Talbot

Having left this open for over a week now, a total of £235.20 has been raised, and I want to thank everyone who has donated. With the previous balance of £(19.93) this leaves the kitty standing at £215.27 There have been invision forum software costs, which I will check up on and update shortly. However, I think we will be set for May and June hosting costs, so I won't need to open the fundraiser again for at least a couple of months, if not slightly longer. Many thanks again to all.

KoFi uses paypal as it's payment handler as far as I can tell, so if you're trying to pay by debit card, it still goes through paypal to do so. Absolutely not a problem!

FOCAL length. Perv.

I'm rather pleased with how that photo came out, especially as it was taken from about 30m away with a remarkably long lens. The bokeh effect on it has worked rather well.

It is, Many thanks!

# @Six-cylinder Found it.

Someone with the initials P.M. has tried to do a friends and family payment to the email address listed, however they have sent it to "autoshitehostings" rather than "autoshitehosting". Could P.M. please cancel the payment and re-send to the correct address please!

This is very useful information, and just shows how astonishingly out-of-date I am with the current costs and ways of hosting things online. If £80/month is the right price for this sort of hosting these days, then I suspect it will just have to be a "grin and bear it". Not only that, but I now understand there would be a fairly significant one-off-cost for moving all our data away from the current provider, which would likely mean that we wouldn't see a payback on that move for quite some time. I am not *in any way* thinking we need to bail and move immediately, I just want to keep options open, and am very appreciative of the above. If what we're currently paying is actually reasonable, then it may be better not to rock the boat. But I don't know, hence asking the question. Many thanks to all for contributions so far. I believe that has brought the kitty back above the waterline.

March's costs came to £80.48, which represents a fairly significant hike in prices. With £138.85 held previously, that became £58.37 left in the kitty. April's costs came to £78.30, indicating that March wasn't just a one-off, prices really have gone up. From the previous £58.37, that leaves the kitty rather inside-out at (£19.93) We've always known that our current host was on the expensive side, but this has now meant that costs have gone up from under £50/month to around £80/month, which is a rather nasty increase. Over the year that's a grand on hosting, which is rather too much in my opinion, hence I am now looking to see if there is anywhere else we can host the forum. As there are plenty of people on here who have experience of using webhosting etc. I am looking for recommendations. Please, no "how about x company?" type replies... I can google just fine. I'm looking for people who actually have experience of using a service, how well it works in reality, and how expensive it is in reality. Given that the last webhosting I bought (granted, over 15 years ago) cost £5.99/month, £80 seems like a rather large pill to swallow. Hence looking to see what's available. I'm also opening up the forum funding request again, as I could probably do with replenishing the kitty somewhat. So, as ever: The fundraiser can be found here: https://ko-fi.com/autoshite Unfortunately, despite KoFi being superbly easy to use, when it transfers balance to Paypal, it's considered a business transaction, so some fees are lost. On the back of that, if anyone wishes to make a "friends and family" paypal payment directly into the Autoshite Paypal account, that would be most welcomed. The email address to make a payment to is autoshitehosting@fastandfurryous.co.uk However, for anyone making a payment by anything other than paypal, or indeed would prefer not to use friends&family to make the payment that is no issue at all and payments through KoFi are very welcome indeed. Sending direct by Paypal friends&family is absolutely optional. But is also welcomed to avoid fees. I will, as before, leave this open for a while, to allow everyone who uses the forum to see this and contribute if they wish. With luck, this will again cover the next 3 months or so, and we can get an alternative and somewhat less expensive provider sorted. The explanation for the weird email address being above/on the previous page. Many thanks.

A few more oddities that were running around in free practice earlier. I missed these as I was using two camera bodies, and the files aren't recorded as date and time, which is more of a ballache than I initially thought. This Xsara was massively quick and quite a surprise. It didn't look or sound anything amazing, but it shot around the track faster than a greased fast thing with extra fastness: Finally realised the shutter speed issue and got a car that actually looks like it's in motion. There's more of that to come later: The top of "the mountain" was quite a transition from steep hill to flat, and the faster cars were lifting wheels all the time. Almost all of them had a little "blip" of the engine revs as the rear wheels lost grip. Not easy to get a picture of though: But I got one. That front left wheel has daylight under it, and not a small amount either: Couldn't get the bleddy car in focus though, could I? Jesus wept... That'll do for tonight I think.

Mixed club meet as far as I can tell. There wasn't anything that was massively stand-out. The programme may still be online at the Cadwell park site. Well. Funny you should mention that, as they made a comeback here too. They are UNBELIEVABLY noisy, smoke like laboratory beagles and look utterly lethal. To be able to run around a track as fast as these go with no harness, a fuel tank under your knees and an engine that doubles as an arm-rest strikes me as complete and utter lunacy. They also weigh absolutely nothing. Like under 150kg. I saw several of them lifted up by two blokes with relative ease and they are really really tiny. And frightening. And awesome. I'm glad they exist, but I wouldn't drive one for all the tea in China. So.. how did they look at Cadwell? Like this: The truck seemed a little excessive when the guy could have essentially just shoved the kart in his pocket and walked back... Irritatingly I was using a far-too-fast shutter speed for these, so they just look like they're parked on the track rather than actually in motion. I fixed that later in the day, but hadn't realised at this point. Ah well, every day is a school day.

That absolutely deserves to be taking pride of place in a museum somewhere. it's better than any MK2 was even from new.

Moar. With less waffle maybe? (Ha! Right.) After practice, there was an opportunity for some work to be done. Car 82 appeared to have a bit of an issue with a lean run at times. Was tracked down to an inlet manifold stud pulled out of the head, so a swift helicoiling was in order: I am always amazed at the access available when the front clip comes off a 2CV. It's truly excellent: Helicoil fitted and stud-and-nut replaced. All in about 10 minutes. The work that goes into keeping these going is impressive. Next, time for qualifying. As there are two races and these were to be split between the two drivers, that meant two qualifying sessions were needed. Here's the team boss off to go and qualify: And the holding area where cars are kept before being let onto the track. This is a bit of an oddity, as it's essentially "halfway" around the track, which kinda works, as it means that the cars only have to go around half a lap to get onto the grid, and then after the race is completed, they can have just a half-lap to then come in, but that isn't at the pits, which keeps things quite smooth running. It also means that with two holding areas (more later) then once one race is completed, the next lot of cars can be almost out on the track before the last race is done. It's not quite that quick as the course car does a lap just to check for debris on the track, but it's certainly quicker than I've seen before. Holding area to go out on the track: and some action from a different vantage point: Nicknamed "the mountain" this bit of the track is *properly* steep. I've never seen a racetrack so steep before now. It's quite a spectacle. This is just before the mountain, at what is the lowest point of the track. I suspect the cars are quite near their maximum speed here, but I don't know: Moving further "back" up the track, there's a lovely vantage point where not only can you see multiple racers at the same time but also some good close racing action: But it's also just after a downhill section and fairly fast bend, meaning people sometimes over-cook it and go wide: Meaning you then get an overtake from the car that was behind, as they are suddenly faced with someone off the pace: And that's 24 photos, which is enough to make the uploader take over too much of my screen and I can't see to write the post properly, and hence a good point to break the thread. As always, if (by some miracle) there is a photo here that anyone really likes, there are full-resolution camera-raw images held for every single one of them, and anyone is welcome to either that or the .jpg, as long as no-one is trying to pass it off as their own. (Ha! I wish I was that good.) The sharp-eyed photographers here (and there are several) might notice a general change since the last batch of pictures from last year. These are now full-frame sensor images with a moderately half-decent lens, compared to last year when they were crop-sensor images through a dusty and fungused-up piece of snot. I am absolutely stunned how inexpensive older DSLR camera kit is now, so have taken full advantage of that! All I have to do now is use it properly. Which I still can't. Not really.

Modern dashcams can be very easily installed. They're not the enormous faff they used to be.

Cadwell Park, as a season opener (and even if it wasn't the season opener) is a lovely track, purpose built into some fairly rolling countryside, so unlike so many other racing tracks which were originally the perimeter road for an airfield (and hence flat as a pancake) this one is really interesting. It has a wooded area, hills, great vantage points and quite a nice feel to it. Having been told that my presence would be welcomed* at the racing meet, I gained a car access pass that would get me in for free this time (grumble, mumble, sixteen pounds etc..) and with some expectation of a decent meet, left West Sussex after work on the Friday for the easy* quick* jaunt up the road to Lincolnshire. Arriving in absolute pitch darkness at a track you've never been to before is always good for a laugh. Having had a a very nice welcome from the guy on the gate, I drifted into what I would later discover is basically the entrance to the track. Oops. Quick turn-around and back up towards the several-acres-of-paddock-and-camping that there was, and started looking for anything familiar. Fairly quickly spotted some 2CV shapes in the dark, and then one in blue that looked very familiar. Journey over. Tent up quickly, time to say hello to everyone, and then it's time for bed. A long week, a long journey, and then putting a tent up in the pitch dark is enough to make anyone "a tadge worn out". It was bleddy cold that night, but I'd cheated and had a duvet with me, which I was able to roll up in like a burrito, so it was tolerable*. Next morning, it was clear that a fair bit had been done in the dark, as the camp area wasn't exactly what you would call "planned". Nevertheless, there were plenty of participants ready for the racing: All three cars that we had teamed up with last year at the 24hr: Yes, the muffins car had googly eyes fitted: Which will move about as the car rolls from side to side. Much hilarity with this car giving the side-eye later. Tarts car was rather "blind" in comparison: Team 28 had become (for good reasons that I can't remember right now) team 48. Apparently this car had in the past worn no.48, so no-one was too worried about the change. Does mean we all need new merch now, but there you go. didn't get a pic of it until later. Some other cars in the paddock: Remember the ECAS car that had some quite nasty damage at Donnington: It's back, and looking just the same as it did pre-accident: The camp area was amusing. Clearly some people don't like being right next to the cars, like billy-no-mates here: Open practice was quite early in the day, so GB driver had to get sorted early. Here he is, ecstatic* about having a photo taken so early. Also, clearly now a SUPER driver: Got the car off to register for open practice. At that point there is absolutely nothing more that you can do as if the car breaks down, we have no pits, so just have to wait for recovery to bring it back. In the meantime, other jobs that needed doing was the erection (snigger) of the shelter tent: Nice. The wind, however, was not. It was absolutely relentless all weekend and was pretty tiresome. This did at least provide some shelter from it, even if every bit of nylon on both it and every tent around would just not stop flapping. Car ready in the holding area to go out for practice: Yes, that's a terrible shot, but hey. And yes, that's a lotus europa in the background. There was a fairly eclectic mix of cars there for the weekend. Open practice starts: The area of the track that I got these from is like a leisurely drive in the countryside. You're properly close to the track, and with the trees and grass around it feels very "cosy".: It's also a very wiggly bit of track, so there can be some pretty good action going on. Shortly after that, there was qualifying for a single-marque saxo race. These were quite fast, but it did just look like a McDonalds car park circa 2005: More later. I'm going to do this in chunks again like last time for fear of losing a post before it posts.