TFR - Generic Blog

Nurburgring Trip cound down has begun!

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:35:00 GMT

Well, it's been a long time coming but the countdown has begun. At the end of the month I'm off through France, Belgium and Germany to The Nurburgring to do a few laps of the infamous track/road - but more importantly for a decent road trip. Euro tunnel have been bought, so there's just a few finishing touches before I'm set.

Of course I'm taking my spanking new RenaultSport Clio 200 which should be a hoot, albeit at the risk of financially wrecking myself if I wack it at any point. Anyway, I'm not going to beat lap records, just have a good time with some friends.

A couple of things I'm still debating it whether to take spare brake pads, but I'm assuming as my car has only done 5000 miles, there is plenty of meat left on them, I guess it's just being prepared if I cook them at all as it's a pretty high speed bit of road (not to mention the trip there!)

I had batter collect some music together on my iPod!!

More ...

Clio 200 update - March

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:29:00 GMT

Well, a couple of weeks on and the Clio is still wokring. The engine has been run in for the minimum duration of 600 miles (below 3500 rpm) and now it's a free-for-all. It's been like wearing a chastity belt for the last couple of weeks, you only see what the car can do when you rev the nuts off it.
Overall I'm still very impressed with the car. It's had a decent wash with the help of my friend Tim which can only get more geeky as the weather picks up.

My only slight dissapointment has been the gear ratios, which resemble something you would normally see in a garden lawn mower! Seriously high gearing means it's near 4000rpm at 80mpg, which feels a touch high to me after my Alpina cruised around at under 3000 at that speed.

Still, the first country road/bend that comes along wipes all those worries away and put a wacking great big smile on my face again - it's truely a hoot to drive, which is why I went for it in the first place.

It's now done nearly 700 miles and the MPG is pretty shocking for a NA 2.0 engine. It hovered around 34mpg during the first week, which slowly dropped to nearer 31mpg as the weeks of running in took its tole on my patience (i.e. more throttle, low revs).
Now it's getting a fair hammering it's closer to 30mpg, which is still acceptable, although to fill the tank up is nearer the £70 mark than what I have been used to with the LPG converted Alpina (£44 fill).

Still, with no repair bills for the next 3 years, overall... who cares huh? It's only money and frankly, I'd happily pay £100 a month to have a smile on my face too and from work like I do right now!

More ...

Falling in love with driving all over again

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:59:00 GMT

You know, years have passed and I never knew it had gone. Sure, I used to enjoy the drive to work, especially down an empty country lane where I can use some driving skill. Today though, reminded me what I had been missing when my RS 200 Clio arrived. I'm still breaking in the engine, only 70 miles covered so far out of the 600 minimum - I might take it to 1000 miles before giving it the "redline experience" I've heard so much about.

So anyway, I went off to work as soon as it arrived and everything was a bit weird. You know, when you can't find the windscreen wipers, or turn the stereo up without using the knob on the dashboard etc. Within minutes I found the cruise control and had tuned and set Radio One on the radio.. all was going well.
Only when I reached Hungerford did I realise that even though I was crawling about in this tin-can-with-spoilers of a car, it felt superb!

The drive home was also fun, but with the clock ticking I had to pick my son up from school as Claire has Measles!?

So I got home, did some work until the clock ticked past 5pm, where it was time to 'tinker' with some of the optional extras I bought with the car, such as Bluetooth, Monitor pack and iPod connectivity.
I was suprised just how good the BT connectivity was, with the stero being able to access my phones phonebook, music etc. A great bit of kit.
The iPod connectivity was via a USB cable, which is OK, although it would have been nice for somewhere better to hold or hide the iPod form view - I really don't want to have to take it out each time I park up, yet, I don't want it nicked either! Still, the folder/album selection worked like a treat - my one complaint is that it seems to play the track instantly, i.e. you browse to another album and it'll instantly switch ti playing that, rather than just let you play the current track whilst you look for something else. (Hopefully that makes sense!?)

So anyway, back to the car... after dinner I had an itch to go for a drive: where? Who cares! So I jumped in, telling myself I'll just take the long way to my garage via the Pangbourne roundabout... before I knew it I had started driving down the A4 towards Thatcham! I pulled over and decided to actually head through Pangbourne as there was a decent round trip to be had, mostly through country lanes.

So I did... and completely loved it. The car is awesome.. I'm yet to find a major fault bar the scratches which I'm hoping the dealer will have sorted for me pretty quickly - I'll mention this in another blog to not tarnish the centiment of this one.

Bottom line, RenaultSport Clio 200's rock... a true, true drivers car... I can't wait for my first proper road trip in it!

Rich-out!
More ...

Ohh, I could pee myself...

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:40:00 GMT

.. with excitement I should say!

If you're a fried on facebook you 'may' have heard already, but I'm hoping to be getting my first new car in the next week or so. After getting the three year itch with the Alpina B3S I decided enough being sensible, now it was time to get soemthing fun and fruity to enjoy.

A fun and sensible car for a man in his 30's with a child.. hmm, a Ford Focus.. a BMW something-or-other? Oh no.. a RenaultSport Clio 200! Oh yes, none of this family car rubbish, I've gone for a little hatchback which has a 2L engine, no turbo and the best bar-none chassis on sale right now.

All this adds up to a high hoot-per-minute count, that can only be parred by something along the lines of a Lotus Elise, yet that only has two seats!

Of course, being *cough* more mature than many who buy this type of car, I have to splash out on a few extras to make it useable as an every day car. With that in mind I went for the 'FF' version (Full Fat), rather than the stripped out, only-good-for-kids-and-track-bitch version, the CUP.

However, I did go for the CUP Pack, which has stiffer/lower suspension, big red Brembo 4-pot calipers and a few other bells.

Other extras include:
- CUP Pack
- CUP spoiler
- Dedicated corner lights (aka projector headlights)
- Recaro sports seats
- Electric heated mirrors
- Monitor pack
- Albi blue paint (metallic)
- Black speedline wheels
- Upgraded stereo with ipod + bluetooth

I was undecided whether to go for the tomtom instead of the Monitor pack, but after seeing it in the flesh standing prooud of the dash like some kind of Yank supercharger, it was just too much, even though I get lost the minute I leave Reading! Instead I'm planning on using my trust HTC Desire with some mapping software to find my way about - which nicely integrates with the bluetooth stereo I hear.

I'll write elsewhere about the HTC phone cradle which costs a bomb, but it works a treat too...

So, back to the car. It should be registered on the 1st March, yet, due to slight delays at Renault, it'll be at the dealership for 3rd March now instead. "Good news!" I hear you say? Well indeed, however, the dealership I ended up buying the car from (for the best price) is about 3.5 hours drive away, so part of the deal was that it would be flat-bedded down to me so I can be the first person to drive it for pleasure.
With the delays, the dealer are now struggling to book a flat-bed until it arrives on site, so I'm looking at a 5th March maybe later to-my-door date... UGH! The wait is killing me now, especially as I no longer have a car to get about with.

Anyway, I'll update this section more as and when it arrives and I'll turn this post into a blog entry wich is timestamped.

I intend this section to be more about the car itself, with pictures and a mini-review + any problems I experience during ownership.
More ...

Music, gadgets and cables

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:36:00 GMT

Well, what to write, huh? My first entry into a blog which I'm hoping will at times be interesting, at times be dull.. and hopefully a few times where it's a bit thin on the ground!

I've been buying some music recently and it's been a long time coming from listening to 1980-90-00's guff for the last couple of years as 'that's all I had'. Part of this inspiration is due to my new car having an iPod connection. I have an iPod, but I can't really say I've used it a great deal in the last few years due to either being in a car (without socket), jogging (there the iPod 4g isn't suitable) or at home, where I've been streaming music from my little network storage box, or playing the original CD via the Ps3.

So, the Ps3 died... flashing-red-light-of-death, which is the Ps3 version of the red-ring-of-death that Xbox 360's suffer from. Being a man, I'm holding on to it in the hope it'll fix itsellf while collecting dust. Sony must be kidding when they said the Ps3 technology was 'good for 10 years', it's been 2-3 years and it's dead. No matter how 'good' the technology is, it's frigin' useless if it dies before it's obsolete!

With the Ps3 dead, I've had to dust off the iPod as my only source to push music into the front room amp. Soon after dusting off the iPod, I discovered it was full of music that no one with any sound mind has listened to for years.

Old before my time? Hell no, just been happy to get old gracefully and stick to what I know, I guess. Things have changed and I've woken from my slumber, so time to rediscover music and with that, discovering a whole new generation of artists, artists I might add my Mum has been listening to for years...!

So, the recent list of artists I've brought include:
- Plan B - only one play so far, some great tunes, clearly some filler.
- Cee Lo Green - again, one play, but with that voice he could read the alphabet and I'd still love it!
- Tinie Tempah - been out jogging to this, great album, but seems to fade away towards the end. The first half is awesome though, so worth it as a whole.
- Mumford & Sons - cracking album, a group that knows how to play instruments and sees life from a different view.

But I've also been listening to some of Claires CDs
- Eminem - my original jogging album (Recovery) and a corker!
- Adele - well, two albums really 19 and 21. Both pretty good, but I haven't had the chance to listen in full. Lovely natural voice!

Anyway, better get on with other things.. until next time!

More ...