brillomaster

you know a zed had a tape player a lot later than that!

I've been happy with all my cars, just that the first one was rather slow, remember many ambitious overtakes that didn't always go well. and the spec was rather budget, but hey, nobody has a good first car! the one after that was still a 306, but it had bigger engine, leather seats, air con, and it was awesome and went pretty well.

worst to drive was my first car, a 1.4 Peugeot 306, thankfully since then everything else has been alright! worst car for reliability was my old 300ZX - in the 6 months i had it it needed new track rod ends, new clutch, new radiator and fan, new intercooler, £800 of rust repairs, then once all that was sorted the engine went bang

I've just forked out £500 to tax my 10 year old beemer if you're comparing a leaf to a zed, then yes i'd have the zed as it actually sounds good, goes well and looks good. however compare a leaf to any other family hatch (kia ceed, Hyundai i30 or whatever, something humdrum) then why not have the leaf? frankly i'd rather hear nothing at all than the diesel racket most cars make these days.

I think given the choice between a leaf and a 1.6 ford focus, i'd probably take the leaf and pocket the extra cash each week. i mean, a focus isn't going to sound good, and it isn't going to go any faster, and its not going to have a particularly exciting gearchange, so why pay so much more a month? as long as a humdrum car has aircon, cruise control, a reasonable stereo and comfy seats, i'm not really fussed what propulsion method it employs, i'd just have the cheapest.

if memory serves you have to trick it into thinking theres a tape in there before it'll play, did you do that bit?

set of secondhand rays, or if you're feeling extravagant some ROTAs. job jobbed

if you're gonna be shelling out for a new BOV it cant hurt to have a play around with the current one first (assuming you don't make it worse and blow your engine up) or would you hope to sell on the Blitz one once you have a replacement?

good write up! glad you've had a good year with the car, and certainly £100/month running costs is not too be sniffed at. in fairness, i could make a Leaf work for me - my daily commute is 40 miles total so easily done with charging every night. which would then free me up to get something ridonkulous for the weekends. however that said i still enjoy the sensations of driving an ICE car with gears day to day, suspect something like a 330e would be more up my street.

don't see why you couldn't make a Tuesday evening meet work, now that the days are getting longer, plenty of time for a drive and dinner meet at a local country pub somewhere.

I don't think e92 coupes are particularly common, I see plenty of saloons and estates but not that many coupes, and certainly very few with the giveaway dual exhaust tips. that said, I wouldn't say my 335i was a particularly engaging drive, least not in the form I have it. yes its fast in a straight line, but its too quiet and refined to be that engaging. I think a manual E92 M3 will remedy these things though! but if its boost you're after, a remapped 335i certainly delivers on that front

you wont be disappointed

indeed, my 335i coupe on standard suspension is a very civilised place to be, quiet and very comfortable when cruising. however there is a bit too much roll when cornering, and the open diff is noticeable in the wet when trying to apply power! fortunately the TCS is a lot better than the system in the 350z, it just sorts the problem rather than cutting all power. on the other hand the zed does drive better as standard, but I'm sure some coilovers and ARBS would have the same effect on a 335i. both sound muted as standard as well, the beemer even more so cos its so well insulated from road noise.

my running costs are I believe fractionally lower so far, both were running 18" wheels, 'cept my bmw will do 28mpg on a cruise, the zed was 27mpg. Am personally not expecting servicing to be any more, and at any rate, its less frequent than the zed was. on the other hand, the beemer is way faster, quieter, more comfortable, has a better interior and seats 4 with ease. although the zed sounded nicer and arguably looked a bit better. personally I wouldn't upgrade a DE engine to a HR engine, not different enough to warrant the change. I would consider a 350z to a 370z though.

if you own the container, can you drill a few ventilations holes in it, solve the humidity/condensation problem?

what dan said ^^^ >sigh<

how about park next to container, hop out, push car in. then when collecting, plenty of room to sidle down the side of the car, push car out again?

on my old 300zx one of the previous owners had held the front bumper on with a bit of 2x4 and a self tapping screw straight into one of the intercoolers

could try something FWD for a change, although don't really fancy it... and an RX8 sounds like too much of a risk. annoyingly early high mileage S2000s are still out of our price range, looks like it'll have to be a beemer again!

Well that's that then.... after 7 trackdays, the engine started making weird noises last time out at snetterton. Still had plenty of oil in the sump, and hadn't used a drop since we've had it (unlike the 330ci) but still, engine noises on a £700 car normally mean its new car time. and we've had 7 trackdays out of it, so happy enough with that. If anyone is interested in trying to repair/break for parts, its on ebay right now, no reserve! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E46-328i-Track-car-Spares-or-Repair-/301925232222?hash=item464c256e5e:g:TLsAAOSwAvJXCrVT so whats next for the track car? well snetterton was in January, and its taken this long to get it on ebay, just haven't had the time! and with holiday and Scotland trip coming up, I wont be available for another trackday until around july, so no rush to replace it yet! Also i'm a little torn as to what to get next - another 330ci would be nice, but kinda fancy a change - although as ever it has to be cheap, ideally around £1000. tempted by an RX8 since a 231 version would be fast and revvy, but would it survive a year of trackdays? usual suspects are MX5 and MR2, but the first is too slow and the second is too impractical, since we really need it to hold a full set of wheels and tools. anyone else have any other suggestions?

sorry thread hijacked a bit there! but with regards to rev matching, practice makes perfect if you dont have a computer to do it for you

to be honest it wasn't the automatic feature that made me pick the gearbox, it was the flappy paddles... which in fairness work pretty well. upshifts are quick as are downshifts... easy to push the paddle twice and drop two cogs whilst braking for a corner, and foot flat flappy paddle upshifts are quite entertaining. and now I've got used to it a bit more I can call downshifts on demand with the paddles when in auto mode, which stops the car lurching forward when using the pedal kickdown.

this is true... I find myself apologising for my lurchy automatic gearbox far more than I did when I was driving a manual! anywhos, once the wife replaces her aging 3 door hatch with a slightly larger 5 door hatch, i'll chop in the beemer and get a 370z.

They do, it's called your right foot My Bummer also has the reduced rev limit thing. No idea if it's an actual limiter mind, because there's no way I'm going to thrash a cold engine just to find out. its harder than you might think! been driving auto for nearly a year now, and still not confident on how hard to press the throttle to get it to kick down a single gear. often I'll sit there slowly applying more and more throttle until it kicks down, then immediately lifting off to stop it kicking down again. Heaven forbid you use the kick down switch (4th to 1st gear at 30mph anyone?!?) most of the time these days i'm in manual mode with the paddles, but since manual mode is an extension of sport mode, you have the violent gearchanges even when you're pottering around town... why cant I have manual control, but soft shifts? might just have to go back to manual!

PS if I ever get a 370z or a Porsche with rev matching I will be making use of the facility - plenty of times i'd have loved to bang in a few perfectly blipped downshifts, but my mechanical sympathy and fear of getting it wrong would normally prevent me from doing it too fast. even with plenty of track experience of heel and toeing I can't get it right every time, would be nice to have the ability to do it perfectly every time even if i'm just driving to work and brain isn't fully engaged yet.