johns

I'm heading down to Brands as well, I'll drive it for you

Looking good. Will you have it ready and run in properly in time for Brands Hatch at the end of next month?

Welcome Sal, you'll be within a reasonable journey time of Aberdeen - well compared to your usual commutes! Hopefully catch up with you at some point. John

Overall crime levels in Aberdeen and shire are very low, and as mentioned above you just need to avoid a few areas. I would say the first thing to find out is where your offices are based. If it's in Altens area, then I would recommend somewhere south of the city live Cove, Muchalls down to Stonehaven area for an easy daily commute. Alternatively the west end of the city would be a safe bet, though a bit pricier. If your company is based in the Bridge of Don area, then maybe somewhere further out like Balmedie (close to the beach) out to Newburgh. If you are going to be based in Dyce, then somewhere like Kintore or Inverurie would be perfect for a 15 minute commute in the mornings. Virtually all the houses for sale (and rent) in the Aberdeen area can be found on www.aspc.co.uk I would recommend renting a nice house somwwhere for say 3 to 6 months until you get to know your way around the city, do some exploring and find the sort of places you would like to live. This will give you enough time to have a good look at dozens of houses for sale. John

Got your PM OK - I'll go and look on Saturday morning for you Hill Climb - yes they do still run it, and Dale is right there was one just over a week ago. Great day out for not much money John

I pass this place twice a day, but at 8am and 6pm, so it is always closed. Cars are on the forecourt though. Probably the earliest I could look during opening hours would be Saturday morning, so I could have a good look inside, hear it running and take it for a test drive etc. I've only got my car at work once more this week (car share on alternate days) and have a meeting that day, otherwise I could have picked you up one lunchtime to have a look over it. If next week isn't too late, then thats an option. Cheers John

Here's a couple of my photos. John

Great shots everyone. Neil - love the subtle substitution of the sponsor name with your flickr link

Very well done guys. Tremendous effort. Cars were looking superb - a very high standard of preparation

lovely and warm if it was zero

Why not look at some of the diesel Impreza hatches that are available ? I'm sure with decent suspension, brakes, wheels and a re-map, they could be quite a potent run-around as well as being economical.

The gobstopper sadly won't be there, but there will be quite a few interesting Imprezas there The Red Brick racing EVO will be there, and that should be well worth a look: http://www.timeattack.co.uk/index.php/2010...o-breaks-cover/ with DTM spec carbon brakes.

For anyone that is interested, I've got my photos from round 1 at Oulton park in my gallery: http://www.flatoutphotography.com/gallery.html John

I'm heading down from Aberdeen as well. I've even got the SIDC trophies for fastest Subaru in each class in my posession now, including the ones that didn't arrive in time for the Oulton Park round I'll be the one wandering around my a camera in my hand most of the day John

Horrible, gut wrenching news Glad that you escaped without injury though - that is the main thing. John

I think a 3 day event (two overnight stays) would work well as it would be much less tiring on the Saturday for those who had to drive a long way to get to the starting point Although I couldn't attend this one, reading the reports brought back many happy memories of previous events and I'd love to go on another one The Tour d'Ecosse events we ran from 1998 to 2002 used this format. Friday was arrival day, where people would take their time to arrive at the hotel from wherever they came from. People would meet up (many for the first time) over dinner in the hotel and get to know each other, and relax over a few beers before the main driving event on the Saturday. Some people were more ambitious than others in terms of pace and driving distance, and others wanted lots of stops to take in the beauty of the countryside, photo stops etc. so there were several routes available. Over the course of Friday evening, people would work out roughly which route they wanted to drive and sort themselves into smaller groups of 4 to 6 cars for the next day. The more abmitious routes included extra loops, with the intention for everyone to meet up for lunch in the same place at roughly the same time (hotels and pubs cope much better with smaller groups arriving over the course of an hour or so, than a bigger group arriving at the same time). Depending on the driving route chosen (and pace), people would get back to the hotel between about 4 and 7pm, before everyone got together for the big dinner and many more beers. Lots of great stories of the days events and driving were told. Typically Sunday was a late and lazy start, with only a few hours driving to be done before lunch (normally somewhere around Perth so that those from further south had less distance to get home, and typically an hour to 90 minutes for mostly everyone else in Scotland). Whilst most of us managed a few hundred miles driving on the Saturday, I'll always remember the November 2000 event where one group decided to go for Monster Route 7 . I can't remember the exact route, but I think it was Glencoe - Applecross, round the coastal road to Shieldaig, then up to Ullapool via Gairloch. From there they headed up the west coast to Cape Wrath and had lunch in the hotel at Tongue, before heading across to John O'Groats, then down via Wick to Inverness, back down the A82 to Fort William and back to the hotel in Glencoe for dinner in the evening. Needless to say they were rather tired by the time they got back to the hotel having covered over 600 miles, mostly on single track roads and with it being November it didn't really get properly light until 9am and was dark by 4. They had some great stories to tell involving crofters, sheep, whisky, spins, close encounters and lots of hilarity, and disbelief from everyone else that they were mad enough to attempt and complete that route in one day! Reading all the reports from this Highland Fling, and seeing all the photos has brought back lots of happy memories for me, so count me in for sure for the next one John

I believe Arch used these people: http://www.blackperformance.co.uk/

Great write-up Scott. Roll on Knockhill in a few weeks time

No problems

Here's a few photos from the Time Attack event at Oulton Park on Saturday. Scott Robson won his class, with Fee coming second Lifting the front wheel on the straight just before the pit entrance!! Lateral Performance "Banana": Kev Horsley who came 2nd in Club Pro Duncan Graham who was 3 seconds per lap quicker than last year, now running in Club Pro: Scooby Clinic Impreza at the chicane: Scott setting his fastest lap in the final Fee in her Skyline This sounded fabulous on full chat The only "ouch" moment of the weekend. Scott and Fee with the champagne on the podium: More Time Attack photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57623809333155/ The drifting guys were as mad as always More Drifting Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57623809631789/ There was also two Forumla Ford races in between the Time Attack and Drifting Formula Fords here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57623809640207/

All the best for this year Scott, and looking forward to your superb write-ups again

I went along to the Granite City Rally yesterday, saw two stages (SS1 and SS6), thoroughly enjoyed myself, and took a few photos for the first time at a Rally. SS1 First competitive car on the road went off right in front of us. The full sequence is on flickr 1. 2. 3. Full set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57623755383469/ SS6 4. 5. 6. Full set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsidc/sets...57623879988678/

http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.php?opti...p;Itemid=300055 Can't believe how fast the speedo goes around to 300 Kph - absolutely stunning acceleration at higher speeds and you can see/hear he loses traction quite a few times!

£11k for a Spec D (What I'm driving at the moment) seems like a good deal to me. I've had Imprezas now for the past 13 years, and driven many many miles in them. My previous Sti had 64k miles on it when I traded it in after 5 years and was running just as sweet as it was when new, still on the original clutch. Only things that had been swapped out on it were the brakes, as it needed new front discs all round. I don't even think I had to change a light bulb on it either during the 5 years! If the car you are looking to buy has a full service history and appears to have been well looked after I would have no hesitations in buying it.

The price isn't that much more than I was expecting. Take a standard STi, which is about £27k new. Add: Cosworth bottom end rebuild including high quality components - cost approx £3k - £4k including labour? Uprated Clutch, new turbo, Exhaust and ECU remap - £2k - £2.5k New leather interior plus other bits: About £2k 355mm AP Brakes about £2k Fog Lights, lip spoiler, grilles etc, privacy glass etc probably not far short of £750 Bilstien suspension - probably close to £2k, possibly more Lightweight 18 inch wheels and tyres, assume about £1.5 - £2k 3 year warranty - probably worth about £2k At the top end of the estimates, that's about £17k on top of the standard car. Then you have to figure in the development and testing costs (including European Type Approval ?) - many months would have gone into the testing, development and fine tuning (particularly the suspension), and divide this amongst a production run of only 75 cars. That could easily add up to another £3 - £5k per car. Remember the car will need to pass strict emissions and noise regulations so owners won't have problems come MOT time, or if they are ever stopped by police etc. Add in a bit of profit and an allowance for marketing materials and you're probably not far off the price of £50k. John