brillomaster

aye, trying to guide an old E36 328i round a sopping wet Bedford Autodrome on budget, mismatched tyres and no traction control takes some doing! compared to that a zed with its decent tyres and TCS is a walk in the park

go and see CS (cougarstore) down the road in Leicester, he'll sort you out and wont charge you and arm and a leg

in that scenario, as long as you're in a straight line then no worries - it'll be planted. Id imagine if you're accelerating onto a motorway you'd either be ragging 3rd, or more likely, using the torque in 4th. if the TCS does kick in it'll just back the power off, you wont need to do anything. as for correcting a oversteer situation, in general you'll only need to make a tiny correction since the tcs will kick in faster than you'd be applying opposite lock. however, if you are feeling brave with the TCS off and want to feel the car moving around, i'd definitely get some tuition and a wide open space, as the first few times it happens, the correct response is not intuitive.

definitely keep the TCS on for the first few months of ownership, and make sure you're running decent tyres with decent amounts of tread, and that all the wheels are pointing in the right directions (get a tracking check). if you do see the TCS light flashing, think what you were doing to make it kick in. (trying to pull out of T junctions quickly will probably set it off) if you're a sensible driver on the road, you'll be fine - however, as with all cars, be smooth with your inputs, and respect the conditions. don't go flooring the throttle midway round a wet roundabout, for example, and you'll probably not be able to use full throttle in 2nd if its wet, and maybe not even in 3rd if its near freezing and you're on summer tyres. as for driving styles, id say be smooth, get the car slowed in a straight line, clean turn in to the corner and then use the rwd traction to be positive through the corner . the other difference you'll compare to fwd cars will be weight - the zed will weigh a fair bit more than a fwd scrabblewagon, so it wont feel as nimble in really twisty stuff. however, show it a nice bit of A road and it will be awesome.

Remapped 335i should see you up to about 380 bhp for about £14k... although if you can afford it, it's got to be an me, would demolish all, and be a very nice place to sit while doing it.

what did you replace the 350z with when you sold it? I figure life is too short to go back to the same car, so of the two i'd upgrade to the 370z. or maybe give something else a go, for the same money as a 370z you'd get a great condition E46 M3.

I think CS fitted mine for £60, I think. but yeah, maybe 1 - 1.5 hrs labour, depending on if any bolts are severely rusted.

up the duty on tobacco, and cap childcare benefits. people need to drive, people don't need to smoke and have a million children.

So who has bets on it reaching £1 a litre? I reckon its going to do it! been dropping like a stone recently, 105.9 at a few forecourts round leamington now.

assuming the custom exhaust isnt excessively loud, i probably wouldnt bother keeping it. its older, heavier, quieter and probably rustier than a custom one, which i imagine will have a guarantee as well.

Sell it to MCook, i'm sure he'll be needing it!

Hmmmm interesting! will be interested in the various driver/team changes in the coming months!

woah woah woah, so you pay £192 a year to cover what, appliance damage? you could buy a new washing machine every year for that much money, how often do new appliances break down, should be guaranteed for at least 2 years. I used to pay money for boiler cover in the event it goes wrong, but since our boiler is quite old and parts availability is limited, I sacked it in and decided i'd be better off saving up an emergency fund instead, and buying a new one when it breaks.

stick some pennies (or in your case, 5c coins) in them - about 3 coins a side, works every time now.

I think france is the other way around as well, with diesel being cheaper normally?

+1 on traveling a bit to see a specialist - especially for a full service. might not be so worried if it was just an oil change but for a full service i'd rather take it to someone who knows zeds. plus, its a great excuse to put some miles on your new motor!

I remember a while back we were returning from a university club trip in a minibus... in Kenilworth theres a ford with a raised footpath alongside it. As it was after some heavy rain there was about a foot of water to drive through - most other drivers crawled through it in first gear, but the driver of our minbus decided it would be an excellent idea to gun it and went through at about 40mph - the splash was about 6ft high, I feel bad for the half dozen people walking alongside at the time!

At first I was like, why is it only for the drivers side? and then I remembered the asymmetric doorcard design I actually quite like these, might have to order one for myself!

lets see, bought on 41800, now on 67500 2 years and 11 months later - so, 8800 a year. its my daily, although I car share to commute to work.

I think im the same as keyser - had six road cars now, and all but one has been faster and more powerful than the one that preceded it. the normal reason for change is the realisation that I can now afford a certain car - either purchase price or insurance. I remember when I first looked at a 300ZX twin turbo, and I was like 'HOW MUCH!?!' to buy it (£3000) and 'HOW MUCH!?!?!' to insure it (~£550) once I had that information, keeping my MX5 suddenly lost its appeal! Next car will most definitely be more powerful than the zed was, have seen a few options (all starting with BMW) just need to save up a bit more and decide exactly which 300bhp+ coupe to get!

nice one, post up what they say as I should really get some rusty arches looked at as well!

whereabouts in the midlands? a place called Spa Garage on Old Warwick Rd in Leamington Spa did some great work on my old 300zx, could give them a try.

reckon i can beat that! standard is 107.9 here now, so if super is its usual 5p extra, that would make it 112.9p. or in other words, a proper bargain!

96 and 100 is the load rating , Y is the speed rating. 100 will likely be extra load tyres, designed for slightly heavier vehicles.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned suspension yet? I used to have a mk2 and did some gym khana and the standard suspension was so wobbly... Put some koni springs and dampers on and it was transformed, highly recommended!