brillomaster

well since you've already bought 20mm spacers, might as well try them! but as Lexx says, need to know the offset of the wheels really. Also what size tyres you're running and whether you're lowered will affect if your arches rub or not.

I cant see a problem to be honest, its very easy to find bad reputations for any company on the internet, its now so easy to find bad news, and as mentioned people with bad experiences are a lot more vocal than those who have had good experiences. But anyways - you're buying the car, not the dealership - don't let a bad rep on the dealer put you off a potentially perfectly fine car. but i'd say, go back and get a test drive yourself - its only a Honda civic for peats sake. if the dealership refuses to let you test drive a civic, the only reason would be because they are hiding something, in which case just walk away. and then if the car drives fine, do a double check of all the service history, and you should be fine.

that is a lot of car for not a lot of moolah... but would have to be the v8, obviously... a stang with a 4 pot is just wrong. would certainly make a change to see some of these on UK roads.

Yeah we use Javelin trackdays a lot - some of the days can be quite busy, and most of the exotica goes elsewhere, but we very rarely have to wait to get on track, so no problem for us. plus driving standards are pretty strictly enforced - if someone is misbehaving they will get black flagged and bought in for a chat.

going to be doing a little more weight reduction this weekend in preparation for this, hopefully the weather will hold!

we need pics! of the car, once its been painted, obviously! with the proud owner standing next to it?

haha i couldnt think of anything else that would randomly stick out of a zed one morning!

ah, but you see... taking doorcards, carpet and airbags out is free... even cheap bucket seats cost something! tyres first, and we're gonna need new front brake pads soon as well!

we're there two weeks before you - will let you know what the conditions are like! Or alternatively since you haven't booked it yet, come along on the 31st of Jan instead! same price, but you get to compare track performance to a ropey old BMW

at this early stage of the game, i'm going to guess headlight washers are frozen in the out position...

for the initial 'pop' you need either the penny trick (about 3p per side cured mine) or buy some new springs (expensive) for the lift and staying up, the struts definitely don't work as well when its cold out - in summer they're fine, but in winter the boot constantly tries to eat me. I'll be removing the bootlid weight this weekend, hopefully removing a kilo of weight from the very back of the boot will help!

wow good work, that is some commitment there! i'll be taking a bit of inspiration from you for my weekend's work on our 330ci - front carpet, doorcards, passenger airbag and glovebox are coming out. may tidy some of our wiring, but wont be quite as extensive as you - just the obvious ones like rear speakers and electrics that used to be in the boot. but as I said on Saturday, we've got bigger things to worry about! but still, looking forward to seeing how this develops - were you going to be putting a cage in it once interior is all stripped down?

Definitely get it done! cant think of a better colour for a unique girl's zed than purple, and if you've got a mate who can spray it for you then its a no brainer. GET IT DONE!

haha didnt notice you'd already posted something Ken! ah well, the more visibility the better!

maybe the OP is letting us know he's just fitted winter tyres?

Evening all, me and Ken have just booked the trusty BMW on for our first trackday of 2015 - Snetterton on 31st January with Javelin trackdays. Hopefully weather will be kind to us - freezing conditions we can deal with, but really we want it to be dry! but still a pretty bargain price at £109 for the day, it looks to only be about half full at the moment, so plenty of spaces if you fancy coming along. would be good to see some zeds out on track, i know there are a few of you around that area. We havent driven the new beemer at Snetterton yet, so will be interesting to compare it to the old one, which we took there about this time last year.

yeah my ferodos used to squeak on the fronts... in my opinion they're quite an aggressive pad for road use, they were better when used firmly and when hot. slow speed gentle braking usually was accompanied by a squeal. have you done a proper bedding in procedure?

how about, some nice thick foam, then held on with fairly industrial size cable ties assuming you can get all the way around? you know the ones used to hold tree saplings to their posts, or the metal ones. then spray the lot to match.

Thanks for the ride! Your m3 is indeed rapid down the straights, and sounds demonic in the process! New tyres were working well, I'd say 8 laps before going off a bit is good going, normally we only do 5-6 laps before a break. Will definitely have to get a set. As for cornering if you can dial up the front camber it'll help hugely on the faster stuff- definitely worth looking at before Mallory as the first right hander goes on forever!

it cant be that much to have fully comp insurance with your wife as the main driver - after all, shes female (obviously) and old enough to have a daughter at driving age - both low risk! assuming its a tiny underpowered car, i cant see that being that much. And then put your daughter on as a named driver - and maybe yourself as well as it might bring the premium down.

looks good, let us know how you're getting on with it in a few weeks time

assuming the car is sufficiently underpowered, i'd get fully comp insurance for your wife, then add your daughter as a named driver, and you as a named driver as well to possibly bring the price down. although it may not help. also, when you know what car they're getting, be sure to post what it is, in case I'm in that part of wales any time soon!

I reckon you sorn it online, therefore instantly issues the notice that you are due the tax back, and then the new buyer gets road tax before they drive it home, which then unsorns the car. surely when you sorn it, you're done with the car in the eyes of tax - the only places to go from there are either you tax it again, or a new driver taxes it. unfortunately this does mean the new owner has to tax it straight away, whereas if you sent notification by post, the new driver will certainly have a 2 day grace period while the snail mail does its thing - which in this case would just tip them over into December, and save them a months tax. but either way, either you sorn the car on the 30th, and the buyer then needs November tax to drive home, so the buyer pays the extra month, or you snail mail the form to the DVLA, in which case the seller pays the extra month. I think I've got it though - seller declares the car online as sorned at 11:55pm on 30th, and thus claims the full 3 months tax back, new buyer waits 10 minutes, and buys December tax at 12:05am on December 1st, then drives the car home with tax in place. that way, seller gets the full refund he is due, and buyer only pays for full months of road tax! or if that's a bit tricky, you do... buyer buys car on 30th, drives it home. then when car is safely at home with new buyer, seller declares car as sorn online, then the buyer needs to buy tax the next day before he drives the car (assuming car is not kept the street) phew! easy really!

I think our tyre width is dictated purely by the wheels we're running - if money was no object we'd get 18x10s all round with 265s most likely, but we've gotta make do with 8" front, 8.5" rears, same as a zed. no worries about track inexperience, after all we all have to start somewhere! you'd be surprised how useful it is just having someone else to bounce ideas off. Thanks, will aim to be over there about 12:30, so halfway through lunch. will come over in our beemer so you can compare and contrast, although I probably wont take it on track.

good stuff, was considering going to Bedford this weekend but I think we're going to wait until snetterton at the end of the month. However, we're VERY interested to hear how you get on with the new tyres - we're considering a very similar setup, same 595 RS-Rs, except 245 fronts and 255 rears, since the standard BMW 330ci fronts are only 8", so wont support a 255 width front. we too are getting annoyed with the understeer present, but we don't want to completely eliminate it, rather just reduce it, which is why we wont go for 245s all round. as for weight I think you'd be alright even if you do take all the weight out the rear - our beemers have been fully stripped from the front seats back, and it still understeers on the staggered tyres. however you may find it affects traction out of corners, although we just drop the tyre pressures to compensate - normally run 31psi front, 33psi rear when hot, on 18s, which is well down on the recommended pressures. actually, in all fairness we aren't doing anything on Saturday, would you mind if we maybe came along anyways? Bedford isn't too far away, could pop down to see how you get on on track.