ianphampton

I bought my Samco hoses from Demon Tweeks http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/ and a 350 is one of their pictures (under "Performance") when you get on their website, too . . . .

I did an Open Pit Lane Trackday at Oulton Park on 2nd March, cost was £150. I was a complete novice and asked for tuition, and got about 15 minutes - it was really useful and completely free. If you have a full day's traiining for £350 that sounds phenomenal value - I looked at a full days CAT training and it was something like £750 so your £350 sounds excellent. I never seemed to get her much over 90 as Oulton has relatively short straights - you certainly need good brakes and I think they take more wear than the engine. Good Luck - have a good day!

I got mine off (from the boot) with Dental Floss - pull it gently underneath the badge and Hey! Presto!

Or search on eBay.com - note the .com bit as you need to be looking on eBay USA - there's normally several there $129 and normally about $30 to $40 carriage - so about $160 which is about £100. You might have to pay import VAT and duties (they don't always charge, but if they charge you it'll be about another £25 ish) and it takes about 2 weeks to arrive - but buying from the USA is no problem 2 links below just from a search now - no idea if they are good or not, they're obviously copies as Seibon ones are $300 or so. Good Luck http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carbon-Fiber-En ... 06&vxp=mtr http://www.ebay.com/itm/02-03-04-05-06- ... bb&vxp=mtr

Thanks, Sam Saw your Zed in Abbey when I was there a few days ago - what were they doing for you? Ian

Well, this was a Great Day - and whoever was in control of the weather did a startling job as half of my day was spent with the roof off and the shades on! The only embarrassing part was - chasing an MX-5 and not being able to catch him. Coming out onto the straights, I closed the gap - this is obviously due to the power in the car (+1 for Zed power!) Going round the corners he pulled away (-1 for my driving!) Ah well - but it was a thoroughtly enjoyable day!

After a few months living with the depressing de-sensitizing greyness of driving in England, I find a long weekend in Scotland invigorating in the Zed (I was born in Berkshire and brought up in Hampshire, now live in Manchester so this is plain positive choice, not jingo-ism) The roads aren't always great - though the view frequently is - but twisting and interesting roads at 50 are far nicer than the M6 or M62 or M25 or M1 I'd suggest a weekend in Scotland as medicine - haven't worked out yet how to charge it to the NHS but it's definitely worth it

Went on my first trackday on Friday at Outon Park each time I came off the smell of the brakes was awful ( - and I'm running Ferodo 2500 in standard brakes) +1 on the brakes upgrade recommendations above (Now I just need surgery to get the smile to relax in my face ! )

My post from April 19th 2010 below: Since this I've been back to Abbey Motorsport 4 times and never been disappointed. It's 250 miles from me and I'd guess it was 200 from you in South Wales - and I've still no 1st hand experience of Horsham or the others, so this is a one-sided experience - but I'd rather entrust my girl to people who really do know what they're about,and as I say - I've never been disappointed.

Unless you're diabetic . . . . If you are diabetic - too much Red Bull can literally kill you.

I'd suggest going to a Drift What Ya Brung day at Santa Pod - costs you £60 and you can do as much as you want, in acres of tarmac so not going to hit anything Once you've got a bit of experience they have some great tracks to drift round Plenty of people there to give advice if you need it My Two-pennorth: 1) Turn off the TCS (simple one button) 2) Put more air pressure in the tyres - probably 60psi so they're not trying to give you grip 3) In a 350 you don't need to hammer your clutch to get the wheels to break & spin - all that does is knacker your clutch. You'll find you've got all the grunt you need just by giving her some beanz (You only need to dip the clutch if you're marginal on the power like in an MX5 or something) 4) Keep an eye on your tyres - check them every so often so you don't take them too low & they burst - if a tyre goes you get the ruins flapping round which will do in your wheel arches and very possibly your bodywork as well 5) Even with 3) above you're loading the clutch more than is normal so it will wear much faster - so be prepared to replace it frequently 6) You're pushing the engine pretty hard too, and you may not be going at particularly high speeds so watch out for overheating - I'd suggest you need to give her a good checkover (oil / water etc) before you start and also after you finish, especially if you have to drive her home (unless you're taking her there on a trailer) and you'll need a set of street legal tyres if you're driving home. Don't push it on the way home as most of the tyre refitters at Santa Pod don't have balancing and unbalanced tyres can be pretty hairy over 50mph! Have fun - good luck - get someone to take some pics / video and post it so we can see - And just in finishing - I agree completely at not doing this anywhere you could hit anybody, but I also think part of the attraction of having a great machine like the Z is the fun of driving and 'pushing the envelope'. It's like spirited driving - you're an idiot if you do it on the roads, but that's what track days are for. And just one final - is there anybody on here who hasn't looked at the virgin snow in a car park and thought "Oooh that's too good to miss" and put the handbrake on or given her a squeeze to spin the wheels? If you really look at a carpark of snow and think "I need to report this to the Health and Safety Executive" - well, I feel very sad for you. (Life is for living. This is not a drill. You only get one go. When you get off the rollercoaster and they say "Did you enjoy that" you say "That was great!" When I get to the pearly gates and St Peter says "Did you enjoy that ?" I hope I'll be able to say EXACTLY - "That was great!" )

Brilliant, looked gorgeous, and I'm jealous of you and your trip Sort of like "Ice Cold in Alex" only the other way round - maybe "Mulled Cider in Kendal" is the inverted scenario

Just another potential vehicle . . Bought a Jimny for the wife (when she was the wife - now she's the ex!) but since 2004 she's put 100k through her with next to no trouble - quite nice to drive - don't knock them, they're real 4x4s and cheap - and cheap to run, too

Last winter I was still running on Bridgestones (the 040s) and was appalled at how bad they were in snow. Specifically, she wouldn't do forward, only sideways, even with only a modest snowfall, around 20mm. I admit the tyres were low on tread - I swapped them off her for a set of Goodyesr F1 Eagles in May, but they were truly atrocious. So this year, I looked at getting some winter tyres. I reviewed quite a few forums and tests (see the references at the foot of this posting) and was certain that Continental were the best, Vredestein probably mid range. Then I looked at the prices, and the Continental were about £180 to £200 each, and even the Vredesteiins were £160 per corner. The Nankangs came in around £330 the complete set. Now I agree with many of the posts on here about how important tyres are as your contact with the road - hey, that's why I bought the F1 Eagles. But I thought the most telling review data was the ranking by Auto Express : 1 Continental 100.0 Best winter 2 Goodyear 99.3 3 Pirelli 98.9 4 Michelin 98.7 5 Hankook 96.4 6 Vredestein 95.7 7 Nankang 93.5 8 Kumho 90.0 The Nankang's came in at 93.5% score - and they're less than half the price. On the basis that I'm unlikely to be doing any spirited driving in these conditions, I thought that was a pretty creditable score. Anyway, I bought a set from mytres.co.uk (Very good, efficient, recommended) and fitted them on a spare set of JDM 17" (bought from another forum member in Edinburgh) and have been running on them since October. It's taken until now to write a review as I wanted to drive them in all conditions and it's only this weekend we've had the snow and ice to test them! So - in the dry they're definitely not what you'd want, especially after driving the F1s. They feel a bit vague as you put the power in, especially power on a bend (like roundabouts) In the wet they are OK, even in heavy rain there's no aquaplaning. Power and accelleration are OK, but the vagueness above still applies. I'd say they are adequate in the wet, though I didn't really push them - but in wet conditions that would be inviting trouble anyway on pretty much anybody's rubber. And now to this weekend; we had 40 - 50mm of snow in Manchester and in Northwich it was frozen rain rather than snow so the roads were ice all over. The tyres performed faultlessly. On the ice, pulling away was easy, and traction was good round the bends - though if you gave her power you could step it out easily enough. (I enjoyed that on the occasions I did it - it was entirely deliberate!) On the snow the grip was good, even on unsalted back roads, and in the full 50mm snow - turning and reversing in the snow was no problem either. Compared to last year on the Bridgestones which were staggeringly CR_P I was hugely impressed, and estimate they're about 8000% better than the 'stones. So - in summary - I'm very happy. I'm sure there are other forum members driving on Continental who'll say theirs are better - and I'd probably agree - but at £330 the set I am certain they are MUCH safer than driving on your summer rubber. References: 1) http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/t ... e_test.htm 2) http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/winter- ... ice/259257 3) http://www.tyretest.com/wintercar_tyres ... /index.htm 4) http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index ... ic=22302.0 5) http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Nankang/SV2.htm

It great that Alex has you sorted - but you can buy them from the Stealers and they're only £4.56 each (Bought one mid 2011 in Stockport) (Yes, I know it's a bit of plastic which the injection moulders sold to Nissan for £0.02 but buying stuff from a dealer and it was below a fiver still seems not too bad)

Lockwood & Greenwood in Manchester fitted a set of Samco Hoses for me on 24th Jan! Complete set including the air connection as well as the coolant. Charged me an hour for the job at £49 plus VAT. They also charged £16.47 for new Anti Freeze as they had to drain it down By the way - if you're buying the Samco hoses, make sure they get the breather pipe underneath pointing in the right direction - Samco sent mine with the hose 90° out so connecting the breather means the hose is now a little strained

I loved my time in the Caterham - except when it rained! Got wet feet several times, was really pleased when I moved up to the Zed (Radio - a heater that works, no drafts around your right ear. . . boring things like that.) The driving though - now that was FUN !

When I fitted BC Coilovers (Well, Abbey Motorsport fitted them!) between 15mm and 18mm was the max we could go without needing new camber arms Be aware as well . . . (This is the negative bit from an old fart (Me) now!) At this level you can no longer straddle those single speed bumps because you ground out - so you need to take it GENTLY over all speed bumps - and even getting in to the supermarket you need to go REALLY slowly . . . . If you lower more than this 15mm or so then you're definitely in VERY CAREFUL driving territory. (Sad commentary on the state of our road network)

I bought mine from http://www.workshopmanuals.org.uk a couple of years ago, and although it is from a US source, I've found it a really good resource, and I only paid less than £5 for it, downloaded. It's 54.2Mb and included a copy of the owners manual as well. (Even this is useful as my girl is a JDM and the manual that came with it is all in Japanese! ) It covers both coupe and roadster, auto and manual. It's handy to be able to print pages off and not worry about getting them oil soaked - I'd recommend having a copy even if you don't do major jobs as even just knowing where the fasteners are can save ages, and ease the uncertainty in how to get in to things.

Pumpkin - funny name for a girl . . . . ? Do you miss the car, as well?

Lockwood & Greenwood in Manchester did these for me this week - charged 1½ hours to do both Gearbox & Rear Diff at £49 / hr (VAT on top at the end, though!) Don't know what they'd charge for the lubricants as I gave it to them (Courtesy of Zmanalex)

Great video, though, I'm just glad they don't show what his underpants looked like after that

This woman below is 51 She is TV health guru Gillian McKeith, advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and health, promoting exercise, a vegetarian diet high in organic fruits and vegetables. She recommends detox diets, colonic irrigation and supplements. This woman below is 51. She is Nigella Lawson, a TV Cook, who eats meat, butter, and many desserts high in fats and sugar. I REST MY CASE.

Drift what ya brung days at Santa Pod are only £60 anyway, and you can do anything from complete novice stuff (like me!) to full on racing round a couple of tracks Follow their linky http://www.dwyb.co.uk/index.html Of course, you'll be drifting in your own car. . . . so bring spare tyres etc, but you do get all day if you want it for the £60

My K2 had pretty much the same issue (though maybe not quite as bad) We were able to overcome mine by bending the hangers and also fitted a clamp block on the offside rear hanger arm which pushed the offside back about 15mm and so the slashcut ends were then parallel Japspeed reputation is pretty well known, though, and if you're paying £349 for the exhaust, you don't expect the same quality as if you're paying £600 or more. I bought it expecting to have some fitment adjustments - and I wasn't disappointed!