Ekona

It would, but most people don't keep some laying around.

Did you follow all the rules?

Just put cooled boiled tap water in, as long as you're only topping it up you'll be fine.

Yes and no. If you were hitting potholes that were causing you to bottom out every single trip, or smashing into kerbs daily, then yeah you could knock it quickly. In regular use annually is fine, if you live in an area with seriously crap roads then maybe every six months. If you have a place you trust near you, you could a day at CG then take the settings to your local place to redo them. You'd miss out on all the integrity checks, but at least the geo would be close enough.

Part of the reason they're so good is the tolerances they run to: Most ramps are set with up to 6deg away from level, CG run to 0.5deg. It just gives you absolute confidence in the end result.

...aaaaaaand it's ruined by the hideous nostrils. As you were, people.

Okay, so the 'vert looks amazing from that angle, I admit.

Before After

Centre Gravity visit complete. Man, what a day! I'll describe a typical day there, as well as my own experience. Long post, but hopefully it will explain just why I chose to go there. Got there at 8:30am, nice and bright outside if a little freezing. Cup of tea and a quick catch up with Chris (owner) and Pete (his 2nd in command), then onto the nitty gritty. First up, a quick 15min chat about the car. How I feel it handles now, how I want it to handle, anything I find odd about it, anything I particularly want it to do/not do. My aims are to eradicate understeer completely, without compromising the rear end emd stability I have and without reducing ground clearance. I explain the issues I have with nervousness on high speed corners, and how it never used to do that. Pete is looking after me today, and he carefully pays attention to what I say, makes a couple of sharp observations about what he thinks might be wrong then off we go for the first test drive. This is a 20-25 min spin around Atherstone, taking in roundabouts to check for under/oversteer, DC to check for pulling left/right, b-road for general fast road testing, town centre with speed bumps to check for clonks, and cobblestones to check for high frequency vibrations. Turns out my car was pulling massively left and a little right, very unsettled rear on the B-road, and a random clonk over the speed bumps. No issues on the cobbles at all, barring a little tyre roar but that's the Michelins for you. Back to the unit and up on ramps. Strap the Hunter HawkEye Elite kit on (an upgrade from the Beissbarth they used to use, 90secs to setup rather than 45mins!) for a quick geo check, and we can see the issues straight away. Or at least, issues from his POV. Not enough camber front, miles too much rear, a gazinga of toe out at the front and too much in at the back. Caster at least is fine! Kit off, up in the air, and time to start checking components. Wheel bearings, bushes, ARBs, mounts, braces etc. Everything! They picked up quickly on a knock from the OSF (loose collar on the damper), and a big knock from the NSR (destroyed lower bush on the wheel carrier). The latter is a significant problem: If this isn't fixed, we cannot go any further. Quick call to ECP 3 miles round the corner, they have one in stock, 45 mins later it's here, and it's rapidly replaced. Luckily the old one came out okay, as otherwise it could've ruined the day. This is where the expertise of different cars really comes into play, Pete has this sorted quicker than I could have imagined. Now the longer, more fussy tasks. We sort the ride height out first, to first off level everything out as mine was off by 9mm L-R at the front, then we raise the rear to give the car more rake which will aid in getting the nose tucked in. The fact I have a BGW and a small front splitter is also mentioned as causing issues, and that I need to install a bigger splitter at the front... Once the ride height is done, we set a very basic geo up, basically just to straighten all the wheels back to even with just a smidge of camber. Corner weighting is a bit of a black art to some, as they think it means to add/remove weight from bits of the to make it all even, like putting the battery into the boot etc. Not even close: It's about adjusting the damper heights to ensure the footprint from FR to RL and vice versa is balanced and even. Imagine a table with two short legs opposite, and you balance it by putting beer mats under the dodgy legs to stop it rocking, and that's the principle here. My car is already pretty good, at a 49.2% balance. Good, but not good enough for CG, and Pete gets it to 49.9% by twisting the front shocks by just two or three turns. Tiny adjustment, big difference. Oh, and my car weighs 1642kg with a full tank, which I'm delighted with as that's less than OEM spec. Corner weighting done, it's just the geo to sort. Pete knows what will work on my car for me from 7 years experience working with Chris, so he dials in the settings. I'll pop the sheet up in the next post, easier than explaining it here. It's a tricky thing to do properly, as changing the camber changes the toe and changing the toe changes the camber, so back and forth we go. Ride height also changes camber, which in turn changes toe, so that needs to be taken into account as well. Once it's done, we test all the components again, torque everything up, mark all alterations with pen on the components, and lower her back down. It's now gone 4pm, and we're still not done. Second test drive. Pete takes us out again, and proves on the same route that the understeer is gone, the pulling gone, the clonk gone, the skittish rear end gone. I take reigns, and prepare myself. To say it's like night and day is doing them a disservice: It's absolutely transformed. Instantly I can feel the wheel not fighting me, and the front end feels at least 100kg lighter. Unsettling at first, but on the sweeping corners we're easy 10mph quicker than before. The car is flowing, its balanced, throttle inputs allow the rear to come round gently rather than snapping. In short, it's 99% perfect. The only snag is that it's not quite as snappy as I like it at the front, so Pete jumps out, adjusts the damping a few clicks, and we get back in and try again. 100% on the money. He seriously knows his stuff. Back to the workshop a happy chappy, and it's the painful bit. £565 for the full day chassis tune, £36 for the bush (no on cost) and the labour to fit for free as we still achieved everything in one very long day. Is that a lot of money? Sure. Is it worth it? Completely. I've had the car fully checked over for everything, I've had repairs done on the fly, I've spent all day in the workshop with Pete bending his ear and increasing my knowledge, and I've ended up with a car that is significantly more enjoyable and faster than it was before. You couldn't get enough horsepower to make a difference for that price, and certainly nowhere near enough to gain you 10mph without even trying. It's incredible value, hell it'd be worth it even without the geo just for the health check and knowledge. I appreciate it's not for everyone. Those that bimble around, use their fun car as a commuter car, or those who don't ever modify it or go near track: For those people, it's probably overkill. However, if you'd got adjustable dampers, or enjoy the twisty roads of Wales et al, ever track your car or who simply want to make sure that everything is working properly, this is the best Monet you'll ever spend. I had a full chassis tune done, but CG also offer a geo tune (so everything barring corner weighting, ride height and damper settings) for £325, which is getting on for bargain territory and worth doing for everyone. Pete loves the 350Zs too, so will be able to sort out just what you want.

It was an r57, torque steering POS. Hated that Mini with a passion.

I wish we'd bought the one we looked at instead of that spiteful Mini. My own fault really, I shouldn't have suggested that she drive her dream car: Next time I'll just tell her what to buy!

Done that and trust me its not worth it! Jokes Dan - Le Mans was a hoot I dunno, the headache the morning after was quite painful

G35 is ugly as sin. The 130i is still the best choice here, at least that's not quite as ugly

You may find the third one quite tricky, unless you like BBQs.

Ouch, I bet that wasn't cheap! Can't wait to see the pics

Not the sodding handbag again I dunno, you hold one handbag once in one tiny picture, and just because it suited me so well...

FTFY

And now having watched the video, that guy is speaking a load of corporate cow droppings. They definitely said at the time it was down to not wanting the weight, and if they genuinely couldn't get the 4WD version of the mk2 to be quicker and more fun than the FWD version then they clearly had the wrong guys working for them. Why couldn't he just be honest, and say that it was going to add too much to the cost and not add enough to the thrill? Tbh the mk3 would've been FWD as well had VW not been blitzing everything with the Golf R. I'm sure Renault would love to go 4WD too with the Megane, but they don't have the budget nor the expertise.

Without watching that, wasn't it because Ford said they didn't want the weight penalty? I'm sure that was their reason at the time.

They are, but they also do a much better job structurally so can be used in place of as well.

I ran the Summit braces on my old one (the UR ones are a copy of their design), and even though my car wasn't lowered it did scrape a bit. Not a lot, but enough to take the paint off it. Personally I'd just brush over and paint your existing.

I also want to add Jurgen Klopp to my list. Although I suspect he'd drink me under the table.

Doesn't look that bad to me, crumple zones have done their job well.

My first trip in the 350Z was into the Highlands in Feb, a week after I got the car. Roof down, snow falling, bliss

Blimey, is SETI still going?! I started doing that with the PC Format forum (RIP) guys many years ago, must've been around 2002 I guess.