Ekona

Why bother changing the exhaust manifolds at all? You'll only have to ditch them when you do the turbo conversion in a few months. Be wary about Youtube videos when choosing exhausts, as they never tell you the whole story. They can tell you tone, but never the actual volume of the exhaust: My own vid of the ESR exhaust will back that up. Any monkey with a spanner can fit an exhaust, so I would simply find the nearest garage you trust to do it. I certainly wouldn't bother going to an exhaust specialist for it.

Ring them and ask them? Each insurer will be different: Some won't care and add nothing, some will hate you and add £200, and some will rape your face and refuse to insure you at all.

Nothing to do with the MOT at all, as there's no noise test involved. At least, not for cars.

I have to say that I'm really not a fan of those touring car-style shift knobs in the Zed. I know they're the official items and all, but they just seem so odd when you look at them fitted. They can't be anywhere near as comfortable as the rounded stock item either.

No. No no no no no. Not in a million years. Even 5th @ 30mph will rumble more enough to make people turn and look. And that's why I love it.

You sure? I know you can reset the CEL, but have yet to meet an OBDII car where you can reset the ECU as well from the diagnostics port. I've had my Gendan reader + laptop connected to my brother's MY07 Zed and didn't see anything remotely like an ECU reset button/option.

Just say you've never had it on a dyno so you don't know if it improves or not

Basically (and even EBC themselves have admitted as much lately, hence them giving out a load of freebies to various different car club members across all performance marques) they've chronically mis-sold what the various pads are. The EBC line-up should look like this: Greenstuff: Cheap and worse than OEM. Redstuff: The equivalent to OEM. Yellowstuff: Fast road (not track) pads. This is why a lot of people are very happy with the Red and Yellow pads, as they actually will try and stop you, but the Green is simply a very budget pad that should never have been sold with a performance tag on at all. Personally I'm using the Performance Friction pads on mine as I wanted a pad that will funtion well on track, yet not squeal like a pig on the road (as sadly the excellent RS14s do). So far they've hit the nail on the head perfectly.

Excellent stuff Phil, be good to put a face to the name. Right, I'm just leaving now, let's bring the noise

Right, I'm leaving tomorrow as part of a two-week trip to France taking in the LeMans 24 Hour race next weekend, so it was only fair and just to plaster the car in not-so-subtle vinyl Having just finished washing the car (barring some tyre shine which I didn't have on yet for these pics), I think she's just about ready... Yes, they're horribly over the top but that's kinda the point. I did want to get some specially designed vinyl for the car, but I soon discovered I'd left it a bit late and it was going to cost me about £200, which I wasn't prepared to spend on something that will only last the week, so I got the sunstrip from eBay for a tenner, and the main stripes and manufacturer logos from Viper Grafix for about £50. In the flesh they actually make the car look a lot smaller, which I really like. I've still got the big LeMans stickers themselves to go on the doors and the bonnet, but that doesn't happen until tomorrow so sadly I've got no photos of them. I'm almost fully packed, got everything I wanted to get, car is filled up and washed, so bring it on! Also big thanks to Phil for the obligatory ESR logos, they were exactly what I was after, cheers matey!

The Zed is known as Slagathor which is blatantly pinched from Srcubs, yet it seems to suit the car so very well. My VXR220 was affectionally known as The Canoe, given that it's slab-sided and made of plastic

Very nice And thanks for the info too, that's my curiosity satisfied now

S Club 7 *runs*

It's certainly *ahem* different...!

They're awesome at smaller shows and festivals, but their stadium gigs are shockingly bad: Just ask the crowd at Hyde Park a few years ago, they got booed off stage and I've never seen that in the 14 times I've seen them live. They were also a bit poor at Earl's Court as well, which was really disappointing for me. That said, if you're a fan and have never seen them before you'll love it, promise.

Like I said, it's all down to the style. A supercar has to look good both inside and out, and that's why it remains: They've also got more than enough power to make any slight delay in shift time redundant. Bear in mind that the link you found is for the older, more clunky 348 rather than a more modern Ferrari, so it could well have made for a more positive shift action as older supercar gearboxes are akin to stirring a bucket full of bricks when trying to change gear

Mass Air Flow meter, the sensor that sits just after the airbox on a stock car. It's show in batch 2 under pic title 'tight fit', and seeing as you say the BOV is near the headlights then I'm guessing it must be what I'm looking at, as that's right behind it! BOV shouldn't whistle really though, rather you should be hearing a gush of air every time you lift off after you hit boost. Still, I've known BOVs that more or less bark upon release (the VW/Porsche one to be precise), so a whistle isn't impossible, especially if it's one with variable inserts. Anyone know what the BOV in the APS kit is?

On the pipe from the I/C to the throttle body, there's a take off just before the MAF: What is it? I was expecting a BOV, but it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before...

Still doesn't stop me wanting one

Zed specialists, sadly not. That said, Engine Advantages in Witham have worked on cars of mine previously (including an MR2 Roadster I turbocharged) and I was very happy with the work they did. Their speciality is Fords really (they've taken a Focus RS past 400bhp reliably in the past), but I'd trust them to work on anything after seeing the work they did for me. If you're looking for someone to fit it, I'd be going in their direction personally. Moving on to the topic of gear surrounds, I've used them in the past and found that, while they do look very nice, they slow up your shift horribly. Keep for looks if you like, but you can expect to be changing gear far slower.

Neither is 'better' as such, it depends on how you drive the car more than anything. If you really like the feel of the thump as the torque really kicks in and don't mind sacrificing the smoothness of the engine then a turbo is going to suit you more, whereas if you prefer an engine that is smooth all the way through the revs then an S/C is the way to go. Having come from two turbocharged cars before, I made the deliberate decision to go for an N/A engine this time as I was a bit tired of having to balance so very carefully on the corners as the turbo would sometimes kick in and throw the balance of the car out, yet I miss the thump so very much. That said, provided I keep the car long enough to make it worthwhile I'll personally be going down the S/C route myself to keep the characteristics of the car as close to stock as possible.

Eeek, pass. PM Pure if you want to know, he's the guy I sold it to. @Trevor: Definitely not. Sorry.

I bought one of these and they DO NOT work with UK-spec Bose. They do, however, work with the J-spec one as I sold mine to a chap on here and it worked fine for him. If you do a search for PA11-NIS then you'll find the thread I started about it.

Very stealthy, I like it. Needs a set of 048s on there for track though What's the interior like?

Anyone else find the bungs for this exhaust really tight? I tried fitting mine the other weekend, but I got it to within about 5mm of the bolt holes and just gave up as to get it that last little bit would've meant hammering the bung in. It was a nightmare trying to get it out again as well: It took two sets of grips on either side of the inner tube and me pulling like there was no tomorrow to get it out. It's not too much of an issue as I don't actually intend on ever using them, but I will be getting some a bit more substantial custom made for track so do they need to be super tight like that? Or would something a bit looser work just as well?