Ekona

They don't look it to me as most uni-directional tyres have the tread pointing forwards IYSWIM. If in doubt have a look at the sidewall, it'll tell you on there.

Just to finish this, my booking with Demon Tweeks was a great success as they sorted everything out both front and back for the bargain price of £85. The car handled beautifully at Anglesey on Saturday and I'd have no hesitation in going there again or recommending them to others. Just a shame I had to learn the hard way, really.

Nope, don't like it. It does hark back to the older Zeds far more than the 350 currently does, but I just think it looks like a very awkward shape, whereas at least the current car was allowed to stand on it's own merits (and is what attracted me to it). I do like the door cards in the alcantara, but the gauges still look fussy and stuck on. And the less said about the 996 911-esque rear lights the better... Whilst I have no doubt it'll drive well and be quicker than the 350, I certainly can't see myself buying one.

Whoops, missed that first time, sorry Thanks for your help Phil, I'll have to pay them a visit after the weekend. Just a bit annoyed that everything was fine with the car before I decided to do the sensible thing and get the alignment checked

Sorry to sound a bit dense here, but what do you mean when you say geometry? Will a full alignment not sort it? Should I be going somewhere a bit more specialist to get that done?

I did try that, but one of the stupid security bolts decided to round itself off, so I now need to get a stud extractor on it That's not something I'm going to try before the weekend mind, as I'm on track on Saturday and it'd be a really bad time to break something this close!

Just a quick question as this is driving me absolutely nuts now... Is there any special trick to getting a laser alignment done on the Zed AND keeping the steering wheel so that straight ahead really is straight ahead? When I had my new tyres put on a couple of weeks ago I had a full alignment done then, however they'd left it so that the steering wheel was ever so slightly on the wonk to the left. I decided I couldn't live with this so took it elsewhere to get it done again, and after THREE attempts the wheel was still on the p*ss (to the right this time)! As I understand it (and I'm happy to be proved wrong here), the way to do it would be to put the steering wheel in the dead-ahead/12 o'clock position, lock the wheels in place and then adjust whatever needs to be adjusted underneath to get the alignment correct. Bearing in mine that mine's an 06 so has the speed-sensitive steering, would there be any reason that doing a simple alignment should be such an issue? Is there a special knack to it on the Zed? What the hell are these places missing? For the record the first place was my local Just Tyres who I've used before and always found them to be decent blokes, and the second place was Quik-Fit as I was getting a bit desperate and I'm too far to reasonably travel to ESR and back in a day. I really can't understand why they can't make the steering wheel point straight ahead when I'm driving in a straight line, after all it was fine when I got it from Nissan... Any help/pointers I can give them would be gratefully received: Got the car booked in at Demon Tweeks on Friday lunchtime so I'm hoping for third time (well, place) lucky!

Any issues with picking it up on Friday Phil now that RC have gone into liquidation?

I'd argue that the ESR one with bungs in is actually quieter at idle than the stock one: Certainly sounds it when stood next to an '07, anyway. I've never heard the Nismo in person mind, so couldn't comment on it.

I've been running these tyres for about 1K miles now, and I'm seriously impressed with them. Okay, given the cost (I paid £700 for four fitted but they made a pricing error at my local tyre fitters in my favour) they should be good, but they've outperformed my expectations quite a bit! There's oodles more grip there than the RE040s in the dry, but more than that it's very progressive grip: You can feel the rubber communicating to you so much better, and because of that you trust the car more and end up going even faster but with far more control. Tyre roar is minimal, and it's a little too early to tell how they'll wear on the car but I do have quite high hopes of seeing 3-4 trackdays or 8K spirited miles out of them on the rear. I've yet to try them in the wet mind, but so far I can't see myself changing to anything else any time soon. I did find that stock pressures were way too high for PS2s though, and found that 30psi all round gave a far more neutral stance.

Just thought I'd follow this thread up with a bit of a report a few months on... I've done approximately 8K miles with this exhaust on now, and it must be said that it's still REALLY QUITE LOUD. The tone certainly changed after a couple of thousand miles or so, but the volume is still as prevalent as it ever was. I went into this purchase with eyes wide open and was fully aware that it wasn't exactly a choice for shrinking violets, and it did everything that I wanted it to, but I've had to admit defeat in the last few weeks or so and fit the bungs. Bear in mind that my Zed is purely a weekend fun car, so I didn't have to worry about the noise being too much for the run to work everyday, but even so I've found myself getting out of the car after a blat with a slight ringing in my ears sometimes, which certainly isn't good. Now I know how bad that sounds, but you have to consider two things: 1. I drive everywhere with the roof down. 2. My blats last around one to two hours. If I did long drives with the roof up, it was never a problem at all so any coupe owners would be very unlikely to suffer as I did. Likewise, any short sub-1hr drives were fine, roof up or down, it was the combination of the two that did it for me. Now the bungs are in it's perfectly acceptable again on longer drives, whilst still maintaining a wonderfully throaty character under WOT when you're playing. Not quite as eargasmic as with the bungs out, but not exactly terrible either. I've pretty much decided that the bungs will stay in for the winter months when driving hard is limited to the weather, and come out for the summer months when it's not so much of an issue. That said, I'm off to Anglesey next week for a trackday and I'll have the bungs in until Demon Tweeks (where our usual group always stop for a spendathon), but then I'll remove them for the run down into Wales as the roads there deserve to be enjoyed as much as possible. Given that removing them literally is a five minute job, that's not exactly a hardship. The external appearance of the cans is as it was when they arrived, so I'm very happy with the lasting quality of them, and I've had no issues at all with any joints coming loose or anything. The bungs don't rattle one jot either when fitted, which has been known on other exhausts. I'm just as impressed with the ESR twin-can exhaust as I was the day I fitted it, and even knowing what I know now, I'd still buy another one tomorrow as it just does everything I wanted so very well. So there you go. Hope that's helpful to someone should they be considering one of these for their car.

...and when he explains it, it all seems so simple and I feel a bit daft Cable tie underneath the gaiter so that it holds the leather in place much higher up the shaft. Nice one Phil, you're a scholar and a gent. Okay, 9/10 thumbs up now.

Got my Ti knob today, thanks Phil! Initial impressions: It's much smaller than I thought. It's actually quite ugly. It doesn't fit very well in the hand. Whilst sitting in my driveway making VRRROOOOMMMM noises and shifting gear, it does seem to give the more positive action I was after, which is more important to me than any of the above. The other thing, which I'm going to have to fix else it'll drive me mad, is that the knob sits a fair bit higher than the stock one (approx 10mm) and so the leather boot doesn't mate up to the bottom of it, and you can see the ugly finish on the top. I think I'll have to go searching for some kind of metal trim ring for it, must be somewhere on the interweb that sells them. So far, I'll give it 8/10 thumbs up.

I think you're potentially confusing track days with racing. At a well organised, properly run track day (i.e. 99% of them) there is no risk to you or your car at all unless you're driving like a tit. On proper tracks there's obviously more to hit if you do leave your comfort zone (Armco, for instance) but on an airfield the only thing you're ever likely to hit is a cone, and that's really not going to cause you much damage at all. I've never seen car-to-car contact on a track day and I doubt I ever will as the aggressor would be pulled off track as soon as they started driving dangerously. An S1 Elise lost a headlight hitting a cone once, but then that's not exactly a rare occurrence anyway! Honestly mate, they're so much safer than donutting in a car park full of proper kerbs (you only get gradient kerbs on track) and lampposts and trolleys and things. Get yourself on an airfield day with one of the big companies (I tend to use BookaTrack, but have also been on Trackdays.co.uk and Javelin amongst others) and get a feel for just what you and your car can do.

Clicky Should sort it out for you bud. There's loads of guides on here, always worth a quick search first.

So you can either have the scoop bolted in place OR the towing eye in, correct?

So what do you do when you want to use the front towing eye?

+1 That Tardis is far more useful than I ever gave it credit for, especially at Le Mans this year! Those suitcase things look really good though, I think it may well be worth investing in a set.

That's a much different interior than the auto one shown a couple of weeks ago, especially around the stereo/heater panel. I love the dot gauge for the fuel and temp, but the rest of it leaves me bland. The less said about the side profile, the better.

Going back a few posts... Lotus aren't far off that: The newer spec Exiges come with T/C which is eminently switchable (as well as adjustable slip allowed), but they then tell you in the manual that you don't need to pay any special attention to the car over and above the obvious when going on track and warranty will not be effected in any way. I know there's a bit of a difference between Lotus TC and Nissan VDC, but then there's also a world of difference between a small British manufacturer and a massive multi-platform Japanese firm. Make no mistake, someone will get caught out by this once the UK cars start coming through. All it will take will be for one Performance Centre to take a stand against a particularly obnoxious customer, and then you'll really see the fur fly.

Indeed, hence my McDonalds car park post

Depends how you do it. I spend about half my time on track sideways and the other half neat and tidy. 99% of people on track do the same thing, just look at the Caterhams for proof If you're constantly spinning out and causing flags then you'll obviously get pulled on it, but the idea is to find your limits and then stick within them. The odd spin here or there is fine.

Why on earth would you want to? Seriously mate, take your Zed on track if you want to be able to have a laugh with it in relative safety and without the BiB disturbing you. Donuts in car parks is for chavs in McDonalds. IMHO, obviously.

Looking at the interior again, it looks like the heater controls and stereo are all part of the same unit now, which means no fitting of aftermarket stereos unless you want to get really creative

I quite like that bottom one...