Tex

Hmm, interesting... You might be right! Ahh well, now you know, he's just doin' his job. Tex

I have only one question: Who the hell is Harry?? :confused: Good to hear it was a good night, I would have tagged along had I not been lying at home drugged out with a swollen face. Didn't hear from Grandpa by any chance, did ya Tosh? Tex

BAHAHAHAH! :bahaha: "Duuuude! He he hit the Jetta dude! No way duuuuude!" Tex

Yeah, Al is right. I recently checked out a car I was interested in buying, so Dad and I went to check it out. The car was unregistered and completely uninsured, so we didn't test drive it. We checked it as thoroughly as we could ourselves, located any rough spots, and ultimately had the car taken to our specialist mechanic for a comprehensive indspection, which netted us a list of about 2-or-so grand worth of repairs that needed doing without delay. Based on that, the seller's asking price was too high, and I let it go. I guess maybe the type of car you're selling attracts that type of person Rob? Tex

Here's an idea for you guys, if you feel like experimenting. Park your car in St. Leonards. THEN see if you can unlock it. My theory is if it's bad in Chatswood (presuming it's RF interference), then it'll be shocking in St. Leonards! Good to hear that you had a somewhat faith-restoring (or perhaps doubt-alleviating) Police encounter Carlo. Tex

Beats me! :confused: Tex

Who is this Grandpa guy you're always asking me about?? Tex

Just a small note re: the top car park at Palm Beach: If you like strong wind and salt spray, that's the car park for you. If not, I'd suggest the middle car park (it's on the lee side of the hill, so you don't get the big winds often experienced at the top car park, and not as much salt spray as a result. Has a nice view of Pittwater (in the day at least). This may not be a big deal for you all, except those among you who wear glasses, are paranoid about getting salt on your cars, or hate that crusty feeling you get on your skin from the salt. I don't think I'll be venturing out, as much as I'd like to - I'll be having all of my wisdom teeth extracted tomorrow. I'm imagining I'll be feeling pretty lousy on the weekend, but should that not be the case I may tag along. If you see a guy who can't talk and who has a face that looks like a pumpkin, that'll be me. Tex

I would like to state for the record that my car has not been owned by any of "teh Westies". Besides, it's not a Skyline, so I don't think you'd be able to get it up. If you do have any ideas though, make sure you bring two people - and you'd better be a bit flexible. Tex

Croatian - It shouldn't be hard to get an engineer's cert. at all. Providing your car is all legal and meets all the requirements, then you should have no troubles. As Carlo said, check the RTA website, they have a bunch of them listed there. It shouldn't be too expensive (admittedly I don't know how much they cost), but hypothetically speaking, even if it was, say $500.00, wouldn't it be worth the money, for the piece of mind of knowing your car is all legal? This isn't directed at anyone in particular, but it strikes me as pretty hilarious that a group of people such as ourselves think nothing of spending quite hefty sums of money modifying our cars to make them faster/better/whatever, yet it seems that so many freak out over the imagined cost of getting the mods engineered. And for those who've heard stories of people with engineer's certificates getting pulled over and told their certificates don't mean dick, remember, just because an officer tells you that doesn't mean it's true. You just have to know when to stand your ground and how to go about it. Tex

Steve's website has most of the stuff you will need to beat bullshit defects, guys. It not only has the ADRs but also sections of the relevant RTA guildelines to print out and keep in the glovebox. These bits of info outline what is actually a defect, and you can use this to challenge anything they issue which does not fit the description of a defect. www.ajc.13b.com Go to the Law section. Get printin' boys and girls! Tex

Welcome Fred! Or should I say Andrew?? Tex

There is always a way to get a piece of Loz's arse. Most people just ask. Tex

Now if that isn't a sweeping generalisation, I don't know what is. There are bad apples in every group, INASNT, but that's not necessarily a reason to take away these powers. To some extent, society has to accept a few drawbacks for the benefit of having a Police force that actually has the power to do their job effectively. Tex

I'm not sure of the exact laws where car searches/inspection is concerned, but I think people probably do need to lose the attitude that the cops can't do this and can't do that, to an extent. I think that sometimes we need to accept that the Police have their powers for a reason, and that is that if they didn't, they could not effectively do their job. Still, it may pay to look in to this side of things. Tex

Guys, I'll admit right now I haven't read the whole thread, so my apologies if I'm re-hashing something that's already been said. What I write below I believe to be 100% correct, if anyone spots any glaring inaccuracies, please correct me. Firstly, the only way to stop this kind of crap from happening is to ARM YOURSELF with the KNOWLEDGE that many of the Police don't even have. That is to say learn the rules of the game, and learn what does and what does not constitute a breach of the rules. XCUZME posted a link to www.ajc13b.com and suggested you read the law section. DO THIS. Steve (AJC13B from Performance Forums) has gone to a lot of effort to gather the relevant parts of the legislation on his website for use by other modified car owners. It is a good suggestion that you read this and familiarise yourself with it, and print a copy out and keep it in your glovebox for those "special occasions". He has just updated the site recently with (I believe) a full copy of the Australian Design Rules!!! This is something most of us have never seen, because in order to obtain a copy of the ADRs to even see what is legal and what is not, you have to pay (about $70 for a copy). Let's face it, not many people are going to fork out that money to see the ADRs. A lot of the defects that many Police officers dole out are NOT really defects at all. They are relying on the "offender" not knowing all the rules of the game, or not being tough enough to stand up to them. Using the stuff on ajc13b.com, you will see that the rules state that a defect can be removed from a vehicle by the issuing officer. If you are issued a defect you believe to be issued in error, and after (politely yet firmly) discussing it with the officer at the time of the defect being issued they insist on issuing it, this is when you get their name, badge number, and find out which station they are from. You then go to the station, politely ask to see the senior officer on duty, and coolly explain the situation. If you are right, and the defect is not incorrect, this is hopefully the part where that senior officer calls the officer who issued the defect in to explain himself, and often remove the defect. Anyway, read the site, it's a goldmine for modified car enthusiasts. Sweyn, as far as your aftermarket intercooler goes, I don't really see how that affects your mixtures. [EDIT: I took part out here as I realised later I had got something wrong - but I can't figure out how the intercooler would have any bearing - anyone??]. I wouldn't put it past the EPA to be pulling the same tricks as many Police. If your car is MAP-sensed, then this doesn't matter at all, as the car meters fuel depending on your manifold pressure. Beautiful. Pod filters should still be legal, if boxed. Spend a bit of dough, get the pod put in an aluminium box, with a nice cold air feed. If you don't have your pod shielded from the underboonet hot air, and not fed with cold air anyway, there's really not a hell of a lot of point having it, as it's injesting hot air to begin with. Exhaust-wise, my understanding is that there are many mufflers on the market which have very good noise-attenuation properties, but do not harm flow significantly. Sure, chances are they'll cost more, but if we're all serious about our hobby, then we should really not baulk at spending more money to get performance, and be within the law. Fair enough, if you drive a rotary-powered vehicle, then the above may not apply - I'm no expert but the concensus seems to be that a rotor must have as little restriction as possible, full stop, or they lose power. It goes without saying, of course, that no matter how much you know about the law, or how bogus a defect is, you won't get anywhere if you get in the cop's face about it - although I won't insult anyone's intelligence here by assuming they would do so. The key is to be polite, and matter-of-fact, if you're sure about what you're saying. I'd also like to say that I think the cops do a top job, and something many of us wouldn't be game to do - but at the same time there are some out there clearly to make life hard for car enthusiasts, or at least some who don't know what they're talking about and perhaps inadvertently issue defects incorrectly. We all know the behaviour of some of our own peers has also caused this to be the case. At the end of the day, the Police do what the Government tells them to do. The Government does what Joe Public tells them to do (in other words, whatever they have to do to stay in power). Until we make Joe Public understand we are not all evil idiots who drive like maniacs through suburban streets, then the Governments will have no reason to listen to us, as it won't really benefit them. Make no mistake, those of us who insist on doing stupid things on our roads are causing most of the problems. Any personal thoughts of mine on these things aside - be it driving erratically, participating in street racing, making noise late at night by fanging around when people are trying to sleep, driving through restaurant strips with Nelly cranking through your system so everyone can hear it whether they like it or not (and they probably actually hate it ), as long as this continues, we will cop flak from all over the place. The sooner everyone realises this and acts accordingly, the quicker we'll get some respect. [springer] Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other. [/springer] Oh, and thank God I drive a pre-emissions vehicle! Tex

Knat, thanks. It's a Sony DSC-S75. About $1300 retail nowadays I'd guess. No special filters or anything like that. AFAIK, none are actually available for that camera. The effects you're seeing are the result of massaging aperture and shutter speed settings (not sure if you know what that means, but basically a decent digi cam with good manual settings options will allow you to get such results). RONIN - Ok mate. I'll have to email it to you tonight though. Send me a PM tonight with your email addy in it. Tex

Is it high enough res? If you want a bigger pic of anything let me know, if I'm in a good mood I'll throw one your way. I'm actually about to have a few shots printed up (on real photographic paper) to hang in my room, should look great. Tex

Thanks Ronin and Shell. I see you discovered my other pics Tosh. Thanks, some of those city shots are my faves. I'm a big fan of night shots, you can get some awesome effects! Tex

I've put some pics up in the "answer everyone wants to know" thread guys. Tex

Ok, some pics from last night: Enjoy. Tex

Ronin, pics are on my PC, I've got to pic the nicest ones and upload them. MAYBE it will happen tonight. I've got some other things to do though and tired as hell so maybe not.. Tex

Those pics are classic - nice one. Tex

Was nice to meet a few of you who I hadn't already. Andrew, teh screamer pipe is mucho loud! Tex

I'll be there. And I won't be needing lovin' from any of you freaks, thanks very much. Besides, why would I need lovin' from anyone else, when some good lovin' is never more than an arm's length away? Tex