Commander

Euro Road Trip 2014 (write up here - http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/89972-euro-road-trip-2014-write-up-photos/) was brilliant! Despite being as sick as a parrot for a chunk of it, the driving was excellent, the company (in the form of an M3, Honda-powered Lotus, an RX8 and an A3) was excellent, the food was er, interesting, the roads in Spain were great, the alps were BRILLIANT and cooking my brakes (a lot! stupid RBC yellow stuffs) made me slow down and look at the scenery more, the autobahns were brilliantly fast (Got to the red-line in 5th and it still kept pulling in 6th), and crashing a rental car at the nurburgring also forms part of that story too... d'oh! Ups and Downs! :-) Great year. I said to myself that I wouldn't do a road-trip in 2015, but looking back, I think I probably will do another to make it three consecutive years.

1.86? Mental! You get nice weather though :-p If it gets back to £1/litre, I'm buying an M5.

^^^ How did I miss the red line thread? BRILLIANT!!

211k on an original clutch? lol, awesome. Throttle position sensor faulty? Cam/crank sensors? Cleaned the MAF lately?

It's not 'uncommon' to have problems with 2nd and 6th on the Zed. My HR crunches in 6th sometimes if I don't do a good job of rev matching before I pull the stick, but it doesn't happen very often so I've not seen about getting it recon'd / replaced yet.

Did you look at the under-bonnet photo - it looks like the engine has moved about 4" relative to the strut brace! Could this kind of movement damage / warp the block?

What do you mean, it's strange? It's true! lol I've done a 30-130 in my HR Zed next to my brother's E46 M3 (SMG Coupe) - the M3 won by about 5 car lengths.

I normally agree with everything you say, but not this... I'm the total opposite. I'm currently looking at getting rid of the Zed and will probably replace it with another M3. (Won't stop me hanging out on here though - if the Jag fogies can stay, so can the M owners! )

I own a 2004 e46 m3 coupe (smg) and a 2007 350z HR (manual). Aesthetics aside, I think the M3 is the all round better car. It's more practical (4 seats, boot), more comfortable (seats, road noise), faster in a straight line, faster round a track and it doesn't hit every speed bump going (neither of my cars are lowered). If you're in it for the joy ride, both my cars have uprated exhausts and the M sounds better (racier), though I do acknowledge that the M3's 'rasp' isn't to everybody's liking. If you're in it for track days, both are fairly heavy and need upgraded brakes to get the most out of them, but comparing like for like, the M handles better imho (lighter, stiffer, less roll) and it 'feels' faster - though that's probably 'just' the zorst noise and flappy-paddle 'box The HR looks prettier though, and only having two seats means you don't ever get lumped driving hordes of people around

Sod'em - live your life how you see fit and so long as you're doing no harm to anybody else, crack on however you like... We all end up in a box one day!

It's dead easy. I'm running yellowstuff all round, on pagid disks, and it's not great if i'm honest. Pootle around town and you get build up on the disks which makes the steering vibrate under hard braking, though a good blast down some country roads to get the brakes hot does clear it up. Don't go too mad headed though because I had this setup on my trip to the Alps last year and the pads fade if pushed very hard... I've never been able to push hard enough to achieve fade on roads over here I admit - lots of corners in the alps Wouldn't be too hard to get fade on a track though I expect.

So when you say 5.5k for the kit; is that before or after GB discount?

In theory yes, but we do often see seller's not really know what they have and descriptions are wrong as a result. Also, things like "GT Pack" and "'fully loaded' GT pack" sometimes mean different things - most notably Sat Nav, iirc.

Boobs - The first time I unleashed a pair of 32FFs. MMMmmmmm (Where's the 'motorboat' smiley? )

Cos I'd want a DCT EDC one, and they're still the wrong side of 20k

Not sure, a few contenders, but not a patch on some of you! Two Root canals at the same time, but with anaesthetic only in one gum was quite bad. White knuckle time! :-/ Wisdom teeth out, sideways! 2x 3/4inch stitches in my gums and ripped the corners of my mouth from where they cranked my gob open so far. Broken collar bone, wrestling with a bigger kid when I was a lad, he picked me up above his head and dropped me, I landed flat and face down, perfectly positioned for a huge wooden marquee tent peg to smash in to my right collar bone. Impressive X-ray, the two bits of bone were over an inch apart. They didn't fix it properly though so now my right shoulder hangs noticeably lower than my left.

I hope this sells quickly, or it'll taunt me! http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/mercedes-benz/cl/mercedes-benz-cl-cl600-2dr-auto-bi-turbo-1-former-keeper-500-bhp/2914046

I've got an E46 M3 with an SMGII 'box in and I've got used to that now - it's not bad really - and by all accounts the SMGIII in the M5/6 is better, so I don't think this will be a problem really... I don't think SMG is something you can test drive and be happy with in the space of an hour or three - give it a few weeks and you'll have learned how to get the best from it though.

VXR8 - Good shout, but I've had a few Vauxhalls in the past and fancy something different. That, and I think I'm turning in to a badge snob? :-/ Quattroporte - It's 'only' 400bhp, but more importantly it's a bit of an old man's car. I'm only 31! Damnit - why did you tell me this!? MMmmm.... Pagani-type-noises! Sod the neighbours' ears They all seem to come with a walnut dash, but I'm sure somebody on here could dip it to bring the interior up to spec. Must admit these haven't even come on my radar - need to do some research. I had an Evo in the past, admittedly an older model (Evo IV, retrofitted with an Evo VII engine and a short-ratio gear box), and it was damn fast. Crashed it at Donnington though Either way, I'm not sure I want another - I like RWD and I'm not sure my good lady would appreciate the bonnet vents, massive spoiler, etc... Need something classier I think.

I haven't been for any test drives yet, but the m6 was pretty high up my list - why don't you rate it?

No more than 20k

That's 'super car', not 'supercar', if you see what I mean? And petrol, RWD, usable as a daily, seats 4, has a boot, etc... M5 - v10, 500bhp M6 - v10, 500bhp, lighter than the M5 too, but less practical CL600 - v12 bi-turbo, 500bhp, remap to silly numbers, M6 practicality, but older and less of a drivers car, more of a wafter? Upgrade my 350 HR with an SC? Lack of seats / boot space is annoying me though RS6 - too high mileage / too old / AWD RS4 - too expensive / AWD 996TT - not practical enough What have I missed?

pff - my zed is at stock height and it's forever scraping things - car park ramps (if it's not the front bumper scraping the floor, it's the exhaust in the middle of the car), speed bumps / humps / sleeping policemen, etc... I'd love to know if people who lower their car actually use it as a daily too?

You're only as old as the woman you feel

There's a guy selling a set of these on the forum for cheap money