-)

Have just fitted EBC Yellowstuff pads to front of mine along with a DOT5.1 brake fluid change. 1st impressions are good. A little noisy until they have heat in them but bite really well even from cold. True test will be at the Nurburgring next weekend 9th - 13th. I have also ordered a new set of discs from Eurocarparts as per GibletPH's post. 30% off and £250 for 4 brembo discs is a stupidly good price :-) New discs and the old pads (still about 50%) wear left on them will be going back on when I return to the UK :-)

Welcome Tim. I too made the jump from BMW to Lexus (Although it was a 335i not anything quite as exotic as an E61 M5). You won't regret it. Nice 1st drive back up to Newcastle :-)

Snap :-)

These and an H&S exhaust are on the shopping list for next year. So far so good on the Conti's. Had a bit of a hoon yesterday. I am a fan :-)

May give e-bay a go. May get me a tank of fuel for the Ring (My old 350Z did 4 laps to every one tank brim to fuel warning light) I have heard mixed things regarding Yellowstuff. I know the older compounds were very harsh on brake discs. Brembo discs are relatively cheap from Euro Car Parts at the minute (aprox. £180 a pair) so worst case scenario (assuming brake pads don't crumble) is that I replace them once I get back home if the discs are munched. Will also be taking my normal brake pads with me (aprox. 60% wear left) just in case and will get my brother (mechanic) to swap them over while in Germany if the EBC's are rubbish. Cheers.