marzman

You know what - i nearly asked the instructor if there was some ridiculous mapping on the lambo - it's like the 1st 3 gears only had 25% power...

Hi all, As some of you might know, i got into drifting at Oulton Park a couple of years ago on the 2 drift stages they have there. I bought an old RX7 in 2009 and used it all summer but then got rid before MOT time. Well this year i wanted to get back into it, so i picked up a 1997 316i Saloon last month, and have been to a couple of drift days since. I've put together a short video of some of the fails (these are the only thing we seemed to capture on video ) but its still good to watch...

Well today after 8 months i finally got round to going on my driving experience... I went to Prestwold Driving Center in Loughborough which is an airfield circuit. It was absolutely packed there with maybe 200 people either watching or waiting to drive...! I drove the GTR first... and i felt totally at home in it! The driving position was very similar to the zed, and was very comfortable. It felt quite small inside for such a big car. It was a tiptronic auto which was just amazing... very very quick gear changes. The power delivery was smooth all the way from 1.5k revs and it just kept coming... but i was expecting it to be more brutal, but it just seemed quite refined Anyway the instructor was impressed with what i did - he said i was definitely the quickest of the day, and i got up to 130mph Next up i drove the Lambo... now i was really looking forward to this as the Gallardo is one of my all time favourite cars... It was a tiptronic model like the GTR, but straight away from sitting in it i felt uncomfortable. The driving position was horrible but worse was that the pedals were towards the left of your driving position, it didnt have a clutch, but imagine the brake pedal being where the clutch goes, and the accelerator where the brake goes. It was awful. Then when driving it, it was equally as bad... it had no power until 3.5k revs, at which point it picked up and felt fairly quick, but the gear change was shocking!! Pressing on the paddle's to change gears, there was a 1-second delay during which the car would lurch violently slowing you down (it felt like the brakes were being pressed!). Lastly the brakes... i must have been pressing the brake pedal in by 8 inches before the brakes started to be applied, making it very difficult to modulate them. So in summary - it was definitely a worthwhile use of my Tesco vouchers, and i finally got to drive a GTR which was mint, but at the end of the day when getting back in my zed it didnt feel that much less of a car.

Thanks mate... Do you know if there's a deadline to have registered by...? Im only coming if i manage to sell my drift car first...

Thats fantastic - best bit is at 5:29!!!!

...and arent all these other examples of black lips actually carbon...? (Cant tell on yours Blacky (very by the way!), but im sure Shire and Yokomo's are).

I agree with Irfan - colour code it. Although be prepared to pay £100 - £150 for it to be professionally painted...

What lip...? Is it carbon or just black?

Cheers Leon... will do my reading first and see what i need, but may be useful if a loom is required. You got your name down for the Trafford Center meet on the 18th yet...??

Just had the following happen when clicking 'Open Link in New Tab' in Firefox on the 'View your posts' link: Problem just appeared to be a blip - was fine when clicking on it again...

Cheers Mark. I guess i'll need to find out what the cruise control wires are and then whip my wheel off and have a butchers...

Cool... Here's a pic of my Momo wheel. It's only done 35k miles and is in perfect condition.

I think Mark at abbey says its possible. I have a steering wheel with the buttons but its not on my car. Id be up for a swap with that momo wheel Hey pal... possibly very interested in this if we can find out for sure. What condition is it in? Any lacquer peel on the plastic panels?

Hi all... My zed is a JDM model, and i think it has every possible factory option. Unfortunately that includes the very rare Nissan MOMO steering wheel - which doesnt have any buttons on it - hence i dont have Cruise Control Has anyone tried to retrofit cruise control before to a non-cruise control car? I'm pretty sure if i swapped the wheel for a normal wheel the wiring would already be there... Anyone one wanna swap wheels with me?

Those badges look goosed mate - i'd spray them satin silver instead as you'll struggle to get a good finish with a chrome spray.

Shiiiit!! Call them up and tell them you've taken it off All my mods are declared, at no additional cost with admiral.

Im in this years league... "Inter Your Mum" I always start the season with every intention of keeping my team updated, but then lose interest when it all goes wrong.

Looking very cool Car is missing something though... maybe something like Irfan's roof spoiler?

Offers around £24000

My best tip would be to watch the show 'Wheeler Dealers' which is on a few cable channels (Discovery Realtime etc). I have series linked this on each channel, and watch about 4 hours a week of it. It's basically a mechanic showing you how to carry out loads of different jobs on a car - and i've learnt loads from it. So much so that i swapped my wishbones on my bmw last week without even giving it a second thought (and i've never really done anything mechanical either..)

Oh crap no, if we're doing track photos then this one instead... entering 'The Carousel'

One of my favourites...

There's a chance i might be up for this... Do you have any more info other than the email address? Also - i have a work colleague with an Impreza who may be interested... is this just for RX8's and 350z's, or are other cars welcome too? Thanks.

In fairness, that's what i should have done on mine... I spent £700 getting my brakes replaced with uprated parts, when i could have found a set of brembos for not much more...