Aside from that, the engine is slow and lacks any punch, gear changes are clunky, there's too much plastic for the price of the car and it's incredibly cramped on the inside. The seats themselves can't tilt leaving a gap between your thighs and the edge of the seat (incredibly unsupportive) when compared to the lovely seats we had in the 1 series.
I know the 116d we were given was close to £30,000 specced up, and this is as poverty spec as a mini clubman can get but as a basic car, it's truly awful (to put it kindly). I'd have a basic one series any day of the week!
Day 49 - Always refreshing to have a new subject to photography. Went to a dimly lit street close by and armed with a tripod and a flashgun, I went around the car manually triggering off the flash. Sure having more flashes, wireless triggers and a light stand would make things much easier and allow to really kill all ambient light, but a few more lights and wireless triggers is a little out of budget at the moment.
Continuing with my recent theme however, I've continued to use my 30mm f/1.4 Sigma lens (effective 48mm focal length) and I am really chuffed with the results. The lens can be a little slow to the focus when paired with my 60D, however when shooting a set scene, the results are, well feel free to make your mind up on them for an decently priced lens!
Day 50 - I'm beginning to feel that I am eating my own words here. Sent the wheel off to BMW for a refurb due to severe corrosion, and well, when I had the finished wheel back, I did prepare myself to be disappointed (plan for the worst and all that).
As expected, they fucked up. The factory finish was diamond cut and the wheel came back with paint on it. Hardly acceptable given they've only offered to act on one of the wheels. Will be complaining
Day 51 - Strolling home from class to spot this genius numberplate. Needless to say the Landy wasn't as filthy as I would have hoped, but it certainly wasn't spotless.
Would love to see this off road getting incredibly filthy.
Day 52 - Early morning 9am starts are painful to begin with. The fact there's ice everywhere certainly doesn't make it easier. At least the several layers of wax on the car allowed the water to freeze into droplets, looks pretty cool.
Ended up shooting the image fairly open to really hone in on the frozen water droplets resulting in another image that adds to the reasons why I absolutely love my Sigma lens. Sure it does have it's flaws but the quality vs value is remarkable!
Day 53 - Ran the track car up to temp and for a while longer to get all the fluids flowing through the engine. Considering it has not been touched all week it started without any fuss or drama and held it's temperature as it should have.
I'm incredibly excited to get the car on the road, probably with plenty of cheap tyres and mad burnouts and skids all over the place. I would like to upgrade the suspension of the car at some point too, namely a thicker rear anti roll bar and some ability to dial in the camber a little better to really help the car be glued to the road.
Day 54 - Normally I'm quite against dutch angle images, however I thought I'd try something new for a change. Pretty happy with the outcome though I could have used a polarising filter to get rid of the reflection on the car.
Well as it is, that's a week!