Ekona

Each to their own and all that, but the PS2s are much better than the 040s in the dry, both in terms of outright grip and feel. They are also simply incredible in the wet, allowing the car to grip where it has no right to but also giving you the feedback to know exactly what's happening. They don't last that long in truth, but that's always a sacrifice you make when buying outright performance tyres. If you find the sidewalls too soft then just pump the pressures up, but you'll lose that incredible feel. In all honesty, if you found them lacking in the wet then you're either expecting far too much from them, or you're simply not driving the car correctly.

I'd never bother with fancy caps, they always get nicked. Plain black plastic is better than nothing and don't look that bad at all.

Needs to be a standard UK car unfortunately to get the gf insured on it, and in all honesty I'd much prefer a larger 2.5L engine to a highly strung 2L one, even sacrificing power and torque. Nice idea though, and if I were looking for me I'd probably give it a test drive just to see the difference.

which one are you secretly hankering after most, the evo or the scooby? Honestly, I'm not that bothered. The Evo is far better looking on the outside, but the STi looks better on the inside. The Evo alleges itself to be miles quicker than the STi, but looking at the power and relative weights I just can't see it myself. Given that the STi has the larger engine which should reduce the lag I think I'm going to prefer that to drive, and the fact that it makes a much better noise doesn't hurt either We may even go for a hawkeye STi, best of both worlds really. Just depends on what Jo wants as it'll be her daily driver, and I know she prefers the Evo so far.

For Jo, she's looking at ditching the Aygo for something more practical and more fun. Now that she's finished her degree, we can afford to be a bit more daft when it comes to cars. I'd never run a turbo car as a track toy again, I vastly prefer the immediacy of NA. That said, I'm pretty damn sure that Jo will be tracking it and it would be such a shame for me not to show her what it can do...!

Well, so far both Mitsi and Subaru have been immensely helpful and positive on the phone, calling me back when they said they would and getting things sorted. Let's see how good they are on Saturday after a couple of back-to-back test drives.

I never really thought you guys were serious, but you never know who's reading a thread and they might think it sounds like a great idea, so they go off and time themselves on track, stack it and then get the TDO's insurance invalidated. There's nothing to stop you videoing it and then running the time when you get back home of course... I know I sound a complete arse know, but I'd rather that than risk anyone doing anything daft. Love you all really!

Too true! Maybe I'll take a baseball cap with me!

Not wishing to sound like a killjoy here, but there's a reason that all timing is banned from trackdays and it's a very good one. Things like this may seem like a bit of fun, but you run the very real risk of having the trackday cancelled and further trackdays banned. I would strongly recommend that either this thread disappears, or the two guys involved post up that this is all one big joke and is not to be taken seriously. I love my trackdays and there's enough opposition to them as it is without giving people more ammo to get them banned.

Me and the missus are planning on visiting the local Subaru & Mitsi dealerships this weekend with a view to getting either an STi or an Evo: Given that we'll be turning up in the loud Zed, and that I will have shaved my head again by then and she's only 21, I wonder how seriously we'll be taken? Any bets? Best treatment I ever got was test driving an M3 about 4 years ago. Despite turning up in shorts and tee-shirt, they still treated me with respect and had I liked the car I'd have happily bought from there. Far better than the Porker dealership across the road.

New new? More than the car's worth, I'm guessing around £12K, give or take. Second hand should be between £1K - £2K dependant on mileage and ancillaries, check eBay/local scrappies.

I'd buy that for £50. Well worth a punt at that sort of money, even if it did need a little massaging for the perfect fit.

No way is that pricing anywhere near correct: T1Rs more than the PS2s?! No chance, they'd be cheaper than all of them. Maybe R1Rs or 888s, but not T1Rs. Someone from Camskill have made an almighty balls-up there.

Passed one of these on the A12 yesterday on my way back from Thetford, and I have to say that Jaguar have absolutely nailed it in the flesh. Very imposing but not overly so, and the rear does work very well when you see it on the move. It may not stay a classic design, but for now it definitely livens up the road.

Not sure I see the problem really. If you're not driving like a tit or breaking the law then you really haven't got a lot to worry about, and hopefully they'll catch a few people driving without tax or insurance, which can only be a good thing for us all.

Put little flags in the cakes

Like I say, there appears to be maybe too much bad feeling from both here and over there for any true reconciliation to ever work in the short term. The effort that goes into keeping this site more than enough for my personal needs as well as the atmosphere here means I'm unlikely to ever try out the other site, so I guess you could call my flag well and truly planted

There's always an alternative: Both clubs have separate stands with separate flags and whatnot, but both stands are next to each other. This increases exposure both for the car and for both clubs involved, and also leads to a bit of healthy competition on who can have the nicest layout etc. Obviously that's simply not going to work at all if the people in charge of the clubs can't even be civil to each other, but in time it can work. All it takes is someone to make the first move, and I'm not pointing fingers or saying that it must be someone from here, I'm just stating an opinion. FWIW I can see exactly where this all comes from, and having helped run a car club before and had 'issues' with rival clubs I can appreciate that the sentiments can run deep, but the one thing that has to be remembered above all else is that the clubs should always work for the benefit of its members. IMHO, anyway.

More importantly, why where you reading the crap that is Redline?

Speak to the guys at Plans Motorsport, they're based at Dunsfold airfield and often have track days there so owners can drive the Top Gear layout

That's the thing with car forums: The people that run them go to incredible lengths to make things nice and easy for newcomers to find, and yet you still end up with the same air filter/lowering springs/chipping questions being posted almost every single day without fail.

Not entirely sure it's worth the effort when all the answers are already here in the database, it's just that people are too bloody lazy to bother using the search function so I'm not sure they'll even look for a FAQ. [/pessimistic]

A K1 isn't that loud really in terms of dBs, it just sounds loud due to the resonance. It's certainly louder than just about any other Zed exhaust, and I definitely wouldn't want the car to be any louder, but it's really not going to deafen you either. I've done Anglesey to Essex a couple of times now with the roof down all the way

If you're going slowly enough that you can smell cigarette smoke from other cars, then I'd be more irritated by the smell of exhaust gas personally.

RE050s are indeed a very good tyre and shouldn't be compared ever with the RE040s. They're almost the match for my PS2s in the dry and just a tad worse in the wet, and it's only the price of them that means I'd never buy them: They're only a few quid less than the PS2s!