Croc

I notice everyone has gone quiet about the NJMP track day. I believe this is because everyone is feverishly brushing up their skills: - Seems like Tom has been giving poor old Rover a real workout around a lot of tracks and even found 4th gear sometimes. - Karl seems to be hanging out a lot with Porsches' these days - but I will forgive him. I am sure Kitcat is up to mischief too? Do I smell a scent of fear that all of us are concerned that we will show up as driving Miss Daisy in late June? :jester: Anyway, I am not innocent in this. :rofl: Since I am spending most of June in the UK, I just booked a track day at Silverstone on the Formula 1 GP circuit in an R400 race seven and plan to get some quality 1 on 1 coaching at the same time, just 7 days before seeing you all at NJMP.

Having spent so much time living in many countries in Asia, take it from me that the roads in Malaysia are even less friendly to Sevens than Brazil.

Yep thats Karl's car. Not sure who the guy behind the wheel is? Looks like Karl aged 25 years and grew a beard.

It depends - they are designed for different markets. Quicken is for individuals and families - personal finances. It can even handle sole trader types of very small businesses. Refer to the following link: http://quicken.intuit.com/ Quick Books is designed for small businesses so it can produce invoices for billing, accounts receivable aging and other stuff that an individual does not need or want. Unless you were running a real business with employees then I do not think you need this for your own personal finances.

This looks really nice! Surprising amount of power from an R1 engine - I had no idea.

This is one area I know very well after having spent years working to keep/get companies financially out of trouble and getting "please save me" pleas from financially irresponsible relatives and friends. Rules of thumb that I go by: Every pay check you should be aiming to save 15-20% of gross pay (before tax is withdrawn) in savings. Of this it should be split roughly 3 ways: short term emergency funds of roughly 2-3 months of living expenses plus saving for the cost of an annual vacation). Once this is funded then divert the savings to the saving categories below. medium term savings - to cover significant purchases on the horizon (e.g. kitchen renovation, car replacement, etc). This could also be used direct to pay off the mortgage with extra repayments (I am referring to amounts over and above the scheduled mortgage payment here). long term/retirement savings. Make sure you are maxing out any company match on your contributions plus any tax deduction benefit you may get (not sure if Canada has US-style 401K benefits?). [*]Out of what is left you have to pay a tax bill and living costs. [*]Living costs (rent, mortgage, property taxes, housing utilities - power, gas water) should ideally be around 20-30% of your gross pay. In some cities (e.g. NYC) then the range goes up to around 30-35% but should not exceed this as an extreme. [*]The remaining is what you have to live on. Not much is it? At this point I would normally recommend that you spend a month keeping track of every little expense to see where the money goes and then you can work out a plan on where to save money. As you noted the costs are all little - there are no big outgoings left. Money leaks out in surprising directions and surprising amounts: Package cable and internet and consider dropping back from the top all-channels option to a cheaper option. For me this brought the costs down from $220pm to $170pm Shift from a landline phone to a cable internet based phone. For me this saved $100pm Cut internet access from a cell phone and limit text messages - saved $50pm Watch dinners out - this adds up quickly. For a couple, 6 nights out in a month could be as much as $300. Air con is a big cost in summer for me - it was easily $300-375 extra per month in summer. I now use ceiling fans and open the place up to get breezes in plus installed new double glazed energy windows. Think similar for winter heating costs and how to reduce electricity bills. My electricity bill was $26 last month and no I do not sit in the dark and I still run multiple laundry/dryer loads each week. I changed to LED lights and learn to turn things off when not using them. Do you know how much Starbuck/Tim Hortons charges for a frou frou mega large gourmet coffee these days. Not much change from $5 I bet. How many of these do you have a day and multiply it across the month - turns into a very large sum rather quickly. A relative of mine was spending $300 per month this way....ouch...and then we checked her husband and found another $180 per month. In a similar vein, how much do you spend on lunch at work. If you are buying it then where I am located in NYC you do not get much change from $10 per day. Think about making it at home and taking in with you. Are you using everything you own already or are there things in the closet that are spare and not being used yet you buy something else anyway, e.g. clothes, household items, etc). [*]For discretionary spending ask yourself do you really need it or do you just really want it. I would love a 60 inch flat screen tv alas I cannot justify it. I would love a new stereo amplifier as mine was bought in 1998 but the current one works perfectly. If you do not have the money for it then do not buy it. [*]Once you have your spending under control then you should make sure that your credit card is being used only as a form of cash payment - i.e. you pay it off each month in full. [*]Look around the home - anything not being used that you want to sell on ebay and make some spare cash out of surplus assets. That was a winner for a family member of mine - thousands of dollars received from old kids toys that they had outgrown. [*]Check that you have claimed all medical reimbursements due to you from your health insurance - general medical, prescription, optical, dental. See what other benefits you may be entitled to that you may be paying for separately without knowing. [*]Look at what benefits you may not be leveraging on your credit cards - I save thousands each year by using points from a united airlines mileage credit card to pay for flights to Australia to see fmaily and for them to come and see me. I know I spend more on air travel than most given my remote family situation but in the last 10 years this card has saved me over $100k in air fare costs I would have otherwise spent. I also discovered a substantial sum of Amex membership reward points that were travelling below my radar - that will pay for some of the annual vacation or any household items needing replacing. Similarly I found last week that I have a substantial sum of Hilton hhonor points worth at least 2 weeks of free hotel rooms anywhere in the world (or 1 week in Maui!). Do an inventory of what you have and check to see how much it is worth as a benefit. This covers most of the rules of good household finances. A suggestion if you really want to get into financial analysis is to use Quicken or similar to help you analyze where the money goes. This software also has financial planning features where you can see how your savings will provide for you long term. I personally swear by Quicken as it tracks my mortgages, investments, retirement monies and bank accounts - it saves days of effort (for me) come tax return time and you can set up pretty much all accounts to one-touch download transactions into the register. If you have questions beyond this then maybe PM me offline to give you some privacy. oh and yes...one of my qualifications to provide this advice is that I am a Chartered Accountant/CPA.

The driver was very cautious - I dont think I saw the shift lights come on at any time. Justifiably so, even at such low speeds he had all the traction and grip of a kitten in a wet bathtub. I wonder what tires he had on the car?

Al - you would be more than welcome to turn up at the after event just in time to participate (or maybe judge) in the tall tales telling contest of the drive. We will probably end up at the Ship Inn. The road picture was on the PA side but up north near the Riegelsville bridge as soon after that picture we crossed the river to the NJ side on the bridge there. The drive did initially take us past Tinicum Park as we followed Rt 32 south to that sharp hairpin right handed on to Cafferty Road but after that it was all heading north.

I live on the intersection of the Hudson River and the old Morris Canal/Liberty Harbor. My building was originally a warehouse for the canal. In significant storms coinciding with high tide my garage floods. Unfortunately the access road is lower than the garage so I usually find out too late (thank you weather forecasters) that I have trouble and cannot drive the seven out to safely. The last two storms I have ended up jacking up the seven onto 3-4 cinder blocks each wheel to keep it up out of the water and this has worked very well. I have two long pole rally jacks that I keep in the garage for this purpose along with a supply of cinder blocks. The regular daily driver usually gets driven out along the flooded access road simply because it sits much higher than the seven. While I have never had to go through a hurricane here I know that my plan in that event is just to get the car out as I was told the last hurricane in 1992 flooded the garage 3/4's of the way to the roof. Luckily I have not had to use an inflatable raft to save my cars but I can understand the owners motivation. Very ingenious.

Sean - :D:D

I am definitely in that weekend no matter what. I think we were originally saying June 12 but then switched it to June 11 - so June 11 it is.

More pics now posted here by Robert Konick: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150173898173075.311323.174920753074#!/media/set/?set=a.10150173898173075.311323.174920753074&closeTheater=1 However, there is a funny caption line lurking in this photo of L to R of Karl, Stewart and myself - No prizes for guessing! http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/225796_10150173904078075_174920753074_7000791_3627862_n.jpg

:seeya:

The CSR 175 is not the same powerplant as the R500. It is a fairly tame duratec of supposedly 175 FWHP. It is not well known but you can order the CSR chassis with any range of engine. So it would be well down on a R500 engine of say 260 FWHP. Given the elevation changes of the circuit I think the advantges of IRS may be coming into play against a de dion R500. There are so many other unknown variables that influence comparability of times: - warmth of tires (function of weather) - compound of tires - width of tires - LSD or not - quality of the individual driver - gearing - etc I was always taught that the fastest laps look the smoothest and generally do not give the sense of being fast. Low 8 minutes at Nurburgring is really fast. It may not be as exciting to look at but it is impressive to learn from.

Well said Lancylad!

Hi Tom - I have the SBFS draft reducer too but felt it could do better. I found this at Stoneleigh 2 years ago and eventually found them for sale on Ebay UK. Seller name is BarbaraV1959 I checked just now and she does not have anything up for sale currently but I am sure she can make another if you email her through ebay. I also bought a shower cap off her - great for putting on the car in the garage or when parked outside. http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/228061_10150173902643075_174920753074_7000744_3350269_n.jpg http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/228469_10150173903108075_174920753074_7000759_5291045_n.jpg http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/227377_10150173906583075_174920753074_7000846_6023575_n.jpg

To round out the sevens, a nice pic of Stewart's cross flow borrowed from Britishspeed member "Minnis" http://www.britishspeed.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=19130&stc=1&d=1304379297

Found on blatchat - very good watching. I would love to drive as well as he can! Rather than embed the video, you get a bigger screen to watch if you click through to the site. The true speed is the digital readout - ignore the dial. http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222:supercar-vs-simplecar-part-ii&catid=56:ring-reviews&Itemid=300091

However, if you are as blind as a bat and need prescription glasses for both distance and close up reading the dials then I use these two products when driving a seven: 1) outfitters 24 - have a strap that ties them on behind your head plus they cup your eyes to keep out dust http://www.sunglassesoverglasses.com/outfitter.htm or 2) fitovers http://fitovers.com/

Excellent picture link - I love this type of event, so many surprising and beautiful cars to check out.

It is light years away from the SV. It feels so much more composed on rough surfaces, you do not get thrown around as much. I had Jack vB as passenger with me yesterday at the Fish & Chip Run while his seven is undergoing a gearbox change. He was just as impressed as I was. The composed ride/handling is more impressive to me than the engine performance. I have driven my share of fast cars but this is a whole other level. It puts the power down so well - point to point it is incredible. Nice wind up on the cam cover :rofl: - I assume you saw my comment on the Fish & Chips picture page. Luckily I could see the funny side about them fulfilling my cam cover order to someone else. Thanks Mike. While it sounds better than a Zetec the duratec still does not sounds as good as a crossflow to my ears. Yes it is a NJ classic car plate as you can see... The license plate has "prison made" stamped in it. It took all of 5 minutes for a Brit to notice and start making Australian convict jokes yesterday. :toetap05: Yes there is a wind blocker of black mesh wrapped around the roll bar - works pretty well. I think it may be better than the SBFS one. It was one of my purchases when I was last in London. Yes...with the new suspension I find it rides exceptionally well on rough gravel roads and fields of grass when looking for photo spots! As for the power, I believe it was Rolls Royce, that when asked for the power and torque statistics on their new model, responded "adequate." I will follow similar modest lines and say "its effing ballistic!" There will be no tillets in the car. I broke my tail bone (amongst other things) years ago when I badly landed a parachute (my fault). The S-type seats work the best for me. Tillets leave me in agony after 40 minutes.

Yep - it was the annual Fish & Chip Run put on by Robert Konick of British Racing Group. You missed a good day. I hope you have marked June 12 down in your calendar to attend the 3rd annual NJ/PA/NY Sevens Run starting from the parking lot opposite Milford. We got 7 or 8 sevens last year. I know Bessie will not be ready in time but I know with good fact that her 'alter ego' will be there. I am sure we can shoe horn you into a seven somehow! :cooldude:

That got a quick reaction! Luckily Steve is good at being :jester:

Taken today at Tincum Park, PA just next to the Delaware River: