docwra

Ive already advertised here, but new pics and new price............. So for sale is my 2003 JDM 350Z imported in 2006, its on 100K miles and has FNSH from Marshall Cambridge. Body: All done by Will @Streetoptions Genuine Chargespeed bodykit (front and rear bumpers, skirts) c. 75mm custom metal arch extensions and bumper customwork Rolled and lipped arches Custom paint - slightly lighter blue with 400% metalflake Work Equip 18x10 ET -18 front wheels with Bridgestone RE050A tyres and 25mm spacers SSR Leon Hardiritt 19 x 11.5 ET15 rear wheels with Michelin Pilot Supersport tyres and 25mm spacers Front SSR's and a set of genuine Rays 350Z wheels with tyres also included Mods: Scorpion resonated exhaust (nearly new) HSD Dualtech coilovers Plenum spacer JWT Pop Charger induction Posh JDM decats Vibratechnics engine mounts Carbon Lorrain CL07 front and DS2500 rear pads, braided lines all round Nismo steering wheel, dials, gearknob D1 Spec throttle controller Focal speakers all round Pioneer Blutetooth touchsceen head unit Cloth seats, dials in km Always maintained regardless of cost, always cleaned by hand, rarely driven in winter, youll struggle to find a cleaner car and dynamically its superb, the bigger wheels offer much more grip without affecting the handling. Totally one off and a massive head turner, Im looking for £8,000, no offers or part exchange

Oh aye, it doesnt work for every car and as Will says you can get a bastard of a dealer as well, but for the sake of 15 minutes its worth a look sometimes

Have you ever actually sold a car to them? Ive done 4 now, the last one didnt get knocked at all and the dealer even mentioned a bit of a cashback scam which would have been a winner If they will pay more than trade in, or if you have a car with a bit of a fault (leaky roof on an S2000, intermittent cutting out on an M3) then they are excellent - no messing about, no haggling, just drive up, take cash and drive away In your situation Id probably go with WBAC and if they try to knock you and more than a couple of hundred bucks walk away, you can always go back another time

Ive got to be honest, Ive never really had that problem - Ill warn the dealer that Im intending to actually test the car and that Ill be driving "rapidly" and none (other than the BMW lady) have ever had a problem with it - the GTR salesman clearly challenged me to drive as quick as I could (and in fairness to him sat there chatting away like nothing was happening at 160+ ), Porsche, Bentley, Lexus, Elms BMW and Audi were all the same, even the private sellers I bought the 350 and the 135 let me drive pretty much how I wanted to - the 135 guy wanted me to drift a roundabout no less! For me, if youre a competent driver and are looking at buying a performance car, if they keep you to 60 and 3000 rpm you arent testing the car at all.

I think you might have a case - in the same way that if you get caught drifting in a Tesco carpark you get nicked despite it being "private", if there is open access to this speedbump then it should also be considered as public. I also have a very good mate who works for Highways that Ive been through this with previously, give me the dimensions and Ill run it by him and see what he says.

Ive also had it the other way round - test drove an Evo 6 a little while ago, while we driving along noticed a few points that I thought I should mention to the dealer (had already decided against it). He hadnt noticed that two of the 4 tyres were bald (v bad on an Evo), it wasnt boosting right, the AYC wasnt working but most entertaining was his face when I pointed out that he shouldnt put 95 RON in it - he asked how I knew it had that fuel in, and I said "because I could hear it detonating" Turns out he usually dealt in shopping trolleys but "had always fancied an Evo" despite knowing absolutely **** all about them

Maybe you could take a step up though? Its not a good chassis by any means these days, its heavy and a bit bendy. The original Zeds were light, powerful and cheap, surely thats where they should be starting - if you could make a carbon monocoque and keep it under £30K, chuck in a 4 pot turbo, keep it simple on the inside and under 1250KG they would make a killing IMO. Basically a GT86 with decent power is what the next Z car should be.

Only other thing to add is I always call in advance and check I can go for a drive, was it spur of the moment sort of thing?

Yep, spot on Id say mate

Yep, although not all knock sensors are created equal - the old 200SX one didnt work at all, the DE one is crap but the HR one seems to be decent. They work by retarding the ignition if it senses knock, if this doesnt happen then you run the risk of serious piston/valve/chamber/big end damage. The guy I bought my 135 from (mapped for V Power) said he was forced to use 95 RON for a week or so, after the 3rd tank the car just refused to rev past 6K at all - thats a PROPER knock sensor.

Some are great - S2000 was literally "come back before we close, its got half a tank" and the GTR was insane, if you take these 3 numbers and three letters and rearrange them youll get an idea .......... 712 mhp (its not 127 hmp either ), TBF every car Ive tested from Marshall Cambridge they have let me do pretty much what I want including giving it some beans, I took the GTR and the Nismo 370 right through my village and past my house The guy I bought the 135i from actually turned the traction control off and tried to get me to drift a roundabout on the test drive On the other hand the lady from BMW that kept tutting and huffing when I went over 4K RPM, the private dealer who let me drive an M3 (in heavy traffic I should add) but not press the M button and the private dealer that thought 5 minutes up and down a bypass was a good test drive for a £20K Cayman can do one.

So are you trying to tell us that everyone who used that Asda garage was having the same problem? Really? I can believe a bad batch once in a while but consistently bad fuel over a period of weeks or months is a bit difficult to accept, think how many people must have filled up over that time at all the Asdas in the country. And comparing F1 cars and their fuel to 350Z's and what comes out the pump at Asda isnt really relevant, I could get another 50hp out of my 1 series with race fuel and a remap.

Eh? Its a 10K car, not a 458, why wouldnt they let you test drive it? No-one can expect you to buy a 2nd hand car without trying it first, thats ridiculous. The only place Ive ever been refused a test drive (including spanking new 997's and the like) was a Focus RS when it first came out, and they caved in when I pointed out I wouldnt be spending £35K on something I hadnt tried first .........

Weirdly, LUOF have just mailed me and offered Knoll Life Chairs for £190 each, RRP is £1200

Having a client 30 minutes away from Spa doesnt do my bank account much good either

Staples try before you buy is a good shout, but at £150 youll be replacing them every 12/18 months as they are generally pretty poor quality and dont stand up to being used. Id strongly advise going to a secondhand office furniture supplier, we use these guys http://www.luof.co.uk/ and recently got 4 Steelcase Leap chairs (RRP $1700 each) for about £250 a piece IIRC. Sounds a lot but if youre in it for 8+ days a week its worth splashing out IO

Spa is only and hour and a half from the Cologne as well ..........

If were talking 370's then theres no evidence 95 RON does any damage, if youre talking the wider world of cars then 98% of them can happily run all of their lives on 95 RON. Ive also never really noticed any difference in performance between the two ........ which makes sense as Ive never owned anything (apart from a Saab) that adjusts its timing according the quality of the fuel you are using. Sure, Ive had cars mapped to use 98 or 99, but without trickery a standard car burns both exactly the same. Ive even read that 95 and 98 start off life exactly the same, its the additives in the higher octane stuff that makes the difference, the potential energy is identical in both but I dont know how true that is

Each to his own, all I was saying is not to write off coilovers as being crashy when the game has moved on a lot even in the last 5 years. As for setting up, we put mine on 2 years ago and I changed the damping on the first trackday, not touched them since

Simply put - HSD coilovers are very nearly as compliant as shocks and springs but make the car a lot stiffer and better for feedback. Ive no doubt that BC's and the other popular varieites are the same, technology has come on a lot recently. Long answer (from another thread): I didnt want to come across as an expert, because Im not, but on my last car I ran 5 different types of coilies*, 2 sets of springs and shocks, 5 different ARB combinations, 4 diffs, literally innumerate tyres running every variation or pressures, 4 or 5 different alignment settings and used it for commuting to work and back, trackdays and drifting in anything up to 4th gear. You want to know the performances differences between HKS Hipermax and Tein Flex coilovers? No problem. You want to know whether a 1.5 way or 2 way diff would suit your driving style? Easy. Tell you about the difference driving a 200SX on 12/10, 10/8, 8/6, 6/4 spring rates? Ive done it. Drifting on the same? Probably the same answer. You arent going to know who to listen to and who not to pay so much attention to, all Im trying to do is give the benefit of the experience that Ive had (how much do you think I spent on suspension before finding the right one?!) as a balance to other advice that may be valid but is not founded in as much experience. Apologies if that comes across as supercilious, its not meant to :o * Christ only knows how many Ive driven on 200SX's but a lot.

But some people can tell you that coilovers are very nearly as compliant as shocks and springs but considerably better dynamically because he has tried them on the same car Likewise, if the same person had run 8 different sets of coilovers + 3 or 4 springs and shocks combinations on his last car he might have a fair idea of what he was talking about. Someone suggesting running correct offsets rather than spacers (good advice but not really relevant here) or that £1500 coilovers "arent good enough" (they are, trust me) might not. Im not saying I the worlds leading expert on suspension but Ive had a lot more experience than most, and some of whats on this thread just isnt accurate.

Im running B12's on my 135i and they are very good, particularly over rough or broken surfaces ........... but they aint coilovers at the end of the day. Sure, 10 years ago unless you were spending heavy money you were likely to get a crashy ride but the game has moved on since then - Ive said many times that the HSD's Ive got on my 350 are up with anything Ive ever used and I think offer better ride than standard, never mind the handling. My 135 is fairly stable, but its not the 350 by a long shot, theres a lot more movement and pitching which can sometimes prove a little worrying when pressing on, the Zed was bulletproof all the time. As Ive said many times on here, unless you own a parts company or are a race driver, chances are you might have only tried a couple of sets of coilovers on a couple of different cars, thats not really a base to be making judgements like this from. For me, when the HSD's (and BC's and probably some others) are as good as they are, are compliant over the bumps and make the car much stiffer and more communicative its a no brainer.