NeilMH

I have a habit of retrospectively justifying any car related thing I do but if I was really honest, every now and then I go mad and do really dumb things. Mine probably aren't too bad at all but I bet there are a few howlers out there....? Mine: 1. Spending quite a lot of money on changing the suspension on my Elise and making one of the best handling cars ever so much worse that I wanted rid of it from that moment onwards 2. Paying completely over the odds for my second Caterham and selling at at the worst conceivable time at the peak of the credit crunch. I must be the only person to have lost such a high percentage of a Caterham's value in such a short space of time (I cannot bring myself to say how much)...all because I had another cunning plan (which wasn't) 3. Many years ago buying a brand new Morris Marina because I got such a good part ex on my Hillman Hunter. 4. Thinking I would be a good rally driver. Bought a rally car. After two days tuition sat next to Tony Higgins on a forest stage. He then sat next to me.I was cra*p. I gave up, sold the car and lost some more money .

Yes .... I know....it's just like the one-armed bandits on the pier...can I resist... My history is variable (1st Caterham sensible, 2nd spent too much, Elise - 70/30 too much)

Thanks Martin. One thing that will help me is that I am not interested in lowering/bigger wheels because I like the compliance built into the standard set-up for road use. Also I'm sticking with the non-GT configuration because its lighter so I won't be adding any "kit". So when my piggy bank is fuller the costs for my plan should be reasonable (ish). The only thing I've done so far is the 2nd hand Pop charger (purely for the sound!) and Abbey's improved rear ARB drop links and whizzy rose jointed compression arm bushes (to make those problems go away for the foreseeable future/forever).

This is really boring.... This year all I can do is play a holding position - I just can't afford to do anything special. However a couple of bits of the exhaust are on the cusp. So I am just keep my eye out for the odd bargain just in case.... to keep me going until......???? I recently re-visited Abbey's original posting about the best mods for the 350 - my long term plan is to go down that road with their help...so for performance improvement I guess I would be focussing on the xyz/race-cat end rather than the back end. My overriding aim is to achieve max torque per £ spent. I would put sound/look as a secondary (very nice to have) objective. I know I also need to get lighter wheels. Frankly I'd love some of the stuff the other guys have got but I can't afford it!

Thank you mookstar - it looks like I'm on safe ground.

Thanks SMD

Thank you Martin - I didn't want to risk buying something only to discover they were slightly different!

Very sad news - my condolences to Liam's family and friends.

I have a 2005 standard Roadster. Could someone kindly confirm if the exhaust components are exactly the same as the Coupe's, despite the extra bracing under the roadster. If anything is different what bits are different? Also what year's components are exactly the same - e.g. is it 2003 to when? Many thanks for the help.

fellow Surrey person. I went through a similar thought process to you with a similar set of cars (albeit my last was an Elise) .......and ended up with a 350z roadster...which continues to grow on me. At present there is nothing I don't like and plenty I do.

Wiring - very scary - good luck!

I was following you for a short while before you turned off, whoever you are.

Tough choice. I have driven the Fiat and its very practical as well and increasingly rare. Having said that I still went for the 350Z on the basis of the engine, the nature of the power delivery (high % of torque at low revs) and the excellent balance between ride and handling on standard set up (plus high reliability as a bonus).

Rover 2000 - the Bionic Dog as the "joke" used to go - revolutionary in its time. GTE - now you're talking. Amazingly, in the last 10 days I have seen 2 GTCs, the much rarer soft top version - one of them was parked at the top of Reigate Hill. I am not sure I have seen 2 in the previous 20 years. I think you will love the Z.

Slightly cooler than the car I had as a youth - a 1958 Standard 10 - less than 1 litre - probably less than 35 bhp even with the Peco exhaust

I know this isn't particularly useful .....but with the budget you are talking about my feeling would be that you won't need to take any chances. It should be possible with the supply of cars available to find one which ticks all the boxes - it may just take a bit of time and involve a bit of a trip - I did travel some distance to find mine. Petrol prices, etc should make it a bit of a buyers market...in theory anyway.

No problem. Not everyone has the time to go round googling tyre stuff. Happy to help. I am sure you will be pleased with your choice.

Parked in playing fields area. Had Rays on it I think.

W is fine. Rated up to 168mph.