Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:29 pm After several months with my new Yaris Hybrid (much better in every way than the previous one) I’m very pleased with the fuel consumption.

I reset the MPG in May before I went to Greece and haven’t reset it since. Normal driving, mainly local but a couple of return trips to Gatwick and Maidenhead.

An average of 68mpg is great in anyone's book.

I drove my 3 series BMW (mild hybrid) diesel down round a few of our construction sites last month and ended up in Scunthorpe. Anyway I was getting low on fuel on the last part of the journey and being a mean Scottish accountant, so not wanting to stop and fill up at exorbitant motorway service station prices, I just drove a bit slower with less right foot action, the car was averaging over 70mpg, pretty amazing for a fairly large car. I filled up in Scunthorpe, the next day came back to Edinburgh via Leeds, and after a further couple of weeks tootling around Edinburgh to work, gym etc, the car was still about half full. No chance I'm going all electric any time soon!

My family got me one of these supercar driving experiences for Christmas, I finally got a chance to do this last weekend at Ingliston track, close to Edinburgh airport.

It was a really well organised day and good to see all these great cars. I had a drive of both a Lamborghini Gallardo 560-4 and a Ferrari California, both 550 or so bhp so pretty amazing cars. First time I'd driven cars with the clutchless paddle shift gearboxes that you can change gear without lifting off, quite intuitive and easy to use. Anyway these cars stretch what you can believe is feasible in terms of the speed you can go round corners, particularly the Lambo with 4 wheel drive it was a dream to drive.

The other part of the experience was to be taken round a few laps with a professional racing driver at the wheel of an Ariel Atom....omg that made all these other supercars look completely pedestrian, the speed he got up to and round the bends was scarcely believable and quite scary!

A few photos of some of the cars for the petrolheads among us

gannet wrote: ↑Sat Jul 22, 2023 7:31 am

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:42 pm ^^^^ Nice one.

Don't you trust your handbrake?

Is that the 'full fat' Works or just the style pack?

Guy

Thanks,

It's a full fat works, manual

I trust the handbrake, but the chock is a precaution/habit born from when one of our cars slid on snow down the drive into the garage door leaving the door in need of replacement.

Do you get much snow in July?


Nice car BTW. I like the idea of a fast Mini but not sure if I could cope with a small(er) car.

Nearly 50yo so I need comfy cars.
Currently driving a 630 GT. Perfect on long trips here in Sweden.

I put money aside for a number of years in a Porsche savings account with the plan to buy a very used one for my 40th. When the time came I just didn't love any of the cars I could afford, looked at or test drove. I spent the money on a Mercedes C63S coupe, it just makes me smile with the dirty noise it makes.

My daily driver is a cargo van, a nice, fairly new cargo van but still a van and the C63 is the perfect comfortable, fast, noisy weekend / evening car for me.

I have often said to never buy a black car.
They're difficult to make look really nice; and when I was kid, and cars got colours post WW2 then only policemen and funeral directors bought black cars.

So a few months ago I bought this black I3. Yes, I've returned to polishing cars. It's bloody hard work now I'm so old. I decided that I'd better do the roof as well, if only to protect against avian effluent.

Anyway - good workout yesterday and after a coat of Zymol - it rained.

Paul Drawmer wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 9:53 am I have often said to never buy a black car.
They're difficult to make look really nice; and when I was kid, and cars got colours post WW2 then only policemen and funeral directors bought black cars.

So a few months ago I bought this black I3. Yes, I've returned to polishing cars. It's bloody hard work now I'm so old. I decided that I'd better do the roof as well, if only to protect against avian effluent.

Anyway - good workout yesterday and after a coat of Zymol - it rained.

roof.jpg

That beading is always a satisfying thing to see. Makes the effort worthwhile.

Paul Drawmer wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 9:53 am I have often said to never buy a black car.
They're difficult to make look really nice; and when I was kid, and cars got colours post WW2 then only policemen and funeral directors bought black cars.

So a few months ago I bought this black I3. Yes, I've returned to polishing cars. It's bloody hard work now I'm so old. I decided that I'd better do the roof as well, if only to protect against avian effluent.

Anyway - good workout yesterday and after a coat of Zymol - it rained.

roof.jpg

Get it professionally ceramic coated, including the wheels (faces and barrels) it'll be a lot easier to keep it clean.

malvern_man wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 10:23 pm Get it professionally ceramic coated, including the wheels (faces and barrels) it'll be a lot easier to keep it clean.

I'm sure it's an easier way to keep it clean, but I'm not that much into shiny cars! Snow foam and an occasional polish is as far as it gets.

My new I4

It's bloody hard work now I'm so old.

I get what you're saying about black cars - my first job was cleaning vehicles at Coleman Milne prior to delivery to the customer (if you've ever been to a funeral in the U.K. then you will probably have seen their products). Although of course I was much younger at the time.

Just a suggestion, but I've recently started using Chemical Guys Blazin' Banana wax at the end of my car cleaning regime: Snow foam, jet wash, shampoo applied with snow foam gun, jet wash and towel dry. It's VERY easy to apply and polish off and only takes about 10 minutes to do my Skoda Fabia estate. Auto Glym Aqua wax is also easy to use, but a little more effort than the CG product.

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Sat Oct 28, 2023 1:52 pm

jtc wrote:PXL_20231010_154228548~2.jpg

Ever the Ford man, Jon.

Mind you the most unexpected model name for an EV.

Guy

We do love a fast Ford! The Mach-E replaces the PHEV Kuga (and means we flip from a personal car to a company one - just as EV insurance goes through the roof too, fortunately!).

It's also almost identical in bhp and torque to our modified Focus ST... but they both drive very differently! Plus there was space for pumpkins today where an engine would otherwise be.