rabbitstew

The bloke who bought my 313HR actually part ex`d his 996 for it as he said he just didnt get on with the 996. He said compared to the zed, the 996 was just a totally uninspiring experience. I guess its horses for courses really. If your interested in a 996, drive a couple and see what you think before you take the plunge. They are getting cheaper now so are certainly quite affordable to purchase - just have to factor in any repair costs etc.

What LeonK said. Once you start working on something you`ll find all sorts of hidden costs and end up spending a fortune. Ive a few projects in my garage - a 1987 Renault 5 GT Turbo, a couple of old Mini`s incl a Mini Cooper as well as some motorbikes. Problem I have is just finding the time to work on them, so they are all pretty much on the back burner atm, probably until I retire at this rate. I did manage to spend some time on a couple of my motorbikes last year so they are MOT`d and on the road, but thats about it really. Ive always fancied a late 70`s Lotus Esprit and a 77 Bandit Transam. Unfortunately with the trans ams they seem to have rocketed up in price over the last few years so by the time I get the time/space to buy one it will probably cost me an arm & a leg.

I had a few comments like that from work mates before they actually saw the car and then when they did they suddenly changed their tune. To me a hairdressers car has always been something convertible with not much go. Like a KA convertible, MX5 or Porsche Boxster?! Basically cars which are convertible and don't have enough power to make them true performance cars. Although in saying that the MX5 isn't a bad car nor the Porsche. I had that big time when I got mine from one of my mates - he was constantly ribbing me about the zed being a hair dressers car and was totally amazed that I would buy a Nissan when I could have got a Porsche Boxster for half the money. Amazingly he didnt feel that the Boxster was a hairdressers car however. I did loose track in the end of the positive comments the zed got. Everyone from kids shouting out "nice car mister" as I drove past, through to complete strangers complimenting me on it as I popped into the local corner shop to get some milk. Garages/Mechanics loved it. I remember going to the local auto parts place, coming out to find the owner of the shop standing there staring at my car before telling me how nice it was and how rare they are as he doesnt see many of them.

Ah yes, Rawlings did the "Cannonball" in 31 hours 59 minutes about 6 months after Alex Roy (Team Polizei) had already done the same run in 31 hours and 4 seconds.However, Roy didnt anounce that he had already beaten the record until 12 months after doing so in case he would get arrested for it so Rawlings thought he was the new record holder and had it tattooed on his arm. Once Roy announced he had already broken the record and had GPS data to prove it, Rawlings (& his co driver Dennis) took it quite badly and even now dispute it as Roy used a different starting point to what they did. At end of the day Roy did 2800miles and Rawlings did 2811 miles or something, and both used starting points which had been used in previous cannonball runs as there was no real official starting point. Guess it doesnt matter now really as the record has now been broken again as of Oct last year by some young guy who did it in 28 hours odd in a Mercedes. Yep its a new series, was aired in the US at end of last year and just being aired over here now. I do enjoy watching Fast & Loud, although its so obviously staged its ridiculous. Especially the buying / selling side of things where they seem to pluck numbers out of thin air and Rawlings loves pretending he has loads of money to throw about etc whereas 9/10 he wheels out his mate Dennis who does actually have cash for any big buys such as the F40. In the early days the show was quite dubious in their little back street lockup. I remember seeing Aaron announce he was going to lower a car and proceed to cut the springs down with an angle grinder. Something which in the UK is an MOT fail as the springs would just pop straight out of their mounts if you hit big bumps in the road - i know as ive done it before . They then proceeded to sell the car to a bloke who wanted it for his 16 year old son as his first car. Talk about dangerous. However, since they moved to their new site they seem to have become a lot more professional. Interestingly ive got to go to Dallas for a conference in May, which isnt far from Gas Monkey Garage and so im toying with the idea of visiting them.

Havn't see them at a bit over a £1k, seen them at about £3k. to £4k. Might be dependent on the time of the year, but I remember watching Wheeler Dealers last year and they bought a boxster 3.2S for 1000quid which basically just needed a service. I remember thinking no way were they that cheap and so I looked online and sure enough there quite a few to choose from for £1500 or less, runners with MOT etc. However looking again quickly just now, you seem to be right, they are £3k->£4k, so maybe its because summers approaching, suns out and thats pushed the prices up slightly. a grand?! find me one and I'll buy it. the ash tray is worth more than that! I think that's how they are getting now, worth more as parts. I don't often agree with Jeremy Clarkson but he may have been right when in his review of the boxster he said the only reason someone would buy one was cos they couldn't afford a 911. They remind me of the 924. Only reason to buy that was cos you couldn't afford a 944, so prices dropped so much that at one point you could get a 924 for 500quid - less if it was a brown one. Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Havn't see them at a bit over a £1k, seen them at about £3k. to £4k. Might be dependent on the time of the year, but I remember watching Wheeler Dealers last year and they bought a boxster 3.2S for 1000quid which basically just needed a service. I remember thinking no way were they that cheap and so I looked online and sure enough there quite a few to choose from for £1500 or less, runners with MOT etc. However looking again quickly just now, you seem to be right, they are £3k->£4k, so maybe its because summers approaching, suns out and thats pushed the prices up slightly.

Still, you can pick up a boxster 3.2S for a little over 1 grand these days 2nd hand, so you could buy one, try it out for a bit, then sell it and probably not loose much on it. Personally they do nothing for me, common as muck around my way, however my mate raves about them and really couldnt understand why i would buy a zed when I could get a boxster for less money.

Depending upon what date your maps are there might be an update. When I got my 2007 zed, the disk was obviously dated 2007. I found a newer release online (2011 if i remember correct), and burned this to a DVD. Worked a treat. The only problem i found was that you need a dual layer DVD and a suitable burner which can burn the disks. Luckily my laptop was able to do this. The other issue is that apparently the Nissan DVD drive in the sat nav is very fussy as to which brand of disks work. Fortunately i found that tescos own brand of dual layer dvds seemed to work fine in mine! You just need to make sure you search for the right version of the sat nav system which is xanavi. The same system is in renaults etc too.

Yep, Apex are just a generic brand which a lot of car accessory shops sell, ive used their discs on "normal" cars before without any problems.

I agree, I wouldnt trust any main dealer as far as i can throw them. When I took my Nissan 350z to Nissan for a belt change they took an hour and stung me £90. Next time the belt went, I did it myself, the belt cost £14 and it took me 15 minutes to do. The only reason I went to the main dealer is that the car was only a year old and thus under warranty. It was a minor service, so just oil / filter / pollen filter & quick inspection. Id expect that to be maybe just 15minutes work for them, so £140 wasnt bad. Once the cars out of warranty i`ll be doing all the work on it myself as usual, so id expect the actual servicing costs to be minimal. When I used to give my golf TDI a full major service it was £50 just for parts (oil, diesel filter, oil filter, air filter, pollen filter etc etc) and used to take me 17 minutes exactly!

I get mine from toolstation, they are listed as window cleaner cloths. Massive things, must be like 20inches square. Cost hardly anything and free shipping if you spend over a tenner. Also perfect excuse to buy a few more tools!!!

As long as you work out all the running costs then you will be fine. I use an excel spreadsheet to calculate all the actual monthly running costs over a 12 month period. So, for me, this includes insurance, tax, tyres, servicing etc. plus fuel based upon my mpg and per litre cost. I also include depreciation. For my zed this came in at about £1200 a month. So, swapping for my 123d this dropped to something like £600 a month. So for me I was "saving" a good amount of money. They arnt as expensive on parts etc as you might think. A "minor" service on mine is £140 at BMW. Ive just had a new full set of tyres and the OEM ones came in at £752 compared to the £650 a set on my zed cost, so similar again there. Insurance for me is less than half what my zed was costing and road tax has dropped from £500 down to £115. I did consider the 335d when I was looking, but the fuel economy & performance compared to the 123d coupe didnt warrant the extra cost, plus I found I prefered the size of the 123d coupe compared to the 335d. Maybe if I needed more space then id consider it. Remapping them is pretty fun. The 123d for example, a "conservative" remap will give you 270bhp and 400ft/lb torque. Out of the box, the standard car does 0-60 in 6.2 seconds and in gear acceleration is awesome - twice as quick as some sports cars even - so you can imagine what remapping does. Mines still under BMW warranty so i havent ventured into that area yet, but might well do at some point.

Totally awesome, what a mental car. And that turbo looks like its about as big as the engine itself!!!!!

I think going from a tuned 313 HR to a Z4M might be a disappointment depending upon what you want from your next car. When I was looking at getting a zed, the Z4 & Z4M were on my hot list of similar cars to consider. On paper there is very little between the 313 and the Z4M in performance, and from having a bit of "fun" against one on a long drive on the road, in practice, on the road there definitely wasnt anything in it. If your 313 is tuned up a bit, then you may even find its quicker. Performance aside, the other reason I went for the 313 is rarity. Around my way, I see dozens of Z4`s every day and they look nothing special. People dont even look twice at them. The Z4M is rarer. In fact when I was looking at 313 Roadsters I found they were as rare as each other. Only 3 or 4 within 100 miles of my house for sale. The other thing I didnt like was the look/styling/inteior and feel of the car. Sure, it felt solid and well built, and typical bmw, but it didnt really turn me on. The zed on the other hand felt like it was a naughty, fun hooligan car from the moment I sat in it. Finally the price was another major factor. The Z4M was more expensive. All in all, that was my personal opinion on them. Ive nothing against BMW`s, I currently drive a 123d M-Sport Coupe and the build quality of that is a million times better than my 313 zed was. The Z4M and M Sport cars in general do have very good reviews and are renown for their handling and performance. The Z4M also may well be a good investment. I lost 6k a year on my zed, and I cant see you loosing that on a Z4M. So, if your considering one, only way to tell really is to take a couple for a spin and see what you think!

Guess it depends on what you are used to driving but I went from a diesel golf to a 313 zed and was quite underwhelmed by the performance. Sure, it was quick, but it just didnt feel as quick as I expected. I guess the last proper "quick" car I had before my zed was a 220bhp Renault 5 GT Turbo which would do 0-80 as quick as you could change gear and literally violently throw you back in your seats when the hybrid turbo kicked in. Im also used to sports bikes like my R1 etc. So maybe for me a NA "quick" car just didnt have the right feel. Saying that, my 123d does 0-60 in 6.2 seconds which is only less than half a second slower than a zed and that too doesnt feel quick until you look at the speedo and think "christ i didnt realise i was doing that speed", so maybe its just me!

My first bike was an RD350 also, but one of the later Brazilian made "R" ones which had the FZR600 fairing on it. Cracking fun bike, sounded just like the bikes in MotoGP. I managed to get out on my 996 on Sunday, weather was pretty good all weekend so the roads were drying out nicely. Pretty quiet at 9am blasting down some of the back rounds around my way, but a bit busier later on in the morning - seemed every man & his dog was out on their bikes. The roads were still not 100% though so I wasnt pushing it. Didnt have any problems with car drivers, although did have all the usual people stopping dead on the pavements and staring at the bike. I even had dads pointing the bike out to their kids. One bloke actually made an effort of walking over and chatting to me whilst I was filling up with petrol. Amazing what attention the 996 gets.

Thats the one!

Hmmmm... you havent seen my missus. I think the chances of a burglar wanting to rape her are probably slim to zero. But, the whole defending your house & what is allowed / isnt allowed is a dubious ground which I think we have discussed before on here. The long & short of it is that until your faced with someone in your home you dont know how you will react. I think your choice of the baseball bat is probably the best option. There was a case in Peterborough a while back where a home owner beat a burglar to within 1 inch of his life with a bat and when it went to court (burglar tried to do the home owner with gbh) the judge laughed it out of court saying what did the burglar expect. We have had a couple of cases where burglars have been shot and the home owners been let off, but it has caused no end of grief and was border line in that the home owner was arrested and treated like a criminal - or in Tony Martin`s case actually locked up for a while until the case was appealed and he got out. So, as a licensed firearms holder myself, id find myself upon hearing a burglar downstairs having to think carefully about what to do. Do I grab my pump action shotgun and use that as a deterrent, or a bat or maybe throw the (some what vicious) cat at him? Its a fine line between trying to defend your house & doing whats best for your family going forward.

Definitely shop about. When I got my zed I couldnt believe how ridiculous insurance companies were being. Even the "specialist" insurance companies on here were quoting me well over a grand for my 350z if they would insure me at all. Thats as someone with 18 years NCB and years of driving high performance cars & motorbikes. The only feedback I got was that it was because its RWD and 300+bhp. Which didnt make sense when I was getting quotes of about £500 elsewhere for a boxster or an m3.

Welcome!

I use a Contour HD. It had excellent review and a bit cheaper than the go pro. I also prefer it as its slimmer/better looking rather than being like a bulky cigarette packet. It comes with various mounts so is good to go out of the box. I use a clamp for my mountain bike handle bars and a helmet shaped bracket which sticks to the side of my motorbike crash helmet. As with most of these, the camera takes SD cards, so bunged a 32gb card in and its good to go. Every time im out on my motorbike i just clip I just clip the camera in and off you go. Its also waterproof.

I found fitting a K1 exhaust system to mine was a good anti theft measure. Anyone nicking it would wake the entire street just by starting the engine.

Ive been saying this for years! It only takes a few minutes on confused.com playing with your estimate to see what difference things makes. For example, try adding the 85 year old Granny who lives 3 doors away down your road to your quote as a named driver. It will reduce the premium. Amazing really that insurance companies think 85 year old Ethel is likely to be a safer driver in a 300bhp zed than you are.

The zed has a thatcham category 1 alarm as standard. Before splashing out on any extra security id check what difference it makes to your insurance. Some people on here have found that things like trackers etc actually increase your insurance premium! Presumably as a thief may cause more damage to the car trying to remove it. I think in general the zed`s are pretty good security wise. Ive not heard of anyone having theirs nicked.

Very nice choice. I very nearly bought one when I was changing cars last as they were coming in at the same price as my 123d was going to cost, but in the end my sensible head won and I went for the 123d. Maybe next time!