brillomaster

I'm pretty sure the safety briefing is at 9:30, with track time starting at 10am. However, not sure how good it will be for spectators as its only an airfield, with the paddock area at one end of a main straight (you normally leave and join the track at a hairpin)

Do some donuts with some attractive girls watching. If they walk away in disgust at your feeble single tyre smoking, your LSD is lunched. If, however, all of their clothes instantly fall off at your super mad drifting skillz, you've got a fully functioning LSD.

i'm running mine on a combination of tabasco sauce and vodka - burns going in and burns again on the way out!

ah essex is fine - we're hoping to do snetterton in mid march, you're more than welcome to come along to that!

where are you based Dan? cos if you're midlands way, you should definitely buy it, and then give me a ride in it actually tell you what, you give me a ride in an M6 on road, i'll give you a ride in our beemer on our next trackday. it only ever gets compliments!

i like the look of the M6! fairly subtle german ubercoupe... whats not to like! hmmm its certainly a tricky one - on the one hand, who wouldnt want a have access to a V10 engine that revs to 8000rpm... the sound and power would be enough to make a grown man weep. but on the other hand, considering the severe impact to wallet in fuel, tyres and servicing costs, is it worth it? I rarely give the zed the full beans and thats only got 280bhp - when would i ever use nearly twice that power?! One small twitch of the right foot would see you north of 120, and rapidly climbing! if i had a lot more money and my commute involved 40 miles along a derestricted autobahn, and i did lots of cross continent driving, and i had a lot more money, i might consider an M6, but unfortunately its not for me at the moment!

HIGH 30s? that seems optimistic, does your commute involve a long downhill section?!? my commute is also 90% motorway, 200 miles a week. i'm normally cruising at 75-80 (same as everyone else on the M40) and average 28mpg.

as mentioned, if you're considering fuel economy, this isnt the car for you, but in all seriousness... any indication of mpg from your drive? not expecting a lot, but surely it'd get mid twenties on a cruise?

yep sorry just one year too old for me!

yep, dont have a clue what film thats from... but yep, good episode. i love the way they shoot top gear - really really want to go to the italian lakes now! and want to do a trackday at spa as well

We've got an old 328i, good solid car! So far our performance upgrades amount to added lightness, suspension and brakes. Next thing on the list are tyres, and only then might we think about some power! by far and away our biggest problems were stopping and cornering, but now they're improved its such a better drive- right up there with the late brakers, and really nice through faster turns.

you never got to 145 at castle combe.... did you?!? i call BS our beemer only got to 100, think Darrens zed only got to 120 or so!

Some poor zed having a bad day in the opening scene of Pacific Rim at 1minute 24 seconds, blink and you'll miss it!

please do! would love to know what an M6 drives like - especially the engine... does it need to be redlined to get the most out of it? i mean, its a heavy car, and relatively low torque - does it actually pull from low revs? either way, i still want one!

ah ok, maybe not 200 quite, but definitely the exciting side of 180 (not that I'll ever get anywhere near that!)

you won't damage the car, if the brakes get really low then you'll hear a horrible grinding noise of metal on metal, and you'll start scoring the discs. but even if it does get this bad, you're replacing both discs and pads anyways. what pads are they? if they're performance pads then slow speed squeaking is fairly normal.

+1 am looking at these as well for my next brake pads - i have ferodo DS2500s at the moment, but they're like, £120 an axle. similarl story to you - car is used as a daily and doesnt do any track work (have a track car for that) and generally, when driving i try and do as little braking as possible! my assumption is that standard brembo pads will overheat quicker and have less friction than performance pads, but seeing as im not in the habit of doing long alpine descents i dont think it will be a problem. EDIT just noticed Clark Motorsport reply - yep that sounds good, will be in touch when i need them!

Ultimate performance bargain has got to be a BMW M5: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/m5/2005-55-bmw-m5-saloon-5-0-v10-bmw-warranty--clutch-and-flywheel-replaced/1992194?isexperiment=true 15 grand gets you a genuine 200mph car (if delimited), under 10 seconds to 100mph. the example above seats 5, has had clutch and fly replaced, should provide a few years of happy motoring! or for an extra grand, its coupe brother, the M6: http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/m6/bmw-e63-e64-m6-full-service-history-2006/2022706?isexperiment=true

the standard exhaust is just naff... sounds very quiet at low rpm, and then at high rpm it just makes a whooshing sound, sounds all wheezy and horrible even a cobra is a huge improvement - can hear a noticeable difference above 3500rpm, the note hardens and just expresses power, rather than restrictions. and then when the exhaust is hot, lots of love pops and crackles on the overrun, which sounds awesome. a true dual will take that even further - can hear a bit of the V6 in the cobra, but need a true dual to hear it clearly. my old 300zx had a true dual and sounded

you've definitely made the right choice - will transform the car when fitted. once i've done a few tiny things like brakes and tyres, swapping my cobra for a true dual is next on my list!

i would say that if you're getting excessive treadwear on the inner edge, then the toe setting is wrong. my fronts had about 4mm of tread across 3/4 of the tyre, but bad toe settings meant the insides were completely bald, nearly showing canvas. my fault for not checking, the tyres properly, but one set of new tyres and an alignment later and all is good - no uneven tread wear.

well, in this country at least the speed limit is 70mph, so really, all cars only need about 30hp to do 70 mph... however, there is a huge difference in a car that does 0-70 mph in 20 seconds, and one that can do it in 5. nobody much cares about top speed these days, as you'll never get anywhere near it. but where performance does matter is in gear acceleration, a 400bhp car will do the standard 40-70mph overtaking move a lot quicker than a 300bhp car.

a while back i found a really good site that showed a 3d wheel with widths and offsets you can pick.unfortunately i cant for the life of me find it now! however, this does the same thing in 2d form - play with the sliders and you'll soon get the jist of what offset does. http://code.beardfu.com/wheel-offset-calculator/#wo_vis

true google knows all! i'm just being awkward... i know offset and wheel widths no problem. the actual letters do mean something as you say - ET stands for 'Einpresstiefe' - which is german for literally 'depth of wheel' ( i had to google that ) and 'J ' refers to the actual shape of the cross section of the rim, ie the bit the tyre hooks onto. I've never heard of an automotive wheel that wasnt a 'J' though! EDIT: for anyone that cares, im a little bit wrong... J isnt the actual shape of the tyre/wheel bead profile, its the designation of that tyre/wheel bead. Apparently there are J, JJ, K, JK, B, P and D types! Read more: http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg4.html#rimcontours#ixzz2sY0reU8F

Alright smartypants, what does 'ET' actually stand for, and what does the 'J' refer to?