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Post by racingteatray on Dec 14, 2023 15:20:34 GMT
I agree but I haven't found any way of dissuading the ever-growing local fox population from using my car as part of their local vulpine superhighway, so it's either faff with the cover or risk deep scratches from scrabbling foxes with muddy paws and non-retractile claws.
So far this sort of neoprene-type material doesn't seem to cause condensation to form underneath.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 14, 2023 15:15:56 GMT
Sounds good! It's weird how you can go along the coastal part of France in the direction of Brussels/Antwerp and not get hit for tolls, but head south and you are into them (better motorways though - its worth the money!). Good recommendation on the toll device Racing - could be handy! Edited to add: I've chucked one of the summer fronts (which fit on either end, at a push) in the boot in a bag, as I hate having no spare. It takes away a lot of boot storage, but still leaves more than I'll ever need unless going on holiday in it, in which case I'll load the back seats up, or stuff soft bags around it. I don't fancy waiting on a mobile fitter to find me a really rare tyre size, it would likely take many many hours or not be possible, and being towed due to a puncture is a joke. Tyre foam might occasionally be useful but even then you are supposed to change it very soon! Come now...I drove to and from Moscow twice in the GTA with no spare...
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 14, 2023 9:35:39 GMT
You definitely can't go wrong with digestives.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 22:02:34 GMT
If I were to come across these biscuits which flavour is the winner? There look to be a few choices. Personally I like the standard chocolate Grisbis but the hazelnut ones are also good - not unlike nutella. Mulino Bianco...where to start...Abbracci ("hugs") are a classic - quite often eaten at breakfast in Italian households, dipped into their morning coffee, as are Pan di Stelle, which literally all Italian kids love. I also have a weakness for Settembrini, which are basically an Italian version of a fig roll. italianfoodshop.co.uk/collections/mulino-bianco
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 21:06:34 GMT
Not sure those look like they'd go with my cup of tea. I prefer dark chocolate by a country mile and have never understood custard creams. They say your tastes are formed in childhood, so I unsurprisingly go in more for Italian stuff like Mulino Bianco and Grisbi, which luckily our local shops stock (this being west London). Grisbis were our idea of heaven as kids. Google them. This could be the poshest forum post ever. Touché...but then again we did live in Italy until I was 10, so that's what's behind it. England was generally pretty disappointing on the food front when we moved back here - I mean you try being sent from Italy to an English boarding school in the mid-80s. I didn't know what most of it was and it was all pretty revolting.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 16:18:41 GMT
Where are you going that doesn't involve French motorways? Or are you going via Holland?
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 16:15:39 GMT
It's a lovely colour combo indeed and would suit my drive well :-) You are a total masochist choosing this time of year for your annual wash.... I debated cleaning the Alfa at the weekend, then took it out for a 50 min blat yesterday and its totally covered in cack so I'm glad I did not. That said I havw the day off tomorrow and may wash both of them and proof the hood of the Porsche, joining you in the pointless car licking club. Hopefully yours stays clean in town Like I said, I needed to put the anti-fox cover back on it, and that requires the car to be clean. Can't remember if I said, but I had a bit of a nightmare with the outdoor cover that Porsche Tequipment supplies, because although it's bespoke-shaped to the Macan, it's just a thin single-layer plastic sheet with no soft inner lining, which quickly resulted in terrible scuffing marks wherever it rested against the car. I made a great fuss and eventually West London Porsche agreed to (a) refund me and (b) mop and polish the car for me to get rid of the scuff marks. I did feel that I was possibly being a bit precious but when I took it in and they put it in the special polishing bay which was lit with very unforgiving bright lights, the service manager quickly said "ah yes, that's pretty shocking". So I now have a new cover, ordered from Classic Additions, which after a PCGB discount cost more or less what Porsche refunded me for their cover. It's made from an entirely different material - a sort of stretchy neoprene similar to a wet suit. Let's see. So far it seems much more resistant to fox claws (and the dirty footprints show they've been up there already multiple times) than the multi-layer Coverzone one I had for the BMW, the outer waterproof layer of which used to eventually tear and therefore cause the cover to lose its water-proofing. Plus it has well designed straps, so it doesn't seem to be billowing in wild weather or causing any scuffs. The new cover also has the advantage of just being plain grey - the one Porsche supplied was silver with a huge Porsche badge and lettering on the bonnet, which was a bit unnecessary.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 16:03:49 GMT
I would recommend getting one of these: www.bipandgo.com/en/Costs little and the convenience is huge, especially with a RHD car.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 16:02:27 GMT
Are you remembering all the things you have to carry in the car for France, like spare bulbs, yellow vests, a UK sticker and probably winter tyres. Do they still require you to carry a breathalyser too? Or it that Spain? You definitely need a breathalyser still. We stopped to buy some wine near Colmar last month (being partial to a bit of Alsation cremant and riesling) en route back to London in the Mini, and one of our favoured vineyards mentioned it and kindly gifted us a breathalyser as the one I already had was long-expired...
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 13, 2023 15:58:30 GMT
For me, it's no contest. Those gorgeous teledials walk it all day every day. Just heaps better looking (IMNVHO) - being a shallow sort of soul that would matter more to me than the weight difference...plus I am partial to a dark silver/grey finish.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 12, 2023 16:47:59 GMT
Not sure those look like they'd go with my cup of tea. I prefer dark chocolate by a country mile and have never understood custard creams.
They say your tastes are formed in childhood, so I unsurprisingly go in more for Italian stuff like Mulino Bianco and Grisbi, which luckily our local shops stock (this being west London). Grisbis were our idea of heaven as kids. Google them.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 12, 2023 16:43:30 GMT
I was going to refer to it as "dusky plum" but not after you talked about seeing it in the flesh....
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 12, 2023 15:12:24 GMT
Can't help, sorry - I have always had it free with the warranty.
But don't all the usual suspects offer it?
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 12, 2023 15:11:22 GMT
I don’t actually have any problems with the combo. I quite like these Matt grey finishes. What about the weird interior colour though. I don't mind a wine red usually but that's one of those slightly wrong shades that the Germans are so good at.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 12, 2023 13:12:59 GMT
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 11, 2023 22:25:17 GMT
A rare shot of the Mini and the Macan together…how to make 17” alloys look like teeny…
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 11, 2023 17:04:43 GMT
It's come up very well though nice job! Are you not putting your plate on this one? I just haven't got around to it and in the meantime am quite enjoying the anonymity! I was tempted to put my plate on the Fiat, but my wife was having none of it.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 11, 2023 17:02:40 GMT
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 11, 2023 16:25:17 GMT
Ha. Probably once a month, but depends on use. I literally just washed the Macan. But it is the first time I've washed it by hand since I bought it - I usually take it to the local hand carwash, but that's expensive and on this occasion it really just needed a quick once-over to shift some motorway grime so that I could put the cover back on it (I am pretty careful not to put the cover on when the car is dirty). One thing I do notice is that the wheels accumulate almost no brake dust - it has "Porsche Surface Coated Brakes" and they do seem to work as advertised: www.porsche.com/international/aboutporsche/christophorusmagazine/archive/384/articleoverview/article03/The Mini got a full valet last month when it arrived back in London and then was washed again on Saturday by BMW Battersea (it went in for a brake fluid change). So it's all nice and clean ready for its return trip back down to Italy. In Italy, it lives in a warm dry garage and is used relatively infrequently so it doesn't get very dirty - but I usually treat it to a wash before putting it away when we leave. The Fiat...well that's the only one I regularly wash by hand - it's so small that it doesn't take long. But I doubt it gets washed more than once a month - usually once it starts to look more cream than white!
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 11, 2023 15:52:37 GMT
I should probably have my forum membership revoked for this admission but this is actually the first time I have washed the Macan myself by hand since getting it back in January! It is looking very shiny as it had a full mop by Porsche West London not long ago after the Tequipment car cover debacle…
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 8, 2023 17:48:38 GMT
Brilliant! Did you make the ferry? Yes. The journey generated several other anecdote-worthy "moments", including a memorable encounter with a little old lady manning the till in a petrol station in Glasgow at 2am who looked like a particularly kindly version of Miss Marple but who growled pure weegie in a voice like a cross between a raven and a docker with a 50-a-day Marlboro Red habit, but I made it to the ferry on time.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 6, 2023 12:10:30 GMT
Leaves me completely cold. Sure it's different but it takes "flashy" to a whole new level. Next to that a 6x6 G-Wagon is a shrinking violet's delight.
Can't help thinking it looks like one of those uber-ostentatious mega-SUVs touted by Russian manufacturers a couple of years ago, of the sort with built-in armaments and leather interiors made the hides of virgin dolphins.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 6, 2023 12:05:05 GMT
You can see why rich people move to Monaco and live out their days in a 2 bed flat. I had my watch stolen off my wrist in Barcelona last month. It was only a Seiko but I had got into modifying Seikos (its a scene) and it looked very similar to a Rolex Daytona Panda. Anyways first day someone just walked past and tore it off my wrist and befroe I knew what was happening he ducked down a side street and was gone. My only comfort is that fact he thought he's had a 20k watch away when in fact it was my dodgy Seiko copy worth all of £200. I do like watches, always wanted a Panerai but your opening yourself up for trouble. And What's the point in wearing a cheap modified watch if your local mugger can't tell the difference. How unpleasant. We saw this happen in Barcelona when we were there a couple of years ago. Guy grabbed someone's steel sports watch as they were standing outside a shop in a narrow street and then hared off up the street. A women tried to block him and he pulled an astonishingly violent Jean-Claude van Damme-style kick-box move on her. Unfortunately for him, they both went crashing to the ground and before he could get up several large male onlookers piled onto him and did a sort of citizen's arrest.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 5, 2023 14:09:39 GMT
I don't know if any of you have read the BBC's article or watched the programme about watch stealing in London but it is scary. A 16yr old with a machete is not the kind of person you can reason with or even take a chance at trying to overpower. Would this kind of trouble make you think twice about wearing an expensive watch? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67608184Yes it does, in big cities anyway. It's one of the reasons for switching to mainly wearing an Apple watch. It's not necessarily because you are walking down the street in a short sleeve shirt with your expensive watch there for all to see. A man was killed very near my office while having his watch stolen. He'd been clocked wearing it in a restaurant and the gang was waiting for him when he left.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 4, 2023 15:16:45 GMT
I did have one very funny experience with a hitchhiker many years ago.
We were having a big family get together for Easter on Islay. This involved me flying back from Moscow, going to some meetings in London, then picking up the Z1 from my flat in London after work and driving all the way up. The timings involved meant me driving up through the night to catch the first ferry from Kennacraig in the morning.
At a certain point on the M74 around midnight, I found myself really struggling to stay awake, even with a door open. So I pulled into, from memory, Abington services (or thereabouts) for a Red Bull and some fresh air.
Upon returning to the car, a young bloke of about 18 came staggering up to me out of the darkness beyond the forecourt lights, clearly pretty pissed, and desperate for a lift home. Apparently he was making his way home after a lock-in in a local pub and I was the first car to pass in ages. Ordinarily I'd have said no, but he was so patently harmless and pathetic that I relented and asked how far it was - to which the reply was just a couple of miles.
Well the fun started when I opened the door (on, for him, the wrong side) and it did its vanishing trick. Then it seemed wise to leave the doors down in case he puked, so off we roared breezily into the night (and it was a noisy little car that one). As we are bombing along, he asks me where I've come from and without thinking I replied "Moscow". The other detail to note at this point is that I am still wearing a dark business suit and white shirt, having not bothered to change after my meetings. Wee laddie takes a long sideways look at me, gulps and utters the immortal words "ma friends'll ne'er believe me but ah've met James Bond". Brilliant.
Any way, soon enough we arrive in a village, he points out a house and I drop him safely off, and that was that.
But I have always wondered, if he remembered anything in the morning about how he got home, whether anyone ever believed a tale about how he got a lift home with a man from Moscow in a car with no doors.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 1, 2023 15:20:06 GMT
Like that. Looks spot-on! Congratulations.
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 1, 2023 15:16:37 GMT
Price is an interesting thing. Auto Express did the maths and inflation adjusted the base E34 520 was more expensive than a base i5. In other aspects price is also interesting. Inflation adjustment of my first house puts it at around 33% of the price paid for our current house at the date of purchase. Not sure the current one feels three times better or more special. Feels like you are starting the mental journey to justifying the purchase of one...
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Post by racingteatray on Dec 1, 2023 9:34:34 GMT
Terrible. Hope they make a good recovery.
London is, needless to say, full of these idiots. A few weeks back, we were driving past the Natural History Museum along the Cromwell Road, which for those who don't know it is part of the A4 and thus has two lanes in either direction (without a central reservation). It's a busy road at pretty much all times as the major artery out to the west from central London (becomes the M4 eventually). Mid-afternoon on a Saturday and two blokes who looked about 18 were, bold as brass, cycling up the middle of it on expensive-looking e-bikes at traffic speed weaving in wide figures of eight around each other, pulling wheelies, and running every light and pedestrian crossing.
I really can't think of a better advert for investing in a dashcam.
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 30, 2023 23:40:26 GMT
The problem with the M3 Touring is that when we all said we wanted one, at no point did we say that we wanted one that had a face not even a mother could love and priced like an Aston Martin.
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 30, 2023 23:37:48 GMT
In the summer, on Astypalaia in the Dodecanese. In the middle of nowhere, we encountered a teenage girl thumbing a lift home from her grandparents' home to town - she was happy to jump in the e-Up with four people old enough to be her parents, and we dropped her off in town. In return we got a couple of decent restaurant tips!
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