johns

Hope to see lots of you there

Well done

Nice write-up, and pity about the gasket going. I did wonder why you pulled off at the top of the circuit in the final but never got the chance to talk to you during the day. John

Nice Weather looked good as well!

If you are moving to Aberdeen and will be working in the Schoolhill area in the centre of town, then really anywhere within 40 miles of Aberdeen will get you to/from that centre of town in an hour if you are driving. The traffic coming in from both the north and south of the city can be very busy at rush hour times, and parking in the city centre can be expensive. I used to use the car park on South College Street when I worked in the city centre. It's about a 10 minute walk from there to Schoolhill, but it has reasonably easy access roads to both the south and west of the city. I work beside the AECC also and live out in Kintore. The journey to/from work (14 miles each way) varies between 18 - 25 minutes depending on the time of day and number of tractors encountered It would take about 45 - 60 minutes by bus to reach the city centre from there if you didn't want to drive every day. If it's Portlethen you will be working at, then I would definitely recommend somwhere south of the city to stay like Stonehaven, Portlethen, Inverbervie, Muchalls etc. I dare say you could even live as far south as Dundee and reach Portlethen in an hour during rush hour.

Spooks - some great shots despite you claiming to be "off form" My drifting pics didn't seem to turn out very well either - I've uploaded a few of them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57618419420328/

Great pics everyone. I've posted mine up to flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets/72157618372720374 Some samples:

Not long home and still smiling even though I am sunburnt to a crisp. What a great day out, nice to meet so many old and new friends. Very well done to all those taking part and getting fantastic results. Well done to Tam for winning a show and shine prize John (my photos will come later - I need to find some after sun cream first, and then some food )

Nice write up, and good to see both the car and driver have lots of potential When I had my classic, pad knock off was quite common when the wheel bearings were on their way out, especially when everything was hot. A set of APs more or less cured the issue for me, with much less heat going into the hubs from the brakes but under repeated hard use, the bearings (mostly passenger side front) did need replaced about once a year.

I've had these fitted to my STi for about 6 months now. The biggest issue I have with them is the amount of brake dust they produce. Even under light commuting use (about 120 miles in a week), the front wheels are almost black by the end of the week. If you leave the wheels a few weeks between cleaning (as I do over winter ), then it's very difficult to shift the built up deposits even using the very corrosive Wonder Wheels cleaner and leaving it to soak in for longer periods of time! I've even got stains on my driveway now from washing the wheels with the amount of dust that comes off them. Mine also squeel a bit under light use when the are hot. I think I'll go back to the DS2500s again after these ones, despite them being a bit more expensive.

I'e posted my photos from the event up here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57616056621566/ It was a bit too cold to stand out for long periods of time, but a great day overall! Stuart - sorry you had an off, but very happy that everyone was OK and the damage doesn't look too bad. John

I am alive, but just working overseas at the moment with very restricted net access. I'll be home in a few days and will respond to everyone then

I have been running H rated winter tyres for the past 4 years on my Imprezas

Arch, no problems at all with you posting up my pictures If and when I get time, I'll put the hi-res originals onto a CD for you. John

Great thread Archie - looking forward to the rest of the reason's write up and developments. John

Thanks

I've finally found a few minutes to go through all my photos from Knockhill last weekend. You can view them all here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57607159962103/ Feel free to post up any good ones you find John

I have loads of photos as well, but not had time to get them off the camera onto the PC yet! Didn't get home from the event and McRae Gathering until Monday night and was busy last night also. Will try and get some done tonight. John

It could possibly be the battery in your car running low. My alarm on a previous Impreza started playing up when the battery was on it's way out.

Well done on the new job, and it will be great to have you up here. Must meet up for a few beers at some point. Will you be working offshore, or have an onshore office based job?

Jools, give me a shout and we can maybe catch up at some point. I don't have any of your numbers any more, as I lost all my contacts when my phone was stolen in Trinidad. At that great party at your house when we all met up, Neil had just bought a 5D, and Simon had the 30D which had just been released at the time. I later bought the 400D which was excellent for learning with. John

Jools, upgraded from the 400D to a 40D earlier this month. It's the lenses that make the big difference though with an SLR. Most of these were taken with long(ish) lenses, namely a 70-200 and a 100-400. I'll be selling the 400D in a while once I get around to getting the box out of the loft etc.

No problems Carl. Glad you liked them

Arch, I've been in quite a few quick Imprezas over the years, including a full Group N spec car driven flat out on a forest rally stage - that was the scariest yet. AlanG's old car around Knockhill was also great fun and very fast - even with the fishtailing coming out of the hairpin I'll take to the pax seta in your car first though, to warm me up for the full onslaught John

I have a simple system for rating the photos that works for me: Using Lightroom, open the view where you get a large sized preview, and the smaller ones at the bottom. Press the number 1 to 5 to give it a rating, and then press the right arrow key to move to the next one. With a few fingers you can rattle through the photos very quickly indeed. My rating system is as follows: 1: Bl**dy awful. Out of focus, only half the car etc. basically unusable 2: Mediocre, not sharp enough for my liking, or maybe 3 or 4 near identical shots out of a sequence. I'll rate the best one higher. 3: OK, maybe not great composition or 100% sharp, but good enough for most people. This is generally the lowest quality I'll upload or let anyone see. 4: Above average, Nice sharp image, good composition - something I myself am pleased with 5: Excellent - you get maybe one in a 100 or so that are just a cut above the rest. I rattled through 800+ photos in an hour or so giving them a rating in Lightroom like this. Next step is select all with rating 1, and delete from disk. No use them wasting disk space or further processing time. I'll then select anything 4 or above, and tweak the exposure, contrast etc individually. Finally, I'll go through all those rated 3, and mark any near duplicates down to a 2, choosing the best one. I generally won't do any PP work on these unless it needs it. Upload all the best ones to flickr, and if I am missing any cars or get requests , then I'll look through the 3s, or maybe even the 2s. After a few months, I'll eventually go through and delete the 2s from disk as well, as you will never look at or use them again, especially if you have better ones of the same thing. I also use the colours as well, to sort cars shots into groups. E.g. All Imprezas would be flagged blue, Elsies/Exiges Red and so forth. If I've got 500 - 1000 photos and someone asks for an Elise picture, I simply filter for red and it makes things much easier. Regarding the 450D - 40D. In terms of picture quality there probably isn't anything in it. The 40D just allows me to get a higher percentage of keepers, and the viewfinder is bigger/brighter also. You have to rmember that the 40D has been out for coming up for a year now, and it will be due for replacement in about 6 - 8 months time. The 40D is a good camera that won't stop taking good photos once a new model comes out, and with the prices being reasonable just now (with the cashback available), it was the right decision for me. John