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It's on Wiki, for heavens sake, you expect it to be nonsense!

Poor old Mr Darn. And I thought he was stronger than this. Come back, Darn, all is forgiven.....

Coming from a background in the print and publishing industry, and being a writer myself, I was aware of Lorem Ipsum; I just thought it was funny. I'll get me coat....

No, it's a supercar. Alfa Romeo, with a very tricky race bred engine under the bonnet. Probably not expensive enough for you, though, and built by Italians.

Such as?

Asbestos roof. Steer clear.

Your chicken soup was pretty good, but then it came in a tin. I wouldn't be a customer, Mrs Vic: no beer, no me i'm afraid. I am, though, pretty much middle class despite my lowly address.

Thought Italian food was !*!@# ?

Philistine! That rules out Ferrari, maserati, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, not to mention Pagani....plus lasagne!

Not sure i can concur with that comment; Zagato, in particular, produced some absolutely hideous machines and have runied numerous very beautiful Alfa's/Lancia's by deliberately applying 'controversial' design touches. Furthermore, Italian steel throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's was notoriously thin and prone to rusting, leading to a great number of apparently 'quality' coachbuilt cars simply crimbling away without encouragement. I note, on the other hand, that Monsta still insists on referring to 'supercar money'; I thought we'd agreed that, simply because a Noble M12 is now available for less than 20 grand, it does not suddenly mean it's no longer a supercar....

But I LIKE to infuriate Mr Darn. You got a hell of a lot to learn about roock n roll, lady....

When did WDC last build a house? yeah, of course, we'll just let it be; that old complacency, hey? I don't know him, so wouldn't care to comment.

Hang on, this lost sort of stuffs your argument a bit - look: Alfa 147GTA AC Cobra 427 Audi TT (!) BMW 125i, M3, and M5 - (er, you said....) BMW 2002 Turbo (i'm only on 'B' for christs sake....) Cadillac CTS, Chrysler 300 - who are they kidding? Caterham 7?? This is a cracker - DeLorean DMC12!!!!!!!!!! Honda S2000? Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8? Is this serious? Lotus Elise? Look, i'll stop there; we need some clarification as to what a supercar is; I take on board your expectations of teh exotic entirely, but a Jeep? A Cadillac CTS? The Audi TT? What's official about this list? We need an independent arbitrator to clarify the word 'supercar'......

Why not? It has a race developed engine and suspension system, is of the highest quality and, as you say, is bloddy fast!

Sims you up, Mr Darn; the 101 man! No need, just a bit of controversy into the mix! I think they may have a website - i'll check for you. mmm, depends who they are....

Er, no, i'm saying a supercar is NOT defined by it's cost, not vice versa. I listed, for your perusal, a whole bunch of supercars that can be bought for less than 20 grand, some for less than ten. What, then, is your 'definition' of a supercar? Do you see a price level at which an automobile falls into that bracket, or is there a performance criterion involved? I'm intrigued, as you already questioned the Audi R8's credentials (let alone those of the 200mph Nissan Skyline!) There must be something that you see as defining the role of 'supercar', yes? For me, it's performance, not price. For instance, had the Alpine A610 (you know what one is, yes?) been on themarket, fresh, today, it would undoubtedly have listed at over £50,000 - that;s heavy money by my standards! - and provided performance levels to put it very firmly in teh supercar bracket; because you can get one, now, for as little as five gran does not mean it goes slower....

You give up too easily; the half million is just the start - dismissing it out of hand as YOU believe it would not be used is simply ludicrous. The demographic of the Bedlington population encompasses more than just you and I, it covers a great deal of age ranges and social types. With due respect, I don't think you're considering the overall picture. That £500,000 was earmarked FOR bedlington; this is the point. As I said, complacency will bite you on the !*!@# - the 'I can't be bothered to vote because it will make no difference' attitude that prevails among the younger voters of today is exactly what has landed teh country in teh situation its in today. Bedlington high - great - but what if you want to use the facilities within School hours? Furthermore, there is little comparison between pubs and leisure facilities, as the pubs do not cater for children. If you don't care, that's fine, but don't moan to the rest of us when it doesn't work out for you. This is your town, it's your country, get on the case. Join Mrs Vic in her haranguing of useless politicians, and get something done.

Since when was a supercar defined by its cost? twenty grand would buy you a nice 911 3.3 Turbo, for instance, or a Honda NSX, one of the most technologically advanced supercars ever built. Indeed, that Noble you picture - you can get it's predecessor, the M12, a supercar (with a Mondeo engine, as it happens) that will take you to 60 in under four seconds, for less than 20 grand. What about the latter generation V8 lotus Esprit, 175mph worth of supercar madness, or the supercar bargain of the moment, the Alpine A610? really, unless your supercar has to be new, it doesn't hve to cost the earth. My brother has a collection of the things, a couple of Ferrari's, a Porsche, a very, very fast AMG Mercedes, and none of them cost him buckets! get with the picture, get real! Me, i'm looking for a Lotus Excel, in good nick, and have three grand to spare.....anyone know of one, let me know.

I can't disagree more with Monsta; have you seen the size of the Hazelmere estate these days? I tell you what, drive around one day (or mount your BMX/Horse/Bogey/Whatever) at a weekend and count the numbers of kids playing in each street, then think how many of them would use a swinning baths in Bedlington if it saved them travelling to Blyth/Concordia. This town's not too small to warrant it at all, that's absolute nonsense. Then there's the likes of our very own Mrs Vic, who clearly uses such facilities and would rather one closer to home, and the likes of my dear old mum and her pals who go swimming on a regular basis, and would like to do so without having to use a car. And in between, of course. As for the buses they're bloody expensive (unless, like me, you get a free pass because you can't hear the fifteen foot high bright blue vehicle advancing up the street, but that's another story....). No, Mrs Vic is right: that money was for us - here in bedlington - and should be fought for tooth and nail; complacency is something that always comes back to bite you in the !*!@# , Monsta, and whether you want a swimming pool or not, it's 'our' money. On this subject, and as a slight aside, there is a small organisation known as the 'Friends of Gallacher park' (hope i spell that right) who are currently campaigning, and lobbying for money, to have that particular - and rather lacklustre - facility improved; their first step is to get a BMX/Skateboard park built, something for the kids to do in otherwords, and future plans are in hand. The space is ideal, and I believe we should all get behind it. More power to Mrs Vics elbow, I say. And her knees, and other joints. And Mr Darn, '101 - what are your thoughts?' - it's no wonder this place is quiet of you peddle that sort of mundane nonsense! get a grip, man, and get controversial!

That is the R8, yes? If so, it is far from being the staple of men of 'simple' tastes such as Mr Darn; indeed, Andrew Frankel, perhaps the finest writer in the automotive world, describes it as ' the best supercar for under £100k....' I suspect Mr Darn needs to begin saving.......(oh, and go for the V10 version).

She started it!

yes, it does. NASA uses data from several sources to compile graphs such as that, and has had a tendency to manipulate data to miss out any unusual 'spikes' or dips; this is common practice in predictive science, but does lead to theory being a greater element of the results than practice. As recently as October last year a monthly updat was issued by the authority that monitors climate change whose name ive forgotten (IPCC?) based on data given to it by one of the four sources that provides data to NASA, and elsewhere, for this purpose. They published a world map, based on this information, showing that October, 2008, was the warmest such month, worldwide, in recorded history, and banged on about this being 'evidence' of the increasing warming problem. two days later, however, they had to withdraw the data as it had been pointed out to them, by someone casually looking at it on the net, that all of the weather stations across siberia and the surroundiung areas were showing exactly the same temperatures as they had the previous month, September. It was immediately announced that, with apologies, they had - in fact - used the same information, erroneously! When asked how this could happen they replied that they 'could not afford' to install quality control measures. In other words, they have no way of knowing if the information thy are putting out - information used the world over to monitor the situation - is, in fact, correct. Futhermore, when they published the new map a few days later - with teh correct information - it showed a marked 'warm spot' over a totally different part of the world, rather than just teh expected change in siberia; the explanation was that information they had by then had not been available before, the implication, of course, being that what we get is what they have, and not the full picture. Given that one of the world's major providers of climate change information issues it without checks, what can we believe? In addition, given that my neice comes home and tells me that every time I leave a light on I kill a polar bear, I think some tempering of the scaremongering is very much needed.

You're going to spend more time in the garage than on the road. Some tips - don't go out in the rain cos the water will knacker the electrics; keep an eye out for the first sign of rust cos once it starts it will fall apart in a few weeks; don't run that engine for short periods, and make sure it's locked when you walk away cos they have a habit of unlocking themselves when they sense anything remotely magnetic in the vicinity. On the other hand, I love Alfa Romeo's; just couldn;t live with one.

Interesting; I drove a C8 at a press launch a couple of years back of the Spyker F1 team. Was rather nice, very luxurious, and made a great noise. Wouldn't mind one!

And how, pray, would you stop them performing said acts?