Yank in your neck of the woods

[m3dragon_csl]

Thank you Derek and Ali for taking the time to show me your amazing cars. It was a honor to meet you guys. Sorry we could not chat longer, I am sure we would have talked cars all afternoon but the wife might have gotten a bit mad as she wanted to see Sterling Castle.

In either case thank you again. I need to get / make a few changes to my car now after seeing yours. So no sure if that was a good or bad thing LOL.

If you guys ever make your way to CA, NorCal area, let me know as we have plenty of room to put you up for the night and show you the area. Tahoe and Yosemite are close.

Thanks again.

[gingernuts]

No probs! Nice to meet you too, and good luck with the project!

[m3dragon_csl]

I did forget to ask you when we were talking about roads a few questions that I have not been able to figure out since I have been here. These my I know will sound silly but have a good chuckle over them.

1. What is the speed limit for you A and B roads? I only see signs near / in towns and other than that I am "I guess go as fast as you want". My guess is 60 on A roads but there are people flying at 80 so I follow them.

2. Speed camera signs. Are they always there or only when the cops have the van out? In Ireland, I saw the sign and slowed down. People FLEW past me when I slowed so now I just look around and igonre them. I assume (probably wrong) that is the cat and mouse game we play in the states with the cops hiding off the road with radar guns.

Enjoy the laugh.

[Johnydesmo]

Not laughing at all...

Both of your assumptions are correct dude, 60 unless there's a barrier between each side on what we call dual carriage way(2 lane) in which case it's 70.
(no barrier it's still 60!)

Watch were the 2 lane ends because it's a good game the 'plod' play to catch you at the end of one when it returns to single each way where due to frustration you could be 70+ ;-) trying to pass a caravan train:banghead: and there will be a van waiting to catch you as you re-enter the 60!

It's all a game and IMHO a cash cow, bring back a human and a subjective assessment on how you were behaving and the road conditions etc...

Look out for white police vans (with some patches of hi vis stickers) parked on:
Motorways: On bridges normally on dangerous stretches or downhill sections where it's easy to pick up speed.
A/B roads: In laybys, van will have a rear smallish window section dropped.

Generally if you're very observant and don't take the piss (& you know what to look for) you should be fine :smokin:
...but if say how quaint we all are and how funny it is they don't carry guns that might work ...or you could just leave the country

[m3dragon_csl]

Thanks for the 411.

So far we have been using the force so lets hope it is strong with us the rest of the trip.:beer:

[derek]

Good to meet you, cant believe the work you have done to make your car a csl. I think you wife has good grounds for divorce. :-D:-D:-D

[m3dragon_csl]

Good to meet you, cant believe the work you have done to make your car a csl. I think you wife has good grounds for divorce. :-D:-D:-D

Same Sir.

LOL, She is a trooper and I count myself lucky as she puts up with the car stuff with a smile.

Told her my next project car and she just smiled and said OK, :smt055

[Johnydesmo]

You lucky lucky man :smokin:

Go on, whats the next project then - local muscle?

Same Sir.

LOL, She is a trooper and I count myself lucky as she puts up with the car stuff with a smile.

Told her my next project car and she just smiled and said OK, :smt055

[m3dragon_csl]

LOL I don't buy local. I want to turn ;-p though it would be cheaper. V8 Mustang with Vortec Super Charger. Car is 12K US, SS kit 5K, Full track suspension 1K, MISC 2K. That gets you a 600 Wheel HP car with as much torque and can turn. But in the end I am still a mustang.

I still have to work on the 1M but as it is the DD keeping it tame for now.

I am thinking I am building another E46 M3. S65 4.0 V8 and making it look like the street version of the GTR. E9X are to fat for me and only other cars I would step into like a F430 and so on have to much shop time to drive time. I drive my cars and rack miles on them. Close friends love their F cars but 15K for a clutch is just wrong.

So might as well make a E46 M3 that is rare(r) to be different.

Thats the plan, but as the wife laughs I change it weekly. LOL

Off to Stonehenge tomorrow then Dover for the night. Of course stopping by the TG airfield for a photo opp =)

Cheers form the road still.

[m3dragon_csl]

With the new season of Top Gear on now, I can share my images from my visit there. While on honeymoon, we stopped by to see the airfield as well as the studios. We initially were told no but when the guard found out we were on honeymoon he gave us a tour.

We got to see the new reasonably priced cars, the trailers that were really the Top Gear production offices and inside at the studio. The studio was not setup yet as they just finishing filming a movie there. It is worth to note that production offices are really the production offices, even though they made jokes about it. One last interesting thing is the stars that come on the show enter through a storage closet LOL. All the budget for the show is for the cars and trips is for sure.

I could not post it until now as we were there before the show aired and did not want to get anyone in trouble.

While there we also saw the new McLaren Mp12-4C GT being tested. We could not take pictures of it of course but saw it flying down the runway. It was flat black and fly’s like a bat out of hell.

I also got a souvenir that I can’t post what it is but if you ever are coming to an event, remind me to bring the official paper work I have of TG =). It was a great time there and the guard was a amazing wealth of knowledge and hoot to talk to.

All the images I was allowed to take.