Dynamic Turtle

Richy I dealt with Nissan SLM recently and they were surprisingly helpful and knowledgeable. People also seem comfortable leaving 350s for service there despite the predominance of micras and chashcows. Btw the 370 looks stunning in midnight blue. Did you get the graphite alloys and red calipers too? Defo agreed re handles though, they need blue/graphite treatment too...

The manual is "slushy"??

The Zed is a fundamentally heavy car - steel chassis, steel panels (bar the bonnet) and all the lardy trimmings that come with a well-specced GT. I'm not saying weight reduction would be a waste of time, but 100kg here or there isn't going to turn it into a caterham. Having said that I do think the zed is fairly well suited (ish) to the ring - plenty of long straights to access its party trick (torque) and it doesn't seem to put too much stress on the brakes. As others have said, be extremely careful out there. It's a very intimidating place and certainly not recommended to track newbies - the automotive equivalent of the grandmaster's dojo so be prepared for a financial battering if you mess things up. Absolutely nothing wrong with just taking it easy and enjoying the atmosphere of being in a very special place. ^ Ekona's advice is sound, but I'd put more driver training, and much more driver training before tyres. Oh and remember that regardless of what tyres you have, they don't work on grass. The nanosecond you come off the tarmac, you're going to hit something. remember that.

I got taken by a D-reg mini today. OK it was probably modified but I've never seen anything so small move so fast. Hmm, Vortech...

Off the top of my head and extremely loosely: V6 - cheating but the 997 GT3 RS flat-6 is the most "motorsport" sounding engine I've heard. Not hugely sonorous but extremely....purposeful. I understand the love for the Zed note but ultimately it's a Jap V6 trying to be an American V8. V8 - Maserati (GT, 4200 etc). Or the whatever they put in the De Tomaso Pantera - American block, Italian acoustic tuning. Mama mia! V10 - the LFA has to take this, hands down. Batsh*t mental. V12 - nothing springs to mind so I'll be unimaginative and vote for an Aston something.

It does actually make me wonder if the 20-36bhp RU/HR upgrade is really worth £220 odd quid every year. Expensive horses them be.

That there is a man who really loves his Zed!!

Not sure I agree with that, they presumably didn't get the names and addresses of all those who were held up, the bus driver, I guess reported the incident and one would think he maybe admitted to his bosses that he caused some kind of problem, hence the goodwill voucher. Agree though that knowing the contents of the letter DT received would clarify things. I don't think I have the letter any more (though this matter was buried months ago) but I recall that it was worded so as to explicitly avoid stating liability, but likewise did not specifically deny liability.

Whilst I haven't read the 400 page insurance contract the abridge docs I have read made no mention of this requirement, only if I'd made any "claims, fault or non-fault". Having dealt with admiral call centres on numerous hear-tearing occasions I can confidently say that they should be avoided if at all possible.

Which presumably means they have no insurance company to report the incident to? This would be a very good thing...

If you believe that, then I have to say you're a bit naive mate. Accident will be defined as anything which causes damage to the vehicle, another vehicle, or any other object or person as an educated guess. That definitely included dings and scrapes, but not bumper chips (although I assume that was a facetious addition). You should've informed them in Feb, so this may well now bit you in the arse as they'll chase you for increased premium. Sometimes, it's ALWAYS worth telling your insurers, and sucking it up. We all make mistakes sometimes, no shame in that. In all seriousness where do you draw the line though? I can't imagine any insurer wanting to be updated about every car park ding - that's patently ridiculous. There was effectively no point telling the insurers because there was basically no damage worth pursuing and the bus company acted as though the matter was dead and buried by mid-Jan (prior to renewal), and I heard nothing back from them about pursuing me for damage until today. The last thing I want is the insurance company AND the bus company chasing me for money, particularly as I've been unemployed for over a year and am up to my eyeballs in debt. Incidentally I'm pretty sure that the insurance docs I signed only asked me to inform them about any "claims" I had made, not about damage to or incidents involving the car (does anyone have the policy wording?).

Understood. And I'd have more confidence to approach Admiral if they weren't so monumentally incompetent. I agree with your points but it's very annoying that I don't even appear to have the right to treat any incident involving my car as a private matter, regardless of how insignificant it is. I guess that's just the nature of the beast these days.

You will still have to declare at renewal time so you won't save anything by going this route. If they ask and you don't declare you could be refused insurance and that will be even more expense.... I renewed mid-Feb and did not inform them of the "accident", and was not aware I had to declare anything involve scuffs to paintwork. Do you have to inform them about tesco dings, multistorey scrapes and bumper chips too? I'm inclined to avoid Admiral completely as I don't fancy being punted around a dozen call centres for six months only to end up with my premium being doubled at the next renewal. However, I believe that if the bus company's solicitors detect any weakness or admission of liability the £200 will suddenly jump to £4,000 in other fees and costs etc. DT

Will my insurers (admiral) be willing to deal with this six months after the incident occurred? I didn't contact them at all, for the aforementioned reasons. Furthermore I'm reticent to get them involved as I'm running a heavily modified car and have only held a license for 4 years - basically I'm (justifiably?) paranoid about what this could do to my premiums...

Nice letter to receive on my 35th birthday, was getting all geared up for a great party today then I get a demand for hundreds of pounds through relating to an accident with a bus that happened six months ago. To cut a long story short: The bus was stationary in the middle of a tight road for god knows what reason and refused to move forward or into the bus stop despite everyone behind honking their horns for ages to get him to move over (Fulham road at 6pm!). People started manoeuvring around it including me. The space was too tight for the zed and I traded paint with the bus. Extremely superficial damage - most of it polished off and there was only some very light scratching to the rear quarter of the zed. The bus had minimal paintwork scuffing to the rear edge. We exchanged details, bus driver was very sanguine, said nothing would happen and that I shouldn't worry etc. Bus company sent me £50 in vouchers a few days later as an apology. I didn't bother calling my insurers because I believed that they had effectively admitted liability by sending the vouchers through and by apologising again over the phone for the incident. Furthermore I still believed the LUB driver was at fault and my excess was £400 at the time so nothing to gain by getting my insurers involved.They sent a damage assessor to view my car (came out with a crazy £2000 quote of course!), again implying that they were at fault etc. A week later they called to say that after reviewing the video footage (which I have not seen) that I was at fault because the bus was stationary when the damage occurred. I contested saying that I was forced to make the manoeuvre, which I thought I could do without damaging my pride and joy, due to severe traffic pressure behind me and that the bus refused to move forward to move left into the nearby bus stop (which had people waiting at it) despite all the honking behind me. That phone call was five months ago, and I didn't bother pursuing LUBL for damage to my car due to its superficiality and I haven't heard anything from them since until today. I thought that was the end of the affair. Now their solicitors have written demanding several hundred pounds in administration costs, PLUS other unexplained legal costs PLUS compensation for repair damage to the bus (which despite being a bottle of autoglym job, will no doubt cost a grand or two). They're demanding payment within 7 days of course and the letter is worded in a terse, demanding fashion. Can anyone recommend a strong / specialist solicitors people have used in this particular area? I guess location doesn't really matter but I'm based in East Sussex now. Any other tips and hints would be useful - I just can't believe a public service company are behaving in this fashion - come as a real shock. Thanks, DT

In that case I hope you don't live up to your forum name!

Yeah but if the crim really wants the motor, your bro then runs the risk of having his house broken into what with all the serious consequences that can have (for both him and the crim) in terms of terror and violence etc. I'm not saying people shouldn't have the right to protect their property, but a bit of common sense is needed in these circumstances. I leave my keys visible near the front door for this reason. I'm not getting hurt (or hurting someone else) over a six grand nissan.

Well I kind of agree with some of the others here along the lines of "if they want it, they'll take it". And I'd much rather they found a non-invasive method such as the OBD one than coming into my house for the keys frankly.

Hmm, Might have to use one to steal your car, Lynx. V nice

Without a key? I don't understand - I thought this device just opens the car and disable the alarm? Can they start the engine via the OBD?

Just lazy buying on my part, I should have asked. Might get them painted black anyway...

Badges arrived but in a slightly shabby condition. My fault for not asking if they were new, I guess

Very ouch.

Doh sorry, got E36 on the brain...

Seems suspiciously cheap but hey ho you took the plunge! 3.0 or the Evo?