Speedtouch

Brilliant idea!

^ That is what we are doing it like now..., as in voting comes, and all the photos are posted with the names of the person above them. You vote for the photo by username. My idea is that you do not post them up here, but PM them to me, then for voting, they are all posted up in a random order, numbered, and then the winner is revealed once voting finishes.

Nikon D50 with 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses. Cost me £310, and is amazing.

Great photo Carboy! And I've had another idea (not implemented in this month - nothing changing yet), spurred on by what has just been said. If you all PM me the photos, then when it comes round to the voting, I list them as 1, 2, 3 etc, and not by name. It makes it a completely fair vote, as no-one knows which photo is from which person. Only I know who's they are, so I can stop you voting for yourself etc. Any thoughts?

I'll try to do that. I'll maybe give one which has tips on how to improve photo quality.

^ I never thought of that... And its quite a good idea... Anyone want me to change?

I've finally got round to sorting out and uploading many more photos from Morgan onto my flickr. Enjoy!

Themes are decided by the winner - I was just starting it off, but yeah that should be good!

^ You've got a garden haven't you? Does it have flowers?... So go on then, get taking! :D My entry:

^ Poop, thats what i forgot! And Diablo, I would love a photography forum! I've changed the thread name, I think we will go ahead. I'll start off for this month (see first post)

I thought that this would be a nice thing to have here after seeing the quality of photos in the 'Post Your Photos' thread. The idea is this: Exactly the same as the Picture of the week competition, but its monthly (because its harder to get entries in a week) and you don't get your picture on the top banner (unless the admin want to put it there - its just an idea at the moment). As with the other one, using previous pictures you have taken are acceptable, but it MUST be taken by you! The type of camera doesn't matter, so anyone is free to enter. And you can search through your archives. It doesn't HAVE to be taken for this, but that is preferable. And as I have always said, its not the camera, its the photographer. So thoughts then please. I would be happy to carry this out. WEEK ONE Rules: Photo MUST be taken by you No huge amounts of photoshop - brightness/contrast, borders etc are allowed, but don't go over the top. Anybody who does (anyone can point out what they may think as such photoshopping) can be disqualified. No Voting for yourself! Photo sizes kept to 800x600 maximum. No thumbnails with larger photos please. Winner chooses next theme (by PMing me) If you post many photos, the top one will be chosen as your entry. Tell me if I've missed anything, thanks! This months theme: Flowers Any kind of flower, in any location. No plastic ones please. I thought we should start off with an easy one. Good luck! Entries: 1) Speedtouch 2) CarboyZR1 3) zo6dude 4) Pressurized 5) Car Freak 6) Baldred 7) TSS 8) KTF67 9) MadMax 10) randomous_r 11) -Lr-SpeedraceR 12) Andreaz1 (More than 10 can be admitted, there is no maximum entries, but one per person) New System: New thread with new theme is posted up on the Monday morning (by me or TSS, depending on whether I am available or not). Entry closes on Thursday evening, with voting thread being posted up shortly afterwards. Voting finishes on Sunday evening. The winners image will be posted into the banner at the top during the entry time (has to be confirmed by admin) New Closing date: 3rd July 2008, 9:00pm GMT

Oh no, buying one there is fine, but never take it there to be serviced :p

Adam: Consider the fact that there aren't many Morgan garages in the UK. And that it is many peoples local MOT garage. And also it is the only racing section of Morgan etc. Sorry I haven't updated you on Morgan since Wednesday, but I guess I have been pretty busy. In fact very busy. Thursday was a fairly unimportant and boring day. I spent the morning polishing an MG A, just to clean it up for the customer, but that was reasonably boring. Then I spent a bit of time helping one of the guys out with the MOTs, then spend a short time working on a 4/4. It wasn't very interesting, however Friday was. Due to many reasons, there weren't many people in the garage on Friday (some had gone on holiday etc), which made it better. I like things when they are quieter and less busy. The day was slightly different in the sense that not much was going on, but I got to it cleaning and polishing cars, which I found surprisingly fun and interesting (probably because I like doing things on my own - knowing what I have to do etc). But then the fun came. A Morgan Aero 8 came in for a simple replacement of a fuel filler cap (it wasn't opening). I'd like to thank the designers now for making it so well hidden and inaccessible. But after that, because it was my last day, and because the owner wasn't coming back for another 2 hours, we decided to take it for a very short test drive. The car in question had an after market quad exhaust, so really did sound like the apocalypse... My god that thing is fast! And the sense of speed is immense! I thought the Roadster V6 was fast, but this BMW V8 sounded and went so amazingly. We hit 110mph, but don't tell anyone... :p Also on Friday, I took my camera along. Took a load of pictures, but have only sorted out and uploaded 4 (I went out Friday evening and have only just got back), I will get round to uploading them all soon. The Aero 8 A Roadster which I cleaned The Aero 8 wheel, and lightweight racecar (only 16 of them in the world) Aero 8 speedo I really loved the week, and loved working there. So here is my plug, if you ever want a Morgan, go to Brands Hatch Morgans in Borough Green, Kent. :D

So I took my camera to Morgan on Friday, and took a load of photos. Here are (IMO) some of the best ones. Aero 8 Speedo Aero 8 Wheel and lightweight racecar (16 of them in the world) Morgan Roadster Morgan Aero 8

^ Wow you got awesome work experience! I would love to be paid/get a job for something much more fun than what I am doing. And Adam, I would be fine with these hours if it was a job, and I was being paid properly. But I'm not. And obviously working at a mainstream dealer/garage is very different to working at Morgan. Its a case of if time runs out, they just stop and finish it in the morning.

Yeah but its a bit tiring working 8:30 to 5:30. And today was just a repeat of Monday. The fact that the cars are all technically the same, except for the engines makes it less interesting the second time around. The Aero 8 would be different though, but shame the guy couldn't come.

Hybrid: Yeah, paying to keep people going. Its all like that nowadays isn't it. /sarcasm But I like the Aero 8. As I've always found, cars look better in the flash than on pictures. And the new facelift ones look much better. Pherelas: I don't think you can choose the suspension, but believe it or not, Morgan actually do many models (although they don't make them all, due to the engines not being made anymore. They all look the same though. The engines you can get in them are: 1.8l, 2l Ford 4 pots (+4, 4/4), 3l V6 (Roadster), 4l Rover V8 (+8 - discontinued), 4.2l BMW V8 (Aero 8). Right, bad news I'm afraid. The Aero 8 didn't come in, because the owner was busy, so I wasn't working/had a ride in that. Instead we had an old +8, which wasn't in good nick. It had been sitting in a barn for the past 3 years, and needed more than a service. Well possibly be doing more work on it tomorrow. Other than that, not much to report. The test drive wasn't that quick due to roadworks and lots of traffic, plus the fact that the main problem was with the brakes - the front right ones don't work... I'm going to hopefully be taking in a camera on Friday, and will be uploading them to the internets. Its a real shame that the Aero 8 didn't come in today, I was really looking forward to that.

Car Freak: I knew very little about fixing cars. I only knew basic stuff, and what stuff looks like, but nothing major. You don't need to know that much, just want to learn about it. Everyone: The way we get work for us, is we fill out a sheet and the school find us companies etc. We can find our own stuff, for local companies or whatever, and quite a lot of us have (I'm going to my mum's work for the next 2 weeks - easy enough to get). Pherelas - The dealership is brilliant. Adam: I don't stand around doing nothing! I actually get stuck in etc, helping out on stuff. I can't drive any of the cars (for obvious reasons), but just working on them is wonderful. So then, today. Unfortunately, I didn't touch a Morgan today. I was on the MOTs, so doing basic stuff (I mean properly basic, as in sitting in the cars while they are put on the ramp, and the guy goes underneath shouting at me as to when to press the brakes) on random cars. We even had a 1968 VW Camper in! Lovely restoration job too! I also learned a few other things today. The race cars I talked about, are +4s, one of which won (in its class) at Le Mans! This one to be precise. The unknown car is a Morgan SLR, and indeed very rare (3 of them in the world). Also, after talking to a customer (great bloke, lives in the south of France, but comes all the way here once a year (on holiday as well) to have the car serviced by this garage), I found out that specifying a Morgan isn't a quick process. Apparently they will ask you 'what colour do you want?'. Not 'These are your choices, which do you want?', but just 'what do you want?'. The same goes for the leather. And be careful what you ask for. Apparently he asked for 'British Racing Green', then got given a list of all the different shades of BRG there are, because they are all slightly different. And then they ask you what you want on the dashboard and where (dials). See image for reference. You can chose where the dials go, and even what they do. Hell, you could even have 3 clocks if you wanted! And what the switches do! And that isn't the only design of dashboard - there are many of them! Don't order a Morgan expecting anything to be easy and quick. It will take ages to spec, it took his 4 years to arrive, and then it will fall to bits if treated badly, or well. They aren't well built like German cars, but that is the whole point of them. They are the only still uniquely British cars. Tomorrow I'll be back on the Morgans, with a black Aero 8 coming in. Tasty! And I get a ride in it...:woot:

Morgans. +4s, +8s, 4/4s, Aero 8s, Roadsters and some race cars. Been for a ride in a Roadster, which is mightily quick, but I am told the Aero 8 is 'something else'. Will be in that Wednesday. :D :p

No they just couldn't. Russ just tends to drive minis and stuff because he normally works on small stages etc, where a Carrera GT would be pointless.

^ No-one gets paid. Its up to the company whether they 'contribute towards your travel expenses', but you never get paid.

So my first day of work experience was great fun! I'm at my nearest Morgan garage, and damn I never thought I'd have such respect for them after one day. I was working today on a +4 for a bit, not entirely sure what was going on at that point, but then once we changed to a Roadster, I understood it much more, and it was much more interesting. And damn that thing is fast. Aluminium chassis, with a wooden frame, plus a V6 equals immense acceleration. They are getting an Aero 8 in for work on Wednesday, which I will be working on, and having a ride in. Apparently it is 'something else', which considering the performance of the V6, I bet it is. The cars in the garage are (see their brochure), plus a few not listed there as they are in for repairs, or are and because this is the Brands Hatch garage, quite a few racing cars (including this one). They've also got a very rare (3 in the world apparently, this one has just been shipped over from the US) coupe racing type car, although it was completely stripped for a rebuild so hard to tell. Made of all aluminium, I can't find it on the internet... Its a great place, very small company, and they are all friendly, and do everything themselves (invoices etc - no receptionist). Can't wait for the Aero 8 though... :eek_blue:

Finalgear is your friend! Link to torrents for TG. Released about 30mins after episode finishes, and is 700mb file size. Why not join the forums? :p:D

I really liked those Dave references, but the ironic thing is they will probably be cut out for the Dave version. :p The news was also very good, with perhaps a few too weird cars, but hopefully more of the cars that TG is used to reviewing next week. And we need to find someone who was at the filming, to find out what was on the screen that the BBC wouldn't show. The Ferrari segment to me seemed like it missed something. A very small amount of it, but something. Otherwise an OK car, but I agree with what Clarkson was saying at the start of the review - Ferraris are too overrated for their 'soul' and 'passion'. The SIARPC segment was OK, but the guests were terrible. I hope for better next week. And rubbish times too. Stuntman Stig? Pointless I think. Not needed and won't improve the show. They could have just left it as it was - as just another stunt, and that would have been fine. Police cars. Well, what more can be said. Unbelievably hilarious, especially when it comes to Hamster. I think there weren't enough tests, but 'Ambitious but Rubbish' describes it perfectly. James had done it all wrong, as always. Hammond had taken, well a different path that was inevitably wrong. And Clarkson had done it right, but as always, he was a cock and ruined his car. Although I really liked the Polizia paint job. The 'sirens' had me in hysterics, as did their attempts to stop the crook Stig. Overall, a great start to what promises to be a great series, but it has yet to get better. 8.5/10.

^ I know that petrol here is about £1.20 a litre (SG$3.23, US$2.37), which is 98 RON. They only sell 98 here, no lower. Here we have 17.5% VAT (Value added Tax), then the road tax is based upon a few things, but more recently its become more influenced by CO2 emissions. If your car emits under 100g/cm3, you get free road tax, if under 120g/cm3, its £35 a year. So things like this have delayed the release of Merc's Bluetec technology, because that works by reducing air pollution, not CO2, so here, it would only save you on petrol.