Anybody in the south-west with cams, an RS2 or TB's?

[Aaron182.]

Wooooo. I actually understand every word of that.
Cheers for the essay. Was that all freshly written or have u got this all written down somewhere?

[Chip-mk1]

No I just wrote that then mate, thats the sort of stuff I write about a lot in magazines though so not the first time I have written similar, I just worry more about spellchecking and punctuation if Im getting paid to write it, lol

[Aaron182.]

my hands have gotten far to lazy recently to be typing things that long, especially as im on my phone 90% of the time.

who do you write for ?

[Chip-mk1]

TBH that took me 2 mins or so to write, I can type monstrously quickly providing im not trying to be mega accurate. (30 years of computer programming etc)


In the last 12 months I have written for:
Total Vauxhall
Fast ford
Performance French car (although that was only a feature about the turbo 172 clio from MWM)

But its something Im winding down a lot now TBH as I just dont have the time these days, and also most magazines are cutting back on freelance budgets so rates are dropping too.

[McGherkin]

Wooooo. I actually understand every word of that.

+1 Love learning things.

[Jardo]

Aaron, you and I need to badger James @ Stone to get a group buy going.

[Aaron182.]

Yeah as long as the group buy is sub £1000

[Chip-mk1]

Not going to happen down at that level I suspect, I know the cost James pays for a lot of the component parts and there is far less profit in an RS2 than most people probably realise, TBH by the time you take into account it generally takes quite a few hours labour to build one (lots of drilling holes in very tough carbon etc) he really cant bring the price down much even on bulk orders or he basically ends up working for free.

[Aaron182.]

That's what I thought. Tbh the prices are bloody good anyway. I'm just stingey

[Jardo]

That's what I thought. Tbh the prices are bloody good anyway. I'm just stingey

I am the same as you, if it was £1000 or less I would buy it for sure.

[Chip-mk1]

Its a silly amount of money to be spending on a couple of grand car TBH, but then hobbies dont always have to be sound investments, lol

[Aaron182.]

That's the exact argument I have with myself every day. It's my only hobby now. As I've given all the others up. I'd previously spent near enough £800 on RC cars. And god knows how many thousands on boats. Only to use them once a month. Where as my car I use every day

[Jardo]

My theory too, I don't drink (ok I do), I don't smoke (ok I do), I don't gamble and I don't cheat on my missus. So if I want to spend my money on cars I will She got the hump when she found out I'd spent 7K on my A3 in 18 months, so I had to do something to hers lol

Cams, RS2, general awesomeness I think. I can't wait to have a go in Chips

[Aaron182.]

I don't drink. (often) but when I do the wallet takes a good hit. I don't know how u guys get so much to spend on cars lol. No misses, and I still can't afford the RS2

[Jardo]

Jobs/balancing finances

[Chip-mk1]

I dont really have any other hobbies that arent car related really, which is a bit sad in a way I guess!
I spend probably 15-20K ish a year on cars (half that doing trackdays and half on buying and modifying cars and taxing and insuring and MOTing them all etc etc), but historically Ive covered a fair chunk of that with spending my spare time doing motoring journalism, which probably covered about 1/3rd of it, and in the past when I was doing a lot more mapping of cars for people that probably topped it upto well over half that, so it was kind of a self financing hobby in a way. These days I dont really have enough time to do those things much at the moment for the extra income but on the other hand im working more in my main roles so my wages are good enough right now that I can comfortably afford it anyway, so I still dont feel too bad about it not paying for itself as much anymore.
Luckily for me my mrs enjoys all the trackdays just as much as I do, and so she pays a lot towards them from her wages too, so that helps as well, although the down side is that means yet more cars on the go at once so more maintainance and modifying etc so even more time gone, but lukcily she helps out with the spannering anyway so it sort of balances out (she fitted the RS2 as well as buying it for example)

[Jardo]

My wife is pretty rad like that, she loves modifying her cars and things as well as does the odd track day. Doesn't mean she doesn't shout at me for spending money though haha.

[Chip-mk1]

Sounds like you have a good one too then mate.

This is my one out on the drive fitting the RS2 in the pissing rain cause I was using the garage and she didnt want to wait, lol

[Jardo]

I would kill for a garage...

[Aaron182.]

Without labeling your wives as items, I need one of those