longsh07

Totally agree. I'd be the first to say "it's your car, do what you want" to anyone else even if I disagreed with their choice of style/modifications but somehow its always more difficult when its yourself. It does make me feel better knowing I am not the only one to mod their GT4, especially as I probably wouldn't quite go the same extend you have! (All due respect by the way, I've seen the list of mods on your car and its like reading a parts catalogue!) On a side note (and this may answer my own question) something I'd really like to do is improve my driving ability. Being realistic about this, my nearest tracks are Silverstone and Bedford Autodrome so that's where I'll be spending most of my track time. Now I could carry on tracking the MX5 but there will come a point where I cant learn anything more from the car and those tracks without spending thousands to up the power. I find the 350 handles quite like the MX5 on the road except with the obvious power advantage and weight disadvantage. So it makes me wonder if I could still learn/improve the same basic techniques in either car. With that in mind the best course of action I believe would be to stop putting money into the MX5 and start using more as a daily drive. The money I'd save doing this could be put into doing some basic track mods to the 350 (oil cooler/baffled sump/better brake pads etc) or put to one side to replace the MX5 with something more practical.

Right I'm after some thoughts from you guys. Thought I'd start here but might have to make a separate post if this doesn't get much attention (I appreciate build threads are not everyone cup of tea). ---------------- TL:DR Have two cars, 350 and MX5. Currently - 350 is a daily - no track use. MX5 is also a daily but have taken on couple of track days. Trying to modify it to be a road legal track toy without loosing the creature comforts or making it awful to drive daily on the road. Problem - 350 feels like its not being used properly but worried about damaging it. Dilemma Do I - Sell 350, buy something useful all year round, track spec the MX5. - Keep 350, get over myself and use it more often, track spec the MX5 but slap on winter tyres to keep the 350 safe in winter. - Sell MX5, buy something more useful all year round , start tracking and track specing the 350. - Something else. ---------------- So I have two cars, my GT4 350Z and a 2004 Mazda MX5 (http://www.350z-uk.c...icle-overnight/) The 350 only ever gets driven to work and back, to the odd show/meet and when I just need to take it out for a blast to clear my head. I'm very precious about this car so I tend to avoid taking it where people could damage it (supermarket car parks etc). The MX5 also gets driven to work and back every other week (I swap between the two), taken out when I have to go shopping etc and I've also taken it on a couple of track taster days. At the moment, my thought was to modify this car to make it into a track day toy but to try and retain the creature comforts and without making it awful to drive daily on the road. These two do not often go hand in hand so this is quite a challenge. Unfortunately the 350 failed it last MOT on emissions and the numbers wouldn't go down even after a few minutes of reving to heat up the cats. Now I get that I've got HFC's so this was always a risk however the numbers were not going down at all so Ross suggested as I have a few days left on the old MOT I take it for a blast to clear our the cobwebs before it goes back for a retest. This got me thinking that I'm clearly not using the 350 to its fullest if the exhaust is all coked up in under a year. So now I really do have a dilemma rather than the made up one I used in the title of this thread to try and make it eye catching and interesting (I was always going to mod it no question ) My biggest issue is how precious I am about my 350. I don't like taking it to the shops for fear of door dents and I wont drive it in winter because (a ) no winter tyres at the moment, but more importantly (b ) most other drivers carry on driving like its nothing so I'm worried some idiot is going to hit me! On top of everything its a GT4 too so I kind of feel like I need to be extra careful with it because they are so limited in number and I'd be ridiculed by the community for being a jack-ass with it if the worst did happen and it got written off. At the same time I feel guilty that I have this beast and it is not being given the chance to be driven to its fullest. Basically I don't want to be the stereotype guy who has a Ferrari but it never leaves the garage because it might get dirty or it might get a stone chip or someone might scratch it so it never gets used for its intended purpose and no one gets to appreciate it. This is where I need your opinions. As I see it I have a few options. Swap 350 for something that can use all year round (was thinking Evo X maybe...?) and carry on turning the MX5 into a track/road rocket. Get over myself - it is only a car after all, keep the 350 and keep modifying the MX5 then just slap on some winter tyres and deal with it maybe being a bit uncomfortable over winter. Swap the MX5 for something more useful all year round and start using the 350 as a weekend/track day toy. I appreciate the above is a bit of a ramble and I'm probably not looking at the big picture (after all I'm lucky enough to be able to run two cars at this stage in my life) but I'd hope that some of you understand how frustrating it can be to not know where to go with your hobby/passion.

Well the chap quit his job to do this full time so you'd be helping him out if you brought one

Yup it was completely customisable. I got to specify pretty much every last detail of the design. The actual images are drawn up from photos I sent over.

Sold - Please close.

Sparco Top Driver race boot FIA compliant, blue suede, only worn once, size 42 (UK8). Offering them up here before they go on ebay. £65 posted

Taken from my 2005 GT4. Ribbon cable was damaged and so occasionally the dials go off causing the blower to go crazy. I imagine its repairable. Free if you pay postage.

Some light scratches and intends from multiple removals. 16 lug nuts, 4 locking nuts and key - colour is not quite brembo bronze but very close. Made of lightweight alloy (cold forged aluminium 7075 T6) and tested by manufacture up to 270ft/lb torque - see link below (http://www.taperpro....k/2012/nuts.htm) £40 posted On car.

Just found this on their twitter. I think they might know what their talking about

Yeah they are on their way out. They aren't as bad as the look in the photo, the discs are slightly uneven but not scored. I had planned on replacing them after this set of pads was done. Had a chat with Paul Roddison of roddisons motorsport, they actually have their own compound brake pads which get a lot of good reviews on MX5nutz so going to give those a go. He also recommended sticking with plain discs (rather than drilled/grooved etc). Apparently that's what they use on their race cars so if its good enough for them its good enough for me!

Just wanted to post this. Think I might need some slightly higher temp brake pads. That or I've found a way to convert greenstuff to yellowstuff Original green colour

Haha fair enough! I'm a PC gamer mostly I'm afraid. I do have a PS3 but I don't think I've played anything but Gran Turismo 6 on it for over a year lol. I'll look you up when I'm not online.

Forgot to add. There was quite a few 350's about Sunday. Two in the first session and one in the second. None of them came past me though which made me both very happy and a little sad about

Don't blame you, I skip through most of it too. There's a nice smooth lap starting at shortly after 18:15 on session 2. The guy in the TVR which was much faster in the straights let me past and I managed to get round in about 1m 20s (timed roughly using the video). Yeah poor Porsche owner. The session he crashed in was a Pistonheads Sunday Service track session too. Dont expect he's too popular on PH any more!

Videos from Sunday: Session 1 (10:45am) Session 2 (11:55am) Had a great time but, much better than the poor sod who wrote off his Porsche just before my first session! All OK thankfully. (not my photo) Car has taught me a few new things too: Brakes - I need new brake pads. The greenstuff pads hold up OK with just me in the car. With my friend, they were really struggling towards the end. I actually had to do a few slower laps to cool them down as I was getting a lot of juddering. After a few slower laps they were back on form and held up perfectly for the second session. Seat - Bucket seat before coilovers/tyres. I keep holding myself in my seat with my knees. Realistically I cant improve the cornering any more without getting a bucket or ill be sitting on my passengers lap! Tyres - The MPS3's are fantastic all round tyre and have handled the punishment of road and track driving really well. Highly recommend them if you cant afford two sets of tyres or dont fancy running track tyres all the time, but they are not quite up to a lot of abuse. Under hard cornering you can feel them flexing so I think it might be time to look at getting some track day tyres. Pictures below show the wear from 6 months of daily driving (every other week) and four 30 minute track sessions. Hightly impressed with how little they have worn down (although they are slightly melted )

Quite a while back now I backed a project on Kickstarter called 'Engineered Art'. Basically the chap running the project makes A3 size, aluminium laser etched technical blueprints of cars and bikes etc. Well mine finally arrived this weekend and I had to share it because its so incredibly cool to look at Had mine designed in its standard spec as I'm thinking about getting another one once I've finished modifying it. Just need to get myself a frame now so it can take pride of place Obviously the Kickstarter has now ended so if anyone else is interested, this is the website http://www.blackartgraphics.com/

I don't expect the feed will make any more power but it certainly helps bring the air intake temps down. Otherwise the airbox is reliant of getting cold air from the wheel arch (which seems like a weird system to me but what do I know!) Track day Sunday. Then need to decide if I then save for coilovers or a bucket seat. I expect that might depend on if I need new brakes by the end of tomorrow lol

Oh and also did a bit more of the interior purple. Really need to get rid of the red seats and the little bits on the door panels now.

Right, time for a bit of an update. My exhaust was rattling so decided to pop down to Japex and have them fit me a Cobra System Video of the rattle, sounds like its coming from inside the back box so expect it was a loose baffle. Video of Cobra system (warm start and revs) Photos Next, decided to fit the fire extinguisher. I didn't really want to put it in the passenger foot well as there isn't a huge amount of leg room as it is, so I decided to mount it where the CD changer used to be. Also finally fitted the front tow hook (on the left) And last but not least, removed one of the fog light blanks and made a cold air feed for the stock air box. Then fitted with a bit of paint. All ready for the next tray day

http://www.nengun.com/nismo/wheel-nut-set

Look what I found! I didn't even know these existed!? And they are steel so no more worries about the alloy lugs seizing/braking.

As above, its a mic for the hands free.