ianphampton

Brilliant photos, hope you said "Thanks" to the photographer Glad you had a good time

I also suffer from this and will leave the hardware solutions to others - (though I also find the CG Lock absolutely FIRST RATE and would advise it for anyone) The other solution I have is more mental - find yourself someone to chase. You know you're not allowed to race - but that doesn't stop you from picking a target and going for them. I found at Oulton Park (fairly short circuit, lots and lots of full on throttle, full on brake) that I got queasy - but if I picked a target to chase, my focus was on catching them and not on anything else I hesitate to say it - but my saviour was an MX-5 - as I was working so hard on trying to catch up, I was able to keep it up for 5 full laps instead of my earlier coming off after 3 and feeling dreadful Unfortunately, I didn't catch up with the MX-5 and here I am admitting that in public ( . . .shame . . .) For the record, drove on Nurburgring - much faster, much longer - with no ill effects at all, so I think it's just down to the rapid change of the g-forces from one to the other. Also for the record - went drifting and do-nutting at Santa Pod and I thought I was going to throw up, it was that bad . . . Anyway - my suggestion is find yourself a target and chase them, concentrating on that to the exclusion of everything else - Good Luck -

Came across this article, thought it was interesting http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21579795-hands-free-texting-more-distracting-drivers-using-mobile-phone-keep CARS, to paraphrase some in America’s gun lobby, do not kill people. People kill people. And among the people more likely than others to kill people are those distracted by their use of mobile phones and other portable electronic devices while they are driving. Actually holding a phone to your ear while driving is illegal in many places. But not having both hands on the wheel is only part of the problem. Another part, probably more serious, is the dissipation of attention involved. If further evidence of this were needed, it has just been provided in a study published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, in Washington, DC. David Strayer and his colleagues at the University of Utah, the study’s authors, looked at exactly how distracting various mental activities are to drivers. In a world where cars are often fitted with hands-free electronic devices, what they found is worrying. Dr Strayer divided 102 volunteers into three groups. Each participant performed eight tasks under the scrutiny of his team and while wearing an electrode-laden hat to record what is known as their Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERPs, a way of determining mental workload). The eight tasks were: doing nothing; listening to the radio; listening to an audio book; conversing with a passenger; calling a friend using a hand-held phone; calling a friend using a hands-free phone; using speech to send a text message; and, as an example of a difficult task few people engage in behind the wheel, verifying a set of mathematical equations while memorising nouns interjected between the maths problems. The first group of volunteers performed these tasks sitting at a computer. The second sat in simulators resembling the interior of a car, and followed another car on a screen. The third drove real cars. Besides their ERPs, the volunteers’ reaction times were assessed (for example, by having the car ahead in the simulator brake suddenly), their level of concentration was tested by studying their responses to lights shone in the periphery of their visual fields, and their subjective views of which tasks demanded most attention were recorded. Dr Strayer then consolidated these various results into a single number that represented the overall mental distraction a task created. Doing nothing provided a baseline value of 1.0 and juggling maths and word-memory (known from previous studies of human attention to be among the most mentally demanding tasks possible) provided an upper bound of 5.0. As might be expected, listening to the radio or to a book were the least distracting activities (with scores of 1.21 and 1.75). Talking to a passenger (2.33) and talking on the phone (2.27 if hands-free and 2.45 if hand-held) were intermediate. The most distracting, at 3.06, was hands-free texting. On a scale where 5.0 is the most distracted it is possible to be, that is worryingly high. Inattention to the road is not the only cause of traffic accidents, but it is an important one. In America, various studies have suggested that it contributes to between a quarter and a half of accidents. Those who think that hands-free texting is low on the list of potential driving hazards might therefore wish to think again.

What Winkj said +1 - I've picked up a polybag on the zorst a couple of times and it take ages to burn it off - and it's really tricky to see as there's not much room underneath, unless you can stick her up on a lift

You need to find what's rattling - I had a rattle on mine but it was easily fixed with a stainless nut & bolt to hold the 2 skins in the tail pipe. Total cost - about 15p. Woud be a shame to rip it all off and spend another grand on something else . . . .for a 15p fix. But if you've got a rattle from deep inside somewhere - then that's a whole different matter. Find the severity of the problem first. . . . .

It was fun watching him try - I thought he did pretty well, considering

No way will it cost you a grand - it's only 600 miles from Manchester and 250 of those are in the UK! Hotels and so on are reasonable, and you can do it there and back in a weekend - though I would seriously suggest if it's your first visit to try and go for a weekday for your first laps as it gets pretty busy on Saturdays and quite a lot of the other folks going round were not in the first draw when it came to allocating driving intelligence ( ! ! Ooooh ! ) (Anyone who exceeds their skills / conditions and stuffs it into the Armco is a xxxx idiot - you don't need to drive like a maniac to have an enjoyable lap) http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/64334-a-weekend-in-germany/ In terms of preparation - I'd suggest you don't try for a crazy laptime and spend your first laps getting used to it and how the car performs - in which case as long as the car is in good order, well serviced, tyres, brakes and clutch in good condition, you don't need to panic about having to drive on special tyres or suspension. As long as you drive within the limits of the conditions and your own driving skills, you'll have a great time - leave the 8 minute laps to other people.

M6x 1mm pitch is the correct thread but you only need 4 at 70mm, you also need 3 at 55mm with a plenum spacer. (Without a spacer you need 4 off M6 x 60 and 3 off M6 x 45) I'd suggest you get Allen drive bolts as getting a spanner in to the recesses in the upper plenum will be difficult

Vlad I paid £60 for the chrome plate Cheers, Ian

Kyle Full set of bolts - including 2 lengths to cater for with & without spacer on the plenum (you can keep the spere ones you don't use in the 'spare bits' tin in the garage!)

Now sold - Mods, please lock this It's a long story - wanted a shiny plenum, didn't want my car off road so bought a second one from a breaker - had it polished and chromed, fitted to my car - I really like it. So - now polished and chromed my original - and have it for sale. It's been double polished before chrome plating. The pictures below of it in situ are actually of mine in my car, but the second one came up better, if anything, so if you really want some engine bay bling - try this ! Anyway - the chrome & polish was a bit more expensive than planned, so I'm afraid the price is £185 if you want to collect it or £200 delivered. - and I also have some of the red and orange anodised washer stainless bolt sets if anyone wants those as well. (£50 delivered for these)

At 35mph - you may be offered one of the "Speed Awareness Courses" which will cost you £85 (instead of £60) but you'll not get any endorsements or points (Provided you haven't done a course in the last couple of years) Feel for you - last time I was done was for 36mph on the way back from Ludlow - but I wasn't allowed to take the course as I'd done one last year. . .Ahem . . . North Wales police are manic about their speed enforcements, and there's nothing you can do about it as it has no relation to safety, it's just a way of taxing the motorist for as much money as they can soak out of us

Looks like I'm the first to upload some pictures - apologies for the poor phone camera quality, they don't do justice to i) the people (really friendly) ii) the weather (sunnier than expected) iii) the run-out (thoroughly excellent) iv) the organisation (thoroughly excellent) Great day, really enjoyed it all, sorry I missed the hog roast etc A complete car park - all Zeds!

I've got a 60 reg Hilux and it's been faultless, get 28mpg regardless of whether I thrash it or not, very happy with it (and it was cheaper than the Nissan, too) And then there's the Top Gear Hilux . . . though I'm not planning on blowing up a high rise block just yet

Loaded the Saturday route into my TomTom, seemed to find everything all OK. . . .(I've not loaded an itinerary before . .) Really looking forward to it, just hope the weather behaves itself

This is me on top of El Teide in Tenerife this year

Kinda matt black roof on mine . . . Sorry, not much help, really, I'll get my coat

At 35mph - you're in the queue, there's no point in overtaking as you'll never get to the point of escaping - you might as well just bumble along - so there's no difficulty in opening the camera up and snapping a shot

I bought mine from www.lidsdirect.co.uk - provided you don't mind what colour it is - you can find some good deals in the clearance section where they sell reasonable helmets at knockdown prices You need to know what size you want, though, so go to a good bike shop first, try some and then note what size you need The reason I say "Don't mind what colour" is the clearance section is all end-of-line stuff, so they may have a 56" in blue but if you wanted a 60" they may only have pink - so you have got to know what size and what compromise you're prepared to make But - you can get some quite good stuff at very cheap

I had an unexpected call to visit a customer today, in Sheffield, so used the Zed across the pennines on a glorious sunny day. Of course, I took the opportunity to do this with 93 million miles of head room, and it was Fantastic! So, I was pondering - why would anyone want to do this inside a steel can? The sun, the warmth, the breeze, it was . . . Great. (Add your own Tony The Tiger voices at this point!) I also thought - 1) I'm being paid for this, and 2) I shall reclaim my petrol expenses! The only dampener at all was - the traffic on the Woodhead was CR_P as always - look at my camera pic and you can see it's taken at about 35mph! On the way back, came over the Snake and that was MUCH more fun as the traffic was light and could do 50 without too many other folks getting in the way Definitely a pleasant way to spend the morning

I thought mine looked a bit dodgy last weekend as I could see cracks in them where they went over the tensioning rollers - so replaced them - my clock is showing 57k

Look Nice - I'd be interested if they did them in Orange -

When Abbey lowered mine on BC Racing coilovers they said any more than " . .about 15mm will need new camber arms"

Saw this in Lockwood & Greenwood today Orange Samco hoses and Orange Anodised engine bay washers with stainless bolts - surprised how well the orange looks in a grey / silver car Nice dark red / black carbon fibre engine cover too -

Plus - BMW drivers all fancy themselves but they're all . . . .well, sales reps & estate agents - and they all park like morons too