Ekona

Today I am mostly being incredibly f*cked off with the car, and then falling in love all over again. Wanted to get the roll bar, seats and harnesses in today. Roll bar was fairly simple although I had to make my own brackets for the underneath which was an incredible faff and took me up until gone lunchtime, but it's very solid and a pretty good job if I do say so myself. All fell apart after lunch though... Took pax seat out and attacked the stock humps (metal things the seat rails bolt to) with a drill for the spot welds, and a hammer and chisel. Stopped when I realised I was removing more of the floor than the hump :shock: Leapt at it with an angle grinder instead, but only managed to get the big one out: I hammered the other one vaguely flat. Got new pax seat in place, marked it all out with a template, drilled it all and prayed. Success! All the holes lined up perfectly, but I thought I'd better put the lower harness eyebolt in first as I'll never get to it after the sat was in. This was when I discovered that the eyebolt moves the seat across and the holes are now miles off Re-drilled, all set to go, had to cut the bolts down a bit and then my grinder stops playing ball so I get the right raging hump on and call it a day. No pax seat or seat belt in at all as MOT is on Tuesday, stock seat back in on the driver's side but with the harness on. I know I shouldn't really as the seat has no harness guide holes, but it's okay for the drive home. And that's when everything became right again. The roll bar has massively stiffened the rear end up so I can slide it whenever and wherever I want, and I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy fast road driving in harnesses. It was like driving my old VXR220 again, I could feel every last bit of road and was leaving the braking until the very end with full confidence, and getting back on the power (what little I have) so much earlier. I do love the car, but I'm going to have to have a re-think about these seats now. Will take some pics tomorrow, deffo.

HBTY HBTY HBDM HBTY

I admit I haven't listened to his 4-7 show, but unless he's stopped talking like an utter chav from 15 years ago then I suspect it's probably not for me Haven't listened to any radio for over 5 months now, it's been bliss. I have no idea what any of the songs in the Top 40 sound like, I haven't been annoyed by constant rotation of the same bloody songs all the time and I haven't had to sit there listening to another jingly-jangly advert. Heaven

They're horrible, avoid like the plague. For that kind of budget I'd be looking at the Michelin Pilot SuperSports, best tyre available atm bar none.

Sell it and get a TVR. Job's a carrot. Seriously though, unless you have deep pockets and/or the will to do it all by yourself as a project (which is immensely rewarding), then there's much easier and cheaper ways of getting the 0-60 dash down to 4.5 secs.

Ah I see, you prefer the manual over automated rather than buttons over paddles. With you now mate, sorry.

Do you prefer using the buttons then? I could probably have lived with them if they were the correct way round, but as they're arse about face I found myself shifting the wrong way when really on it. I can see how you could get used to them though if you'd got no idea about how paddles work in every other car though.

Westwood is awful. No grown man should be talking like that, unless it's tongue in cheek and I'm missing the punchline.

Boo no paddles I cancelled my test drive this weekend as they've only got the S in, and I want to drive the S and non-S back to back to see if it's really worth the extra.

Don't crash because you're not insured and it'll cost you your home if you take anyone out as well. But have fun!

I don't agree that it's the clutch: I suspect it's either the master or slave cylinders that have gone and/or on their way out. Doesn't do it from start when cold, but does when hot? Certainly sounds like that to me rather than the clutch itself, which would slip if worn but not stay down in use. Everyone (Zmanalex included, and he is the god on these things) will tell you just to change the slave as that is the common one to fail. I would strongly advise doing both at the same time, as the part itself is only another £100 or so but it's the labour so bleed the fluid through that takes the time up and costs. Much for the same reason you'd do the flywheel as well as the clutch, I did the slave first and had to go back and pay a ton of money for the labour to swap the master out as well, should've done both at the time.

Never assume that the other person has any amount of intelligence, first rule in customer service

Now that's just a crazy idea!!!!11

You're both 100% correct. Too much fuel can cause bore wash, but not pre-detonation.

They're all second-hand phones, you know that?

Agreed, this has been a really interesting thread to read, please keep the updates coming I love stuff like this, reading about real-life ownership of other cars. Can kind of make you almost feel like you own the same thing at times.

Focii are amazing cars, it's why I'm forever singing their praises. Well, early ones anyway, the new one is an utter dog's dinner. I still miss my old mk1 1.8 TDdi.

It's going to keep on going up. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool as it's a cracking little money earner and if they did dump the lot onto fuel then they'd instantly become the least popular government ever. I expect to be paying over £500 for the tax on the 911 next year, easy.

Never would've guessed Tbh I've not used them yet so possibly Greekman would be the guy to ask about this, however assuming the sidewalls are quite firm (which I expect they are, happy to be corrected) then I would normally go for a 33F/34R combination for road driving, and on track I'd aim to keep to that still. That said, if you've tried dropping even further than that and still felt they were over inflated (did you use the chalk method of marking the sidewalls to see how far you were rolling over?) then there's no harm in dropping down to 30psi if needs be. Certainly I used to run the R888s at well into the mid 20's at times, so perhaps the PSS might well need to go down that far as well.

Y'know, I've never used that smiley before.

This. Perfectly written and explained.

Mixed tyres and dodgy handling eh... The VUS aren't actually very grippy at all, but they do have tremendous feel. They do need a little more pressure in them to make up for the sidewalls though. Tbh given the usage of the car I suspect you're probably one of the few who would really be able to appreciate the Pilot SuperSports on there.

Go and get a decent alignment done: Get them to add plenty of camber to the front, a little less to the back and get the fronts pointing straight ahead (or if you're feeling brave, some toe out). Put some quality rubber on there (Michelins are my preference, but the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta also gives amazing feedback) and then tell me it's not a car that you want to chuck around.

I toyed with the idea of an M6 a couple of years back, but there's too many electronic gubbins on there that costs a small fortune to diagnose and repair for my taste. Spectacular if you have a warranty, slightly terrifying otherwise. I heard a couple of horror stories that was enough to put me off, can't remember specifically what they were referring to though. Don't get me wrong, they're better put together than 99% of other cars out there and you'd be unlucky to get an issue, it's just when you do it's never cheap.

Because it's an honest opinion? I suspect he only got the £6K on a trade in because the old 6-series are even less loved than the Zeds are right now, with their dire fuel economy and many bits to go wrong. That said, I'd love a 650i, such a pretty car with a stunning soundtrack