gunat

Its a grey area. There's no legal documentation specifically saying that Detectors are illegal. Depending on how smart the cop you meet is, it can go either way. 9/10 times i keep my radar stored away. For the times when its on, it usually serves it purpose and i don't have to deal with a cop pullingl me over. Advise that you DO NOT have it shipped here. Try and get it hand delivered. Not only will it raise questions at customs, but since the nature of a detector is dubious, its better not to give the 'fuzz' more opportunity to catch on!

Well said. Although a previous post indicates that no-one is exempt from the test, lets see what materializes in the next year. If i was to put money down on it...

Don't get me wrong- i have nothing against Emissions testing- its a step in the right direction- the day we have high performance cars running on Bio-Diesel or some alternative fuel will be a watershed in Auto History. It needs to be done, especially in a developing country such as ours. But as some of the forum members have highlighted- this is not a uniform law that will apply for all. Politicos and their sons/thugs will never "pay" for it- and those with politcal connections will use influence to make sure they are either exempt or the test is falsified. If the rumour is true in stating that only "Car" owners are subject to the test (ie. buses and three wheelers are not required to pass the test), then there is something blantantly wrong. Laugfs makes money from what is going to be a utter BS Test (downright disgusting, but you have to admit there is someone with smart business savvy at that company!), And of course, the govt. needs more money to pay for trips to New York and the Grand Canyon. This is what makes us SL'kans different from other successful Asian countries- we're willing to screw our own people to fill our own pockets.

I've heard that the Govt. has given the go-ahead to start emissions testing for cars starting in the New Year. Laugfs is rumoured to be providing the testing facillities and issuing the 'certificate', which i'm told, you have to produce when renewing your licence. Depending on your 'failure' percentage, you will have to pay a fine on top of your usual Licence fee. Apart from the fact that this is a blatant money making scheme for both Laugfs and the govt., i'm pretty sure most cars will fail the test given the quality of our petrol, and probably will be adjusted to ensure failure. The kicker is that Buses and Trishaws might be exempt given they are facillities for the 'common man'.... Anyone know more about this?

This site pretty much covers a lot of the points. http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

I used to be a Canon die-hard (went through 3 digicams)...for size and image quality, they were great. I recently took a chance and bought a Lumix FX07 (Panasonic). My main objective was to get a camera with reputed 3rd party lense. Lumix units use Leica Lenses, and in the photography world, Leica is right up there- they've been in the business for decades. The Lumix digicams come in decent handy sizes and the image quality is faboulous, with very rich, warm and natural colours in the daytime. As with most small Digicams, nightshots aren't the best...with some degree of picture noise at any ISO setting. Sony uses Carl Ziess lenses on some of their models, which is very good too. Personally, i've found the images from a Sony to be a bit "cold" and less natural, but thats a personal opinion. As for local vendors- not many...although Softlogic is now the panasonic agent...so i'd pay them a visit. Prices won't be great, i imagine though. Best if you can get something sent over from Singapore...

How's this to add to the controversy: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/motorsp...abotage-report/

Not sure about steel wheels- calling and asking might be the way to go. For alloys, cost is in the region of 1.5k, depending on how badly off the rim is...

Not sure about the painting bit- its a bit hard to track down the proper paint that is used for alloys (and no, it shouldn't be the same stuff we put on the body!) Repairing however, there are a few places to go to, depending on the kind of repair you require. For correcting bent alloys (ie. straightening all the crap our fine roads do to our wheels) go to Macr*Tech on the Nawala Road (just before the Open Uni. Bridge going towards Nugegoda). They do a fine job, although you should be prepared to do a bit of wincing as 90% of the straightening involves holding a Blowtorch to the alloy! If its rebuffing/repolishing the shiny bits, there's a small shop @ delkanda junction that specializes in wheels; although i'm yet to try them out.

Note that the article says that the high risk vehicles are those with long intervals between oil changes- ie. >5000kms.

At first glance, the Carina is a better choice. Parts are freely available, a well maintained car will last you as long as you want it to. Overall running costs will be good. You probably won't have too much issue when selling the car later. Peugeot- the agents are disastrous, i'm told that apart from very poor service, they don't keep a extensive inventory of parts. That said, parts are a lot more expensive, and general maintenance will be too. But once you get behind the wheel, its a different story. Performance is probably on par with a Carina, but dynamically the 406 is way ahead. The handling and comfort cannot be matched by a Carina. The late model 2.0 has enough kick, and the build quality is good. However, the residuals are poor- it will be a hard car to resell. If you're not too concerned about costs or resale, and looking for something comfortable to run around in with a little brand bling, i'd recommend the Peugeot. Although i'm not sure if you'll be able to find a late-model 406 for 1.8 million- the prices i've seen so far are over 2. good luck

True...but as it was said on commentary, what makes LH different is his style- more fluidity and far less aggression. Yet, there is a definite similarity...at least in the rain! Now that, is a true tragedy. We've all seen him pull up through the ranks over the years- and his drive yesterday was nothing short of absolute brilliance; starting from the rear of the grid to 3rd...and like you say, he'll be denied a title he does deserve. Its unfortunate that he happened to get the right combination of car/team; only to have his season overshadowed by the rookie. It also calls to question what'll happen next season though. LH will stay with Mclaren, as will Kimi, and it'll interesting to see if they can continue their winning streak....Alonso is going to be the wildcard- can he continue his performance with another team? Some say that his seat at Mclaren is possibly going to be filled by Jensen Button...all speculation at this point though. Yeah, this was filmed just after LH got his first Podium finish ahead of Alonso- before the Belgian GP. At that point, i believe everyone saw it as healthy competition that could be taken lightly. Far cry from the paranoia in the Mclaren Camp that exists now... As for the comparison to Nelson Piquet- I doubt Piquet did anything as crappy as what Alonso has...he was unfortunately, amongst some F1 greats during his tenure as WC. What didn't help was his snobby attitude, that more or less sealed his fate as one of the 'unloved'...

Did anyone watch the Japanese F1 GP yesterday? Apart from the first 19 (boring) laps...It was a great race to watch. Lots of fender benders, crashes, and general chaos... Hamilton showed some very stylish driving in what could be described as nothing less than treacherous driving conditions. Up until this race, some were saying it was the car, and not the driver...i think this proved otherwise. That aside, some great driving from the non-headliner drivers such as Kovalinnen, Coultard, Heidfeld, Vattel, and Webber (pity the R*D B*LL boys collided). Then there's the Ferrari tire mishap, to which some say F1 gives so much slack to Ferrari, because although they claimed to have 'not known' about extreme tires requirement stated by director- they were allowed to make the change during the race....while all the other teams had complied well before the race started. I haven't been following the political landscape of F1 until the whole Mclaren "ferrarigate" spy scandal flared up- but there's a clear divide not only in Mclaren (Alonso team vs. LH Team), but it's also said that the second round of investigations into the spy scandal was because Alonso had blackmailed Ron Dennis to "spilling the beans" to FIA unless Dennis gave all advantages to Alonso over Hamilton to win future races. Dennis had then approached FIA and confessed to having some Ferrari data. Up until that point, there wasn't any evidence to 'convict' Mclaren... This is all hearsay in the press, but if you connect the dots...it makes sense. So, is Alonso a "rat"? It must be said that even F1 greats like Senna have held their manufacturers "hostage" by re-negotiating contracts and requirements as and when they please. Its pretty obvious that Alonso is probably looking for a new home...while Dennis hasn't commented on Alonso's contract, there's speculation whether he'll jump to Ferrari, or more likely his old team Renault. Ferrari has already stated that they "already have 2 great drivers" and don't see the need to get Alonso. Will any other team want him? Given his obvious lack of team-player skills...i wonder if anyone is willing to take him on after this... Some have called Hamilton immature and an unsophisticated driver, given certain comments he's made to the press about other competitors....Others say he'll never be a 'celebrated' champion in the UK because he's not white... Opinions anyone?

drop me a mail at gunat76<AT>gmail<DOT>com

Thats a hard problem to analyze, but a majority of 'jerky' autoboxes are due to poor maintenence. Usually a ATF change takes care of this, but sometimes a gearbox can be so hacked it needs to be overhauled/replaced. A couple of other questions: 1. When was your last tune up? Make sure your idle is at an acceptable range. High Idle=jerk 2. Do you step on the brake properly when changing from P to D or N to D? If you get all these rudimentary maintenence task taken care of and still have a problem, suggest you see a professional mechanic to sort it out. good luck

Would this guy reside in Athul-Kotte? If not, there is another bloke who installs a GSM Alarm system. It has the functions you mention, as well as a speakerphone/microphone that allows one to call the car at anytime to hear what is going on inside the car and/or vocally speak to the passengers in the car. The car can be disabled and shut down by phone too. I think it was in same price region....if a little more expensive. I've checked the general market price, and this seems to be the right cost...so i doubt you'll find anything cheaper as a GSM alarm...

Don't forget there's a V8 turbo (2000 Model)- Silver, although i haven't seen it on the roads for quite some time. Two 12 sri Espirits came to SL in the early 80's, one white car which was rumoured to be owned by the son of a (late) politician (who had a hand in the construction of a particular hydro-dam in our up-country) and this red car. Not sure who owns it now, but if i remember correctly both cars were imported together.

If you're curious to know the latest concepts MB is experimenting with: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/concept...y-f700-concept/

This is an old concept car that displayed quite sometime back at the Geneva Auto show if i'm not mistaken. Had a lot of technology of 'things to come' in newer Mercs. As usual, its a tease of some items that will never see light of day (drive by joystick?! C'mon!), and other technologies that we already hear of, such as Distance Cruise Control and self-parking. If i'm not mistaken, this concept car is about 5-6 years old...

Very useful thread guys- thanks for bringing up the Octane rating breakdown. Velocity- I stopped pumping at IOC after having a few noticeable 'engine miss' incidents in my car. A few months later there was a thread here on AL about someone who's Mazda got hamaazzed after pumping fuel at an IOC shed- only to find there was water in the fuel. As a rule of thumb i never pump at IOC now...just can't trust what they are selling. Its either Laufgs or CPC. I'm surprised that the CGT falls under the list of cars that need a higher octane...although it has a high-compression engine compared to the average Carina... Out of curiosity, how much is a can of octane boost?

Weren't you working on Beetle Restoration project too?

Most Fuel Injected (Petrol) Cars come with a Fuel Pump- has anyone experienced failure of this unit? I'm willing to think that higher-mileage cars might be more likely to have this problem... So if anyone has gone through this, could you share the symptoms and indications that your car experienced? thanks

I've been told to steer clear of embassy cars- from what i understand, you have to pay full duty (at original import price) to customs before you can register the vehicle. Plus our fantastic bureaucratic government system doesn't make it an easy transfer. Since it is a 'new' registration, i imagine you will have to pay the luxury tax nonetheless.

No Mate- every engine has valves, just a question of how many. Its not an accessory or add-on...you're stuck with whatever the car has.

There are two possible scenarios: 1. Revised taxes (annual) based on engine capacity- this is unconfirmed though http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/09/05/front/02.asp 2. The other is the increase import taxes http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070902/News/nws1.html Deepen those pockets boys. Someone has to pay for the politicos' meals, houses, prados, and errant sons. Plus they need more money to fill their pockets with....it has come from SOMEWHERE...