Ekona

Exactly. I couldn't care less if the GT-R had 800bhp and the Vette was a stock C6 with just 400bhp, I'd still have the Yank. Better noise, more character, and styled on the thighs of a virgin rather than carved from a solid lump of brick.

Everyone always thinks I'm older than I am when it comes to forums, but that's probably because I'm a miserable ol' bastard!

Genius idea! Completely unsafe and a mental thing to do, but I love it when the little guy comes up with these ideas to beat the tax system.

I hate Mercs. Well, I did until I had a C-class as a courtesy car a few months back, and it was such a comfortable ride that I realised that I can now see why people buy them. As a relaxing cruiser, you've done well there Hugh.

I looked at C6 Z06s before the 911, and whilst parts aren't that expensive importing them from the US can be. Stunning cars though, absolutely stunning.

That all looks seriously, seriously impressive mate. Can't wait to hear it in the flesh

Absolutely, that sounds means hell!

V6 CLK isn't full fat. I am disappoint. You'll be telling us it's in Resale Silver next.

It certainly wouldn't bother me owning a demo car. My Zed was a Nissan dealer manager's car so I can only imagine the abuse that probably had, but the condition was immaculate and with a warranty behind it, I had no issues with buying it.

The Nismo Titanium one is my personal favourite. It's weighs more then the OEM knob so gives a more positive shift, and as it sits lower down it also lowers the shift length albeit in a cheaty kind of way.

BWAHAHAHA no. You'll never get 15K miles out of a set of tyres on a GTR, hell I don't get that on the 911 and it's much lighter on the tyres. To be fair though, you'd be mad to buy the OEM tyres again as they're silly money, a set of R888s is cheaper I believe. Even better would be the MPSS if they come in the correct size. Brakes aren't cheap either, and being a heavy car it will eat those up too. A GTR is a fantastic car, and the running costs aren't any worse than something like a 997 Turbo S, but it's all about the unknown costs as has been said. If you can extend the Nissan warranty that gives you bumper to bumper cover, then it's not something to worry about as you'll be covered. If you can't though, then that's when you're looking at the big bucks for carbon bits and expensive oily bits, which is why I have a warranty on the 911 because I can't afford to drop £15K if the gearbox blows up. Paying £1K pa for that peace of mind is worth it to me. At £35K there's a whole heap of other cars I'd rather buy that would be as much if not more fun to drive, as you won't be worried about the servicing costs. Absolute performance isn't everything, not any more with The Man and his net closing in all the time.

I'd be more worried about a demonstrator being ragged from cold than I would about the use of 95. That said, I'd point out that the fuel filler cap states 98+ and then I'd use that as a haggling tool to get some more money off.

If your car is a DE-engined car, then any DE flywheel will fit, regardless of year.

Ironically the 370Z has a much better chance of being worth anything, as it's one of the last big-engined affordable sports cars made that wasn't produced in huge quantities. The 350Z is far too common to ever be worth anything.

If it's a HR Zed (which it is) then a massive amount of gearbox whine is perfectly normal, don't worry about that. As far as the juddering goes, it could be a flywheel problem or maybe the clutch not engaging properly. Take it to a specialist for a second opinion, even if it costs you £30-40 for a quick diagnosis or just to set your mind at ease then it'll be money well spent.

MPS3s aren't really that great, try the VUS if you want a tyre that gives you a ton of feedback but sacrifices outright grip to do so.

Bloody good engine it is too. Un1eash, get the Elise. Even if you hate it (which you won't), if you buy correctly you'll sell it on for what you paid for it and can then buy something bigger. Every petrol head should own one once in their life

Worst advice ever

Alignments should be done at least once a year IMHO, possibly more often if you drive on bad roads regularly. A good wheel alignment can make a car feel both agile and stable, a bad one can make it feel lumpy and wandery. The difference is fractions of a mm...

That's a bugger

If you're changing the flywheel, do the clutch at the same time as the labour involved far outweighs the cost of the parts.

For another perspective, if I was changing the flywheel I would only ever consider a SM one. The extra free revving ability that it gives you brings the car alive in a way that another 30bhp would struggle to do, and it feels like a proper sports car rather than a lumbering ol' lump. The slight rattle you get at idle is nothing more than a minor niggle compared with the benefits you get. One of the best mods you can do to any car IMHO. The truth sits somewhere between mine and Chris' opinions, I would think.

Update time! I needed to remove the stock seats from the car today to get a measure up for fitting the new ones, as I was unsure if the OEM rails would either fit the Cobra seats or whether I'd need to come up with a creative plan. There's also the minor issue of removing the little humps of metal which are spot-welded to the floor pan and need to come off if you want to get the seat really low (which I do), and then I'll need to drill the floor pan itself and bolt through. I decided to take out the quite pretty and in very good nick chrome roll hoop structure thing, and whilst I was removing things I decided to remove the stereo as it's pointless keeping it in there so I set about dismantling the centre console which can be done in 7 screws and 3 mins, I kid you not. Stereo came out easy enough, but then I thought that with the bare aerial lead in there floating around I might get some weird noises from the speakers, so they should probably come out as well. And then there's the door cards themselves... I ended up with this little lot ready to go into the shed, it's all utterly mint: I assume there's no issue with running without door cards? Just got the plastic sheeting there covering the central locking (which I managed to fix on the driver side, yay!) and the electric window motor. Doesn't look pretty but it's lighter! Would any of this cause an MOT failure? I don't think so, but it's only 10 mins to put the cards back on. It feels a little bit more like my car now, and so in good fashion I just had to put some stickers on it, which will give a hint as to the secondary colour that I'm going to use for some cheap-ass viper stripes... Just waiting on the sticker company to get back to me, and then it'll be pink vinyl all the way baby!

As a rule, if the oil level is fine and the pressure gauge needle isn't going to either extremity of the scale in use, then there's no problem.