terdancam

imho F1 needs a complete rethink, but the occasional "race" is still enjoyable, bu there are some big oddities in the sport that are beginning to make it a joke---why is it that money has to ruin everything? As for BTCC, its lost something. i long for the days of Soper and co. I`d prefer to see more variety in the cars and either back to running the two classes, or giving evrybody the same playing field. Because, to be honest, i found the Lexus car painfully embarrasing, given that it was up against vauxhalls. Yes i know all the reasons etc, but use a ford focus or audi please----The Lexus deserves much better treatment in the respect stakes.....is it a small wonder why they don`t sell more in this country when thats their best advert???????????? :tsktsk: Although i enjoy all motorsport, for sheer spectacle and butt-clenching moments of incredulity and hiding behind the fingers, i don`t think you can beat Superbikes. Remember Hodgson vx Walker a few years back, when his engine let go on the last lap to win the season. My heart broke for him..... And elbowing each other at 180mph whilst overtaking for position is absolutely incredible...........they are nuts. So for me World Superbikes, british superbikes, btcc, rally, F1, motogp in that order---but F1 is going to the end soon...... Now somebody get Team Lexus into gear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :tsktsk: :tsktsk:

fish

wheres a strangely generous weird old man who likes people to sit in his lap when you need one? or does anyone have any better ideas on how to come by one of these motors without having to work for it................... :D

excellent pics, now for gawds sake put some padding on that front wall-------you know how thin the paint is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D

Show off! ← and more to the point, do you need a new beatch? Cos i`m available.................. even the wife says so :D :D :D ***, i need a job

cleaning the car yesterday and discovered the wife has kerbed the <2 months old brand new set of alloys :tsktsk: :ban-em: :iraqi-info-minister: :megaangry: i think i may damage some rims as well............................................!!!! i have no idea what i mean by that

bit like marriage that..................... on all levels. :D

RAC now but have used AA and they were very good. However we continued RAC membership that we got the car because: 1) they cover the driver, and not just the vehicle 2)continual membership without claims brings a annual reduction 3)i like changing things every now and then................ Number 1 is important because somethimes we drive other cars, and as i don`t ever expect my lexus to break, getting cover for driving others peoples cars seems like a sensible precaution :D

yeah i agree, so i`m back off to the GOLD FORUM to enjoy some proper motor-related "birds". :winky:

excellent inadvertant nipple scanning :)

Although ambulance chasing is abhorent, and a lot of court cases have been astronomically ridiculous, a proportionately greater good has come out of court cases. Unfortunately peoples perceptions are completely skewed by the few cases that the Sun delights in!! :D People falling over because they`re too stupid should be thrown out, but corporate culpability over issues such as manslaughter due to cost cutting is a different matter for example. As for evolution, and the chemical biologists amongst us (!) will agree, evolution is a long term process over hundreds of thousands of years to natural occurence or requirement. You cannot expect 3 generations to develop an immunity to heavy metals or antifreeze on ingestion or absorption. THe ultra hygiene mentality is something i completely disagree with, as this leads to "reverse-evolution". Suffice to say my kids get dirty and not decontaminated! But i can`t reasonably be expected to subject my children to exposure to what are actually classified as commercial contaminants and poisons on the hopeful assumption that they or their kids will develop an immunity!! :D And its nice to see some people thinking about this and opening their eyes to some non-advertised issues!!

or, conversley, people know a lot more nowadays because of things such as the internet which wasn`t around to the same extent 5-10years ago. Granted, everything from a-z seems to be bad for you, but then i suppose you have to think how far removed those things are from a basic, natural order. For instance skydiving is pretty hazardous, but chucking yourself off high heights hasn`t really changed from ape days! But brushing your teeth with antifreeze that you're not even supposed to get on your paintwork is a different matter. And the argument thats theres not enough SLS in shampoo to hurt you is a valid point--if thats the only product it was in and you only used it once a week. Note that NO usage tests are ever done IN CONJUNCTION with other products! SO if you use shower gel, shampoo, shaving foam, after shave, deodorant, toothpaste, mouthwash, handsoap, washing powder in a day youve suddenly multiplied your exposure by a factor of 9!!! And besides, you`re probably thinking that you could be killed by a bus tomorrow, and that avoiding these issues disassociates yourself from the eco-cardigan brigade and those are valid points. But are you really not bothered about giving your kids antifreeze on the basis that multibillion dollar corps are selling it to you, therefore it must be ok. THe reasons caustic soda is used in soap is because it solidifies it, therefore making it easy to ship and its cheaper than the natural supply---the fact that it burns skin has no bearing (!). All i`m saying is that because of this internet/information explosion over the past few years, i`ve changed from blindly accepting the spoon feeding of companies that make stupefying amounts of money to actually checking things out that they`re peddling. I give you possibly the best example of this, even though it isn`t eco specific. Remember George Ratner and the jewelry fiasco? Well instead of body decoration, think petrochemicals!!!! Puts a whole different slant on things

great Caddy promo vid-------------shame it will be in trouble when it hits a corner though..............and note they didn`t show that!!!!! :D :D :D FAO: LEXUS GB> LEXUS HQ YOu are going to have to back your brand against the ubiqitous BMW, so suggest the IS goes factory backed into touring cars and that you produce a "Type R, M, AMG" version that will stuff its competitors---------people will take it seriously then! or you could ignore me, after all, i`m only the customer :duh: :D

they wouldn`t have the nuts to build that for production----------------just imagine what our roads would look like if they put the majority of concept cars in production!!!!! FAO: LEXUS GB>LEXUS HQ. BUILD THAT CAR AND SELL IT TO US you can forget the other models :D

have just looked at silverstone-circuit.co.uk, and had a look at their T&C--they make no mention of "actual driving times". However i wonder if that changes if you actually book the course, and get separate T&C?

I`m a big fan of BOGOFs in supermarkets (who wouldn`t be?), but a chance comment i heard a few weeks back has just changed my whole approach to buying shampoos, soaps etc. Now i like the herbal essences, H&S, sanex etc just like everybody else, but i did a web search on the ingredients, particularly SLS and glycol, and i was staggered. To highlight this: My Sis-in-law works for a product display firm and so we get free products. Recently we got some american kiddie toothpaste, complete with cartoon Dinosaur picture and bubblegum flavour----nothing remarkable about that. However look on the back and SLS is listed, along with a prominent warning from the Poison Control Center!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :duh: :duh: Now because me and my kids suffer from eczema/asthma, the application of industrial degreasers that are classed as poisons, and the use of antifreeze that you use in shampoo, yet should wipe off the car paintwork( ), is quite frankly, startling!!!!! It is amazing what you just don`t think about when you trust a supermarket/advertising/companies to sell you a product!!! Scary Scary Stuff

to be honest, i already begrudge spending so much wasted time and resources on the whole thing...........maybe thats how the modern form of government works, it just wears down your resistance until you can`t go on, like cancer. And besides, they would still reclaim the full amount over a longer period, which just means more bureacracy and complication over a longer period! To be honest its a rubbish system, and although i`m self-financing my thousands of pounds study and not working, all my cc are maxed out and we`re selling the house to pay for it-------------but i`m not claiming any benefits!!!!!!!!! But wheres the help for my familys betterment? Sometimes i wish i was a sponging, useless chav :duh: :duh: :duh: but i don`t want to be a mongrel for any part of my life and unfortunately you only get one shot at this existence-----and time is very very linear!

its certainly not difficult to implement a basic, table form taxation that everybody can understand and identify where they are. Simplify, simplify, simplify=cost control and efficient!!!! :D :D eg: everybody pays 50% tax on wages as a start point, then you subtract various simple percentage points depending on your status. So to encourage family values etc etc etc you have 3 bands=married, cohabiting, single worth, in order, 3,2 and 1 per cent. This gets subtracted off 50%, so a married man pays 47% tax. Next if you have one child this equals another 1% and so on, therefore 46%; this encourages chikdbirth rates for your pension ( :D ). Next if you earn between 50-100k thats 10%, 40-50 thats 20% etc until you get to <10k. If you earn less than 10k full time etc, you don`t pay tax. And then essentially you can adjust the percentages to reflect other areas. So a simple visit to yourtax.com, you would look up the tables and say i`m a married man, 2 kids, earning less than 30000 that is M23 tax code, so therefore i pay 25% tax or whatever the rate is decided at. Next year i`m a M33 'cos my wifes expecting so i pay 24%. The year after i get a 10k pay rise so i`m a M34 and pay etc etc etc. So simple for the VAST MAJORITY. So effevtively you get bonus points for being happily married You could also have percentage changers to reflect caring for others, huge savings, volunteer work (say an extra 5%!!), supporting multiple children and so on-----but all easily referenced. I call it my +1 of simple taxation, and it will be coming out in an appropriate Dungeon Masters book :D :D :D Anything has to be simpler than the current treacle we`re in And before you start negatively criticising, work with the concept, see how it applies, and if something doesn`t work suggest something to fix it. Don`t do the usual---------------waaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh :shutit: :tsktsk: :D :D

Well further to a recent rant on the incredible bureacratic wastage in administering the Child tax credit system, we`ve yet again lost out by being middle britain. Suffice to say our married income is now 12600, as just my wife is working whilst i study( ). But because the credit is based on retrospective income, but paid on future earnings, and because its so damned difficult to understand, we have essentially been previoulsy overpaid. Therefore this money is to be recovered from our future payments, and thus now that we have half the income, we`re actually now getting less credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently this is completely the opposite to the initial intent, and has affected LOTS of families but of course there is absolutely s*d all we can do about it, even though we voted against them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is this system so, so complicated. What was wrong with married with kids tax code? How simple was that in comparison? I have lost ALL faith in the governance of this country, but theres nothing i can do about it. And yes, we do intend to emigrate, but nobody is buying our house :tsktsk:

I was watching Road Wars the other night and a traffic cop pulled an idiotic merc driver for driving like a twit (wrong vowel). He gave him a right talking to, and the driver thought he was going to lose his licence, job etc. The driver was filling his pants, the cop put the wind right up him, told him to calm down......the driver looked like he wanted to kiss him!!! :P Now what i advocate is that to cut down on paperwork etc, the copper could have just entered his reg+name into a pc and put "bollo**ng". Then if the driver was pulled again in the future, kerpow, one book thrown at him. 2 strikes and your out type thing............ But it was absolutely stunning and heartening to see a policeman give somebody a rollicking instead of a fine, and he should get a payrise ACTIVE POLICING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D

Was having a look for some roadtest information and came across this website, which inceidentally has a very good, informative, balanced and proper review of the GS...................no Clarkson bias here! http://www.testdriven.co.uk/index.cfm :D was going to get a Mitsubishi L200, then saw the servicing schedule----will not bother now, and autoexpress fails to mentioon that little issue!!!!!

white ford fiesta 1.1 w reg. thrashed the poor thing to absolute bug*ery. some :tsktsk: smashed the drivers window one night, so ended up driving it around for 6 months with a perspex sheet "borrowed" from Texas Homecare, having to hold it in place with one hand to stop it falling into the door space :duh: Did a lot of driving from Oxford to Bham and i remember my hand gettting virtually frostbitten trying to keep it in place on the mway :D Finally blew the engine so hard that the bonnet flipped up and whacked the windscreen/roof, bits flew out the bottom and i gave the guy behind a frickin heartattack. I couldn`t afford oil at the time , seriously. Then a sierra---blew the engine then a corsa---engine caught fire then a new mondeo-----blew the engine then a lexus----behave..........

thanks for the warning and write-up, they won`t get my cash! to be frank, though, i would hope you or your wife have a go for the misleading rap, purely on the basis that if you don`t, you are letting them get away with it. i`m not having a go, but i think it is symptomatic of this country and its middle class that we just have the "stiff-upper lip" mentality which encourages people to urinate frequently all over us. its up to people like you to challenge this unacceptable rubbish whenever you experience it---i certainly do, and only if enough of us start saying "no, this is not acceptable" will things change. I recently read that in France they have given up on clamping and speed cameras, beacuse they were either constantly destroyed or covered with potato sacks by the populace. Note the English attitude................ Give these rip off merchants what for, and if you don`t win at least you will have caused them as much hassle to equate your disappointment. i`m now off to kill somebody :winky:

i like the idea of modernising the MOT/ insurance/ tax relationship. that should mean that only legal,properly paid for, covered and safe vehicles are on the road, such as my hard earned one. however i disagree completely with the charging strategy as i think it will backfire massively and compound the issue on one major point.............. the more expensive you make something, the more likely people ("customers") will not pay for it. SIMPLE and basic customer/service/management issues. Now given that fundamental reasoning, it follows that more people will therefore have to break the law (or will actively do it) to avoid the exorbitant costs, which subsequently means you will need to have more bureacracy and policing of it. Where will this manpower/budget come from? Recently, 9 e-mails to the DVLA regarding a 3.5 month unlicenced vehicle on the road were not followed up, and the driver got away scot free, whereas I paid for mine!! So if the current system does not work, how will charging "customers" far more under the new system, with more stringent rules, improve it without consequently massively increasing policing resources? People will actively seek to dodge the higher charges by modifying the vehicle identities, and because there has been a dramatic reduction in Active Policing (replaced by passive/static dumb policing--gatso), there will be a marked surge in dangerous/illegal vehicles on our roads. Mark my words, this will backfire because they have missed a simple logic. To encourage greater public compliance and legality, the government and legislation needs to ensure that whatever measures are implemented are not costed or complicated beyond the ability and acceptance of the governed. The Government must ensure that any policy is positively accepted by the populace, which encourages take-up, not arbitrarily dictated to the detriment of the majority. As an example---which do you really, truthfully object to; having an ID card, or being forced to pay for it? :tsktsk:

so do we have to guess where they go? i reckon on your tyres in the bath in your pants which is right? :D