brillomaster

every ounce counts! lightness is the best mod you can do to a track car, and great thing is its free! really looking forward to trying it it tomorrow, very real possibility we'll be one of the faster cars on track - 230bhp in a lightened beemer should be sweet

its fine, in 2 and half years and 24,000 miles the only things needed doing other than tyres and brakes has been a rear wheel bearing and a new exhaust to replace the original that had a hole in it. not bad for an 11 year old car.

well, in all fairness the motorsport season is in summer, so I cant really see it being too much of an issue... and as I say, spa francorchamps is well known for being misty/raining a lot of the time, doesn't seem to phase them. it'll just add to the drama of motorsport in wales!

car doesn't get driven hard and is unmodified? full F+R set of Pagid brake pads for £63 delivered on carpartsless... yellowstuff and hawk ceramic seems a tad overkill for a car that doesn't see any track work. Sy, have you had any problems with the standard Nissan pads to warrant an upgrade?

does it have to be slicks? Can get brand new Kumho KU36s in that size for about £70 each, or Federal 595 RS-Rs for about £80.

indeed, Europe has some great purpose built circuits, which are a lot better than our old airfield based circuits. the plans for the track remind me of Portimao circuit in Portugal, or Navarra Circuit in Spain, both purpose built venues. Except without the sun and heat, obviously. But hey, Spa Francorchamps makes a name for itself with the changeable weather conditions, and it rains a lot in the valleys!

Hopefully it will go ahead - the main protesters are the enviromentalists, and other UK racetracks who don't want any competition. However speak to anyone in the local area (my fiancée's dad included) and they are all for the idea, after all that area of wales is one of the poorest parts of the country since the steelworks closed down several years ago, unemployment is very high and the promise of jobs and investment is very appealing (whether these will actually be delivered is another question). As for the location, yes it is on one of the highest points in south Wales, but its just common land out the back of an industrial estate. it has very good road links being just off the A465 Heads of Valleys road, and as such is easy to get to from Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, and Abergavenny.

without a remap, performance gains are negligible, so try and declare it as a cosmetic mod. if they aren't able to do that, id either replace the exhaust with a standard one, or find another insurer! admiral work just fine for me, i'm 27 with 3 yrs NCB, with exhaust and wheels declared its £580. EDIT - even if you did the whole shebang of air filter, plenum spacer, HFCs, exhaust and an uprev you'd be lucky to get a 10% performance increase!

admiral aren't bad for mods either, worth a ring if only for a comparison.

well I spent the day making it lighter, Ken spent the day making it Shinier! But should be a lot lighter now, and still more to come once front seats, door cards and airbags come out after mot.

Ah ha those were the days... went to an all boys school and some of the female teachers were gorgeous, very hard to Concentrate!

Short answer, don't call them anything until they reply to you, then use whatever they address themselves as. Had one girl from Bulgaria on email once, she signed off as Alexandre for a while, but I knew she was really an Alex, but had to keep calling her Alexandre until she switched her reply to Alex. On a mildly related note, I always sign off as Andrew, but then gets shortened to Andy, even tho I hate Andy!

Not Jaws! best bond henchman ever! probably in other stuff as well. RIP.

if you can separate wheels from tyres we might have the tyres off you since we need a decent set of tyres for the track beemer. unfortunately don't have any need for the wheels though!

its possible! though not with mine, mine has a rust patch

15th November with Javelin

oh man wanna know what this is like on track! come along to snetterton in mid november so we can compare the beemer to the (now considerably faster) mr2! You'll fly round snetterton, great track.

nowt wrong with a B16 VTEC engine! had one in an old civic VTI, vtec'd with a kick at 5600rpm, redlined at 8k. from what I read the more modern engines have a smoother transition between being off and on cam, but the early engines were very schizophrenic!

haven't had a VTEC yet? that'll be an S2000 then, Shirley?

i'd leave it a few days for the springs to settle... after all, they have never supported the full 1.5 tonnes of car weight before, whereas the old ones will have been doing it for years.

this is probably a silly question, but if the button only lowers the roof, how do you get it back up again???

/\ is everyone reading the same jokes columns or something?!?

you've lost me.

I have to say, I like it a lot. most definitely a jag, and looks low and sleek and purposeful, which I don't get from bmws and merc c classes. however I wonder where they can go with the coupe as this already has a very sloping roofline, not sure what headroom will be like in the back. I really hope these sell well, will be great to take some of this enormous sector back into british built, indeed MIDLANDS built cars.

Heathrow is not a million miles away from Jez at Horsham Developments, over near newbury. im sure he can do supply and fit for you.