paulrnx

My hope is that having won the championship this year that Max calms his reckless driving down a little. May not happen but it is my hope. I just want to see fair racing and a bit of respect between teams and drivers. This season has overstepped the mark on many occasions. Culminating in a preposterous single lap shootout heavily geared in Max’s favour.

Fantastic racing driver that Max clearly is, he does deliberately force other cars off track. He also absolutely refuses to be overtaken even when he has fairly lost a corner and will just drive round the corner off the track and rejoin after the corner in an unsafe manner and block the driver who had just overtaken him. His sudden weaving at very high speed just as he was about to be overtaken was rightly stopped in his early years although it took a while for the FIA to stamp it out. I will never forget him putting Raikkonen on the grass at 190+ on the run up from Eau Rouge at Spa in his early days as an F1 driver. Had it not been for Raikkonen’s lightning reactions we would not have been celebrating his safe retirement this year. On countless occasions this year Lewis has had to steer away from contact with Max. And at Silverstone when Lewis finally decided not to yield, Max assumed he had anyway and just turned in on him. If we’re dissecting every incident in last Sunday’s race then Max should have had a penalty for his weaving on the straight on that last lap because this illegally prevented Lewis from retaking that position. He was even warned to stop it by his team so they certainly knew it was against the rules. As far as I am concerned, the FIA and Liberty desperately wanted someone other than Lewis and Mercedes to win this year’s championships. The changes forced to the floor area of all cars prior to this season was in my view deliberately done to impact the low rake philosophy cars for this reason. Then, all stewarding decisions this year have been taken with a view to ensuring that Max and not Lewis won the championship. I still find it very hard now to understand and accept how the normal safety car regulations were not followed on Sunday. Again, my view is that it was deliberately done to give Max an opportunity to pass Lewis on the last lap. Of course Max is a brilliant driver but on Sunday he was soundly beaten by Lewis and only won because the race director decided to break the rules to give Max and Red Bull the miracle that Horner had said they needed with 10 laps or whatever it was to go. Except it wasn’t a miracle, it was a deliberate manipulation of the rules to favour Max over Lewis. This for me is very hard for me to accept, even now. Of course, the playstation brigade will love Max’s style of driving because this is what they do every day from the comfort of their own bedrooms.

Max fan perhaps?

I do Goodwood Festival of Speed every year and I do historic festivals whenever I can. I love all eras of F1, always have done.

Will have to see how F1 goes in the next few years. If the price we have to pay, in order to keep all of new fans watching, is to artificially orchestrate close finishes and manipulate the end result then it will all be done without me. I’m cool about this though because I tune in to watch races, I don’t tune into watch entertainment shows. I also don’t tune in to watch playstation driving. Just have to see how it all moves on from here.

That was an incorrect application of the rules at the end. At least that is my understanding. There is nothing that allows for selectively allowing lapped cars to overtake. It’s normally all cars or no cars. It is also not normal to allow lapped cars to overtake at the same time that the safety car ends. Congratulations to Max but I feel like that one was engineered by the FIA in a rather underhand way.

Hadn’t thought of that one 🤣

Merc will have a tyre advantage but Red Bull will have track position. My prediction is that Lewis will get off the line quicker and claim the first corner. Then Max will take him out. Over at the first corner and then it will all get a bit legal and the FIA will have to step in and adjudicate. Dearly hope it’s not this but I fear it will be. If this doesn’t happen I think Lewis will win. Red Bull have taken a lot of downforce off their car to be competitive on the straights and over a race this is going to kill their tyres. Hell of a lap in Q3 by Max.

Great news 👍

Yeah thought that. Not great and maybe they shouldn’t be fitted if they don’t last the lifetime of the car. £600 is ridiculous to be honest

I’ve occasionally been able to negotiate a free first service when buying brand new. But no, first services are not free under normal circumstances.

And BMWs with a small F after the number plate text denotes those cars that expired after attempting Rufford Ford

£250+ for a replacement! Ouch!!

A grumbling wheel bearing might be ok. Depends how bad it is. Only way to tell is to jack the corner up and then feel for play in the wheel bearing by ricking the wheel by hand left to right and front to back. Wheel bearings tend to be noisy for quite some time before becoming unsafe. That said, my own experiences over 40 years of driving is that they get noisy when turning left or right before they are noisy all the time. I never took it to the latter, I always had them replaced sooner rather than later. This may not be of much use to you, sorry. 110k miles is a fair mileage and a noisy bearing is likely quite shot so it might be better to be cautious and get it replaced asap.

Had a 4.4 V8 BMW X5. We towed a caravan down to Bridport. 160 miles at 15.9 mpg! A great car though. Later I had a 5.0 V8 Jaguar XF. What a car. The only car I wish I’d kept. I could get 32mpg on a motorway run and it had massive performance. Have been thinking of buying a cheaper runabout and put an XK 5.0 V8 in the garage for weekends / occasional use. Have also been thinking ISF.

Yes agreed Ed. That’s not great is it. You only have to read the car mags to see the challenges they have with charging. It’s ok for road testers because driving around and charging up and writing about it is what they do for a living. For us, a car is still a means of getting from A to B. I see so many electric cars pootling along at 60 in the nearside lane of a motorway and I’m sure this is to maximise range. No doubt that sales are outstripping the speed at which new chargers come on stream so the problem will get worse before it gets better. If ever.

Good to hear 👍

👍 One of the cars I have also been idly looking at

No Ed. Have looked at some but they do leave me a bit cold. If I was younger and still self-employed I’m sure I’d have an i-Pace. I’ve driven one fairly extensively and it was impressive but oh so expensive.

Standards James standards

And the one thing I really wanted to do was to get rid of my NX300H. Whilst it is a very nice car it does nothing for me in terms of driving enjoyment so I intend for my next car to be much more enjoyable. Had an unbelievable offer for my NX and it seemed a good time to do it.

And that is exactly what I plan to do

Harsh but fair I think 😀

A little over the top I think.

I have had two V8 powered cars and I would like to get another whilst I still can. It would need to be my second car though and will have to wait until I retire.