Ekona

What tyres are they, and are those sizes on the rear or the front?

If an Aston had sneakytimes with a 370Z, that'd be the result I reckon. Beautiful car, let's just hope it's more sports than GT.

I've been contacted by one of Ian's friends, Lex, who has asked me to let everyone know that there's going to be a meet in memory of Ian who passed away last year. I'm sure she won't mind me posting up the PM I received from her as it says it better than I ever could. It would be great if some of our more local members could pop along to this and show the support of the club to Ian's friends and family.

But by the same token you could do exactly the same with any two people and end up with the same result. There is no reason that completely separate people should have the same experiences as each other, but when you start including millions of people in that often a pattern will emerge. I'm no expert on statistics by any means and I can't get my head round the reason that any two people out of fifty share the same birthday or whatever silly low figure that particular one is, but companies don't tend to raise their figures for no reason at all. There has to be a business case for it, and in this situation they will have the stats to back up their need to increase their premiums to cover their own risks.

It's more likely because that's what the statistics say. I've no idea of the real logic or reason behind it, but them's the facts and that's life. Maybe it's because people who have a non-fault then drive their car before it gets fixed in a slightly more care-free manner, leading to them causing an accident? I dunno, just a guess.

Here's the issue as I see it: The reason premiums go up if you've had a non-fault claim is that, statistically speaking, you're more likely to go on and have a claim where it is your fault. As such, there's no point getting mad at the insurers themselves as they're only covering their arses and going on what the figures say, you really need to direct your anger at all the idiots who do go on and have that at-fault claim after a non-fault one as it's them that's causing the price hikes!

Don't put your handbrake on after you come back into the pits after a session, you'll bind your brakes together. Leave the engine running and gear in neutral for a few mins to let it cool down, then kill the engine and pop the car into first. Turn the TCS off and push until you spin. There is no better place to find out how both you and the car react when you go past the limit, and it may just save your life one day.

So yesterday I was at Bruntingthorpe at VMax Hammer, and never having been before I didn't really know what to expect. What I found was basically a load of proper petrolheads without an ego between them, and some of the nicest metal I have ever seen in the flesh having the balls driven off it. My personal favourite was the 599 GTO that turned up, the sound was utterly incredible: Noisiest thing by far, but what a noise! Anyhoo, obviously I managed to get a good few runs in, but as daft as it sounds high speed in a straight line isn't as easy to accomplish as you think it would be. I've driven at pace on many circuits and always felt comfortable, but even I found myself lifting off well before the timing beams on the first couple of attempts without even realising it, and I was peaking at around 165mph in the morning. Jo had a couple of goes after me and managed to hold her nerve better and pushed the car into the 170mph bracket which I was so proud of her for, although she did then rib me in front of complete strangers about it I did pick my speeds back up in the afternoon though and by the end I was very comfortable holding the go pedal right down from much earlier until right past the timing beams, but it was also a good day to try out the launch control function over and over and over again. I didn't always get it right though: I ever so slightly lifted the accelerator just before the go, and the whole thing cancelled itself but it still said LC Active in the display so I lifted off the brake and just sat there! Didn't matter in the end as the way to get the top speeds is to let the other person go so you can get a clear run at the corner at the bottom, so I actually got a pretty good number on that run. That GTR was absolutely immense all day. I did on occasion get the launch very much spot-on though, and the power and flexibility of the 997.2 C2S PDK is really shown in this next video. The car I'm up against is the almighty Ruf Yellowbird, so you know how powerful and quick that car actually is, but keep watching after we take the bend and start coming back up, and who pulls out on who: Okay, so once he got in his stride he breezed past me as you would expect, but I would never have given my car a chance against a legend like that from lower speeds. As far as the experience from inside the car goes, I guess the best way to show it is just to show it, and yes it is that bumpy! Shame the angle wouldn't let us film the digital speedo, but you can see the dial to the left of the rev counter well up near the top. Just an amazing experience all round, and I can see why people go there regularly with all sorts of modified stuff trying to beat their previous best. Car of choice seemed to be 996 + 997 Turbos, although the GTO and the 430 Scud (as shown in the video above) were fairly brutal too, and the various Audi turbo nutter barge cars were just completely insane. There was a chap there in his Atom who hit 155 every single time as he was bang into the limiter halfway up the runway! I guess I was most impressed about the 911 overall, as it took a serious pounding all day and not once did it moan or grumble, or even force me to stop doing the runs as it was overheating. The power was there every time, the gearbox seemed to enjoy the launches as much as me, and the brakes didn't have a hint of noise or fade about them despite the repeated stops from 170mph+ down to 30mph, and they have some serious stopping power too. A very enjoyable day, and I'll definitely do another one at some point. Top speed from me for the day? 176mph, which I'm very happy with. Top speed overall was a 997 3.9 GT2 with 206mph I believe

Do the ARBs and get the full set of Summit bracing on there, I guarantee that will solve your issues

Not being funny, but that's the wrong way to go about things. As was pointed out to me a while back, trackdays are under a very real threat of being stopped as the NIMBYs get all excited about a bit of noise, and the less ammo we can give them as trackday goers the better. You'd never notice 10bhp less when on track, nor particularly care, but if by putting bungs or silencers on it means that there is nothing for whingers to complain about then that's what we all should be doing. Yes, we all love it when cars are loud and I'm as big a fan as any, but when you've got your helmet on you can't hear naff-all anyway so you might as well quieten it down and help make sure that there will be trackdays for many years to come. There's no prizes for having the loudest car on a day, but there is a very real penalty if we all look at it that way.

Folks, these are an absolute must-buy, especially at this price

For people who haven't heard a K1 in person, to give you an idea of just how vocal it can be when I was installing my one I ran the engine with just the cats on for a laugh, and giggled as it was monstrously loud. I then finished fitting the y-pipe and K1 and started her up, and it was no quieter than when there was nothing on there cat-back! All the K1 does is add tone, whether or not it's a likeable one is very much up for debate /slightly_off_topic

Nah, he's just not pushing hard enough to know the difference The VUS give you so much more feel than the PS2s, that's what makes them so confidence inspiring. You will go quicker on the PS2s, but it takes a lot of nerve to know you can go faster rather than rely on the feedback.

Completely unused? I'd say about £400 for the wheels and £650 for the tyres, assuming RE050As.

Throttle response is marginally better with them out, but it's only a tiny difference and not worth risking a trackday over.

You'll be fine there, I've never been myself but I can't imagine any of the RAF bases being particularly fussy over stuff like that: Certainly Woodbridge were fine when I did a day there, and even asked me if I wanted to take the bungs out for extra power!

I can see this getting a bit out of hand very quickly here, so I'll do a pre-emptive lock. To the OP se350z, please don't take this thread the wrong way, it's all been pretty good natured and although many people here own their Zeds just for the styling purposes, even the most hardcore modder wouldn't dream of putting fake NOS purge kits (for that's what you're after) on their car as it's a little bit... how can I put this... tasteless? That said, if it's what you want to do then go ahead, if you Google the term you should find what you need.

With the bungs in you should be well under the 105dB mark, I was every time when I tracked mine. With them out you'll be very close and I wouldn't risk it. The only other thing is the drive-by (if they have a limit for that) as the K1 is noisy for that regardless of bungs, but the worst places are Bedford and Goodwood and you probably wouldn't pass the static for either place anyway. Where were you thinking of going?

I humbly apologise my friend. My first post was actually just me being helpful, that's why I put the smiley at the end. My next one was a jokey ribbing hence the laughing smiley which I hoped you'd take in good jest, but clearly not. For the future, maybe if you actually try asking the question you want the answer to in the original post then you may actually get the correct answer, rather than a few answers you see as sarcastic. Blimey, there's no helping some people.

If it was only the conversion ratio you were concerned with why didn't you just Google it?!

I really like it, but the Z needs to be black too for that oh-so-subtle look IMHO.

As above, if that's what the sticker says then that's what you put in

Brilliant, so the guy makes an honest mistake and the vultures jump, and then when he refunds people as soon as he possibly could said vultures then get the hump and try to take the bloke for all he's got. Sorry folks, but that's utterly disgusting behaviour. By all means take a punt in the first place on the off chance, but don't then get all high and mighty and We-should-make-ebay-rape-his-wallet as that really isn't cricket. Appreciate it's not everyone being like that, but I'm really surprised by the attitude of some people. /rant off

You know this is going to be awful and kill all fond memories of the original though. I was a huge fan back in the day as a metal-loving teenager, but you should never revisit stuff from the old days.

As always chaps, these videos are the equivalent of Top Gear and should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. They're entertaining but nothing more.