There's a Terminal 5 at Heathrow now too. I was at terminal 4 on Friday and they're doing it up so it's a bit of a mess, but still easy enough to get through and it shouldn't disrupt passengers.

Just like any airport in the world; just follow the signs.

Land Rover Defender 90 is the daddy of off-road vehicles. Ask any 4WD enthusiast.

Although that T90 might have the edge

Quote from wheel4hummer :

You can't know a country's intentions anyway. Either way you are going by what you perceive... I mean, if someone is standing outside your door, ringing your doorbell, and they have an assault rifle with them, you would perceive them as a threat and call the police. But you don't know for sure that they meant to harm you. Every conflict is based on perceptions. It's just human nature. It is striking how similar every single country actually is, because no matter what language someone speaks, who they want to kill, who they perceive as an enemy, they are still humans, and think the same way as everyone else.

I think Germany invading Poland was a little bit beyond a perceived threat. Or Saddam invading Kuwait, Argentina invading the Falklands etc.

For what it's worth, I'm with Newnet and it has been brilliant for five months. I don't know how widespread they are but I'd recommend them

Quote from David33 :

Actually, my opinion is that the invasion of Iraq was reasonable under the circumstances - which included:

1) The contemporaneous threat of terrorism against the USA, and Saddam Hussein's Iraq's significance wrt being a potential or actual state supporter of such terrorism

But there was no specific threat. You cannot invade a country because of what you percieve are it's intentions, simply because those perceptions may be wrong. And in this case, they were wrong.

Quote from David33 :

2) Saddam's persistent violations of Gulf War ceasefire agreements - the promised consequence of which, was the resumption of the war and his likely removal from power

It's true that the Iraqis took pot shots at British and US planes, which was a bit of a nuisance, but the fact is that Iraq had been contained successfully for a decade. It's capability of waging war was nil, as was made clear during the invasion.

Quote from David33 :

3) His continuing threat to his own citizens

As I said, the US, British or any Government couldn't give a toss about the Iraqi citizens. For starters, there's a huge list of countries in the world whose citzens are suffering like the Iraqis were. If America were on a serious mission to rid the world of tyranny it would start in Africa. But there's no profit in Africa, no gain. That's not a dig at the US Government, it's the same for any Government. They work to one system - to do what's in the best interests of its own people and no more.

Quote from David33 :

I know only the fact that Tony Blair, and several of his countrymen, actively supported the USA in its Iraqi policy. For that (and furthermore, for the persistently supportive and cooperative alliance between the USA and UK, almost since the founding of our nation), I am grateful.

There has never in British history been protests of the scale there was against the Iraq war in Britain. The intelligence service never suggested an invasion was necessary, many senior members of the military were dubious about the plans, the public was certainly against it and members of the cabinet resigned over it. Make no mistake, it was Blair's war, not Britain's.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

Remember the Poll Tax riots ? It may have been irresponsible and got way out of hand, but it made the government and the nation sit up and take notice. And the Poll Tax was dropped shortly after.

I'm too young to remember the 'poll tax', but I read into what it was not so long back and the scheme seemed perfectly sensible to me. It must have been quite easy to whip the population into a frenzy in those days

Last edited by durbster, Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:34.

Quote from David33 :

You continue to miss the point. Saddam Hussein was not removed from power because of an expectation that his military forces would attack the USA; he was removed from power because he had control of Iraq's resources (money, weapons, land for sanctuary, various intelligence and technological capabilities and training facilities) that he would likely provide for the use of international terrorists, since he hated the USA and had demonstrated support for terrorism (as if his violations of the Gulf War ceasefire agreements were not enough cause for removal, already).

Your stance seems to be that the Iraqi government may have had some links to people who wanted to commit some sort of terrorist act against the US, and that was absolute justification for invasion.

So do you believe that Britain should have invaded Ireland in the 1970s? The Irish links were more clear, and made significantly more evident by the fact that the attacks actually happened.

And please don't use the argument that we did it for the Iraqi people because that is ridiculously naive.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

Oopsy looks like i was the first one in the thread to spell it with two N's. Perhaps i'm the one to blame for the confusion.

For the uninitiated, don't put too much sway on anything i write, i seldom know what the hell i'm talking about. And only newbies and imbeciles tend to read my posts anyway.

Ah nuts, I just read that

You're not entirely to blame for the incorrect spelling. I've seen a signpost that got it wrong.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

A mixture of German, French, Norse and just a soupcon of Latin

But the point is, who gave it to the world?

smart arse

Quote from Mazz4200 :

... If it's pure land mass and distance covered globally, then the British Empire wins hands down, thats indisputable. If we use a measurement of social influence, then it's a close run thing between us and the Romans. ...

Put it this way - what language are we all speaking?

Quote from Kalev EST :

I´m sorry but that just isn´t true. USA was running an isolation policy before WW2 which means they did their best not to meddle with other countries (especially Europe) and avoid another war. That´s why they only joined the war after Japan attacked them, even though the Brits were practically begging them since the very beginning.

At the start of WW2 maybe but it precedes that. Some may argue that taking land from the native Americans was imperialistic behaviour but more relevant was the US attempting to colonialise the Philippines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine-American_War

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

I think the Byzantines or Egyptians win, really.

How so?

Quote from wheel4hummer :

It's worked better then Germany's attempts! Germany has had a lot of fail, they lost WWI and WWII.

BTW, this post is 100% satirical, and meant as a joke.

Yeah well, it's irrelevant since Britain wins in all empire discussions.

It's not new.

The US has been attempting to establish or maintain an empire for over 100 years and, evidently, they're not very good at it

I think part of the problem a large number of US citizens have the mistaken belief that their country has a clear conscience; that all its wars were fought for the right reasons and conducted in a manner befitting a civilised nation. It's now becoming clear to them that it's not the case and people are realising that the US has as much history of genocide and global bullying as anyone.

Korea, Vietnam and Iraq were all triggered by the US feeling the need to either strengthen its position in the world, or prevent another country (i.e. Russia for Korea and Vietnam, and the middle east as a whole for Iraq) from doing the same. The patterns of each of those three conflicts are curiously similar, as if the US learns something, but then forgets it all twenty years later.

But perhaps the world needs a superpower to keep us all in check. The US has been a significant player in allowing Europe to enjoy 60+ years of peace, for example.

Also, it's worth remembering that the problems in the middle east are not really America's fault, historically, but being the only country with the power to do something about it, it's required to get involved. And sadly, old GWB wasn't exactly the best person for that job. In fact, he may have been the worst.

Quote from Shotglass :

...What was the fundamental flaw in the stupid, stuck-up, sluggardly English that they couldn't grasp this simple principle?

You must be going back a very long time to a London that didn't have pizza delivery. 20 years?

If nothing else comes of this, perhaps the world will remember that it is spelt Donington.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

It's far too early to say at the moment, but, another rumour floating around is Bernie himself is the mystery backer who's promised this 100m quid development money ! The owners are refusing to name this mystery person with all the dosh, so, you never know ?

Well he just hates the BRDC, so I wouldn't be surprised if he put a bit of his pocket money into Donington just to annoy them.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

...Remember it's Tilke who'll be doing the job so, you just have to look at the 'new' Hockenheim to get some sort of idea of what he'll be doing. Apparently it was nice to walk around that track two, infact drivers were known to get lost for hours in the woods if they broke down at the far end of the circuit

Yeah but Hockenheim had massive problems for spectators so it couldn't really stay as it was. Donington doesn't need to change much, it's more about the surrounding infrastructure than the track itself.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

And 95 in an MX5 through the Craner Curves sounds like a bit of a squeaky bum moment if you ask me But then just being seen in an MX5 would be too much embarrassment for me to take

Well, that's your loss. I'd go back tomorrow if I could

Quote from Crommi :

"New and improved" Donington = Wide like an autobahn, huge paved runoff areas, smooth, flat and boring.

I seriously doubt Donington will ever be flat.

Quote from Mazz4200 :

@ Mustafur

Bernie's billions

And to stick one on the BRDC

Donnington has had a lot of problems with grip (or lack there of) recently. Mainly due to the increasing number of flights into East Midlands airport (just a stones throw away) And it's an old, short and very narrow track. Basically it's gonna need a complete overhaul if it's gonna be used as a regular circuit. There is land nearby which could be used to extend it, but i doubt that would be a viable option tbh. Shame London couldn't get it's act together and put on a street circuit, but who knows what will happen once the contract expires

Edit whilst writing this, some more info just announced. Seems like they've signed a 10yr agreement and promised 100 million in investment http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/ ... e-loses-gp-donington.html

The investment is necessary but I doubt two years is long enough. Donny is my local circuit but I'm unsure of whether this is a good thing or not.

I don't think they'll change the circuit layout but you never know. What worries me is that they might replace a lot of the grass with gravel or tarmac which would be a damn shame. One of the best things about Donington is that it's simply a nice place to walk round.

Seeing a modern F1 car down the Craners will be something else though. I've been through there at about 95mph in my MX-5 and that felt pretty damn fast, so who knows what speeds an F1 will take them

That thing about the aircraft fuel affecting grip has never been proved btw.

Edit: Just heard from a friend of a friend and the circuit will be changed. Apparently from the back straight it'll turn left into what is currently woodland, then back to the pit area. So some of the designs in this thread might not be far off

Last edited by durbster, Sat, 5 Jul 2008 10:15.

Having a centralised browser-based app has several advantages.

1. It should be a lot quicker to code a web based app than write an interface from scratch. Half the work is done for you already. As has been said, things like chatrooms have been perfected over the last ten years. Why not exploit that?

2. It's a lot easier to update a web-based app than to update a bespoke interface.

Updates to the interface can be carried out by simply updating the site. Then every single user will have the update when they are next online. There is no auto-updater app to write, no manual downloads involved. So for example, if they release a more detailed car editor, they update it on the site and everyone has it when they next visit.

3. A browser loads faster than most applications.

4. Accessibility. Users with sight or hearing problems can customise browsers to their own needs already.

I always liked netKars approach to the interface. There are no frills, no extra graphics to load. It simply gets to you as fast as possible so you can get on with things. I like that.

Last edited by durbster, Thu, 3 Jul 2008 22:00.

I'm quite amazed people think rFactor looks better than LFS. I have both and I hate rFactor's graphics engine, it's bloody awful. It is good fun however, and just about up with LFS on the physics side when you get one of the better mods.

The online code is door-bangingly excellent if you can get round the hosting pains.

And it sounds better than any other sim.

And it has the Nurburgring.

And this thread is ridiculous.

Some fairly reliable Solstice laptimes (magazine tests), which might be of some use:
http://www.fastestlaps.com/car458e6115cbcb3.html

Seems it should be a touch slower than an MX-5 on track, which is certainly going to be slower than an RX-8. The RX-8 can do a 1m50 round Laguna Seca, so that sounds about right.

Laguna Seca laptimes for reference:
http://www.fastestlaps.com/track16.html

Quote from Shotglass :

of course there arent any... but if you put spoiled kids in f1 cars you sure as heck wont end up with a bunch of gentlemen racers

Name me three 1960s F1 drivers who weren't from a privileged background, and I'll agree with you.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Do we have to stop calling Michaels lesser brother Shuntmaker then?

The difference is, Ralf really was useless and Hamilton's not

To the left of the Spitfire there is a marshal area with no fences, you can get a clean view of the track there.

You can see it on oningtonPark.jpg&h=480&w=800&sz=52&hl=en&start=7&um=1&tbnid=HFdD_87tUsTCgM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddonington%2Bspitfire%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dopera%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG" target="_blank">this photo.

Oh yeah, there's a similar spot on the inside of Redgate/T1 I think. I think this is it.

And what Ben says about the Melbourne hairpin is spot on from what I remember.

Have a good one. You'd better get some bloody good pictures for us now

Last edited by durbster, Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:53.

Quote from Michael Denham :

Until about 5 minutes ago I still kinda liked Lew1s. Then I saw this picture of him and just can't stand the smugness. All through last season I was really rooting for Hamilton and I can't believe it now but I have to say I really don't care how well he does.

Don't worry, you can counter it with this one which never fails to make me laugh:

Inside the Craners is undoubtedly the best place as you get the fastest sequence of corners, you can see more of the track than anywhere else and you have the best access to other parts of the track.

The inside of the T1 exit which is very close to the track (under the Spitfire) and usually not too busy so would be good to get some close up shots.

You can also cut through fairly quickly to the start/finish straight, so you could watch the start then dash back to the Craners for the rest of the race.

Of course it'll help if you're extremely good at barging through the crowds

Quote from Forbin :

More like it won't be a sim as a result of being a console game. Simulations are incompatible with the console market. The main demographic, consisting primarily of 14 year-old boys and 19 year-old fratboys, doesn't have the patience.

Likewise, the controller support isn't there.

Sorry but that's rubbish, the average age of console owners is firmly in the mid 20s and has been for some years. The idea that gaming is for kids is one dreamt up by the press but it has never been true.

It has nothing to do with age (I was a big fan of Geoff Crammond's F1GP when I was 12 years old), and it has everything to do with the pick up and play legacy of consoles.