Ekona

I blame the dodgy photography

Not just me going mad then

Is that not a debadged R? Can't see the inside to tell for sure, but it's got the Spyder wheels and the spoiler, and the black wing mirrors...

I'd like to see someone buy a TVR or Noble with a full warranty.

Keevil is a decent airfield, bit abrasive but then they all are really. I like it there

Right, gotcha. Cayman with a warranty is a very safe thing indeed, but bear mind you cannot mod a single thing on it. No non-N rated tyres, no different wheels, no aftermarket exhausts. I'm not sure how restrictive the BMW warranty is, probably less, but probably less comprehensive. Not sure if any of that matters to you or not. If you need the space, then go for the M3. If you don't, get the Cayman.

And the Cayman or M3 will be much better?

Jay, that link goes to a 911 GTS4 for me.

If you want to do the Porsche thing, then I'd be looking at a 996 turbo for that money. It really isn't going to depreciate much further, whereas you've got a new Cayman on the way early next year and the M3 won't be far behind, so either of those still have a way to fall. That way, you can get the Porsche itch done and if you don't like them then you can swap to something else without losing too much cash.

Gotcha. Didn't realise we were talking budget over spec. It'd be a gen1 Cayman for that money. Very, very different cars. For me it would probably be the M3 I think as I prefer the V8 to the earlier M97 in the Porker, but Chris has got it spot-on when we're talking weekend vs all round car. You take the Cayman if you want something fun to throw around, you take the M3 if you need to get the kids in. Both fantastic cars, and I'd have both over a GT86.

Which of which? Cayman S: gen 1 or 2? M3: E46, 90 or 92?

Well, you learn something new every day. Thanks chaps.

I've driven a HR 350 on the 050As, they were the same on that. Could possibly be your alignment or tyre pressures, or something else suspension-wise that coud be broken.

Yes they do fit. Are you sure? Okay, I've never tried it myself, but everything I've read on here over the years said that they don't fit. Happy to be proved wrong though, would really open the market up if that were the case.

I've run them for 12K miles on the 911, and they're very good. They're not quite as grippy or communicative in the wet or dry as the Michelins, but they're a pretty close second. They do wear better though, I'll give them that. 18 months?! Blimey, the wheels could be anywhere! Without getting too bogged down in detail, if you had the front wheels toeing out (i.e. pointing outwards from the car) then when you turn into a corner, the wheel is already pointing in that direction so it will turn in much quicker. You'll lose straight line stability at speed (meaning it can be a bit twitchy at motorway speeds), but then any alignment is always a compromise of something. If you had toe in, you'd get the opposite. Apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here. With camber, if you stand the tyre straight upright then when you turn into a corner you will lose a significant amount of contact patch, and so that tyre will suffer from lack of grip. If you add camber then you'll get the opposite, so more grip into a corner but increased inner tyre wear over long distances. Combining the two into a combination that works for you is a true art form, and I'm not sure where you're based but Dixon at DMS in Erith did wonders for me on my car. Abbey should be able to do the same, or a multitude of places around the country. I have my cars set up with a little toe out and maximum camber at the front, and then the rears almost upright on the 911 but cambered over a touch more on the MX-5, which is probably more like the setup you'd want on the Zed.

Nope.

This.

Which weigh less with tyres? Bearing in mind if you want to upgrade the brakes to Brembos in the future these won't fit under the 17" wheels though.

Does anybody else want to tell him, or should I? Only kidding mate, it's good to hear she's appreciated for the work she does

No, I meant the F1. The one with the BMW V12. Nothing to do with Mercedes at all.

Apart from the F1 you mean?

Chris is as honest as they come. It's why he constantly gets slated for liking Pork, as well as being firmly off Ferrari's Christmas card list. He's got enough kudos now to say what he thinks, even if it's not really what he should be saying.

So, where do I stand with this now? In a much better position, is the short answer. The MOT was passed second time round, and the welding work to the sills was done very well. There's still a bit more starting to creep through, but I'm going to strip back and undersell the rest to hopefully protect it. I may be fighting a losing battle on this, and if I see another year out of the car I think I'll have done well, but we'll see. I gave up on trying to fit the Cobra seats I had as it was going to prove both too expensive and give a compromised driving position in the car, so I've taken a slightly different route. Okay, so this route actually cost me more but at least I can sit comfortably in the car! I've now got a Sparco Sprint V seat in the, on some custom side mount brackets that fit the stock mountings. I'm much lower, much more supported, and I've plenty of room for adjustment so a good result really. I've also had the alignment now done at Blackbootshe/Wheels In Motion/Atomic Wheels in Milton Keynes on recommendation. I asked them for a pointy nose and a lively rear, and that's exactly what I've got. They've done wonders, and despite me not being a drifter at all, on a drive out this morning early door I was able to string a couple of 90deg corners together with relative ease. There's perhaps a little too much understeer still, but it's far more controllable than it was before. Sadly the oil leak has become two oil leaks. Both front and rear crankshaft seals appear to be letting by which is frustrating. The front just needs the rad removing to gain access, but the rear needs the entire gearbox off. Neither are horrendous right now, so I'm going to see if they can wait until I can source a lightened flywheel to make the process really worthwhile doing. Unfortunately, my tyre experiment is a resounding failure. I put super cheaply crap on the with the intention of wearing them out pretty quick on track, but I'm finding myself really missing the security of decent grip in the wet. They do allow the car to move around, which was also an intention of fitting them, but they have a tendency to roll around on the tread locks too which is horrible. I can't wait to kill them off and put something better on there, although I'm not sure what right now. There's a distinct lack of decent 14" tyres out there, and while the R888s are an obvious choice they're just going to be too sticky for what I want the car to be. Despite that, the drive this morning was the most fun I've had in a car in a long time. Genuinely, my MX-5 is more fun than the 911, which is both a very good and a very bad thing!

It was 20mm, but it's more than enough to completely change the balance of the car. Do the same on the Zed and it's a 40mm difference. The Zed doesn't understeer because of the tyre sizes, it understeers because of the standard alignment settings. If you alter them out of the Nissan settings, you get a much more fun car. There's a lot of weight over the front too, so you also need to balance the weight as you enters corner to get a good turn in. Apologies for the late replies (!), only just seen them.

It's completely offensive. Someone needs to tell McLaren and Ferrari that sometimes it's okay to turn down money when people want to build things that look horrendous.