brillomaster

been with RAC for the last few years, never had any problem with them, and called them out a few times: once to unlock a car when I accidentally locked the keys in it, once to top me up with petrol (at half past midnight on the M42), once to jump start my wifes car when the battery went flat while we were out shopping, once to reconnect the battery terminal when it snapped just as we were entering a multi-storey carpark! once to diagnose an engine knock, when then turned into a tow home. every time the guy came promptly, most call to let you know they're on the way, so you don't have to stand by your car for hours, you can go sit inside a café and wait. and all seemed very friendly. Would have no problem recommending RAC to others.

Well after much deliberation I've decided to go it alone with track cars... its been a great couple of years with Ken but the direction we each want to go with a track car is starting to differ. And the fact that we were without a car seemed like a good time to part ways. So, I have gone and bought myself another(!) BMW 328i (number 5!) for the low low price of £650. it will of course be stripped out as much as is sensible, brakepad and fluid upgrade, reusing the wheels and tyres from the old car, and then at some point a set of cheap coilovers. whilst I have bought the car on my own, my intention is not to go on trackdays on my own - I have a few friends from work who would come along, and also a couple of people from this forum who would be interested in doing a trackday or two, and now that I have full control of the car its entirely at my discretion who I allow to drive the car and when, and I alone bear the risk of someone binning my car. Hopefully will work out ok, but only time will tell. I figure at the price I paid I need to get 6 trackdays out of it to break even, which is about consistent with how long the previous cars have lasted!

hmm, some good and bad advice here. firstly, practice makes perfect. you'd ruddy well hope taxi gearchanges are smooth as silk, they've probably had several hundred thousands of miles of town driving to practice, and have probably done pulling away and 1st to 2nd gear changes literally thousands of times. 2 months is not really a long time, some people can drive for years and still not be smooth with a gearchange. downshifting, the lurch is because the engine speed is lower than the new gear, so the car lurches as the engine speed is brought up to match the new speed. letting off the clutch slower will help, but really you want to blip the throttle so the engine speed and road speed match up for the new gear. the technique is clutch in, blip throttle while changing gear, clutch back out. this takes a lot of practice. once you've mastered the throttle blip, next try doing it with the right side/heel of your right foot, while the left side/ball of your right foot is pressing the brake. this is heel and toeing, which requires a lot of practice! using the handbrake - yes, do this. especially when on hills. holding a car on the biting point is a great way of wearing out a clutch. also holding a clutch in will wear out the clutch, if you're stopped for an extended period of time, then pop it in neutral, handbrake on and let the clutch out. coasting in neutral to junctions - don't do this. it annoys me when my wife does this. the correct technique is brake in gear, then just before you stall, clutch in. 50 years ago brakes were terrible, so people used gears to slow down. nowadays brakes are a lot better, and a lot cheaper to replace than gearboxes, so use the brakes to stop. brakes to slow, gears to go. Don't know where he got coast in neutral from though, that's just bad! coasting in neutral means you have no control of the car at all.

that does look pretty sweet, nice long course and if you're getting up into 3rd you might be going some! too much wheel shuffling going on for my liking though, hands at 9 and 3 next time

spacers wont affect the alignment (unless you knock the hub when you fit them) and yes, that looks like your toe is quite a long way out, should be sorted by an alignment. also, when you replace the tyres buy better ones than were on there

i'm a little sad tbh. yes I've never been particularly fond of CE, and while he did really grate in the first two episodes with his continuous shouting, he has improved a fair bit in the last 4 episodes. and the piece he did on the MG was ok. i'd have given him another couple of series to settle in. but I suspect even those who initially doubted him would have been warming to him, unfortunately with so much social media coverage it must have felt so disheartening to have so much media abuse after the first two episodes. the Beeb really misjudged what to put in the first episode, if they'd have had either the fast fezza or the AM Vulcan it would have been so much better.... even the race to beat the train would have been better than the 'race' to blackpool. I don't think any of the presenters were perfect - even CH came across a little childish at times. but have to say, of all the pieces, CHs and RRs were the most enjoyable, followed by MLB. maybe next series they should see how those three get on together on a roadtrip for example. Still, bring on the Grand Tour in autumn, then we can pick favourites!

I think I get the same amount of recognition if I let people out whilst in the zed or my beemer. although that said, now I have a beemer I try and let other BMWs out wherever possible, us BMW drivers have to stick together, since no one else will let them out!

its got a while to go before it starts going up in value - there are still a great number of them out there, they need to start getting hard to come by before they start going up in value. perhaps if you hold onto it for another 10 years maybe it'll start going up again, otherwise i'd sell it now.

have a look on rimtuck.com though not a lot of 11" fronts (one!)

hmmm taking lessons on subtlety and tact from the master StevoD - no thanks i'll pass!

I took the liberty of working out Dans (Ekona)... somewhat surprisingly, 31%! and then I had a look at StevoD, even more surprisingly, 38% liked! I thought both would be down in the single digits, but seems I am wrong

awww, have a like, you need them!

3614 posts, 1024 likes... 28.3% liked. not too shabby methinks!

just as well Dan wasn't invited to our wedding then!

so what would you do if you went to a wedding and the couple asked for cash to put towards a honeymoon?

our wedding was about £5k all in, hired a converted barn which slept 18 people for a 3 night weekend which was £2100, then a further £600 on wedding venue, £2000 on catering Saturday night, and maybe £600 on food/drink for the rest of the weekend. didn't bother with a florist, getting a cake made, a photographer or a DJ - morrisons, M&S, friends and an ipod with some BIG speakers covered all of that. and for any wedding presents we asked for money, which paid for half the honeymoon to Florida.

that's awesome!

how awesome would it be to have a countdown on the lights, I think if we had those here every junction would become a dragstrip. problem with our current system is that if you sit there holding the revs at 4000rpm for more than about 3 seconds you look like a massive berk... but if you and the guy next to you and the couple of rows all knew when the light was going to go green and only lasted for 1 second, you'd get entire grids of cars doing standing starts, would be awesome! oh, and street racing is illegal, obviously. something I would never do.

ha one second of green light! that would lead to some enthusiastic launches!

definitely think if your GF bought you some new badges for your car, you should fit them! TBH they wont look that different from standard, but the benefits of having a happy GF who can see her gifts and good intentions are being recognised is immeasurable. especially for the sake of half an hours work! the alternative is you tell her you now don't really want them, and will be sticking with standard. See how well that pans out for you at all subsequent christmasses and birthdays!

only with the original Japanese soundtrack - completely doesn't work with the American soundtrack, makes the film totally different!

anything is possible given enough funds. you could install a fully electric drivetrain if you really had the desire and cash to do it. although as usual the cost of installing batteries and motors and getting it all to work together would be way more than getting a similar amount of power from a supercharger. you'd have to be really attached to a 350z, and really keen on electric power to make it work, when it would be considerably cheaper to sell the zed and buy a car with desired power output already.

a lot - 1600kgs for a car, 500kgs for a trailer. probably some spare wheels etc on there as well would add another 100kgs, so you'd be looking at 2200kgs all in, which would need something hefty to tow it comfortably!

hefty single car crash near peterborough, save everyone clicking the link.

Don't take it to a main stealer, the best garage for a zed is Cougarstore up the road in Leicester. /thread.