Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

Just to get back on topic... do you reckon if you replaced the HT
leads on that rather lovely sounding V6 engine with OFC or pure
silver leads... would it make the engine sound any better? ;-)
Actually, I much prefer the sound of the wide-angle V6 in the A4, the
A3's VR6 screams rather than roars. YMMV.

Well... all I'll say is that over the few days I had the A3, I
repeatedly found myself turning the music down when accelerating off a
roundabout for example just to hear that lovely V6 noise. ;-)

There's only one thing that sounds better than a V6, and that's a V8.
It's the tickover noise that makes the difference. But either is pure
music, at least to the ears of the true piston head.

Before I bought the A4 I currently have, I tested a 2.5 TDI Quattro.
That also made a rather nice noise, think low-revving V6, but with a
touch of diesel rattle overdubbed. However once you're inside the car
you don't hear the rattle, and for a diesel it does make a nice noise.
Unfortunately because it's got half a ton of V6 sat in front of the
headlights it didn't feel as well balanced as the 1.9 TDI version that I
ended up buying.

Because of the extra weight of the 2.5 it's actually slower off the mark
than the 1.9 (at least the 130bhp version). But if I was towing
regularly I'd probably go for the 2.5, simply because of the mass of
torque it produces.

Haven't test driven the 3.0 TDI, but it'd be interesting to see how that
compares. IIRC that's a V6 as well, so shouldn't be that much heavier
than the 2.5, but produces 220bhp (and torque to match). So the power
should overcome the extra weight. Problem is with that you'd probably
get about 25mpg... which kind of defeats the point of having a diesel in
the first place (I get 45-50mpg out of the Quattro, and got 50-55 out of
the FWD version I had previously).

I use six-nines silver in mine to bring out the delicate treble quality.

I think this belongs in uk.rec.audio.car :-P

(I speak in jest of course, but you can actually buy "performance"
HT leads at places like Motorworld...)
Indeed you can - but that's often got more to do with the
brightly-coloured insulation than the electrical properties.

Yup. They're intended for boy racers... who spend most of their time
under the bonnet anyway, cos they've probably boiled their coolant.

Of course, there's a definite possibility that your brain is of
non-standard construction.....
Well I've suspected that to be the case ever since I found out that
other people don't actually see the world as falling green glyphs.
:-P
Don't get me started on glyphs.........

Follow the white rabbit...

Very impressive, one can see why major corporations beat a path
to your door! :-)
Actually I've got quite a few blue chip companies on the books
here. And before you ask, no, I'm not at liberty to discuss them.
All I can say is that there are several big players in the mortgage
intermediary market.
Ahhh, the ultimate parasites! :-)

Not quite. If you're anything other than a "standard" case, it's often
cheaper to go through a broker. Being self-employed (and therefore
having to go self-cert) I'm not a "standard" case, so have been able to
get a considerably better deal by getting a favour returned from a
couple of my clients.

There's no problem whatsoever with using stuff that's "really just
a PC". The likes of FreeBSD, NetBSD etc (and Linux to a lesser
extent) can give you top notch server performance on cheap x86
hardware... which because it's *nix means you can charge the
customer a small fortune for maintaining it.
Aaah, you've discovered where the money is, huh? :-)

Damn right. ;-)

Buy hardware for about £350, including a TFT monitor. Add £90 for an OEM
WinXP license (bill of materials comes to under £450). Sell to customer
for £695 - but that's a fully installed system, with on-site maintenance
extended to cover it.

And with the joys of remote access, I can do most admin stuff without
leaving the office.

But hey, even Mac runs on x86 now.
Indeed it does, which must have blown a cold draught through the
Motorola boardroom..........

"Ummm, we've just lost our biggest (and only) customer... we're buggered!"

--
Glenn Richards Tel: (01453) 845735
Squirrel Solutions http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/

IT consultancy, hardware and software support, broadband installation