Ekona

I'm going to remember that next time, always handy to know a friendly pit stop

Jayce And The Wheeled Warriors. And sadly enough I didn't even have to google to check that

Heavy? Hardly, they're wonderfully balanced and on a decent setup you can hang the back end out for hours or nail the apex crisply every time, depending on mood. Well, IMHO anyway.

Sooooo I've now done some mileage in the car and can do a bit more of a write up about it! I spent last weekend in north Wales, and no surprises for guessing that I ended up on track at Anglesey as well. I know the A5 like the back of my hand now, and despite traffic and police it's still a really good road to drive down, however I'll come back to road driving in a bit... So, Saturday was spent on track courtesy of Bookatrack who are still the best TDO I've ever spent money with. Weather? Well, it's Wales, so of course it was p*ssing down and I do mean properly! Track was more or less soaked all day long, and they even had to close it for 45 mins in the afternoon it got that bad. Of course, being an utter hero (idiot?) I still went out and ragged the nuts off a car I barely knew, and a pretty expensive one at that. It was so incredibly worth it though, as when you push it you can suddenly understand why these cars are so incredibly popular when you hit a certain budget. I'm not claiming to be the greatest driver in the world, and maybe I was going a bit too fast for the conditions or people were just a bit more precious, but when you can hunt down GT-Rs if you push on then you know you're in something special. I have no doubt that in the dry they'd walk away from me, but just to be able to slowly reel them in was a great feeling for me, and even the Caterhams weren't any quicker (again, conditions played a huge part here for sure) as I got used to the car in the afternoon. The brakes were immense and even as stock there was no fade at all, and the engine just pulls like a train when you get past 90mph and pulling up to Rocket from Church. The PDK 'box was the real treat though, as being able to keep your hands on the wheel allowed me to concentrate fully on my lines and entry speeds, and I know I couldn't have gone any quicker with a manual 'box at all. There's the rub though: The car was so smooth, so complete, so utterly unstoppable, that it wasn't actually that much fun. Was it quick? Oh hell yes, but that doesn't always make it fun. I enjoyed it, and so did my passengers (one asked me to pull into the pits as he felt sick such were my cornering speeds), but as I also had use of a Caterham in the afternoon it was good to compare the two. I spent most of the time in that sideways and getting soaked to the bone and being uncomfortable in the tiny seat, and yet it had such character that I would've stayed in it all day if I could. As I said above though, I'll come back to the road driving. As always, our little group takes the scenic route back which includes a drive of the Evo Triangle. Now I've driven this before plenty of times in both a VXR220 and the Zed and to tell the truth I was a little disappointed. Sure, it's a good road, but there's better ones in Wales. However, that was before I drove it in the Porker... It's brilliant. It shines. It simply comes alive on roads like this, where the surface is fair to middling and you can feel every camber change and pebble on the road. It gives you the confidence to push on and attack the road, and the sighting of the Triangle is such that you can push with both safety and confidence. A good car should leave you with a smile on your face: The 911 left both myself and my passenger giggling like a couple of schoolgirls at a Westlife concert, and probably as moist too. Honestly, I'm sat here writing this with a smile across my face and I'm running out of words to compliment the car and the engineering behind it. Make no mistake, the 997 is a very expensive car and yet it suddenly now feels like I've stumbled across the bargain of the century. I can't wait to get over to the Fatherland next year and open her up on the roads where she was crafted, as I believe that could possibly define just how close you can get to a cold, Germanic piece of utter magic.

You'd be mad to get anything other than an M3 if budget allows. The E46 is far more involving than the E90/92 as a driver's car as well.

It's gone gold now though, apparently.

Just rent for 3 years and save. No telling what the housing market is going to do in that time so you might not be any worse off.

Not even a contest, M3 by a country mile. Even an RS4 wouldn't be my choice if that was an option instead.

The 370Z has a TPMS? News to me. Have you tried pumping the tyre up?

Water doesn't boil at 100C when under pressure as in a car, so temps of 130C aren't unheard of (although a little on the high side!). All engines will run at different temperatures dependant on their original design, use, age etc. Some bits of the engine will be hotter than others, but I wouldn't like to put my hand on any part when running to find out

Focus all day long.

Beautiful car, very unusual colour too. Hope you have many good years with it mate

Exactly. And without trying to put myself into a hole, I can tell you now for 100% that when it happens it is the single worst feeling in the world. Nothing car-related even comes close.

I never had condensation in mine without A/C on either, even when it was raining. But then again, that's probably because I never drove the thing with the roof up!

Pfft, bloody interweb stalkers You're quite right to correct me though, I certainly meant that they (you) wouldn't be stalking forums looking to trip people up. The amount of people that do post up in the same thread "I've got X mod and it gives me loads more BHP!" quickly followed by "Nah, I'm not telling my insurance, they'll never find out!" is worryingly high.

I'd go for the Halfrauds Pro range as well. They really are very, very good tools. That said, the torque wrenches I've got are Sealey ones nabbed from Aldi or Costco (can't remember which one now) on one of their sales, and they're certainly decent enough for me.

What is it?

But you still knew enough about the car within that short test drive to spend over £20K on it, and surely that's a bigger risk than just writing a few words on it? You're criticising the guy for not spending enough time with the car to justify writing a review on it, yet you spent a shedload of dosh on a car with much, much less seat time. We all do the same as we can't possibly get the car for long enough to get a properly rounded view on it, but you can't have a go at the bloke for stating his opinion.

But the guy can only compare with what he's got experience of, which happens to be a TVR and a BMW. Given that the 370Z is a cross between the two, I still say it's a fair write up.

Michelin Pilot Sport 2 or Bridgestone RE050A. Best for water clearing bar none.

Funny, most car journos can do it in a couple of hours. Did you drive your car for longer than a week before you decided to buy it then?

Remove the plastic surround (just pull the bit nearest the handbrake, it'll come up), lock a set of mole grips round the shaft, and then pop a towel round the gear knob and get a big set of grips on it, the twist like buggery! You won't damage anything that way, promise.

Probably by searching the internet and seeing people's posts

Will they ever find out about the remap? Probably not. Is it worth £12K (or whatever your car is worth) to take that chance? Definitely not. Change insurer next renewal, there are companies out there that don't care about things like that.

Sorry, was referring to a few other forums with the same feature set and including the , etc, have used the text versions since the dawn of time and have just gotten used to doing it that way over the years.