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I love building my own stuff, more than most /.ers. Anything electronic in the house is done my yours truly. As is most cooking. Bicycles I build myself. I even build by own car and I even persuade the dealer to allow me do so.

The more I know how it's assembled, the less I have the ability to build myself. When you build your own electronics, are you actually making masks and lithographing the chips? Or even soldering the components together on the motherboard? Life is just too short, and budget too small.

Building your own stuff is great when your labour results in having stuff finished as it's supposed to be. And here's where IKEA just isn't worth the effort. After huge amounts of labour you almost always wind up with particle board stuff. Ugly, without any personality whatsoever to it and heavy as lead. Ever tried rearranging average IKEA furniture? Ever moved house with IKEA furniture?

[Ikea furniture] is never finished perfectly -unaligned panels and doors, the works. How are you going to die happily when your bank account is full to the brim and you own IKEA furniture?

Ugh, don't remind me. Someone gave me an Ikea thing. I spent a little time assembling it, trying to align it. And then I put stuff inside it, and it warped. Ikea indicates bad taste, if nothing else.

But I don't think it's my place to judge someone else's values. Maybe your acquaintance will be laid off, and then he'll need that full bank account. Even if he'll be fine, there are other uses for money.

I love building my own stuff, more than most /.ers. Anything electronic in the house is done my yours truly. As is most cooking. Bicycles I build myself. I even build by own car and I even persuade the dealer to allow me do so.

Building your own stuff is great when your labour results in having stuff finished as it's supposed to be. And here's where IKEA just isn't worth the effort. After huge amounts of labour you almost always wind up with particle board stuff. Ugly, without any personality whatsoever to it and heavy as lead. Ever tried rearranging average IKEA furniture? Ever moved house with IKEA furniture?

A couple of years ago I wanted a sideboard and went through all the alternatives. I decided for Italian design furniture that was double the price of similar IKEA stuff. But altogether I got a much better deal. The sideboard looks stunning, it is made of real wood, it was delivered to my home and was installed by competent people.

An acquaintance of mine with a very comfortable job -he earns shit loads of money- thinks he's a bit of a geek because he buys his furniture at IKEA's. His wife absolutely loathes the protestant furniture, which one way or another is never finished perfectly -unaligned panels and doors, the works. How are you going to die happily when your bank account is full to the brim and you own IKEA furniture?

To me IKEA furniture does not make any sense and certainly does not make you a geek. It shows you generally have no taste and that you are quickly beguiled into buying apparently cheep stuff without considering the bigger picture.

They should should have use a suitable car like this one for instance. I guarantee pictures can be taken at eye level and even lower if necessary. And I bet it's a hell of a lot quicker than the car used so far. I own one.

DIY Car? http://www.caterham.co.uk/

OK- how about this- http://www.caterham.co.uk/. A caterham weighs less than a ton, out accelerates and out handles with the BASE engine about everything on the road and costs less than just about any sports car, much less supercar. It's reliable and perfect if you live in an area without a lot of snow or cold weather.

No... If acceleration is what you're after, at a fraction of the price, what you want is a Caterham 7 Superlight R500.
http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/showroom/superlightr500.html

0-60mph 2.88 seconds
Power-to-weight 520bhp-per-tonne
Top Speed 150mph.

Under GBP40k.

I built its little brother (7RS150), with 0-60mph of 5 seconds, in my garage a couple of years ago. It's a very very very fun toy...

These are automotive hard times. Rising costs of fuel, not being able to drive the heavy but "save" tanks. Where will it end?

So I had to come up with a cunning plan for my next car. Nowadays it has to be light. Much lighter than SUVs. Say around 1'250 lbs.

And it must suit a geek well. And be fast when required by rising testosterone levels.

So I went for one of these. As a kit of course with 210 bhp and a mere 1'250 lbs.

Soon I will be much greener than most of you. Well much faster anyway.

Not shitting you guys I had the money to burn and the geek will to build.

I'd prefer the newest version of the same car TBH.

(The 260 bhp of that one is still measly though... I know of one guy who's modded his up to have 900 bhp.)

Here you go. It's basically the old Lotus with whatever engine you put in.
You can buy them built from a few places, usually with a Ford inline 4 from the Focus. Get the SVX version. The engines take care of passing emissions.

Search Autoweek.com for Caterham.

How about a heater, guess we should leave that out, it's not a necessity to the car.

Was that meant to be sarcasm? Whoops, you lose. I can only conclude that you've never seen a Caterham 7 - for which the heater is indeed an optional extra.

Which makes the fact that they compared it to supercars designed to go 200mph extremely stupid.

Why didn't they run it against something like the Caterham Superlight? Because it would get it's ass kicked in the same 0-60 test, for around one quarter the price. Oh, and you can carry twice as many people in the Caterham.

I'm with you on the Caterham, though I don't know if I'd go with the Superlight. For me, a Seven has to have the flared wings -- cycle wings don't cut it. So I'll stick with a De Dion or a Classic SE if I ever get the funds (and garage space) to build one.

Didn't I see something a year or two back about an ultra-fast version that used a motorcycle engine? (the name Butterfly comes to mind for some reason...)