docwra

Dont know if youll need it but Polo has a rolling shell up for £800 - needs some slight repairs to chassis legs but otherwise good apparently:

500hp usually does it. Or a GTR, I have a few mad biker mates and they are quite open that they simply wont follow a GTR through twisties, it only needs to brake heavily once and they are knackered - off line at best, sliding into a ditch at worst. Ive no doubt that there are certain roads where bikes can be quicker than cars but as soon as there are corners with reasonable braking zones, Im not so sure. Put them on track where the rider can push harder and Id expect a 1000cc bike to be quicker than anything without downforce.

Try a GTI-6, slightly softer so maybe lose a little on track but you can drive literally as fast as you want to on your average B road. More space too

Ive just got 12 Houx non numbered tickets reserved, they wont need payment until November, as Ad says they dont actually know the numbers until then. Epinettes they reckon will still be available in January, maybe later than that - Iv been for the last 10 years and we havent ever struggled doing it as late as December By all means you need to get in early, but July? I couldnt get a confirmation of anything in July, the ACO have gone on holiday

So the problem is that a slower moving bike will get in front of you at the lights, and then proceed to drive at the speed limit which holds you up? And to think the grief someone got for mentioning they did 112mph on the motorway the other day Bikes will filter, they are told to do so in the HC and they arent going to stop doing it, I dont see why its a problem - sure, it may slow you down 5 seconds but whats the big deal, lorries/horses/cyclists/knobs who drive on your bumper are far more annoying and far more common I find too. Oh, and whoever claims a bike is faster than a car on a road ........ not unless you are very, very prepared to die a horrible death for a tiny misjudgment they arent. Sure, you need a very fast car, but if there are more corners than straights the bike wont get close. Throw a slightly damp corner and maybe a manhole cover into the mix somewhere and the bike might not get to the end if hes trying to match a car.

Particularly when you can get pretty reasonable "gaaaalicsoss mayed?" from Bookers, which is usually where the meat has come from as well - if you cant see the elephant leg cooking then its coming out of a tub, pre shaved as it were. You also need a spicy potato accompaniment IMO, our usual doesnt do them but the chip shop over the road does, so we offer the dude on the phone an extra fiver to nip over and add them to the order before the delivery feller gets given it

There are exceptions to the running cost rule of course. £13K for 205mph is one of them

Hmmm, if we are talking cars you are going to use then the Escalade and Murci are a touch high on running costs , I reckon an XKR is a bigger bargain than the DB7 as well - youre paying for the badge. If fuel and running costs dont come into it then theres any number of massive barges that will fit the bill, but buying a bargain and then getting 10mpg dont really fit for me Ive always struggled to believe that you can pick up a well looked after 306 GTI-6 for a grand (yes, Ive got one) - they are still fairly quick, handle well enough to use on track and are 5 seat hatchbacks so are practical too, see also fast Clios but they are bit more cramped and buzzy. E36 M3 is difficult to beat at the price and the Octavia VRS are mad value for what you get. If you arent interested in the car itself, then Kia Cee'ds are cheap as chips, particularly if you take the warranty into account. All of that said, if someone offered me an MoT'd 350Z for less than 4K I dont think Id be able to say no ............

Its the same here, you can get a shami kebab for instance but not in a kebab house, you need an Indian restaurant for one of them. Likewise my mum used to tempt us with "kebabs" and then turn in with burnt vegetables and a bit of pork on a stick, NOT THE SAME. For me a kebab is one or any combination of doner/gyro, shish, kofte, chicken, shawarma cooked on a stick, ideally over coals.

Pretty clear who the bikers are on this thread, and I agree with all of them. If you get pi**ed because you regularly get held up off the line by a bike you need to do less racing launches for the sake of your clutch, even the HC says that filtering is fine. A filtering bike isnt a problem to anyone unless they make it that way, a boy racer with an Evo that doesnt understand lift off oversteer is only a matter of time ..........

Amateurs, the lot of you. The tikka, seekh and similar northern interpretations of kebabs are just indian food in a naan, they dont count If youre only eating kebabs when drunk then you arent going to the right places - properly marinated meat, cooked over a charcoal grill cant be beaten and doner meat comes in many varieties as well, I know two guys who make their own and its delicious, one of the guys also does home made chilli sauce and hummus as well which is death defyingly good. When I was a considerably younger man then Id agree, they were a last resort that usually gave you the morning after brown laser and I find continental kebabs are still rather hit and miss, but the game has moved on in the UK and Id take a decent mixed over just about anything else, Ive also bought tubs of doner meat from cash and carry and prepared at home with homemade salads and sauces, unbeatable. In my neck of the woods Small Fry in Chsterton do the best doners and Papillon in Haverhill the best mixed but if you havent had a kebab in Turkey you havent lived, they are astonishing but they dont understand chilli sauce As for KFC ........ look up "mechanically separated meat", then tell me being able to recognise what part of an animal youre eating is a bad thing. Its good chicken too, if you get the right shop (and there isnt a kebabian in the immediate area)

Mate, Im not sure you have a full understanding of what youre talking about here ......... They all whine a bit, have you had a 3rd party or another owner have a listen? Im pretty sure Polo has removed and replaced a gearbox inside an hour, an hour and a half is plenty to split gearbox from clutch if you know what youre doing. 1. This is not a good way to test a clutch, youre far better off trying to accelerate uphill in 6th. 2. A clutch can start slipping anytime, even if your test was successful it could be anything from 90% to 1%, you just dont know 3. A worn clutch doesnt necessarily slip, they can show wear after 1000 miles I dont know if they are £600 (that sounds a bit cheap for Nissan to me) but if you factor in 10 hours of labour @ £100 per hour youre not far off £2500 ......... actually, strike that, its over £2500: http://www.350z-uk.c...0z-and-350z-hr/, the lovely people at Clark can do the parts for £1300. Id say hes bang on the money. Anybody who has bought Nissan parts knows this to be true, I remember paying £20 per head bolt for a 200SX Sounds pretty reasonable to me. Bottom line is that if there is a problem, youre looking at a fair amount of time and money to fix it, if hes offering to do it for £350 then why not, even if doesnt work youve got a new clutch and flywheel for £350. Whats your other option?

No they dont, the throttle is less sensitive but theres no power restriction and this is the case with all standard 350Zs, import or not. Uprev can give normal throttle response, but so can a throttle controller.

Why do people do this? Ive done 15+ trackdays on the standard discs and the car has never ceased to amaze me at how well it stops, even after 25 minute sessions. The brembo discs are bloody good, youd look at changing calipers before the discs and if the calipers arent good enough for you Id suggest trying out for GT Academy

I wouldnt usually big up a trader but every time Ive spoken to Ewen about pads (4 different cars now I think!) his advice has been spot on, even down to the Brembos I picked up being very similar to the DS2500 that he didnt have in stock. If you want to spend money then Carbon Lorraines are the best Ive used on anything and would be fine for the road, if you wnat to save some money then DS2500/Brembo would be fine. I dont like EBC, at all - dusty, not particularly good bite and not cheap for what they are either. ETA: CL's > RS29's, Ive got both on two different cars at the moment

Went in for £4K's worth of tickets in the raffle, got precisely sod all. Woo. Will probably watch all the major games though, realistically its going to be between NZ, Wales, Ireland, England, Australia, SA ....... in that order, if the Kiwis are on form then I cant see anyone else doing it either. England can beat anyone other than the Kiwis IMO, but they have to believe they can do it, hopefully homefield and what will undoubtedly be amazing crowds with give them that little extra push. Gutted we wont be watching England win the final in a pub at 6am though, that was one of the maddest days Ive ever had

Its more the fact that in 45 years there has been very little investment in the development of safety devices (hence the lack of progress), this is because its not what people want.

Dont want to contradict but Id say its actually the opposite, as engineering and materials become more advanced stuff will get smaller and lighter, youve only got to look at the ZEOD engine or how much composites are coming into car manufacturing, or the use of polymers to replace metals in wiring to see it. the problem is that the savings are being lost again on adding even more comfort and toys A great stat I heard once was that since 1970, despite advances the weight of IFE equipment on aircraft has increased by 10 times, where the weight of safety equipment hasnt increased at all. What does that tell you?

Yep, there was no way I was going to buy anything with less than 300hp, never mind 200hp regardless of what it weighs. As Ive always said, if you have a racetrack on your commute to work then buy an S2K, but if its straight lines and traffic, not so much.

Its all down to weight IMO, everything is getting considerably heavier so needs more power to move it around. A 205 GTi weighs 895KG, thats less than a Lotus Exige, and a Golf R is over 1500KG. A true sportscar IMO works to keep the weight as low as possible (I mean that in both ways) and means that every aspect of the dynamics are better, which in turn leads to a more enjoyable drive. Power to weight is all important if youre drag racing, but makes absolutely no difference at all in braking and corners, which is where the fun of driving is - Ive had a few hot hatches on test and while they are immensely fast, you feel very detached from the road and they dont inspire confidence. The example I always use is our mk3 MR2, Ive done a few trackdays where I have had it there alongside my Zed, and more recently my 135i. Obviously it wont lap as quickly as either of them but its my first choice to drive every time (if I can get the missus out of it anyway ) as its such a hoot, you can also properly enjoy it on the road without the fear of a firey 180mph death, or a stint in prison for speeding, two of the main reasons I dont own a GTR I think whats really killing the sportscar is the safety and ICE that everyone seems to demand of a car these days, if Ford can bang out a 300hp engine to stick in a Focus imagine how goo the same engine would be in a 1100KG two seater. If they made one. Ive also read the Zed is so heavy because they didnt buiold it stiff enough to start with, hence the dirty great strut brace and half a ton of bracing underneath - if it has been sub 1200KG (like the S156 Silvia they were makign at the same time) how good would it have been?

No, theres still plenty of spaces available but you need to get it done in the next month or so. Ill be with the usual SXOC mob on Houx non numbered, theres talk of one of the lads bringing a 1971 Pullman coach (complete with table lamps and galley) so we could be up to 40 this year , feel free to join us

They dont, generally. 3 of the biggest freight/maintenance companies started as tax write offs for shipping firms, and the rest just go bust sooner or later. Trust me, I know the hard way.

Dude, for someone thats usually so well informed, have you been asleep for the last 5 years or something? Audi have been running flywheel accumulators in their WEC cars for 3 years now and Porsche for 2, the Nissan GTR-LM concept was mental as well. Infiniti are part of Renault/Nissan and are the leading manufacturer of EV's globally with $4.2bn sales and Teslas were operating out of a shed in California a few years ago, I hardly think its a David and Goliath situation is it?

You know that car Ive just bought, the one with 430hp and 550lb/ft just on a remap? The Z4 35i has the same lump, I know where my money would be going ...........

I was actually thinking that for £4K this is probably worth buying and sticking in a garage for a few years. Which is exactly what Im going to suggest to a mate