Chesterfield

Hmmm... you may want to get a cup of tea for this one... We have had a roadster for a number of years. An MX5. It was great summer fun, and I certainly would not strongly advise against a roadster at all. We swapped for the roadster Z in Dec 2005 after about 6 happy years with the MX5. The main reason we went for a convertible 350Z was because of how much we enjoyed the open top motoring in the summer. There really is nothing like having the top down and throwing the car round some country roads on a summers day. Absolutely brilliant. However, there are dissadvantages. The missus has to have something on hand to tie her hair back, otherwise after an afternoon with the roof down, its just a mess. Also more recently Tracy had become very susceptible (sp?) to burning in the sun, so after a couple of hours with the roof down, we found ourselves putting it up and turning the aircon on, which defeated the object of a convertible. You think a 350Z coupe get noticed? Drop the top on a convertible Z and drive though a town. It gets noticed every bit as much, and sometimes I think even more so, as in the summer people just look at every convertible - and when they see an "unusual" one, they just plain stare at them. With the roof down, you also feel exposed to all this attention. Which may or may not be to your liking. A reason we started to look at coupes, was not just because of Tracy burning easily, but also that although the convertible with its roof down looks gorgeous, with the roof up (which ours was most of the time) it just doesnt look the same to us. And if we are honest, it never did, we just never admitted to ourselves that we thought the coupe looked better for the majority of the year (the wet months). From a personal point of view as a bloke, I never really felt comfortable driving it with the top down. Although it was enjoyable and put a great big smile on my face, I always got the feeling that somehow it was a "girls" car. Maybe that was just me being self concious, and I dont mean to offend any blokes who own roadsters, but thats always how I felt when driving the car alone. With Tracy as a passenger it was slightly different as I assumed people would just think I was doing the kind deed and driving my missus around in "her" car. Performance wise I have certainly noticed the difference, or I beleive I have. The coupe feels more nimble somehow. But, I have moved from 280bhp and 1635kg, to 300bhp and 1535kg or thereabouts - which means a change from about 170bhp/ton to 195bhp/ton. The noise in the cabin of the coupe from the exhaust is substantially louder than that of the roadster - in the main this will be because of the exhaust fitted to our coupe, but not all of it can be attributed to that. As above, there is a lot more room for the sound to reverberate in on the coupe. As for wind noise with the roof up. Its no worse than my MK4 golf. You can easily have conversations just as easy in the roadster as the coupe at legal motorway speeds. Roof down, it gets a bit more noisy, but not as much as you would imagine, and its certainly better at deflecting the wind than older design roadster cars. Practicality. Not that much in it, but the coupe is easier to access. If you are aware of the roadsters "Tardis" feature, then you can almost double the boot space in the roadster, though Im fairly certain its not advised, and you can only drive with the roof up while utilising the "tardis". In short: Would I have a roadster again? Yes. Why did we swap the roadster for the coupe then? It just felt right for us - if I had the money I would have one of each ina heartbeat. Is the wind noise bad? No. Is it as practical? No. But its not a mile off. Whats visibility like? Out of the rear window its actually better, but you have no quarterlights. So checking blind spots requires more attention. My advice would be to try and get one on extended test drive and see how it feels for you - drive it for a day with the roof down and see if you can deal with how exposed you may feel. Then drive it with the roof up for a day and see if you are still as happy with the shape and the more enclosed feel in the cabin. Its all personal opinion and how you feel in the car, if you can find the right car at the right price, its not that much to swap, and if you dont like it come the winter, its not that much to swap back again next spring. Money doesnt grow on trees though, so I would try and get the drives and really see how you feel about it.

I think that may be me having a play. Yellow one 4 from the end.

That was Jonathan's Dukes of Hazard horn. I almost doubled up laughing when he signaled the arrival of the missing Z's by sounding that as he rounded the corner. Pure comedy timing that was.

Hmm - first attempt at this, I may be able to do better................

Excellent video

The problem is I dont have enough overlap on the pics, so none of the software is capable at the moment. Im going to take a load of stills from the digital video footage and hopefully will have more success that way.

Nice to see we got noticed. I didnt see anyone drop their ice cream, or walk into a lamp post this time though

It was on an email sent to me - thought Id share.

Does for me. Have you tried clicking it a bit harder?

Thought people may like this...... 1 - Go to google. 2 - Click on 'maps'. 3 - Click on 'Get Directions'. 4 - Put in 'New York, New York' to 'Paris, France'. 5 - Read line 23. Any takers on following these directions?

It would appear that I didnt take enough photos during the big line up for the software I have to create a full panoramic shot. So, if anyone did take lots of shots during the lineup, front on views of the cars, feel free to email them to me or post them up - I may be able to get something great put together with enough overlapping shots from people. I took photos of cars in groups of three - it appears that I hould have overlapped by at least one or to cars each time and taken maybe three times the number of photos I did - still, you live and learn. I do have a slow video of the entire lineup from one end to the other, so perhaps may be able to take a load of stills from that and stitch them together into a panoramic shot. If people want to email me any pitures and videos they may have taken on the day, feel free to do so. At least then we can have them all in one central place to pass to the professionals amongst us who may be able to assist in the creation of the DVD etc. email: chesterfield"at"350z-uk.com If you cant email any video, once we know who will be assisting in th creation of the dvd, they can perhaps be posted to that individual and returned once the media has been created.

Should be a very good trip! Im looking forward to it - and as the Mrs will be nagging me about it now, I wont forget to sort things out Val!

Edited the above Mike - there were 30 at Bala Lake, plus one Skyline, and Kevs 6 Series. Thats a meet!

What a fantastic day! Thank you to Mark for arranging the venue and drive - a brilliant day out. Im absolutely shattered from the weekend, and will sort and post the many pictures taken as soon as I have uploaded them all. It was great to put many faces to names (and subsequently forget those names as I am absolutely useless when it comes to names). Many thanks to Tim and his daughter who printed the name badges fo us all - what a brilliant idea A really really great day out, thanks again Mark, and everyone else for making this a brilliant day out for both myself and Tracy. We couldnt have asked for a better group of people, better weather, better food or better drive out. Absolutely fantastic Ill post up pictures and video as soon as possible.

Quite a few listed there Mick - thanks! Im sure they will be useful for some. Ta, Chris.

Looks like an interesting time ahead with that kit!

They can, but I have never known more than £30. Perhaps if you attempted to evade the law by using an illegal plate then yes, they may take it that far.

I have some autoglym leather restore and care stuff. I also bought some stuff from the ideal home show that is a propper leather feed and preserve - that is for use on leather furniture, but works great on car upholstery too. The Autoglym stuff I use is this: £5.99 from Halfrauds.

Locking as now sold - someone got a bargain!

There will be another one around somewhere. Will keep our eyes peeled

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,, ... 64,00.html

I beleive Jacko is still awaiting last minute confirmation from the people below:

Think its sold now Liam. Mind you, at that price it was not going to be around for long - dealers have those cars up at £23995, so £20500 was a steal for that car.

They "can" sieze or confiscate the number, but I havent heard of that action beng taken - as it requires the police to ask the DVLA to do it. Which involves more work. In my opinion you are likely to get pulled for it, maybe not straight away, but sooner rather than later. Its a £30 fine, and maybe a producer if they are feeling mean. No points on the license as far as I am aware. Ive been done twice - once on my reg, and once with the other halves reg. £30 both times. Slight spacing adjustments or screws in the wrong place etc are one thing, which may not get you pulled as quickly, but classic black plates will get you noticed fairly quickly, and on a "flash" car - you will almost certainly get pulled as soon as a traffic cop spots you.

Yup - There were quite a few extra options with it too that I hadnt banked on. When Tim came round the other day he pointed out a few extras that I hadnt even spotted (well I didnt know about them as I had the roadster before, so was not familiar with the tonneau bits etc.