brillomaster

I'd love an S15 Spec R. awesome looking cars but so so rare over here, and the prices are going through the roof for what they are - a 350z is newer, faster and a nicer place to be, and is half the price of an S15.

what part of the previous y pipes failed? and also, what pipes were they?

i'd be very very surprised if that's a 12" rear and 11" front - especially since those look to be 18s, i'd say max 10" rear and 9" front. that said, they do look very nice, certainly a lot better than the wheels that were on before!

have you tried CEX for trade in? just had a quick look for you and their average trade in offers are 60% higher than Game

im guessing Aberdeen...

Turn 14 of 17 on the full GT layout, what I like to call it the fourth hairpin... the last left hander before the three rights that complete the lap. Not a usual place for collisions, but possibly the slowest corner on the track, easy to get the back out on the exit.

Nice one Lewis, knew it was going to happen but always nice to have three races in the bag. Very enjoyable race to watch, nice when the redbulls and the Ferraris can give the Mercedes a decent run. And having a track where its possible to overtake helps. looking forward to Mexico this weekend, a bit of rain would be nice as well! Shame you cant control the weather, otherwise i'd make every grand prix have a shower halfway through!

my old car used to a have a metallic rattle from the rear, despite having everything checked I never located the source of the sound. I actually think it was a loose metal join around the strut brace/rear boot trim had come loose - sounded exactly like the siren for the alarm was loose and rolling around on the metal of the boot floor. Try stripping down the trim in the boot if you're running out of ideas!

no idea unfortunately! anything would be pure speculation. A few cars were missing their braking points at that corner though, my guess is someone wasn't expecting a car in front to brake when it did and went into the back of them. But other than that incident everyone was very well behaved!

cant see a problem with draining and reusing the oil - even if you buy brand new perfectly clean bucket and then bin it afterwards it wouldn't be more than a fiver, certainly cheaper than fresh oil.

indeed, how are the roads around Lincoln, and your usual route to work? Down in sunny leamington we didn't get any snow this year, so kept running on summers no problem. but just aware that grip levels will be somewhat reduced in freezing conditions! if you do decide to get winter tyres, the people who tend to make good summer tyres also make decent winter tyres - with the addition of Nokian, who are Finnish, and so also know a cold winter!

Well that was indeed an educational day! Started off nice and dry and mild, lots of interesting cars out on track and was having a great time, got heat in the tyres and they were gripping well. Big difference compared to previous tyres we've ran around Bedford, corner speeds a lot higher. Then about 10am the drizzle started - nothing major, just enough to need to wipe the windscreen a few times a lap. Fair enough, tyres have heat in them, so press on much the same. Notice at this point how quiet the track is... Then just before lunch the rain got a little heavier - wipers on all the time now. tyres still responding reasonably well, little bit of understeer in a few places, but generally pretty planted. At this point nearly all the exciting machinery was in the pits, just the cheaper clios/mx5s/MGs out on track now. And then an early lunch for car to car contact, apparently a whole load of glass on the track! After lunch, rain cleared and things brightened up a touch, but actually it seemed that this was the most treacherous... tyres had gone cold, and was like driving on ice at some of the corners - had to really work to not understeer, and then be on the ball for power oversteer. I was loving it, TCS off, sliding the car around, all good fun. Ken wasn't so keen on the slidy conditions though! Then about 3pm the rain started properly. visibility was well down, proper monsoon conditions. But to my surprise, 595 RSRs were better in full on wet that they were in drying conditions - could still keep reasonable pace, TCS off, and now starting to find traction and corner speed, really quite remarkable. Only problem really, which we entirely expected, was standing water... on the back straight were a few patches that you basically had to skate over at about 90... and then the odd puddle right on the apex! All in all the tyres are surprisingly good - if you have heat in them then they're fine with drizzle, but even cold they can deal with rain. of course this may change as the tyres get more worn, but will see. certainly inspired me that we can run them year round. Will have to see how they respond to freezing conditions in January. Have a few videos of the day, including my one and only spin... last corner before the pit straight, lost the rear and went past the point of return, everyone in the pits would have seen it. but no harm done, stayed on the tarmac! Will post the vids once I've uploaded to youtube. Hopefully Snetterton next, again a track we know well but haven't done on decent tyres before, should be good!

maybe just a test resit at 60 or 70 is whats required... combined with free bus travel. Maybe if it was made law and people knew that they were facing a retest when they reach a certain age, many more people would gracefully hand over their keys rather than attempting a driving test knowing full well they are physically unable to pass. old people are stubborn, and its a well known fact they don't listen to advice of their children, but if an independent driving instructor told them they were unfit to drive, they might listen.

that's what I mean - there will be teenagers putting cars in ditches/around trees/ into bus stops pretty much every day, killing themselves and their passengers. As I say, 5 people die on the roads every day. And yet very little of this makes the news, because its so common, if it was reported it would be on the news every day. I tend to agree, yes older drivers are incredibly frustrating when they stop dead at empty roundabouts, hog the middle lane on motorways or drive at 35mph on NSL roads, but they aren't dangerous. There would be a lot less incidents if everyone drove like an 80 year old. We'd all take twice as long to get anywhere, but we'll likely arrive alive. Unless you pass out while driving, or are blind as a bat in the first place.

On the other hand, the fact that this has made the news suggests incidents involving elderly drivers doesn't happen very often... there are roughly 1800 deaths on the road every year which is ~5 a day... and the great majority of them don't make the news.

Driving test resits every 10 years, for everyone. Heck could even bring in retests every 2 years between the ages of 17-25, weed out bad habits before they form. Driving is a privilege, not a right. I strongly suspect every single occupation that involves driving a vehicle for a living is vigorously tested and retested every few years to check the driver is still capable, but general public have to pass a test once and then are released onto the world for the next 70 years with no further training?!?

if you're selling the car, then go secondhand off ebay. Or even cheaper, if its just split at the join between the rear box and the centre section, most exhaust places should be able to weld it which would last for a few months - probably long enough to sell the car. Then when it fails again with the new owner, they'll be thankful as they'll have a reason to tell the missus why it needs to be replaced with a Cobra system

they've certainly worked well enough for us so far... don't think we need to be cornering any faster, its already quite unconfortable on the plus side with the car handling, when it was on 4 poor tyres it had a tendency to push quite a lot, which I suspect will be a similar story in the wet. the old E36 used to be quite snappy, as did the 330ci, but that had more torque - either way, should be interesting! can always leave the traction control on, remarkable how well the system works even though its 15 years old now.

in fairness, I had the right idea, just wrong link

well, we're forecast for rain now! only light rain until around 3pm, so hopefully practice in the morning, and then come mid afternoon we'll be tcs off, gracefully oversteering like a boss. maybe

(I'm a cheat )

^ See, simples!

its just [img ] http://www.website address ending in .jpg [/img] no need for url tags.

Theres naff all you can do about it now anyways, just make sure it has oil in it from now on! Best thing you can do is make sure you have take me home breakdown cover, and some money squirrelled away for if the engine does go bang.