NeilMH

We both worked in the machine room at Barclays in Whitgift Centre Croydon in 1971. I was engaged to another girl but she broke it off (ooh er missus). I then got transferred to another branch and 6 weeks later my wife to be was transferred to a branch about 50 yards away from mine. On the day I proposed to her I had lost a push rod for 4 hours when re-conditioning the cylinder head on my A35 - it got wedged in a totally invisible place in front of the radiator where I could not see it. I finally arrived at her place at about 10.30pm in my oil covered overalls but despite all of that sad stuff she still married me. I am sure it was because the valves on my hand-painted Austin were so beautifully ground.

To me it was an easy decision. I got the extra wheels second hand very cheaply, with nearly new winter tyres already on. I live 500 feet up quite a steep hill which is not always gritted succesfully. It doubles the life of the summer tyres. It all made sense to me.

You need another 713 posts pronto - well within your abilities I think

Sounds like a result Dip. I had a small amount of snow on the roof of the car yesterday early and the roads were cold and greasy. I put the winters on - they just give you a lot more confidence, particularly as 95% of my trips starts at 7am and are over by 10.00am when on average its colder and damper.

I wondered whether you were aiming to ramp up a bit to get to and maintain 10% of your clock mileage - it would be a most handsome challenge

Driving past Arun Jaguar (from whence we were coming).

Good stuff

Car looks great

It isn't just as simple as a standard program and a laptop. I personally would not entrust my car to someone without the experience and the appropriate uprev licence but that's just me. You are taking some notable risk if you go elsewhere. The other one that The Bounty Bar Kid was trying to think of is RS Tuning who are in Leeds. I have used Abbey for all my stuff. You only need the speed restriction removed if you are going to be on a race track or an autobahn... so you need to weigh up whether you want to bother at all. Advice now over

Interesting stuff

and good luck with your search.

There is no need at all for you to change anything for a re-map to be beneficial. It is just that if you were considering other modifications the best way to approach it is to have them done first then do the re-map. If you are not planning any then you can just go ahead and have the re-map. The modifications you can have are really a bit of cream on the milk. You can get a better sounding exhaust and less restrictive cats and a better performing air filter and enlarged intake plenum but that is just a matter of personal preference - they just extract a little more performance and aural pleasure. Whether or not they are worth it is just a matter of personal opinion and your own budget - it isn't cheap. I would check with Abbey or one of the other re-mappers if you get the same benefits with the auto - I don't know how they are mapped.

Azure is the one to have

Not sure if this is equally true for an import with auto but... On a UK 350 it definitely is worth it but not necessarily in respect of big number gains - it's much more to do with driveability and mid-range response. If you are thinking about any intake or exhaust mods it's best to have those done first otherwise it will need to be remapped again (albeit once you have the licence it doesn't cost as much) But.. it's worth having done in it's own right even if mods aren't planned.

Looks good

Look forward to the next instalment

One possible explanation is that if it's raining and you open the door the roof design allows quite a bit of water to come straight down into the area where the seat belt would be when it's out. If it was wet and then retracted the damp might well spread through to the rest of the belt. It's as well to remember (where practical) to leather off or otherwise remove surplus water from the roof if you are just about to get in. If you are already in the car and getting out there isn't much you can do about it. Some other convertibles have mini gutters sewn into the edging to minimise this problem or are designed in such a way that the rain runs further outwards. You also need to check the seals to make sure water isn't getting in even when the door is shut.

Thunderbirds are go

Another possible explanation is that the car is mapped to do different things in the first three gears to the the other 3 so that can lead to a different feeling in terms of the interaction between the clutch and throttle when moving off from standstill and when changing gear to 2nd and 3rd. The car has a drive by wire throttle (not a cable) so the way it responds depends on the way its mapped. I agree with the view that if you are not sure don't buy it - it's a buyers market. Good luck.