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Over the past 5 years or so a European trip have been completed. This year is no exception so we @marcusb with Nakki and @Terryathome with Caroline are at it again. Cars will be, Marcus in his FW 2.0L Zetec powered blue cruser complete with carbon cycle wings (hope they stay attached on this trip) and myself in FW 2.0L Mega S2000 with a slight half hood zip situation that I hope to correct before the trip. It is our intention to update this post as we go along (Wifi access permitting) with interesting and not so interesting snippets of our "Squeaky Spanners Euro Tour 2017" will explain the "Squeaky Spanners" bit in a later post as need to find the video which will enlighten you. To start with is the route. We depart on the 12th and return in the UK on the 26th August 2017 staying at 8 hotels & 1 Farmhouse. Most are 1 day stops but we do have multiple days at a few locations, the best one being a farmhouse (with pool) similar to the one in Pisa last year which was fansastico (excuse my Italian lingo) So there you have it, will update as and when we have anything to report

Hi All, Pleased to say that I'm well on way to going from admirer to owner (Thanks @Ali and Gail for your advice at Silverstone). Deposit paid and hoping to collect next week... Will update with pictures! Hope to catch up soon at a local meet. Cheers, Paul

It is a bit 'cheesy' to be honest and this is a car forum...........................

Yes, before I retired I was a traffic officer and we were indeed taught the capabilities of a car on a skid pan with abs, traction and stability control. The students drove towards a chicane of cones at speed and let the car do its thing under heavy braking and then did it again with everything turned off which proved to all of us that the car was much more competent than we were. Absolutely amazing what all the toys could make the car do!

Yeah great in the afternoon when a lot went home. Still got some wadding left plus some extra wire wool & 4" nails didn't have a proplem the rest of the day! I did miss a gear which might have triggered it.

@Geoffrey (Buttercup) - North Yorkshire AO I will slip you a tool roll to stay quite

Well all in all a good day out. Some people appear to have forgotten the rules of trackdays but other than that. There were some quick cars and no major breakages.

They are still in fashion with gentlemen of a certain age... And try to ignore the other midlife crisis lurking in the background - Grizlee couldn't help himself

Boot load of throttle?

Wow, that's brilliant news @PaulD23. I am sure we will see you again soon. Maybe meet up for a blat round the Cotswolds when your up and running. Remember, it's not Mph, it's smiles per second!

If you're near Rockingham or Silverstone, I can really recommend attending Carkraft. I've done it a few times now and the skidpan session you really do learn how to react to each situation. Of course, only practise will make perfect (and most importantly, an instinct!).

All booked with Horton Arms, they will be reserving a Westfield (and other kits) only area of car park to gather. Probably directly opposite the pub.

The Horton Arms has informed me the roadworks are no more.... So access any way you choose!

How fantastic. Hope you all have a great time. Seems to be a bit of a habit forming with @marcusband carbon cycle wings.

Common sense hasn't gone anywhere, you're just much more exposed to morons than you used to be. It's a connected world, which although it has lots of benefits also means you can't help but be connected to people you wouldn't choose to socialise with. I worked in customer services 15 years ago, pre-smartphone, pre-facebook etc and I can assure you that common sense was in deep absence then too.

Noise or naughtiness?

having had two previous cars with cycle wings, my current car has clamshells and i prefer the look of them, especially with chrome - the classic look. I also prefer them for keeping the muck from kicking up too far and mine also has a fantastic turning circle, unlike the other cars!

28 13A sockets?? Sounds like a job for some IEC mains distribution panels to me.....

Not a difficult one. If you don't like the "Like" system, ignore it. Amazingly, the world will carry on as usual. Personally, I like the update, adds four extra layers to it to make it more expressive, particularly the tears one where you can publicly and quickly tell the poster you disapprove of their post. I say keep it. There's every difference in the world between difference of opinion written respecting the views of all parties, and difference of opinion written as heated arguments, bickering, abuse and name calling where the person who shouts loudest and last thinks they win. The first one is what mature adults do. The second one is what immature children do in playgrounds. These forums, particularly the Stuff & Nonsense, is a far, far better place then it was a number of years ago when a few "characters" had nothing better to do than deliberately stir up trouble and ill-feeling, then protest their innocence when they went too far and had their leash chains yanked. What those characters never saw, or chose to see, was the vast number of members who read that rubbish and were put off from contributing anything at all, which made the collective poorer and less knowledgeable. Perhaps it's partly a question of getting older and wiser. No doubt I've posted some pretty asinine and idiotic things in here in the past, which I now regret. But surely it is up to us to set an example by our own actions and by doing so, encourage new members to join and contribute. My opinion is that this club's forums are fantastic as they are. If I want to go somewhere to get upset from gross stupidity or have an utterly pointless argument, I'll watch Eastenders, read the Daily Mail, or scroll through the comments on any YouTube video. At least in here, we now have a place where intelligent debate with respect takes place as the rule rather than the exception. Be gone and never return, bad old days.

That's got a genuine, classy, old-school look and it might be a shame to 'spoil' it. I know the current fashion is to make them look all race-track & carbon bling (guilty-ish) but nowt wrong with that look at all.

Sorry I cant give advice, just good wishes and empathy. Pleased to hear the loom is ok. My loom fell onto the propshaft and didn't survive. I now have a multicore cable connecting the front and back of the car.

I've just booked a garage (just encase!) and asked that we are all grouped together. I'm happy to share with whoever needs a space... Rich.

Why are they mutually exclusive? Unless of course you're suggesting to like one thing is to like everything? Surely being shown appreciation is what helps people rise above mere mediocrity, and to remove such things leads to the very non-competitive policy's that help level the field.

I've hidden three posts, including my own. It turns out that "alluding" to certain ex-members, and then asking people politely not to actually name them is simply regarded as a challenge. The Boardroom is not disappearing down that particular rabbit hole again of singling people out, personally. The moderators will keep a close eye on this thread, something we've not had to do for a long time. The past is the past where certain characters are concerned, let's leave them there.

Why do we care? This isn't Facebook. Isn't "liking" a symptom of the modern mediocrity mentioned in the common sense thread? Without informed, reasoned dissent to provoke deeper thinking we're definitely on the fast-track to idiocracy.

The problem with common sense, is that arrogance always wins, whilst common sense gets the sack to avoid an "I told you so". But hey that's enough of my career history The education system is now modelled around creating an army of mindless zombies who don't dare question authority, taught that the less you question the status-quo and the more mediocre you are, the greater your chances in life............... Sadly it's true, because in the real world middle management only promote people who don't pose a threat, so being mediocre is actually a bonus.

I think it's fixed

I'd also leave it on clamshells and would treat to a nice set of minilights with polished rims

Sounds like either someone who used to come in here many, many, many moons ago when things were less civilised for a bit, or I can think of a few people who were unpleasant club members who thought being nasty, abusive, acerbic and pushing as hard as they could and crying foul when they were necessarily brought to heel. i remember one utter waste of space who really ran riot and said we couldn't stop him as the pen was mightier than the sword. We turned off his posting rights and reminded him that while the pen is mightier than the sword, we owned the paper and the ink. Pistonheads is one of the bearpits and if that's the sort of thing some sad loser posts, that's all I need to know about it and it makes me glad I don't waste my time there on ill-behaved onanists. I much prefer to be here with my dear friends.

Good shout - I only read 'loom pulled', not the full details so yes, missing earth is most likely. There's a main earth bundle just by the tunnel entry so one or more wires could have easily been pulled out of there. Should be able to see it from the engine bay easily enough. ISTR that was a bit tight on mine so might be an early candidate for failure if it got tugged. Again, apologies for p***-poor attention when reading your post.

Sounds as if an earth has become dislodged - that can have strange results.

Are you not a bit old for SKCC team 18-20?