JetSet

Sad to hear this. Every time we venture out onto the roads we are all just one mistake or one momentary lapse of concentration away from serious injury or worse. I'll add to that, one mistake or lapse of concentration by someone else can the same consequences. Pete

Talking of Renault, they're the first team to launch their 2016 car. Pete

I've run The London Marathon twice, in 1989 and 1991. While I was a pretty decent club runner I always struggled at the marathon distance. I trained specifically for the half marathon, my longest training runs being around 10 miles, I found that I could hang on for the last 3 and a bit miles without dropping my pace. If you look at my half marathon times then sub 3 hours should be well within my abilities but I never got there, even throttling back my pace by 30 seconds a mile I always hit the wall around 20 miles. So, I'd recommend a couple of things, gradually increase your longest run to 20 miles and run if you can around 40-50 miles a week, with a couple of short 3-5 miles hard runs. Join a club if you can. I've also run the Snowdon Marathon twice, really tough, went off far too fast, suffered like a dog around mile 20 but once I hit the downhill I flew to the finish. Good Luck Pete

Well let's face it there's a certain amount of paranoia here. There are some people on here who'd rather park up and walk 5 miles with a can to the next garage than put in a fivers worth of 95 in and drive there. Unless you're keeping the car for 10 years or 150k miles then what's the problem and I wouldn't mind betting that the vast majority of 350's have had at least one owner who's run it exclusively on the cheap stuff. It's never bothered me to stick in a tenners worth of 95 in when the local Shell has no V-Power. The thing is that the vast majority of engine failures are caused by lack of oil, lack of water, lack of maintenance, being thrashed or just wear and tear associated with high mileage. While its true that you should run your Zed on V-Power or equivalent as per the label don't panic if you're local has run out, sticking a small amount of the other stuff won't amount to instant detonation or devalue the car by hundreds of pounds, Pete

I really don't think the main risk lies at over 5K revs. Let me explain....first of all you'd be risking a hefty fine if you use 5K in any gear from 4th to 6th and even in 3rd you can easily exceed the national 60 speed limit. The thing is that very few of us will use 5k for any prolonged period. No, the main cause of detonation would come by working the engine hard at low revs up long hills. It's all very well toodling along at 30 in 5th on a flat road on next to zero throttle but flooring it at such low speeds puts a massive strain on the engine and there's always the temptation not to change gear .I can remember back before the day actually asking my dad what that noise was climbing steep hills on our Sunday run out in Wales....pinking he replied, never really understood it until I got my first car. Pete

Was he the guy in the original version of "Bouquet of Barbed Wire" Yes, that's him. Pete

Apart from the speedo and mileage readings in km's I believe they are the same spec, I doubt that they're going to alter the timing just for a couple of hundred cars. As far as 98 RON availability, there are a few countries in Europe where they don't have it. Places like Iceland, Albania, Hungary and Malta, pretty out of the way places really. Ireland would easily have the largest Zed population out of that lot. I do find it rather strange that you can get 98 RON in the Channel Islands, with their very low speed limits and The Isle of Man but not in Ireland a country of 4.5 million people. Pete You can get 98 Ron in Hungary, OMV sell it and that was 4 years ago when I took my Zed to Hungary. Not listed here though. http://autotraveler.ru/en/spravka/fuel-price-in-europe.html#.Vq38xrKLTIU Pete

Shocked, just shocked...............RIP Just read that Frank Finlay of Cassanova fame has passed away as well. Pete

Apart from the speedo and mileage readings in km's I believe they are the same spec, I doubt that they're going to alter the timing just for a couple of hundred cars. As far as 98 RON availability, there are a few countries in Europe where they don't have it. Places like Iceland, Albania, Hungary and Malta, pretty out of the way places really. Ireland would easily have the largest Zed population out of that lot. I do find it rather strange that you can get 98 RON in the Channel Islands, with their very low speed limits and The Isle of Man but not in Ireland a country of 4.5 million people. Pete

It's not just Zeds that require 98 RON, must be 10's, if not 100's of thousands of various cars in Ireland running around on 95 RON that should be running 98, makes you wonder Pete

Folks in Ireland don't have any choice unless they live close to the border. I'd like to hear their experiences. Pete

91 RON? Wouldn't use that even if you could get it here. Pete

Still cheap but a U.S Gallon is only 83% of a U.K Gallon, so its around £1.80. It's swings and roundabouts though , mate of mine lived in Houston for 20 years but couldn't afford health insurance when he retired. Cheapest fuel in Europe are places like Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia but who wants to live there? Norway and Italy have Europe's most expensive fuel followed by The U.K and The Netherlands, it's about 10% cheaper in Ireland but road tax is eye watering. Pete

I once worked it out that 50 to 60 350 Zeds come up for sale each week, assuming a 2 year average ownership, so even if only 10% of new owners join the forum we'll always have a steady increase in membership. Pete

Yes, the cables tucked in to the roof upholstery really nicely, helped that mine has a thickish GPS cable that only needed support (a bit of clear tape) around the door area. I've left just enough slack cable to be able to move it behind the mirror when I get round to it which'll be if the weather ever improves . Pete

You do like them ugly don't you Dan?!! Definitely a unique motor but without a doubt imho should remain as a rare "classic", ...rather than a new production model. Yes, they've not dated well but I don't think they're ugly and they'd look much better lowered by 6 inches and on low profile tyres If they are only building 300 replicas they're still going to be pretty rare, I mean how many replica AC Cobra's have been built and how often do you see them. Pete

Or at least inform us of the colour Pete

Just a quick update on this. I meant to remove the camera before my MOT a couple of days ago but forgot all about it, its just to the left of the black spots as high as it would go. Passed the MOT with no mention of the dashcam though Pete

Azure HR , very nice. Most likely one of the early HR's because by the time they became available in The U.K Azure was not an option. Not a GT though. Pete

Also the test is run at 10 mph and lasts a few seconds, I'd prefer that to having some young mechanic road testing it. I spoke to the MOT garage owner about it, says he MOT's hundreds of cars with LSD every year on the rollers. Pete

Goes back right to 1963 when "A" was added to the end of the number, before then number plates are interchangeable, well sort of. Back in 1974 I had my drive tarmacked by some gypsies (Yes I know ). Thing is they left the road roller behind and despite a search by the police and an appeal in the local newspaper they never came to collect it. Now then the registration number on this vehicle was "V 2", the police traced it back to 1967 and the registration was genuine, never reported stolen, police said dispose of it as you wish. I made a tentative approach to the licensing authorities to switch the plate onto my car but even though they were prepared to send me a new log book you couldn't switch a Road Roller, Motorbike, etc plate onto a car. I eventually got someone to come around and tow it away, must have weighed a few tons and didn't look very nice sitting in my back garden . Pete

They should do away with the current numbering system, with the huge amount of "private" plates around it's pretty meaningless. A better system would be along the lines of the American system IMHO, lots more options for personalisation Pete

Or come and see my Bengals Saw a ginger in Mold today, 53 reg import. Pete

Yes, you can go backwards but not forwards. Pete

O.K, so I eventually located the switch and found that it was jammed, pushed it in a few times and its working again. I'll treat it with some WD40 when I pluck up the courage to go into the black hole otherwise known as our tools cupboard Thanks again. Pete