Richf

+1

My 2.0l Skoda Superb 2.0 cr. dyno's at bang on 200hp* , gives 42-44 mpg on the daily commute and will do 49mpg on a long run. The same engine is found in many other cars in the vag range *Totally stock apart from k&n panel filter A mate of mine has a 535d but he has had a fair bit of trouble with it , currently it needs a new dpf and has a fault on one of the turbos. Big bills every time

My daily is a VW dsg but I prefer the 370's auto box If you read the US forums that have 1/4 mile tables the autos are consistently quicker in the 1/4 mile I suspect many magazines don't actually test them There isn't much in it really the biggest difference is the extra gear giving much more relaxed cruising on the motorway . I disliked the 370 clutch and gear change so much I would only consider an auto , shame because I did fancy a Nismo

We have a 5 bed detached in one of the most expensive counties in England but paid off our mortgage in 15 years , we extended from a 4 bed so pay less council tax than the next door neighbours 3 bed cottage but it will get reviewed at some point , insurance is about £200 per year but being out in the sticks we have to buy heating oil which is £1k per year on top on £1500 in electric . Moving on a regular basis is wasteful IMO , a lot of the costs in buying and selling houses is just dead money and lost , plus moving cost etc

I wasnt suggesting that for people Mark, just sharing my experience of one company that uses Ecutek:) In the Evo community there are a lot of home tuners and a thriving online opensource community full of people willing to share knowledge and expertise, without that I'm not sure that home mapping is that worthwhile

Ethanol has a lot less energy that petrol you need to burn about 40% more to get the same amount as petrol. Octane isnt the same as energy It makes more power by virtue of the fact you can get a lot more in and its less prone to detonation thats why they use it for racing (also back when i raced it was about 1/4 of the price of race petrol) . A mate of mine had a bike running on methanol (very similar fuel) and he used just over twice the amount than you would petrol but it allowed him to run 60psi of boost For road cars its not good imo but the increases are coming in based on European targets so no petition over here will make a blind bit of difference

Usually closer to 140 on most modern cars I bought my Merc E class new and during a warranty claim they found the roof had been repainted and tried to blame me . I keep EVERY receipt so was prepared for a fight but they then told me it had been repainted at the factory prior to delivery

Bang on , deep scratches are hard to remove by hand as well

The point some people fail to grasp with mapping is that you arent paying for the licence or software and you arent really paying for the time it takes , what you are paying for is expertise it requires. Flashing a generic map doesnt take any skill and thats a rip off, so for some tuners it is money for old rope but those that take the time to develop their skills and invest time and money in providing a proper live map it is indeed cheap. The point it you might not know whether you got a good deal or not straight away that's why its so important to use a trusted tuner. I had my Skyline (Power FC) remapped (Roadmapped) by Jez and the difference in how it drove over the old map was dramatic, took less than 1 hour as well. Had my Evo 6 mapped with a Ecutek licence from a company in the Midlands and it was awful and cost me over £600 and the car drove awful, shame i dont have a better scan of the graph but you can see the flat torque curve with just 305ft lbs, the car actually came back with a graph that showed over 400hp and was a generic one no doubt just like the map. Bought a cable and some open source software and spent a lot of time learning how to map it myself and went back to the same dyno a month later and picked up 40ft lbs and got a much smother curve. The fact was that whilst Ecutek did charge a lot of money for a licence they were very slow to respond and didnt do anything like the R&D some private individuals were doing on the Evo ecu's . We were able to get full anti-lag , flat shifting, launch control and dual maps free on open source at least two years before Ecutek offered it I did love being able to map the car myself after I made a change After about 18 months I wound it up to this which is the same limit for a stock Evo 6 engine

Obviously given you've got a 70. It is a biggish car, it doesn't have any storage space, and maybe it's a little unrefined, but heck it's a sports car! People are all getting a bit soft these days, the rawness and size of a Zed is part of the joy of throwing the thing around the roads, twisties and it just keeps asking for more!!! The it's a Nissan comments really annoy me, not a personal jibe at all. That's actually a good thing, because you're not tossing around in a "labeled" car that you've paid a fortune for the badge, and often a very unreliable car. And yes, I do have "labels" too. Its a biggish car in the same sense as a Land Rover Disco is a biggish car ? They are similar widths , its mahoosive and the storage is woeful the 350 has much more useful room Its also no sports car in my opinion, sure it handles well enough and its quick but its a big car to muscle around, the GT badge is there for a reason because thats what it is. There are lot of really good reasons the 370z hasnt been a huge commercial success but some really crappy cars sell really well and some great cars dont sell at all , thats just a fact The thing is because the reasons I listed the 370z is not a great daily driver, however it makes a great weekend car , that's why mine is and I love it , its flaws don't matter to me, but if I was paying £35k for a weekend car it wouldn't be a new Nissan , and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

It's too big , it doesn't have good storage space , it's too expensive to run , the engine and box are pretty unrefined for a £30k car, it's a Nissan

I don't see why you have the right for an extra £80 You got a quote , the guy paid the quote and more , you agreed to take it so now it's tough

I can't post it cheaply enough to make it worthwhile

Cheap ? Really looking at around £2500+ for 70hp

Ceramic and steel turbo wheels are much the same ie no real difference in the boost threshold

I have one going spare , used it to do my bushes on the skyline , don't suppose you are close to West Berkshire are you ?

Ditto with the above . My daily has the 7 speed dry clutch VW dsg widely reported to be one of the best around and can honestly say the 370 box is a match for it . There are pros and cons to both but I really rate the nissan box .

Safety first , switch the lot off IMO

Old ones , grass is long and if it rains you will get wet feet walking on it They don't put anything on the grass but there is a walkway around the circuit

Just keep an eye on those sites and be prepared to haggle for the best price or walk away , one thing for certain there is no shortage of 350zs for sale

Owners in the US have got 400hp with reworked intake manifolds, header pipes plus the usual mods , it's true it's expensive and time consuming to tune these and most n/a engines http://www.z1motorsports.com/g37_370z/product_info.php?cPath=597_804&products_id=7223

Re negotiate the price if you really like it

I have an auto so don't notice the throttle delay , my exhaust was quickly changed and my seats don't squeak (a little ptfe spray might help that)

I'm not convinced with regards to comfort that there is a great deal/if any difference between the edition and other models , the changes were made to help high speed stability apparently but I haven't heard that there was much of an issue before

Let's not forget its a GT car it's not a lightweight sports car