coldel

I dont think the VXR was standard and probably running a bit more power than the norm, the guy that owned it has two VXs he brought two along on the day the VXR and a SC one. Yeah keeping the mag in case I sell the VX at some point and will stick it in with all the other paperwork!

Yes to be honest the journo just posted on the FB page asking for volunteers, I could easily have missed it! Was just luck really! I had just refurbed the entire interior which I think might have swung it! But as he says the power at the moment is spot on it is very quick but not scarily quick perfect for me

I think if you are looking for a project car, go for the early DE, get a good one well documented i.e. off here and start your mods. The facelift had more power but less torque so very little in it performance wise as far as I remember. There are guys I believe on the US forum driving zeds with 250k on the clock, so wouldnt get too hung up on miles (unless you have plans to sell it after a year or two the UK market is a fickle place) and make sure you get one with all the work done.

...and to be honest I wouldnt even consider the VED cost in your decision, buy the best car you can get for the money. The extra cost is equivalent to a pint of beer in the pub per week, so just cut back a touch honestly, if you are spending thousands on a sports car, dont worry about the VED, especially if you are planning on spending a fair amount on modification which will cost an arm and a leg anyway.

They posted me a copy through in advance No wonder the journo kept plugging me for info after he drove it. It was a terrible day though, rained all day and bitterly cold!

Its a GT car, not really a sports car. Its built for comfort rather than out and out corner hugging performance. Most people go for a respected brand of coilovers (available from the traders on here) and get a set to their ride expectations. On the modification front, best go in with your eyes wide open. CAI as far as I believe, really adds little to the car, if anything many of them are warmer than the stock box. Most people just buy a decent performance drop in panel filter. HFCs are a good addition, note most will rasp. The maps you can get for these cars are by UPREV or ECUTEK again reference the traders on here all experts in this. For reference my 2004 DE when I had it back in 2010 had plenum spacer, milltek cat back exhaust, Berks HFCs and a stillen intake (only on because I got it pretty much for peanuts) resulted in an additional 16bhp - the drive however was much improved with flat spots removed. You are going to be wasting a lot of money chasing numbers with these cars unless you go FI.

Worth a read through...

So the article was an 8 car shoot out, a standard (as standard as you can get i.e no big power numbers) turbo (mine) and a standard NA. Then there was the black track car which is rated at 500bhp+ (pretty much unbeatable on track) along with a Saab engine conversion, supercharged ones and an NA turbo charged conversion. Anyway, here is the write up on mine... ...and, ahem, the summary and winner

8 car VX220 shootout in Absolute Lotus magazine now available in all good, and bad, bookstores. My pretty much standard VX did surprisingly well...

I would pop PMs to the traders on here in the trading sub forum, one will be able to help

Gotta be a V8 before the time is up and we are all silently ghosting around in dull as dishwater EV's! Or do the right thing and get an Elise/VX

I could be wrong but pretty sure you cannot select cruise at 30mph or below (for obvious safety reasons you wouldnt want to be on cruise when in town centres etc) - does it happen at higher speeds. Again, could be wrong but 5th gear at 30mph sounds too high a gear and labouring the engine, from memory?

Where does it say that, pop the link up so we can take a look. The link I posted shows you pay an up front fee for a classified listing then no further fees, if you do it as an auction it clearly states the maximum you would pay is £45. No one would sell cars on ebay if you paid them up to £250 to sell it, yet its the biggest listing of cars for sale in the UK. I have sold 3 cars on ebay just posted them up as a listed car for sale in the motors section then when someone came over and bought it I just updated it as sold.

Yep definitely!

Where you getting £250 from? The fees page here says a £19.99 listing fee and no final value fee? Max final value fee if you do it as an auction looks to be £45. https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/motors-fees?id=4127

Sad day mate, I only had one but its the one of only a handful of cars over the years I was gutted about selling, they have a lot of charm and character. Do lurk, quite a few of us ex-owners do, even if its just to let new owners know they need a stubby and spacers

Not offended, but nothing that guy from SB said is any different to what I said, it just changes the throttle signal. I guess its that thinking they do anything more than what I have observed so far is actually misleading to anyone buying one of these devices (be it D1 Spec, Blitz, SB etc). They change the throttle signal to the ECU, nothing more. Sprint Booster has a few additions to the others i.e. security, but in terms of its core function, its the same as what came before. When I put mine on years ago, it was a bit like a woah factor, but then you realise all its done has moved where 80%-100% throttle is on the pedal travel further up, no performance gain to be had. To be honest, if anyone is considering throwing £200 at a device like this I would save a bit more money and go into remap territory which accesses a dozen or so data tables in the ECU and does proper adjustments to create a faster, more responsive drive, removes flat spots etc.

Thanks Dave, yes it does confirm it does what I said, it basically brings forwards the throttle position that goes into the ECU. So when you turn it on and you put your foot in say 30% of the way instead of the throttle signal saying 'give 20% throttle' to the ecu its saying 'give 50%' hence the responsiveness feel of the throttle. Actually Ekona's 'thin soled shoes' comment is very relevant here, as the Sprint Booster just brings forwards the throttle signal, if you have good throttle control you can do exactly the same thing by pushing the throttle say 70% of the way down which would also give you 50% - you are getting exactly the same power and acceleration but in an easier to manage way. If you want 100% throttle in lower gears, you can get it without this box, you just make sure the pedal is pretty much to the floor - with this box it brings it forwards and spread the curve so its easier to control if you want to be really putting the hammer down - but I stand by my comment, you can do all of what they claim without the box by just putting your foot in more. The security aspect is a nice touch I will give them that, a potential thief that has gotten past the alarm and immoboliser might not check under the pedal for this box (I presume to disable it you just unplug it) and if the control box is hidden from view they wont check to where it leads to.

Reading back what you said Dave, it is exactly what I said. That in the lower gears the standard throttle input is lazy, but thats deliberate as most likely 99% of the time you will be in traffic in and around town so you dont want the car being very jumpy in lower gears. Makes sense really. All the sprint booster does, iike the blitz / D1 Spec etc boxes that came before it is compress the inputs going into the ECU so that laziness in effect feels like it goes away as the signal going to the ECU is higher than it would otherwise be. As I understand it (and again happy to be told otherwise there are much smarter people on here), there is a misconception about the 'lower gear' thing on 350z's. You can get 100% power in lower gears without a box, you simply put your foot to the floor and the throttle will be fully open. The shape of the input curves from the pedal to the ECU are like an exponential curve whereas the throttle controllers make them much steeper in terms of getting to 100% - what isn't true is that these boxes open up extra power in lower gears. We should really be asking the likes of Horsham Dev on here, pretty sure they could clarify rather than an amatuer like me!

It would be interesting to see what they said - could you just copy and paste what they told you here?

It does come down to what you want to use this for, essentially you are moving the WOT position of the pedal from to the floor to further up the pedal travel and compressing the curve to get there. Sit in the car and push the pedal all the way in vs half way in and see how little difference there is. If you are a serious track driver possibly there are some marginal gains to be had but as I say each to their own - its also worth noting that given you are halfway there cost wise on some of these devises to a proper remap which does give extra BHP and improves the drive I know where I would be putting my money (and did!). What they do not do is improve acceleration or outright performance, or anything along those lines.

Unless Sprint Booster does anything different to the others that have preceded it (happy to be told otherwise), It does exactly that. Effectively it pulls forwards the 100% throttle position of the gas pedal forwards of the fully down to the floor position to further up thus increasing the gradient of the curve to get there. As described, this would normally be when the pedal hits the floor, instead if you select an aggressive setting 100% will be halfway down the pedal travel giving a feeling that small inputs give big acceleration, when in fact you have the same horsepower, same fuel air mix etc. going on - the car isn't going to go any faster than 'putting your foot down' - the only aside to that is that pushing the pedal all the way down vs half way down is more travel, the difference though is really negligible. You can test this by setting it aggressively, putting your foot in say 70% then push it further, you will notice no increase in power because you have reached 100% already with the pedal 70% of the way down. Its a fair outlay nearly £100 for some of these devices, but its completely up to you guys. I had one years ago and at first it does feel fun but then you work it out and realise whats going on - actually the benefit I only found was the eco mode (which Ekona alluded to) where you can drive more softly and reduce a bit of juddering in and around town.

+1 Just push your foot all the way to the floor it does the same thing

Love it. Nice one Martin look forwards to popping over and taking a look!

Nice one Andy top top bloke.