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Ready to roll for the TEC National meet tomorrow

Managed to sort pictures

7th MOT pass today ...

Well the pic says it all

Fully tango'ed as she left the factory

Parked next to my favourite Victorian Post Box

A few of us Scottish guys met up today for a coffee & a chat

Alongside Jimmylegs faff @ Cars In the Park Litchfield show a few months ago.

Got a replacement air con pump fitted by Bek at the weekend and just thought I'd add he's a top guy and does really good work. Impressed. Even if he did say my cars a funny colour. Lol

A friends at200 which is now my new project car, so after scrapping mine last yr I'm now back playing with another celica!! It already has my old wheels, trying to fit my old steering wheel along with my old mods which I didn't sell.

Michelin Cross Climate are a very good Summer Biased All-Season - Very quiet too. Fitted to my FWD work whip. Very good wet weather performance and capable in the snow. Seem to be lasting longer than I imagined too. For the CS, I have two sets of wheels... Summer wheels - Michelin Pilot Sport 3 Winter wheels - Continental Winter Contact TS860 I can't recommend the PS's and Conti's enough Both exceptional when in their element, but the PS's are utter rubbish in deep Winter - even on a 4WD with LSD. As good as the Cross Climate's are, they are still a comprimise in the Summer when top performance is demanded. But probably the best all-season out there if that's what you are looking for. Have a smooch about on tyre reviews. Sad to spend time looking at tyres I know, but being so expensive it's nice to have all the info to decide what's best for you http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/

Unfortunately that true, I’ve been a tester for a few years in 3 different dealers, I’ve worked with people who will ‘fail’ a car unless X Y Z is upsold. Completely unfair

Try and find a dedicated MoT centre - one that doesn't do repairs and servicing etc - you'll get a fairer test.

One from the archive Came back to my car to see this going on , ha ha Japfest 2 , Rockingham Raceway , 2010

Pilot Sports generally aren’t much more expensive then F1’s so I would go for the Michelin’s given the choice. Iv got the Pilot Sport 3’s on the Civic at the moment, can’t fault them but 4’s are even better, had them on my old Impreza and are the best road tyre Iv ever used.

I know very well I will me in a minority of one here, but I've got Dunlop Bluresponse on my 7 because they are quiet . I've reached an age where I have no interest in going around bends, exploring the limits of car and driver, and the one negative quality that most people agree the 7 has is bad road noise. Those tyres are specially aimed at low noise and I like them for that, and don't have any perception that they are lacking in respect of grip, ride or whatever.

I would guess that a lot of it depends on general driving style. Anyone that likes to give it some serious stick is going to recommend PS4s or Eagle F1s etc because they need the extreme grip that these tyre types offer. Those that drive within legal limits will probably recommend cheapies. My GT4 came with 18" Bola wheels shod with cheap copies of Pirelli PZeros and they were really grippy. My newly fitted original 16" three spokes have been shod with Avon ZV5s and they go sliding quite easily on a wet road. Avoid them. There will be better opinion posted I'm sure. I'm quite inexperienced when it comes to performance car tyres to be honest. EDIT - I have never used a specific "season" tyre. Don't really see the need in this country.

Our Mercedes Sprinter van at work had the cat/dpf stolen, they just unbolted the whole exhaust and did away with it. Must of taken them about a minute, was only held on with 3 bolts and a few rubber mounts that they chopped off. Merc wanted £3500 for a new one, and insurance wanted to write the van off We fitted a cheap shitty aftermarket cat/dpf, gutted it so it was hollow and had them mapped out. Never happened again, thieves don't want aftermarket cats only oem ones as the cheapo ones have bugger all precious metal in them (hence them being so cheap) As others have said though, celica ones aren't worth much and not easy to access so they won't bother. But decat it anyway

My mate works for a company that deals in used CATs, they have a contract with the biggest recycling company in the uk and have branched out overseas. Theres some serious money to be made sorting the precious metals from them. Hes posted up loads of pics of unscrupulous people being filmed pulling up beside a target car (not just 4x4s) and they jack those up in seconds and saw the cats off ridiculously quick. Lots of Prius type cars and newer models. They work in teams and always usually have a nutter with a weapon with them to deal with owners or heroes. Theyll do it in broad daylight and are very efficient.

You beat me to it! I was going to suggest that. Mine has a Toad AI606 fitted and kept going off when I first got it. I disabled the ultrasonics using the same method and it's been fine since.

If it’s insecure or likely to become disattachted it’ll fail. If it’s still fitted but just rattling it’ll pass. If it’s removed it’ll pass as long as it’s not a heat shield on a fuel tank.

Other than the carbon number plate surround, are you planning on modding your car? I'm sorry, I love your car, it's as nuts as it is awesome.

On a positive note , at least it wasn't a tattoo.. My pic of the day , mine alongside my mates TA22 at a classic show last weekend

Hi Cornish lass your lacquer problem having painted many cars in my time this what I would do remove any flaking lacquer around the area affected get some wet and dry rubbing down paper grit number 600,800 and 1000 three or four sheets a tube of medium burnishing compound and a rubbing block a reel of say 1 inch masking tape and paper for masking the areas you do not need to repaint you could either use a strong de waxing detergent or better still a de wax fluid and a good quality lacquer aerosol say about 500 size depends on area to cover . All this you should be able to get from a motorist stores, now the job part have a look on utube for methodology of the work for your knowledge but this what I would do thoroughly wash the whole area hard or treat the area with de wax solution, now select the 600 grit paper and some normal soap gently flat the lacquer on the good part of the area the lacquer will appear as a white residue on the rubbing paper do not rub through the good lacquer just remove a fine skin to the edge of the affected part now start to use the 800 grit paper and repeat the the process again lightly wash of often and dry off to see the results you would need to have about six inches rubbing down area all around the affected parts he finish you will see is a dull but very smooth area. Now use the 1000 grit and rub all of the area good and affected part carefully you are aiming to blend any edges in to each other but do not rub though the paint colour, now mask the area be aware of the air temp it needs to be a sunny day say around 20 plus degrees if any humidity no good the lacquer will dry milky looking so dry warm air is required to paint as you are out side, now start spraying the affected area first applying several coats the idear is to build up the affected area to match the good area in depth of lacquer be watching for flys in it and any dust if you do get any amount let lacquer dry and rub down with 800 grit and soap to remove the contamination, now for the finish coating before final coating clean entire area wash gently and dry thoroughly now again start by spraying the affected area and start to extend the spraying area out onto the good area applying 3 to 5 coats now leave to dry completely say around two days in warm weather. You can now rub the entire area with soap and 1000 grit this should produce a dull looking finish very smooth and clean after this use the compound and burnish the whole area to bring it up to a glossy finish then polish and the repainted area should blend in with each other hope the above helps you it’s a lengthy process but you can do it yourself a word of advice practice spraying from a aerosol to get some idea on coverage and use and use light coats to avoid getting runs don’t put to heavy coats on in one go light and many with flash of time between coats read the can for info.

Wheels finished and on.

My 25 yr old HT lead finally sheared off beyond repair and the car came to an unexpected halt. Today my replacement Magnecor competition leads arrived! Great service from Magnecor, even though ordered from a third party (DC Performance) on Monday evening, made at Magnecor yesterday, with me today (Wed). Even a little note inside to say my leads were handmade by Carol

This sounds like a shopping list for one of 'those' parties you never get invited to lol

One for the non-daily people (or maybe just me) 8) put car in garage and forget about it and all of the work/upgrades it needs until a week before show/track season

Lubricant selection is important, as always. WD40 is convenient but it requires frequent reapplying as it's a very thin - which is what makes it penetrate well - it won't give long lasting satisfaction. Similarly, grease is known to collect dirt, so you may actually shorten the lifetime of your lock. You want to disperse water as that's what makes a lock seize, but avoid dirt collection. So you can use a PTFE based lubricant like this special version of WD40. Maybe you should address all of those. Doesn't sound like your car is road worthy.

Never seen a carbon one, looks blingy as

Blitz Carbon Power Air Cleaner - Hot Air Intake - Engine Bay decoration (Got another arriving tomorrow or Friday, that'll be going on Ebay I expect)

Do we have an elapsed time limit on it ? I'll open the extension to people if they can get near sellafield! Couple of brown points if you can get the housing for the Magnox in the picture before it's decommissioned; although you have plenty of time left...