Hello from a new member!

[Sled Driver]

Hi LOC!

Glad to finally sign up here. Been meaning to do this for a while, so with the lockdown thought why not now.

Currently have a 2016 Lexus CT200h Executive brought last year July from Lexus Birmingham. Really happy with it! Customer service has been brilliant at the dealership. Car is a joy to drive! Great on short drives and long ones - especially when doing military plane spotting at RAF bases!

Owned several vehicles in the past from VAG group - Audi A3 A4 A6, Seat Ibiza, VW Polo. My last car the Polo was good but when the metal chain went, even though fought with VW customer services, their response left me thinking I needed to take my custom elsewhere. Having known about Lexus since I was at secondary school in the 90s and the excellent reliability record I convinced the wife to change brands - so far all is good!

Been reading this forum ever since I got the car daily. Lots of useful info. Glad to have finally joined! Thank you guys

👍 Kish

[scudney]

Welcome to the LOC Kish,hoping you find the forum educational and informative,nice to know you are happy with your car👍

[Shahpor]

Welcome Kish.

I don't suppose you are a SR-71 fan by any chance?

I used to live very close to RAF Hendon when I was growing up and I lost count of how many times I visited.  I really want to visit the Mach Loop in Wales someday, but in the meantime I try and get to Fairford when the show is on.

Anyway, feel free to post some pictures of the car as we never get tired of seeing them on here

[steve2006]

Hello Kish and welcome to the LOC. I bought my first Lexus 14 years ago  and still got it....just can’t find anything better to replace it with.

[Mincey]

Hello and welcome Kish. I've been in Lexuses/Lexi/Lexus (I forget what the official plural is) since September 1999 and I haven't seen or driven anything since which has tempted me to stray from the brand.

[Sled Driver]

Hi Guys, many thanks for your replies and welcome! Always nervous when joining a new forum.

Yep, Shahpor I'm a big Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird fan ever since I was 13yrs old and saw an old Discovery channel doc featuring it! Me and the wife often go to RAF Fairford, Lakenheath, Marham and Coningsby for our aircraft spotting. Also visited RAF Cosford and of course RAF Duxford where we are lucky to have the only Blackbird example outside of the USA!

Shame about RIAT being cancelled this year at Fairford. However, look forward to RIAT 2021.

I'd definitely recommend the Mach Loop have managed to see Hawks, Typhoons and Tornado there, on my list next is to see the F-15 once lockdown is over. If other fellow Lexus owners love military aviation then a good forum to join is Fighter Control.

I'm not very technical but will try and get some pics of the CT soon on here! Me and the wife named him Luther. Our last car was Rolo - the Polo!!!🤣 

Lexus famous reliability really swung it for me. Although I love reading motoring press and find it useful for example Honest John. Their constant lack of enthusiasm towards Lexus v actual real-world comments from real daily owners that live with the cars made me decide to leave VAG group. 

The CT is great! I'm not a fast driver at all so prefer the relax safe style of driving, plus prefer autos. The wife though, she doesn't like automatics, so won't drive the CT - Yesss!👍

So far get about 390-410miles from a full tank mainly city driving. Try and use the reserve as much as poss so that when filling up try to get as near as possible to 45L ish!!!

[Shahpor]

Hi Kish,

It seems we are of like mind as you have mentioned two of my favourite aircraft: The Blackbird and the F-15.

I went to Fairford a couple of years ago to see XH558 fly and they had a F-15 there, which was awesome   Although the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the F-16 doing its demo flight.

I do have a couple of books by Richard Graham about the SR-71 that are really good, which you have no doubt already read, and Sled Driver is on the list  

You are also very lucky that your wife goes aircraft spotting with you.  I want to go to Duxford to see the Habu () but it is proving difficult to convince the missus.

If you get stuck trying to upload pics of the car, let us know and I am sure we can guide you.

[Malc]

3 hours ago, Mincey said:

I've been in Lexuses/Lexi/Lexus (I forget what the official plural is) since September 1999

wow, thought I might have been the longest here with only (  about )  20 years continuous .............. , in a Ls400 ..............  you should now get a Long Service Commendation for being one of the most fortunate, and clearly astute,  drivers on this planet

Malc

[Sled Driver]

Hi Shahpor,

Yep the F-15 is a beauty! I'm a fan of the F-15E Strike Eagle, and RAF Lakenheath is certainly the place to go to view these awesome machines!

Wow! I would have loved to have seen the Vulcan. My wife saw XH558 around 2006. The nearest to a Vulcan I have got to is a static at a museum!!!

I have one book by Col. Richard Graham - The Complete Book of the SR-71 Blackbird. His YouTube vids are also fascinating. I'd also recommend SR-71 Inside Lockheed's Blackbird by O'Leary and Schulzinger. I've also got Haynes manuals on the Tornado, Vulcan, Eagle and yes - The Blackbird!!!😂. No manuals on cars as yet!!! Sled Driver by Brian Shul - that would be a definite on the Christmas list!

When me and the "Boss" (wife)!, went to Duxford I made sure we also went to Cambridge - so made it into a weekend. She got to do her sightseeing and shopping - I got to spend 7 hours at RAF Duxford - one and a half of those hours at the end spent just with the rare Blackbird! - Make it into a weekend incorporate some shopping sightseeing! 👍👍

Well guys finally got some pics - and yep I also love a little bit of Maiden!🤘😁

[scudney]

I managed to visit Duxford myself along with my young son a couple years and saw a Vulcan fly over Northampton in the early 2000's having made an appearance at the British Grand prix 👍

[Malc]

I remember many years ago i went to Fairford and was told I  saw ...........  then didn't see ............ a stealth ( bomber / fighter ? ) wow, amazing to see it just vanish then reappear from nigh on the same location up there 

Malc

[Sled Driver]

John, to listen to the howl of those four Olympus engines, I bet that was amazing! 

Malc, yep sometimes Fairford does host the B-2A Spirit as well as B-52s and B1-B. Three B-2 bombers were visiting Fairford just a few weeks before lockdown started here. Unfortunately I was at work so couldn't get the time to see them. Thank goodness for YouTube!

 

[scudney]

Yes Kish it was,shame it's been retired for good(there's one at southend on sea airport)a bit the Concorde(saw that a few times as well)👍

[Sled Driver]

I managed to see Concorde fly once over Birmingham when I was a teen! Unforgettable! When I saw the Vulcan and stood under the bomb bay at Cosford my mouth was wide open in awe looking up!!!

[graham8370]

Work in Shepperton (10 mins from Heathrow) and every morning Concorde would fly over at 11.05am. No matter how many times anyone saw it, everyone stopped and looked up. I live 2 mins from Brooklands where they have one which you can have a good look around ( and in ) Fantastic machine.

[Mincey]

Beautiful things, Blackbirds. Anyone with even a slight interest in planes should spend a day at Duxford

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykedu4bsn68srdd/2006_0919 Duxford (34).JPG?dl=0
 

Talking of planes, I remember in pre-M25 days, going round the Heathrow perimeter road just as night fell and Concorde was departing. Full afterburners had been engaged and the trail of whoosh coming out of the engines had those diamonds clearly showing (if you know what I mean, you'll know what I mean...)

[Mincey]

23 hours ago, Sled Driver said:

Hi Shahpor,

Yep the F-15 is a beauty! I'm a fan of the F-15E Strike Eagle, and RAF Lakenheath is certainly the place to go to view these awesome machines!

 

I used to work in Thetford and on Training Tuesday they'd all roar off first thing in the morning to go on exercises over The Wash. If it wasn't them disturbing the peace, it was the Apache Gunships going to have fun in the Forest.

[Sled Driver]

Hi Graham, the Concord in Brooklands was that a full operational jet? Me and wife have seen the one in Duxford which had all the testing gear inside. It be great to see one with a laid out passenger cabin!

James, yep shock diamonds always look impressive! I read in a book once where one of the Blackbird pilots said that if you had a jet with more diamonds coming out, the ground crew would say that that engine was running at its best at that time. One pic I've seen of the Blackbird had 13 diamonds shooting out the back! Ive seen the Chinook flying at RIAT but only from a distance have I seen an Apache gunship, over the skies here in Birmingham.

Me and the wife are praying for one day to see a B-2 Spirit flyby at RIAT!

On a different note back to cars. I only washed the CT three days ago. This morning the lovely birds kindly left their mark on the black paintwork!

[scudney]

Hoping you have managed to get rid of the bird dropping especially as they can be very unkind to black paint work 🤔

[Sled Driver]

Yep soaked some toilet roll with water over the droppings. Then once soft enough gently wiped away. Once the lockdown is over will get some of paintwork tidied up. There's a few swirl marks and very light scratches on the bumpers from previous owner. I get it washed either through Lexus Birmingham and their Saturday wash club monthly or do it myself with a mitt and use Halfords wash and wax then dry with a microfibre. Never though attended bodywork etc so need to do some research on what bottles to get! It's Velvet Black the bodywork. Any suggestions guys?!

cheers Kish 

[Barry14UK]

Toilet rolls for droppings! No wonder there's shortage in supermarkets!  I have always used wet newspapers - many call them rags anyway.

Good luck with your car.

[Sled Driver]

Nice one Barry! Before I hit send, when I re-read my last message I did think about how folk had been panic buying bog roll recently. Was going to add something in - then the wife said my message was already getting too long!!! 

 

[steve2006]

28th of June 2015 when I witnessed the last ever flight from RAF Finningley (Now Robin Hood,Doncaster Airport).

[Mincey]

Living in Peterborough, I grew up with the sounds of Harriers heading to and from Wittering, Phantoms tooing and froing from Alconbury, F1-11's passing over, Lightnings, Hunters, Canberras and Victors, but the best were the Vulcans, especially when they did that turn thing which made that amazing howl as exhibited in this video. When XH558 took to the skies again, I remember Mrs Mincey telling me of this odd shaped plane she'd seen flying over the A1. I only managed to see it in flight a couple of times, but it really brought back some cracking memories. If I may be permitted to digress a little, having the BoBMF Lancaster passing over the house at tree-top height once, was rather special too.

 

 

[llyrrr]

RAF Valley over here 👋. Listening to the Hawks as I'm writing this. Was very fortunate enough to have done work experience with the Lockheed Martin crew on the simulators two years ago. The enclosed dome Hawk simulator was an experience in its own right, what an amazing piece of kit. 

Here's my two pence for the cause! Breakwater Blue by the breakwater 😁