DannyBoy

It won't. I'm planning some N/A mods in the near future and expect almost nothing in terms of dyno gains. What it will do though (according to the guys who've done it) is make the car feel much better to drive. DB

I think Forza have the right idea with dividing cars into performance classes tbh . From the few times i've had to seriously slow down from motorway speeds in the Zed it was clear it was no issue at all and could have slowed far faster than whatever was in front. When comparing to my mum's 1.4 corsa, it's just rediculous that they have the same limitations on the road; having the ABS on the corsa kicking in at 65 (HGV pulling out, ta mate ) and it pretty much not stopping was terrifying. The rules of the road really have to be written for the lowest common denominator because the government (probably correctly) assume that they can't trust people to drive within the limits of their cars and ability unless they legally have to. That said, a friend of mine who is a traffic officer (he's never been in the Zed) has said many times that he'd never pull someone over for doing 80 or even 85 in a 70 if they aren't being stupid or dangerous, and it seems to be the unofficial police standpoint already that low speed limits on big roads are pointless because you can still drive like a complete tit at 55. DB

Black Zed went past my house in Over twice today while I was watching the F1, looked and sounded pretty stock. haven't seen any at all in my part of Cambs yet so wondering who this is. DB

I'm sorry, I really don't mean to offend anyone here but i have to ask, is this thread real? I mean really? DB

Just the thought of that makes me grin, last I looked LS7 crates were about 10K-12K though, or can you guys source them cheaper? DB

I was looking at TTing initially as well, and my (pretty extensive) research told me that £10k is a fairly optimistic budget for TT. To do the job what i would call 'properly' it was getting closer to £20k, so i've changed my long term plans to a vortech instead, because that definitely can be done for £10k, and done well. To be pretty simplistic about it, and only in my opinion, TT setups are only worth the cash if you're going for over 400rwhp. any less than this and you'll get the power more reliably and cheaper with a S/C kit instead. Above 400rwhp you're looking at forging the bottom end and you're never getting a forged TT setup for £10k, just not possible as far as i can see. So you may be able to just squeeze a TT setup on it's own into that 10K budget if you're lucky, but you won't be able to reach the potential of the kit without popping your engine, so why spend the extra cash on untapped potential? again, just my $0.2 DB

What I will probably do is if there's a few interested parties, do a completely new set from scratch using the same method that I would actually use for others, as i don't think mine is a representative sample if you know what I mean. And yes I realise i'll have to pay as a member trader if it comes to that DB

About a month ago I decided some carbon fibre was definately needed on the inside of my Zed, so I had a look around and was pretty unimpressed with the options. It seems to me you're limited to stick on panels (only available for limited parts), or you can vinyl anything you like, but while I think the vinyl does look good in its own right, I don't really think it looks that much like real carbon. So given that I've got some experience with composites, I thought I'd have a crack myself, and 4 weeks and three interiors later, i've got it down to a process that works and a result I'm happy with. Basically I covered the centre console, gear surround, centre dash and switch covers in a thin layer of 2/2 twill weave carbon, and polished it to a glass-like finish. below is (if i've done it right) a link to the only picture i have so far, which was taken with a phone in half-light with the car parked under a tree, so not the best but it gives an impression. http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd4 ... AG0022.jpg Thing is, it seems a shame to waste the weeks of trial and error developing the technique just on a one-off piece, so is this something others would be interested in? The way i see this working is: 1. You say what you want: I can do the regular or coloured carbon, any colour accent (borders, dial housings etc.), any decals or logos over the top of the carbon (within reason), and any weave orientation (has to be 2/2 twill because plain isn't flexible enough, but it can go in whatever direction to make patterns etc) and I can actually change the shape of the dash as well (you'll notice there's no fascia spacer around my pioneer HU ) so you could add dials and stuff or delete the cubby or pretty much anything really. 2. i make it: this will take a while, would probably be 2-3 weeks, and variable as it'll be a spare time job. I'll make no excuses for this as it's a thing that needs doing properly, cutting corners with composites really doesn't work. One difference is any i do for other people will have a laquered finish rather than bare resin for two reasons, firstly i really don't know how well this resin is going to hold up to UV whereas laquer is UV resistant, and secondly a laquered finish is what you think of carbon fibre looking like, my polished one isn't as glossy. 3. you recieve the new one and send me your old bits in exchange, this will make it much cheaper. Cost would be IN THE REGION OF £400 for the whole set up like i have, with any colour, logos etc included, but dash modifications would cost more because it's significantly more work. £400 is considerably cheaper than the stick on stuff, and you cant get a stick on centre console! Trust me here, my time is coming VERY cheap, i'm not doing this to make money, it just seems stupid to waste a month of R&D on one piece if others want the same thing. So, any interest in this or should i hang the tools up get a girlfriend instead? DB

Exactly the same, tried an older (but still waaay more expensive than the Zed) 3.2 when I was shopping around and yes, the noise is nice, but it's coming from about a foot behind your head, so there's really no getting away from it. My main issue is that for any kind of long journey the noise coming through the soft top and from the engine bay would drive me nuts and the Zed is a lot less common. DB

If you want something stupid and within your budget, then your choice is clear my friend: http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,37,/34092/FV_432_MK_2.htm you're never gonna pull up next to another one of those at the traffic lights! DB

Alex's catchphrase, he says it pretty much every time he recommends a product. DB

Brace yourself...

If you can be bothered (which i'm guessing you can because that's an awesome job ) you can take the inside of the cubby door off and get the button on it's own to paint it. If that's what you did in the first place rather than masking up then ignore me because i'm telling you what you already know. DB

Nice find that. Amazed how prices are dropping... +1 on the A3 but I'd go for the 2.0FSI engine (if you can get a new enough one for you) over the turbos. I had one for 2 years and loved the engine, pokey when it needs to be but 43MPG on a good motorway cruise. DB

Researching this was part of my job role in my last posting, so i can probably give you some helpful info. I don't think they'll be that keen to try reposessing for the sake of £50, but if they try it then the following applies: Basically they have no power whatsoever to gain entry to your property to take your stuff unless they have a court order, and if they had one you'd know about it. However, if you let them in then all of a sudden this changes and they are entitled to reposes stuff for some reason, so its worth telling anyone who might be in your house not to let them in. Despite this total lack of power they'll often do some really nasty things to make you feel like you're in loads of trouble and give them what they want, but really they can't do anything so ignore them. If TalkTalk still own your debt then you need to resolve this with them, but if the DCA has bought the debt from TalkTalk then you need to resolve it with the DCA, which will probably be harder because they've had practice at getting money out of people. Either way they need to be able to prove that you owe the money, and if they can't then they should stop persuing you, or you get the law involved on your side. I'll caveat the above by saying that it's based on research that's coming up on 10 months old, but as far as i know it's still current. Hope it helps DB

I forgot to mention dash board, centre console and arm rests on doors. Already got the above covered; should be set up for a made-to-order bespoke service in a few weeks. However a mass produced off-the-shelf kit is well out of my capabilities, so could be something for RT Performance to look at. DB

Yip......and why bother spending money developing 'logic'.........just use the statistics excuse that allows you to charge everyone more. I can't imaging there are too many people on the insurance companies directing board campaigning for lower premiums for their customers - lower premiums = lower profits. Not if you're so expensive no one insures with you. This reveals another problem, in that insurance brokers have basically formed a cartel 'justified' by statistics which, as Sarnie said, can show whatever you want them to with the right fiddling. I don't think there's really anything anyone can do about it though; many companies all running adverts claiming to provide fair cheap car insurance whilst simultaneously hiking premiums beyond belief is definitely wrong, but as far as i can tell it ain't illegal DB

Yes

Why would it be more likely? One act is surely independant of the other therfore not a valid driver (scuse the pun) for increasing insurance premium charges. If you are young, male and new to the road then these are clear drivers of the likelihood of an accident - being hit by someone else I don't think is, causality vs coincidence. I think it should be made law that consumers can see these all conquering databases, they can be made to say what you want them to say, I am sure there are attribute sets in there which are hidden which if were included would have an reducing impact (twice, scuse the pun). I know that's the reason they give Ekona, but i'd bet that the statistics only show what they show because certain areas are very accident prone and people who drive a lot of miles in these areas are likely to be involved in more incidents. So while this will show that people who get crashed into will also crash into other people, the causeof that is actually the area and annual mileage, which are already accounted for in the premium. So basically they're double weighting the policy for the same thing. I will lick the inside of my exhaust pipe if anyone can come up with stats which show that given two identical drivers, in the same area, car, profession, and driving the same annual mileage the one who got crashed into is more likely to then have a crash based solely on that fact. DB

Count me in, been wanting these since I got the car! DB

I think what people are getting at is that as you could buy a straight car with similar mileage for the same money, buying the CAT C instead would be a strange choice. You've obviously got one that's been fixed properly, but for anyone without ZMANALEX levels of Zed knowledge, you can't be 100% sure you're not buying a pup, so the price has to reflect that risk. DB

It depends really on what quality you're after. The tech to wirelessly stream 1080p for example is still very new, and last time i checked was only really available for commercial use (like pubs/sports bars being able to put nice big screens wherever they want them and being able to change source etc. without having to rewire). I think I would have noticed if that tech had dropped down to consumer level, but i could have missed it. Personally I'd go with wires, it'll be a ball-ache to get it done initially but will be more effective and more reliable once set up in my experience. DB

Put me down for one as well. DB

I would be very interested in one of these IF it could act as a boost gauge for an FI setup which it doesn't look like it can if it just plugs into the ECU, but correct me if i'm wrong. Boost and AFR are the only additional displays I would have thought most people would want, other than that I can't really see a massive advantage of these over a code reader. DB

I reckon if you centred the '350' and dropped the 'Z' directly below it that would look mint, but i guess it would be trickey to conceal the holes that way. At the end of the day, you've already said you like it, and yours is the only opinion that should matter. DB