MDifficult’s E82 1M Coupe & Ariel Atom 3
Discussion
lestiq said:
Do try the Kumhos again if you are only using it on sunny days, I had supersports on for a year, they are a superb tyre in all conditions, but they don't even get close to the silly silly turn and grip the V70s give ( just try to ignore how few miles you will get out of them!)
Cheers, pretty sure that’s the plan for the next lot then. But, according to the little video the Mini technician sent me during the recent service, there’s over 5mm left on the MPSS so it might be a long while before the need a change over! Need to get a few track days in this summer to hurry them along 
MDifficult said:
lestiq said:
Do try the Kumhos again if you are only using it on sunny days, I had supersports on for a year, they are a superb tyre in all conditions, but they don't even get close to the silly silly turn and grip the V70s give ( just try to ignore how few miles you will get out of them!)
Cheers, pretty sure that’s the plan for the next lot then. But, according to the little video the Mini technician sent me during the recent service, there’s over 5mm left on the MPSS so it might be a long while before the need a change over! Need to get a few track days in this summer to hurry them along I've been pondering arranging a Chilterns/Berkshire/Cotswolds MINI run out, so your route sounds very interesting. Could I have a copy if you don't mind? I've done parts that you mention before, including Fish Hill. Great fun!
Love the GFWilliams pics too, I was fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with him a few years back with my previous MINI, and the results were stunning. I'd rather like to repeat the experience with the GP.
Mine didn't get a lot of use over the winter either, was starting to feel a bit jaded using it for mundane mileage in rubbish weather, and found myself looking seriously at M Lites. So I stopped using it as a daily, and the magic came back around Easter. Have been getting out early on Sundays to enjoy the best of Sussex and Hampshire, and also had a great road trip to Exmoor last week for a few days with friends. The fronts are now absolutely finished as a result, so am looking at a set of Pilot Sport 4s as replacements in time for a visit to Wales later in May. I do have a spare set of the OEM Kumhos in the garage, but am well aware that if I put them on, then I have around 4000 miles of fun before I have to replace again ...
Love the GFWilliams pics too, I was fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with him a few years back with my previous MINI, and the results were stunning. I'd rather like to repeat the experience with the GP.
Mine didn't get a lot of use over the winter either, was starting to feel a bit jaded using it for mundane mileage in rubbish weather, and found myself looking seriously at M Lites. So I stopped using it as a daily, and the magic came back around Easter. Have been getting out early on Sundays to enjoy the best of Sussex and Hampshire, and also had a great road trip to Exmoor last week for a few days with friends. The fronts are now absolutely finished as a result, so am looking at a set of Pilot Sport 4s as replacements in time for a visit to Wales later in May. I do have a spare set of the OEM Kumhos in the garage, but am well aware that if I put them on, then I have around 4000 miles of fun before I have to replace again ...
NeilAndHisMini said:
I've been pondering arranging a Chilterns/Berkshire/Cotswolds MINI run out, so your route sounds very interesting. Could I have a copy if you don't mind? I've done parts that you mention before, including Fish Hill. Great fun!
No worries - I've quickly re-created it on Google Maps. This should give you what you want (it's not the whole route - I've started it in High Wycombe to make it easier. Not sure you want to start right outside my house 
https://maps.app.goo.gl/?link=https://goo.gl/maps/...
NeilAndHisMini said:
Love the GFWilliams pics too, I was fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with him a few years back with my previous MINI, and the results were stunning. I'd rather like to repeat the experience with the GP.
Such a small world. You should give him a shout... (and make sure to share the pics)
NeilAndHisMini said:
Mine didn't get a lot of use over the winter either, was starting to feel a bit jaded using it for mundane mileage in rubbish weather, and found myself looking seriously at M Lites. So I stopped using it as a daily, and the magic came back around Easter. Have been getting out early on Sundays to enjoy the best of Sussex and Hampshire, and also had a great road trip to Exmoor last week for a few days with friends. The fronts are now absolutely finished as a result, so am looking at a set of Pilot Sport 4s as replacements in time for a visit to Wales later in May. I do have a spare set of the OEM Kumhos in the garage, but am well aware that if I put them on, then I have around 4000 miles of fun before I have to replace again ...
I know it seems pathetic to only keep it for good days and good drives but using it every day just makes you realise it's too hard, too loud and too much like hard work! Saving it for the good times is definitely the way to go. MDifficult said:
NeilAndHisMini said:
I've been pondering arranging a Chilterns/Berkshire/Cotswolds MINI run out, so your route sounds very interesting. Could I have a copy if you don't mind? I've done parts that you mention before, including Fish Hill. Great fun!
No worries - I've quickly re-created it on Google Maps. This should give you what you want (it's not the whole route - I've started it in High Wycombe to make it easier. Not sure you want to start right outside my house https://maps.app.goo.gl/?link=https://goo.gl/maps/...
MDifficult said:
NeilAndHisMini said:
Excellent, thank you! I'll have a good look later and start some planning, I can feel another MINI weekend away coming on.
My pleasure - glad to share it. Because I know you're in your Mini, I made sure to include the stop-off at the Cowley plant 
NeilAndHisMini said:
I've been pondering arranging a Chilterns/Berkshire/Cotswolds MINI run out, so your route sounds very interesting. Could I have a copy if you don't mind? I've done parts that you mention before, including Fish Hill. Great fun!
Love the GFWilliams pics too, I was fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with him a few years back with my previous MINI, and the results were stunning. I'd rather like to repeat the experience with the GP.
Mine didn't get a lot of use over the winter either, was starting to feel a bit jaded using it for mundane mileage in rubbish weather, and found myself looking seriously at M Lites. So I stopped using it as a daily, and the magic came back around Easter. Have been getting out early on Sundays to enjoy the best of Sussex and Hampshire, and also had a great road trip to Exmoor last week for a few days with friends. The fronts are now absolutely finished as a result, so am looking at a set of Pilot Sport 4s as replacements in time for a visit to Wales later in May. I do have a spare set of the OEM Kumhos in the garage, but am well aware that if I put them on, then I have around 4000 miles of fun before I have to replace again ...
I ran a set of pirelli winter tyres from october until last week - Unfortunately the fronts are showing less than 2 mil ... miles covered, 2,457 miles :O Love the GFWilliams pics too, I was fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with him a few years back with my previous MINI, and the results were stunning. I'd rather like to repeat the experience with the GP.
Mine didn't get a lot of use over the winter either, was starting to feel a bit jaded using it for mundane mileage in rubbish weather, and found myself looking seriously at M Lites. So I stopped using it as a daily, and the magic came back around Easter. Have been getting out early on Sundays to enjoy the best of Sussex and Hampshire, and also had a great road trip to Exmoor last week for a few days with friends. The fronts are now absolutely finished as a result, so am looking at a set of Pilot Sport 4s as replacements in time for a visit to Wales later in May. I do have a spare set of the OEM Kumhos in the garage, but am well aware that if I put them on, then I have around 4000 miles of fun before I have to replace again ...
was not very happy!!!NeilAndHisMini said:
Always worth a visit.
Looks lovely - do you get anyone that really bats an eyelid at it? Other than when Im at Mach 5 nobody really notices the little hornet (Like the plate btw)MrTouring said:
Doesn’t look too out of place there does it!
Especially as they’ve parked Moby Dick between the Lambo and the GTs!
As it happens I know Lee (the vantage) owner, and the lambo owner is on Instagram too, small world. Especially as they’ve parked Moby Dick between the Lambo and the GTs!
Mini doesnt look out of place at all - I went to Ferrari Nottingham recently and one of the sales exec went outside to have a nose round my GP!
Although I was window shopping the staff were very very pleasant - certainly weren't judgemental at all which I thought was very refreshing - been to audi before and they've been much more judgemental.
As luck would have it an older friend and his son were collecting their GTC4 Lusso T at the time anyway so had a catchup with them - I can confirm the Italians make/serve very nice coffees
a latte, a cappuccino and an espresso (and a pee) and I was set for a very brisk drive home - narrowly avoiding the teeth of the local bobby in a van with his little speed camera :@
A change in my circumstances may force the sale of my beloved GP but I'm desperate to keep hold of it! Need to find future employment sharpish as whatever I replace it with won't be anywhere near as good!
mattf93 said:
A change in my circumstances may force the sale of my beloved GP but I'm desperate to keep hold of it! Need to find future employment sharpish as whatever I replace it with won't be anywhere near as good!
I have to say, we asked if it was okay to have a good peek around and the guy we asked was more than happy - even with me openly salivating over a V12 Vantage.Sorry to hear about the change in circumstances - try to keep hold of it. Most cars you could replace it with would have much more significant depreciation than the GP. No guarantee it’ll hold it’s value but very little chance of it losing much over the next 3 years.
Seriously, whoever is in charge of handing out courtesy cars at my BMW/Mini dealership has just joined my Christmas card list!
After cancelling a few weeks back, I finally took the M5 in for it’s 61-and-a-bit-thousand service. Oil, Sparkplugs, a variety of costly filters and a thorough look-over by a friendly BMW tech. Oh, and that all-important stamp in the service book!
Thankfully there was good news… tyres, discs and pads (all of which I thought were reasonably imminent - so much so that I sourced replacements when killer deals were available), actually have a good few thousand miles left on them so they can wait on my shelf a little while longer.
The less good news is that they won’t let you supply your own oil anymore (Boo!) and they spotted a minor weep from the rear diff. ”On a BMW? Surely not??” I hear you say sarcastically I’ll be keeping a close eye on the lot and probably do them all at a good specialist when the need arrises.
So far, so typical. What was less typical was the courtesy car(s)! After dropping my car and repeating (at least 4 times) that I didn’t want it cleaned, I was shown outside to this: BMW 440i Convertible M-Sport in what looks like ‘M2 Turquoise’.
Not my usual cup of tea, but certainly an interesting change from what I’m used to. No slouch either with 320Bhp and 330 ft-lb but I’m not sure it’s really my colour
However, about 5 minutes from work I get a slightly panicky call from the dealership - unfortunately they had a customer coming for a test drive and shouldn’t have given it to me. Whoops! No massive issue, they agreed to put a driver in another car ”Don’t worry, we’ll make it something good” who’d bring it to my work and swap it over. What showed up?
A goddam MONSTER. BMW 640i Gran Turismo M-Sport
What can I say about this behemoth? It’s huge. Amazingly quiet. Ridiculously comfy. Chock-full of gadgets that make my M5 look like a Model-T. Quick-ish with 335Bhp and 330 ft-lb. And huuuuuge.
Again, not my cup-of-tea but a very pleasurable way to waft around. First car I’ve driven where I’m pretty much surplus to requirements on the motorway. Considering I was expecting a 120d it was a much more interesting day.
After cancelling a few weeks back, I finally took the M5 in for it’s 61-and-a-bit-thousand service. Oil, Sparkplugs, a variety of costly filters and a thorough look-over by a friendly BMW tech. Oh, and that all-important stamp in the service book!
Thankfully there was good news… tyres, discs and pads (all of which I thought were reasonably imminent - so much so that I sourced replacements when killer deals were available), actually have a good few thousand miles left on them so they can wait on my shelf a little while longer.
The less good news is that they won’t let you supply your own oil anymore (Boo!) and they spotted a minor weep from the rear diff. ”On a BMW? Surely not??” I hear you say sarcastically
I’ll be keeping a close eye on the lot and probably do them all at a good specialist when the need arrises. So far, so typical. What was less typical was the courtesy car(s)! After dropping my car and repeating (at least 4 times) that I didn’t want it cleaned, I was shown outside to this: BMW 440i Convertible M-Sport in what looks like ‘M2 Turquoise’.
Not my usual cup of tea, but certainly an interesting change from what I’m used to. No slouch either with 320Bhp and 330 ft-lb but I’m not sure it’s really my colour
However, about 5 minutes from work I get a slightly panicky call from the dealership - unfortunately they had a customer coming for a test drive and shouldn’t have given it to me. Whoops! No massive issue, they agreed to put a driver in another car ”Don’t worry, we’ll make it something good” who’d bring it to my work and swap it over. What showed up?
A goddam MONSTER. BMW 640i Gran Turismo M-Sport
What can I say about this behemoth? It’s huge. Amazingly quiet. Ridiculously comfy. Chock-full of gadgets that make my M5 look like a Model-T. Quick-ish with 335Bhp and 330 ft-lb. And huuuuuge.
Again, not my cup-of-tea but a very pleasurable way to waft around. First car I’ve driven where I’m pretty much surplus to requirements on the motorway. Considering I was expecting a 120d it was a much more interesting day.
MDifficult said:
MrTouring and I live not far from each other in the Reading area. If you’re near Pangbourne then congrats! It’s a lovely part of the world.
Thank you. Been here for 20 years now and still love it. Girlfriends family are all in Pangbourne. Strangely I've never seen your F10 or the E61 M5 around Reading. I mustn't be looking hard enough.
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