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Post by Eff One on Oct 6, 2020 12:05:52 GMT
Agree that the adjustable suspension is overkill, though since you still get the standard car's drive modes, most owners will find a setting they like and leave it at that.
Ford should add the colour and wheels to the standard car's options list.
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Post by Eff One on Oct 6, 2020 9:05:14 GMT
The other driver was Paolo Ippolito. Not sure of his age but 15 is the minimum in that class. There's a bigger age range than I would have expected at that level, with a mix of 'career' karters and kids on the way up. Verstappen won it in 2013, at the age of 16, but the winner on Sunday was in his thirties.
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Post by Eff One on Oct 5, 2020 15:17:34 GMT
Utterly disgraceful behaviour on track, and worse still in the paddock after the race. At 23, Corberi would have been one of the oldest drivers present and should be setting an example. And as for the older man (allegedly Corberi's father) shown bodyslamming the other driver into a wall - beyond reprehensible.
Felipe Massa is the president of the FIA's karting body and will - along with the FIA as a whole - be under some pressure to act swiftly against all involved.
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Post by Eff One on Oct 5, 2020 10:12:22 GMT
Sounded good (apart from the price) until.. ‘with twelve bump and sixteen rebound settings available for fine-tuning‘ No thanks . Why is that bad?
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Post by Eff One on Oct 5, 2020 9:21:20 GMT
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Post by Eff One on Sept 30, 2020 15:30:03 GMT
I'm generally not bothered about car interior styling as long as it isn't glaringly awful and the main touch points are sound. But there's a slabby drabness to BMW interiors - in pictures at least - that I find deeply unappealing. I agree that the dials in the older car are infinitely preferable.
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Sept 30, 2020 9:34:01 GMT
Post by Eff One on Sept 30, 2020 9:34:01 GMT
Glad the wine was good. I'm a little jealous, posh Kiwi chardonnay is one of my favourite tipples.
I like fuller-bodied white wines with red meat on occasion, especially when there are a variety of flavours on the table - like a roast, barbecue or pizza.
I've also been served red wine with fish in a restaurant, though I'm not sure I'm brave enough to attempt it at home. It was a pretty meaty fish (bream I think) with a light Pinot Noir, and worked brilliantly.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 29, 2020 12:04:54 GMT
Started only half-joking discussing that we should just all have a communal Christmas in the street (since it is a private gated street) where we all sit on our doorsteps and wave socially distanced glasses of booze at one another. We're in a row of terraces on a cul-de-sac and I can imagine something similar here. There was a real community spirit during lockdown, with people sharing supermarket delivery slots etc. Even under current restrictions we wouldn't be able to get the family together for Christmas as usual, and I can't see the situation improving in the next three months.
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Sept 28, 2020 21:59:27 GMT
via mobile
Post by Eff One on Sept 28, 2020 21:59:27 GMT
Never tried the Chardonnay but Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favourites. That's a £30+ bottle of wine and assuming it hasn't got too warm, should be fine.
Good Chardonnay at that price point is a world away from the generic supermarket stuff. Kiwi vineyards tend to be more subtle with the oak than their counterparts in Oz, SA and especially California. Given Greywacke's reputation I'd expect that to be pretty spectacular.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 28, 2020 14:53:16 GMT
I watched the highlights (having avoided it all day by going out with the kids and switching my phone to Airplane mode) with my finger on the FF button and it took me five minutes at the most. Watched the whole of the MotoGP race and sped through the Moto2 race but even that was 10 minutes of viewing. F1 is so dull now that I'm not even bothering with the politics. Not that it was a vintage race, but the highlights invariably make it look worse than it was. The C4 team are great, but they have strict limits on how much of the race they can show, which makes for a disjointed and frustrating viewing experience.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 28, 2020 9:58:08 GMT
That Hamilton penalty - team error apparently. He asked if it was OK before he did the practice start and they said yes. My word social media has lost its shit over it. Third time lucky for Bottas. He had a shot at beating Hamilton at Mugello and should have done much more with the opportunity at Monza. But his demeanour after qualy at Sochi was telling - pretty upbeat despite having fluffed his final Q3 run and slipped to third on the grid. He reckoned he had the measure of Lewis, whose weekend was already compromised by having to start on the wrong tyre. The penalties denied him the chance to prove it, but I think he would have won either way. He was stunningly fast in the race, and at no point did Lewis match him.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 25, 2020 9:10:18 GMT
They do look well equipped as standard. You can even have them in a nice metallic blue. The only options I'd consider are the carbon seats and brakes, which are probably overkill unless they bring a weight reduction.
But I'd rather have an M2.
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New M3/M4
Sept 23, 2020 17:41:05 GMT
via mobile
Post by Eff One on Sept 23, 2020 17:41:05 GMT
Apparently it weighs 1730kg - a whopping 120kg more than the old one. That would put me off more than the looks.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 23, 2020 9:17:53 GMT
Some of the details jar a little, but broadly they both look okay to me. Beauties they are not, but in the right colour (ie neither of those) I could live with the styling.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 23, 2020 8:10:36 GMT
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Post by Eff One on Sept 21, 2020 15:30:51 GMT
Interesting to see the son of a former company-owner boss of mine won his class (Harry Tincknell). Not sure the ex-shareholders of that defunct company will be very impressed! I suspect Tincknell is earning his keep these days! He's been in sportscars for seven years, five of those as a factory driver for Ford and Aston Martin.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 21, 2020 12:26:40 GMT
Is the Rebellion team using old Audi's? No, it's their own chassis with a tweaked version of the Gibson V8 used by the LMP2 cars. Despite a low-key buildup by Le Mans standards and the lack of spectators, there was much to enjoy. I stayed with it until hour 13, then rejoined for the last five hours. It was a bit of a shame that the lead battle fizzled out after the #7 Toyota suffered a turbo failure which cost them 30 minutes. I don't think ever I've ever seen a driver look more dejected than Kamui Kobayashi trudging back into the garage after his final stint on Sunday morning. Gutting for them to miss out again after having been the faster crew all weekend. They were at least gifted a podium by Louis Deletraz: one minor slip under braking, a low speed brush with a tyre barrier, and Rebellion's double podium was gone. A perfect demonstration of how merciless endurance racing can be. LMP2 is chock full of serious talent these days. It was fun to watch the grudge match between Sky F1 pundits Anthony Davidson and Paul di Resta for class honours. Some of their night onboard footage - and F1 rejects Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa - was pretty mindblowing. They didn't get a huge amount of TV time sadly, but I followed the fortunes of the #50 Richard Mille LMP2 team with its all-female crew with interest. Three Le Mans rookies, all young (Tatiana Calderon is the oldest at 27; Sophia Florsch just 19) and with a late driver substitution to contend with (Beitske Visser parachuted in for the injured Katherine Legge) - there was a lot of potential for disaster. But they didn't put a wheel wrong and brought the car home 9th in class out of 24. Solid effort. If you looked closely at the timing screens, you'd have seen Dominique Bastien putting in steady 4 minute 10 second laps in the #88 Dempsey Porsche on occasion. That's 12-15 seconds off the pace, not out of the ordinary for a bronze-rated GT driver... and on Saturday Dominique Bastien became the oldest driver ever to turn a lap at Le Mans. He's a couple of months short of his 75th birthday. There's hope for me yet...
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Post by Eff One on Sept 19, 2020 0:29:20 GMT
I'll be watching as usual but probably won't be pulling an all-nighter this year.
I watched some of the night practice last night and FP4 and the new 'hyperpole' qualy shootout this morning (which was brilliant). Two of the class track records went (Paul di Resta doing the honours in LMP2) and Kamui Kobayashi came mighty close to breaking his own track record in the #7 Toyota. He got within a few tenths on his first attempt and was over half a second up on the following lap before it was disallowed for track limits.
The LMP1 field is a bit thin, but the top four look fairly evenly matched; I'm hoping that the Toyotas will be challenged. Lots of potential for fireworks behind them; LMP2 in particular looks like being a proper dogfight. 59 cars are due to take the start.
We're lucky to have it at all, and I can't wait.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 16, 2020 9:01:28 GMT
Obviously I don't know all the details, but going SUV sounds like quite a compromise for the sake of a few miles of dirt road in another country. Is there really nothing else that would cope with the roads?
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Post by Eff One on Sept 14, 2020 16:31:08 GMT
Demolition derby aside, that was great. The circuit and setting are magnificent, surely among the finest places anywhere to watch F1 cars. I thought qualy would be the highlight, with a processional race. But the combination of powerful DRS and cambered corners - allowing for more than one line - seemed to allow them to follow closer than anticipated.
Good on Alex Albon for breaking his duck, and Danny Ric for showing his class again. And ever since I said that Stroll was a waste of space, he's been getting better and I have to admit, was going well until his left rear let go. That was a nasty shunt which I was relieved to see him walk away from. He was heading for P5, ahead of Perez (as he should have been with an updated car). Still behind a slower car in Ricciardo's Renault, but a solid effort.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 10, 2020 21:27:19 GMT
I don't have a problem with Vettel's appointment. I do have a problem with the team favouring an inferior driver because of his surname. Inferior driver on current form in a poor car racing for a team he's never gelled with but let's not forget he's still a 4x world champion. I meant favouring Stroll over Perez.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 10, 2020 16:57:51 GMT
I believe the expression used to describe Stroll's seat in F1 is "he who pays the piper calls the tunes". He's not the only or first pay-to-drive F1 driver but at least he (and his father) are transparent. Money isn't the issue, Perez is a pay driver as well. Stroll isn't terrible in the Alex Yoong mould by any means and has definitely been better this year. But he too often fails to get the most out of the car - notably at Monza, where he should have won. He isn't as good as Perez and doesn't deserve an F1 seat on merit (though he's not alone in that). He's a perfect example of what can be achieved with an unlimited budget. You could go to any kart circuit in the UK, choose any quickish kid, give them every advantage (money, coaching, unlimited testing, zero accountability for damage etc) and you'd end up with a Stroll.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 10, 2020 12:04:22 GMT
I don't have a problem with Vettel's appointment. I do have a problem with the team favouring an inferior driver because of his surname.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 10, 2020 9:27:15 GMT
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/54098516Not surprising, but disappointing. I think Vettel still has something to offer and it'll be interesting to see how he gets on. But RP have, as expected, dropped the wrong driver. Shitty treatment of Perez in my opinion.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 4, 2020 23:01:59 GMT
Amazingly, drove and passengered more than 300 miles today, mostly on the M6, without spotting a single 70 plate.
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Post by Eff One on Sept 2, 2020 19:23:03 GMT
We currently eat once Mini Eff is in bed, with one of us cooking while the other does bath/bedtime. It's usually 8.30 or so by the time we sit down, which is fine by me.
Mrs Eff has made noises about us all eating together once Mini Eff is at school, which will mean 6pm or so - way too early for me.
I envy and hate morning people in equal measure. I struggle to wake up at 730am and barely function before 10.
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Post by Eff One on Aug 26, 2020 15:23:13 GMT
N: (will be impressed if anyone can top this) Hermaness, North Unst, Shetland
S: Dartmouth, Devon
E: Beccles, Suffolk
W: Talisker, Isle of Skye
All of those were holidays except for Beccles, which was for a kart race at Ellough Park.
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Post by Eff One on Aug 17, 2020 10:00:29 GMT
There were a couple of great drives there. Raikkonen produced a stunning lap in Q1 to drag the Alfa into Q2, another to split the Renaults, then drove a quietly brilliant race. Sainz and Gasly (again) got the absolute maximum out of their machinery and so, dare I say it, did Lance Stroll. Solid in qualy, great start, strong race.
Not much in the way of spectacle, however.
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Post by Eff One on Aug 16, 2020 11:01:36 GMT
Maserati Levante. I never even knew these existed. Lucky you. I have to restrain myself every time I see the Ford Puma ad on TV. Still can't believe they turned it into a fucking SUV.
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Post by Eff One on Aug 15, 2020 0:20:23 GMT
Bottas was a bit miffed wasn’t he? It’s just his luck; he drove a brilliant Q3 lap only for the tyres to blister excessively during the race. The real mistake Mercedes made was pitting Bottas on the same lap as Verstappen. At that point, Merc had lost control of the race. Following in Verstappen for Bottas’ second pitstop was always going to leave him exposed towards the end, because the W11 couldn’t hold onto its tyres during a long stint. After that, it was more advantageous to be the second Merc, because they saw what happened, so kept Hamilton out to give him a shorter final stint. It was that shorter final stint that allowed him to cruise up to Bottas without too much hassle. I hated that race. Nobody pushed particularly hard, Hamilton himself wasn’t even trying to make an impression on Bottas. If he attempted to push, the tyres would have gone even sooner. It was a dreary race all around, and really, being able to say that Mercedes didn’t win one race does not seem like a price worth paying. When one looks back to the fantastic racing towards the end of the races in Austria, there was enough degradation to make a difference, but it wasn’t so severe that drivers couldn’t attack. Drivers like Norris and Ricciardo were going like the clappers, racing each other hard, which is surely what people want to see. +1 Silverstone always feels like a homecoming for F1 and I love it. The spectacle of the cars through the fast corners was as mind-blowing as ever, and Hulk's Q3 lap was pretty special. But both races were a disappointment.
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