DannyBoy

It's ruining it because any shift into 2nd or 3rd results in a loud crunch unless slowly double clutched or rev-matched. It's been a handy teaching tool for advanced shifting techniques, but frankly i'm sick to death of it. You ever tried to drive a car without synchros? DB

Nope, it's a CD009 from a MY'06 VQ35DE Rev-up. The gearboxes from HR engined cars won't fit, something to do with the clutch slave cylinder I think. The CD009 is basically the same as the earlier boxes but with triple and double-cone synchros where they're needed. will probably still be noisey/clunky but will hopefully stop 2nd and 3rd crunching (crosses fingers). DB

Still sitting in my garage Looking at heading over to Jez sometime this month if he can fit me in and have it fitted along with a new clutch. DB

Thing is it's all very well saying 100bhp/litre shouldn't be that hard because Fezzas all do it, but have you seen the redlines on those motors? Revs and displacement are the two best ways of increasing N/A power, and given there aren't fantastic options for diplacement increases on the VQ35 (just some horrifically expensive stroker kits) you're left with revs. To rev the engine higher without destroying it you need strengthened and balanced internals, but just because the engine can now rev higher doesn't mean it will make decent power up top. For that you're going to need to open up the headers and exhaust and cam the F*** out of it. From previous projects you can see that there's a point in the rev range at which the DE engine just really doesn't want to make power without ridiculous cams, and it's well short of the 8-9k redlines of Ferrari V8s. There's a question as to whether any N/A tuning on the VQ35 is really a good idea financially, but once you've sorted intake, headers, exhaust, and a mild redline increase and some mild cams, anything you do further is just going to make the car a pig to drive on the roads. Personally, my plan is to get my car as above, in the knowledge that if I ever want more power it'll go bonkers if i stick a vortech on it. DB

£7k-£7.5k, not even in the same ballpark as that asking price, especially with no Rays on it. DB

Yes, but you are forgetting the noise they would make. You have me on that one DB

Many, many, many threads about ITBs on the US forums. To my knowledge no one has ever made them work properly on a daily driver car, and only a few have made it work well enough to be worth it even for a garage queen/track monster. Basically If you have a fully rebuilt and balanced hi-comp motor revving to 8K, with headers, cams, ported and polished plenum and cylinder heads and a straight-through ture dual and you're desperate to stay N/A, then you might see a gain with ITBs. For eveeryone else, there are far better options. DB

I don't think he meant a consultant in that sense, but the overpaid bureaucrats who get paid ludicrous amounts to come up with obvious or unworkable solutions to simple problems. DB

Surely the basic issue boils down to the fact that the NHS gets it's cash from the governement, whether it's terrible or not. We may all think it's awful (seems like most on here do at least) but we pay for it anyway because if we don't then we go to prison (where we'd probably get better health care). Private healthcare is better principally because it has to be to survive. The management of the NHS can get away with running the most inefficient and badly organised healthcare system in western Europe because they get paid regardless and therefore have little incentive to do otherwise. I'd like to clarify I am firmly in favour of the principles of the NHS, just not the way it requires 4 people on 100K salaries to decide what colour the toilet seats need to be. DB

Blinking airbag light is a different ball game. The 'turning the key 4 times' thing works for the constant 'on' light, but the blinking light I believe means a more serious fault than just not being able to detect one of the airbags. Not sure why the module reset didn't work though, possibly something wrong with one of the non-deployed airbags? DB

Stop it! get the damn thing working N/A, THEN worry about iron lungs. DB

They are purely cosmetic, they just make the stance of the car wider and make the wheels fill the arches better. Not sure about the 370z but they actually detract from the handling on some cars by increasing the scrub radius of the front wheels. I can see why people do it on the 350, but i've never looked at a 370 and though 'that needs spacers'. Each to their own though. Try Tarmac and CS for getting hold of some DB

http://www.rhdjapan.com/nismo-vq35de-en ... ec-2-55710 you do have to get them from Japan unfortunately, but they really do look worth it. They used the VQ30 heads as a base, then milled them down to increase compression and ported them. The VQ30 heads are a popular mod in themselves in the states, as they're supposed to flow better than the VQ35 heads as stock. I'm not just blurting out exotic parts at you either, these are on my shopping list for down the line, and they got there via a lot of research. DB

PM Jez at Horsham Developments. He has most of the interior of his track car lying around. Can I ask what happened to your original one? DB

The velocity stack is the little trumpet (inside the airbox, so you can't see it) that flows the air into the intake pipe after it's gone through the filter. It's an aerodynamic tool to decrease turbulence in the intake system and improve flow. The 2006 airboxes had a bigger (better) velocity stack that the 03-05 ones, so the best possible intake for performance is a 2006 airbox. You can try and get a used 2006 one, or you can buy a kit from RT customz that retrofits a bigger velocity stack onto an earlier airbox. PPF= Performance Panel Filter? DB Edit: spelling

That happens on my coupe as well though, lol. twobears: for once they're being serious , vaseline or baby oil will plump up the rubber, and WD40 works pretty well too (apply with cloth, do not spray) DB

Unfortunately ringing a breakers really is the best way to do it. Their online stock is often pretty inaccurate if they even display their stock online at all. Have you tried Jez at Horsham Developments? He stripped the whole interior of his track car out a while back, and I got some bits from him the other day, so he still has it all kicking around. @BulletMagnet, The boot mat is not the same size or shape as the boot floor piece that Hawker1986 is missing, trust me I've had my whole boot apart several times quite recently. DB

I assume you mean Porsche by that, won't parts be expensive? Depends on where you source them. This was a reasonably popular car and while there are still a few thousand of them knocking about in the UK, a lot have been scrapped in recent years, so getting stuff from breakers should be pretty easy + a lot of owners clubs in the UK & Europe - I know it's not an obvious choice like a Defender, but if it were my choice, I'd pick heart over head 944: Easy/relatively cheap to fix Front engine/rear gearbox/RWD Weigh nothing when stripped All that adds up to one epic DIY track toy in my opinion. Fixing up a defender would be good fun I'm sure, but do you actually want the defender at the end of it? I'd say better to have something you'll want to keep and enjoy as the result of your efforts. DB

I've heard many many horror stories about laquering vinyl wraps. Is just re-wrapping it with fresh stuff not an option? DB

TBH I would no longer view this as overkill. If I had taken 5 mins to do that then this wouldn't have happened. On the other hand, as I said, I did actually recieve my documents which in a sane world would be a fair indication that things are in order. @Ricey: definitely not a card number issue, as I ammended my existing policy when I got the Zed in August and paid with the same card. I did also check this when on the phone to them and they have the right card. DB

I am very VERY cynical when it comes to insurance companies. I think they're a bunch of incompetent pirates for the most part, but even with that mindset my experience today has genuinely shocked me. I'm insured with Admiral, and my policy auto-renewed in mid February. It was actually a surprisingly good quote so for the lack of hassle I decided to let it tick over automatically and recieved my documents in the post a few days later and filed them. My old man managed to break his neck skiing a few weeks ago (silly sod), and due to the resultant operation will be in a neck brace for at least another two months. Obviously he can't drive in a neck brace so he has to be ferried around everywhere, mainly by me. Now as most of you will realise, the Zed isn't exactly an ideal car for transporting someone with a severe spinal injury on UK roads, so I need to be able to drive the family bus for a bit. First port of call I thought would be to check if i'm third party on my own policy, as said family bus is only worth £1500 or so. I though only being 23 that I probably wasn't but might as well ring up Admiral and check. This is where it gets interesting. On phoning Admiral and giving them my policy number, this is the response I get: 'The policy number that you've just given me was cancelled on the 2nd of March' What. The. F***. So it transpires that Admiral were unable to take payment for the premium, and so cancelled the policy. On asking why the hell they didn't feel the need to tell me this, they replied that I should have been sent a letter and an email confirming cancellation of my policy. I didn't recieve either. I could believe that a letter got lost in the post, but the email address they have for me is checked probably once every 10 mins during office hours, and at least several times daily at weekends. My junk filter lets Admiral through, and even if it didn't I scan my junk every few days. Basically if they had sent an email I would have seen it and actioned it. They also have two phone numbers for me, at least one of which I am at 24 hours a day, my mobile is actually next to my bed at night. Apparently they're happy to ring people uninvited to blab at them about special offers, but not to inform them of anything that might actually be important. Here's the kicker: I ring up my bank to find out what the hell happened to the original payment, thinking it may well be their fault; Just ask Jez @ H-Dev how reliable they've been at processing large transactions in the past. There is no record of Admiral (or anyone else) trying to debit my account for the amount due. Nothing at all, no declined transactions, no fraud stops, and there was enough money in the account to cover the premium three times over. So to summarise, Admiral failed to even attempt to take my money for reasons know only to them, and then made the most half-arsed or possibly even non-existent attempt to contact me about it. The result of which is that I have been illegally driving around uninsured for almost two months without a bloody clue. My blood runs cold at the thought of something having happened in that time. I could well be on Her Majesty's room and board right now. I understand that for a lot of us younger members on here Admiral (and sisters) are the only way we can sensibly afford to insure the Zed. For that reason I'm not saying 'don't ever use Admiral', because no one would listen. But if you do, please for the love of god don't let them do anything by themselves, treat them like an excited three-year-old with a pair of scissors and don't trust them for a second. DB

Each to their own and all that, but are you on crack? DB

The 600 quid was for removal, refurb, and refitting of the original gearbox. The new gearbox itself was £550, and I haven't had it fitted yet because I want to get a new clutch to go in at the same time but i'm expecting about another £500-£600 for the labour costs. That's just guesswork though, I haven't got any quotes yet. DB

Around 600 quid all in for a basic refurb/synchro replacement was the best quote I found. Then I decided to buy a new gearbox instead. Problem is the weak synchros are just an inherent design flaw so the new ones will wear in time, and the problem will just come back. More discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=59120 DB Edit: good question alex, I just sort of assumed it was an early DE gearbox because of the nature of the problem.

TaffyJason, also running cams you need more compression to make them work on a N/A car. pull the motor , rods/pistons to raise the compression ratio, cylinder head cleaned up/cams uprated springs/caps on the valves, 7500+ RPM with a good tune your see around 320+ bhp at the hubs on our dyno. (hugely off topic, sorry Keyser ) Could go with Nismo type 2 cylinder heads rather than porting the existing ones. They flow better, and bump the compression on stock pistons to 11:1, add some high comp pistons as well, and then sort the breathing out to cope with high revs and you'd have a hell of an N/A motor. @Mark, do you really think 320 at the hubs would be that easy? I just mention it because Alex at Z1 spent a hell of a lot of time and money just getting over the 300 mark. DB