Eindelijk! Na meer dan een jaar (toen we bij MiniSport waren, waar me verteld werd dat er te weinig vermogen en te weinig compressie in de motor zit, en dat het eerste dat gecontroleerd moest worden de kleppentiming was), is de nokkenas nu op tijd gezet. Het lijkt erop dat er inderdaad een groot probleem was op dit vlak, namelijk een missende spanner voor de ketting, wat al heel wat slijtage had veroorzaakt. Er is een nieuwe ketting in gegaan, samen met een spanner. De motor lijkt nu een stuk levendiger, en dat is goed nieuws.

Yes, we're back again, after two weeks of touring through Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany. Expect pictures and a more eloborate report on the site soon.

After coming back, the long anticipated patch for Tomtom 5 had appeared on the website (see blog-entry entitled Tomtom 2). After having cleared out most holiday packing, I installed TT 5 once again and installed patch 5.10 over it. Well, not entirely unsurprisingly (given Tomtom's support lack of any real analysing of my particular problem), the problems persisted. So, another support request to Tomtom two days ago, which up until...

We'll be off on holidays for two weeks, starting in minutes! Down to Limburg, through Belgium and Luxembourg to Germany, and then up along the Mosel and Rhine rivers. More updates on everything when we're back, unless we find an Internet-connection somewhere along the way.

More than a week has passed since I filed a support request with Tomtom support, and since then I have had one useless response (every technical support engineer's good right ;), it's just that it took too long for them to come up with it) and one midly encouraging one, namely that Tomtom software development is working on a fix for my problem. However, as an answer to my question when I could expect the patch, they said they couldn't say and I would just have to check their website from time to time. So, again, to be continued...

For a while now I am happily running around with a PocketPC, a Dell Axim X50. Also sometimes called a PDA (personal digital asistent), it's a pocket computer that will act as an electronic agenda, address book, document reader, MP3 player, etc. One of the most interesting possibilities is installing personal navigation software on it, and one of the more well-known choices for that is Tomtom. It seemed Tomtom was at least a good (and cost-effective), if not the best choice.

There was a new version (Tomtom 5) due for some time, so I decided to wait for that. When it was finally...

Ever since the White Cooper was finished after the restorarion I have been unhappy with the way the chrome trim was fitted along the bottom of the car (wheel arches and sill); it was fitted as two parts, one trailing the front arch and the sill, and the second only trailing the rear arch. To make matters worse, these parts were pop-riveted into place. This didn't look too great to begin with, but it is a known fact that this kind of trim is hard to get right, so it was accepted as a possibly acceptable compromise.

Quick update on the New Mini front. Unfortunately, the lease company let us know that white comes at quite a considerable extra cost (the logic behind this is that white cars are generally harder to sell than cars in other colours - hasn't anyone told them normal logic doesn't apply to Mini's? :)). The difference is so much that I am now looking at getting another color. The question is just, which one? There are really very few colors the Mini is available in that really appeal to me. One bright light at the horizon is that supposedly, Hyper Blue becomes available on the Cooper for the...

Well, already since the last update the red Cooper has found a new driver. My co-worker who wanted to take over the car was eager to start driving it, so I am now driving a rather anonymous Peugeot 307.

Last saturday, we payed a visit to Mini Den Haag, which is close to where Demelza lives, just to see what their story would be. I indicated in advance that I would like to drive a car with 17" wheels and/or the sport suspension plus and/or the automatic aircon. Well, the demo-car didn't have any of those... It was almost a clone of the red Cooper I have driven for a few days myself...

OK, a blog update was long overdue (as always...), because a lot has happened. And I even needed to create a new Blog-category...

As I reported last time, I was assigned a BMW Mini as a daily driver by my new employer. Good news, innit? Last week I picked it up; a red Cooper, equipped with a pepper package, sunroof and satnav. Of course, we took some pictures, but I only got a chance to put anything online today.

Er is veel gebeurd met de witte Cooper. Ten eerste is de sensor voor de elektrische koelfan vervangen. Ook bleek de LCB zijn werk niet meer te doen...