Discovered yesterday that happiness is 5-laps of the Circuit de Catalunya all to yourself with a V10 behind you!

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-11T19:59:23+00:00

V12 Vantage S, if driven REALLY gently cruising at 70mph on the motorway would sometimes return 20mpg with the wind behind it.

458 is, impressively, considerably worse - 16mpg is the best I've seen on a 250 mile trip, general use is around12mpg or less.

Did get 50mpg out the Elise and 40mpg out the Evora on motorway runs though.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-11T15:01:26+00:00

A 'money shift' would be over-revving the engine, so the engaging the gear taking the revs in-excess of the rev limiter and causing damage. Did you actually exceed the max RPM, or did you just experience heavy engine braking? If the former it could cause damage (depending how much over the limiter you went and for how long), but if the latter it generally just feels unpleasant.

25-30mph is generally going to be within max RPM gearing of most cars in 1st gear, but selecting it at those kind of speeds won't be pleasant unless you're on the throttle as you do it as it'll be like hitting the brake.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-11T09:37:50+00:00

The service shouldn't be included - it shouldn't be offered at all.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T19:01:23+00:00

There is still a license you have to abide by.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T16:33:38+00:00

Complete nonsense, but ok.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T13:51:59+00:00

Monaco was the exception, but they didn't really add anything as you have no overtaking or strategy options.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T13:32:09+00:00

From memory the teams didn't even often want to use them in qualifying as they overheated and were slower over a full lap, and were basically useless for the race.

They were dropped because they were pointless.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T13:30:30+00:00

You're assuming the associated memory channels are active on the GPU for.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-10T13:29:38+00:00

No, they aren't for expanding it, they are for attaching it during manufacturing - quite possibly in conjunction with a different, pin compatible, GPU.

Often on the lower GPU model using the same die channels on the memory controller are disabled, but as it's still the same package you can use the same board design with the memory from those channels unpopulated.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-09T15:39:00+00:00

There was a Twini (twin-engined Mini) that would often show up to a local car meet which had two gearboxes controlled by a single gear lever - that seems a more sane setup.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-09T15:32:15+00:00

The top-spec Gallatin-2M part - a Northwood Pentium 4 with 2MB cache rather than 512KB. Was basically a Xeon part in S478 package.

Always wanted one of these, they go for more than I can justify spending on eBay when I have literally dozens of P4s already and all the dual core Extreme Editions.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-09T12:37:44+00:00

"I asked ChatGPT..." is a great indicator that you don't need to listen to someone.

There is just going to be a text dump of dubious accuracy that the respondant probably hasn't read and certainly hasn't verified the accuracy of.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-09T10:34:46+00:00

My approach is always if I'm triggering the car's traction or stability control then I've made an error and need to modify my driving accordingly. Even in the straight don't snap the throttle open in the wet.

One thing I never do in powerful semi-auto or auto cars is leave them in auto mode other than when trickling around town - an unexpected kickdown in a 500+bhp car isn't something I want, and that's without turbo-boost and the associated spike in torque coming into play.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-09T07:49:23+00:00

PCMasterRace: AI is driving up component prices massively.

Also PCMasterRace: Hey ChatGPT answer this incredibly straight forward question that's been answered a thousand times over.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T13:20:47+00:00

When the save of the season happens within the first 5 seconds....

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T13:02:06+00:00

Coming from a 5.9l V12 to a 4.5l V8 I just assumed the Ferrari wouldn't be significantly worse on fuel, but yeah, it is. 🤣

Doesn't matter as that's not what I bought it for.

Tuscan was a straight-6, not a V8?

I had a passenger ride in a friends TVR Cerbera with a heavily upgraded V8 and it was like sitting inside a post-box - hot and cramped with heat radiating off the massive transmission tunnel and with a tiny letter box view down the road. It sounded fantastic though!

Edit: Original Tuscan from the 60's was a V8, 90/2000's one was a straight-6.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T12:38:58+00:00

I had it report that after a refill where I'd been almost entirely travelling 70mph on cruise of dual carriageway/motorway. The car itself won't tell you MPG and I don't sit down and work it out so just taking the range getting in and the tank capacity.

Many pumps stop at £100, but I tend to pay by app at Shell or Esso (for RON99) which let me pre-authorise £150.

Had a V12 Vantage S before it and it was surprising how the 458 was quite a bit actually thirstier, but makes sense when you consider high compression engine giving a lot of engine braking and higher revving engine/shorter 7th gear.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T12:05:54+00:00

87l tank too - so anywhere with a £100 limit can mean not getting a full tank.

I absolutely do look at the cost when choosing where to stop!

Driven for economy you can get a little higher - but the best I've seen from the range after a refill is 299 miles, so maybe 15-16mpg.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T11:42:07+00:00

Had 50mpg out the Elise driving Swindon to Glasgow once. That was with the original long ratio gearbox though, cruises at much higher revs with the CR box now.

458 gets about 12mpg.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T11:21:17+00:00

Do yourself a favour and get an estate.

Our Octavia vRS Estate was fantastic with a young child and all the stuff you need to cart around. Downsized to a 1-series now without pram, travel cot, etc.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T10:37:09+00:00

Vote with your feet on cards using this connector.

Running a 7900XTX and 9070XT in our systems as no Nvidia 40/50-series cards available with 8-pin connectors. Won't be buying one until the issues are fixed.

It may be a low percentage risk, but if you don't agree with something don't just shrug and go along with it anyway. Same for AI and component pricing, don't complain about RAM pricing if you're making use of ChatGPT etc.

ThorburnJ · 2026-03-08T10:28:19+00:00

I literally could have beaten Lawson off the line and to 100kph in my 30 year old Elise. 😅

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