LotusLeftLotusRight

Quite a lot if that towed something of substance is a mobile diesel generator charging the battery as it drives along.

I think a lot of women drivers don’t have the mental capacity to park without assistance. It used to be a long running joke in our family that whenever we headed off somewhere in two cars, with my mother-in-law following on behind, she would always park right next to me, irrespective of how many free spaces there were. In fact we used to sit in the car giggling until she had parked and then reverse straight back out and park somewhere else. My MIL is dead now, but I was dismayed to witness her daughter (my wife) do exactly the same thing in another fairly empty car park the other day. She was driving and I was in the passenger seat and she still made a bee line for one of the few spaces right next to another car. Women just can’t trust themselves to park the car correctly without an adjacent reference point. Women drivers, mother-in-laws and wives: have I just managed the Holy Trinity of inappropriate humour nowadays?

I had to take my GTE back to the factory very early on when the AC stopped working. They re-gassed it and sent me on my way. By the time I got 75% of the way home the fresh gas had already all leaked out, so I had to call them and take it back again. This time they replaced the condenser under warranty and all has been OK since, touch wood. As for warranty duration, we only got 6 months (“because it’s a Lotus Motorsport product”), but when my gearbox exploded after only 18 months, JMG himself authorised supply of a free-of-charge replacement ex GTE development unit, but I had to pay Lotus Silverstone to fit it, so it was still a pretty eye watering (albeit slightly discounted) labour charge of £1518 (+ VAT) plus all the parts (inc new clutch whilst the gearbox was out) and fluids.

Is that your wife?

It’s funny how the Collecting Cars website has become another tool of the trade for sourcing cheap retail stock. I am pretty sure that wasn’t the original intention. Wasn’t it supposed to be a platform for private sales? Maybe they should change the name to Trading Cars?

Yeah that was it. Just 2 years ago. I guess the tailor-made options approach to new Lotus cars didn’t really catch on. https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/lap

Didn’t they launch something like that a couple of years ago?

Just do what many of the farmers are doing round here. Sell your farm to property developers so they can build housing estates and/or giant warehouses on it. I see you’re in Devon, so must be plenty of demand for housing, whether for cash-strapped locals or second homes / Airbnb’s for rich Londoners. Kerching.

Six turnin’, four burnin’

B36?

When I was growing up during the height of the Cold War, I remember the owners of a posh house near Leicester racecourse having a large prefabricated fall-out shelter craned into a hole deep underneath their garden. It even made the local newspaper. Can you imagine the masses descending on that property if it was all going nuclear? I guess the house and its shelter are still there, so it would be quite a desirable property nowadays.

Needed something to transport the family.

Here’s a thing. In India no-one has an estate car. It’s either saloon, hatchback or SUV. I don’t think any manufacturer sells an estate. There is zero demand.

I only remember Jos Verstappen for being at the centre of this inferno. It’s 30 years ago now. His F1 record was pretty poor.

Good spot. The DAC prefix cars are supposed to be very desirable. I can’t remember why, but someone on here will know.

Can’t comment on your issues, but the MD of our factory in Germany informed me that the illness absentee rate at our company is 13%. We have 200 staff, so an average of 26 off at any one time. Probably a similar number on holiday, so only about 150 at work. I work from home and think I have had a total of less than 5 days off ill in the past 22 years. Working from home certainly helps here, because I don’t need to drag my wheezing body out of the house and into the car to sit in some uncomfortable office all day, infect someone else and then drive home again. Nevertheless there must be a lot of people out there who sneeze once and take the day off work.

🍿

Yeah, I often wonder why a hybrid or electric car cannot top up its charge via the sun. Either solar cells in the roof of the vehicle or just a portable solar charger for when your car is parked outside. When not in use, my hybrid just sits on the driveway. In the summer it gets roasting hot inside, so must be exposed to plenty of solar energy. I am sure it sunnier climates, it would make even more sense. It might not charge a battery to 300 miles range, but maybe enough to fill a hybrid battery or get you to and from work for free.

He’s got his work cut out there: can’t see any Esprit SE owner in Texas wanting a RHD Land Cruiser.

Drives me nuts the amount of house building on green field sites here in the East Midlands. Vast swathes of farmland are being sold to housing estate developers every year, resulting in loads of extra council tax for the local authorities. Then we hear all that bollox in the media about housing shortages. It’s getting like cars: “I must have a brand new house to keep up with the Joneses.” No you mustn’t.

Plenty of other energy drink companies out there involved with motorsport. How about giving this guy a call? 🤣

I recently saw a red one of those Hyundai Coupes being driven proudly around our town, complete with full Ferrari Scuderia shields and badging.

You kind of missed my point. We are always being told that people leading an unfit lifestyle put a disproportionate burden on the NHS for example. At face value that makes sense, but let’s look at my two extremes. Fit person spends adult entire life being teetotal non-smoker. Travels by riding a bike or walking everywhere. So that’s say 50 years of zero tax revenue for the Treasury, but will still be using NHS resources to a certain extent throughout their life time. Unfit person spends entire adult life drinking the equivalent of 6 x £8 bottles of wine per week, smokes 20 cigarettes per day and drives a car 10,000 miles per year. Current total annual revenue to the Treasury is about £5100. So at current rates that 50 years of unhealthy adult life would equate to £255,000 of tax that the fit person above is not contributing.

They already do. Be interesting to know how much more tax a fat person pays each year if they smoke, drive an ICE car, drink alcohol and eat out a lot, compared to a fit non-driver who lives on fresh air, water and vegetables.

What’s the point of Jeremy Hunt’s Budget with exaggerated claims of future growth and all the media number crunching that will follow, considering the Conservatives will be out of office in a few short months? Its effect will be minimal. By the way, why do we have to have an Autumn Statement and a Spring Budget nowadays? It used to be just the Budget.