jonb

What sort of terrorists are using very slightly mis-spaced number plates to cover their nefarious tracks ? I don't think we really need very much road-traffic protection from the numpty division of al quaeda's terror cells. Whenever I've returned from abroad after long enough to get used to foreign plates I'm always shocked at how big, bright and ugly everyone's numberplate has to be over here. Is there no sort of eyesight test for coppers ? Can't be long before we'll all need 4 foot barcodes on the roof and an inflight refueling rig for pumping £20s into any passing police cars without having to pull over. I'm happy to make concessions to my personal freedom in order to live in a civil and safe society, I don't even think we need a constitution to protect our rights ... but it would be nice if the authorities made law and order a priority not just filling in columns of an overpaid government consultant's spreadsheet. I can't see any likely way back to a normal society from this 'performance monitoring' culture that has overtaken life in the past 10-20 years. I understand the laudable sounding goal of ensuring our services are reasonable value for money but I don't understand the denial of the well-known and copiously documented downside that when given a box to tick or a target to achieve most people are lazy enough to limit their work to just achieving that vital database value instead of doing their job. Commiserations on the NIP, in real life there'd be no problem with the plate at all. I suggest you re-space it, drive everywhere at or below the speed limit and start selling heroin ... possibly stolen from the bodies of murdered prostitutes hidden in the trunk ... but up to you!

(The familiar story) I have the BOSE system, therefore I have virtually no sub-bass. There's some sort of boomy box behind the seats but it's just as bad as everyone says. I'm not an audio purist, no really you should hear my music collection - and apart from anything else the exhaust makes such a lovely noise, going nicely from mournful-wookie to 40-a-day-pterodactyl at the press of a pedal that I hardly ever switch the stereo on. But I'm off up to Scotland for a holiday soon and I'm sure that at some point in the 1000 mile fossil burning trip I'll want to listen to my personal selection of 90's classics that I have gone to great lengths to ensure contain all the subsonic antics of the original vinyl. (The question) Obviously I need aftermarket help. Only extra bass is needed, and I do have a spare powered sub - one of those ugly JBL tube things - but should I bypass the BOSE sub amp completely (the 04 docs on 350z-tech don't mention whether my 03 also has the separate sub-amp) or should I just tap the sub speaker signal and feed that to the JBL and set the cross-over very low (it can take speaker-level in) or snip the existing wires and disable the BOSE comedy sub completely. I'm guessing the sub's amp might either be physically part of the main amp or takes digital signals so I can't get line-level analogue. Is that right ? What have others done to add some deep bass with as little change to the otherwise moderately bearable BOSE? If I wanted a complete system it might be easier - get rid of the HU / space-saver amp, find somewhere to hide a beefy amp and upgrade those speakers ... and think about breaking out the fibreglass for sub-pods ... or rather handing the job to a professional. If I go for a simple and cheapskate add on now I can always go mad later. Also what's it like getting power/ACC in the back of the z ?

+1 speak to whoever installed the SC Normally the FPR bleeds excess pressure back to the fuel return so it shouldn't matter how high the supply pressure to that is - assuming you mean you have two pumps working in parallel supplying the fuel line >> (instead of one for the swirl pot and one for the fuel line in series) I've never heard of needing a walboro in addition to a stock pump rather than just having one bigger one instead. But I'm not that familiar with what's needed for the hp you have. Running rich is one possible symptom of a broken FPR but no more likely than a faulty air sensor, stuck injector, bad map, etc etc. Basically the question, spec and information is a bit too vague. -- edit - alright, I read some of your other posts. You've said already that tuners you've spoken to say the Daz-tech ECU isn't up to the job ... I suggest you swap the wheels/repaint money for a visit to a good garage who will either install and map whatever ECU is needed or find the source of the problem if that isn't it.

Yeah, that was all because the meet tends to attract chavs ... or did once or something ... so with variously worded levels of politeness there's always been a "s-body scum only" policy. Also the meeting place in the roaring meg is basically McD car-park ... so ... and when it's raining since Toys'r'Us is shut ... and ... it could get mistaken for a "cruise". I honestly don't see a problem with a few Z's turning up, unless it's "corsaZ crooZin' clubZ" or something Just post on the thread - if you want to pop along just ask and say hello. I bet more than one z would be better too. The SXOC really is quite a friendly and very well organised club.

I think so - it kind of faded away in 2007 but looks like it's going again - stronger than ever judging by these photos http://sxoc.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?t=367350

There used to be a sxoc meet that met up at that retail park place (Roaring Meg ??) then went on a little drive round the stevenburg-ring and finished up at the White Lion, in ... somewhere else. I went a few times but got the impression it was definitely one of the better meets as people actually did some driving instead of sitting in a pub sipping cola and discussing air-fuel ratios. I can find out the actual route probably.

Crop was all it needed - car looks very cool - I like that front bumper a lot! Cropping pushes those windmills further into the background instead of taking up more space than the foreground car. It also fixes the 50% curse when the image is divided exactly in two - it makes it look like 2 photos, one of the windfarm, one of the mountainside ... with the actual subject appearing as if it was trying to escape the frame. Earlier it looked like you were split between it being a photo of the windfarm or a photo of the car -- definitely the car is more interesting, though the windmills are a great background. There is one simple composition trick that if you followed it religiously 90% of all your photos will look good straightaway - divide the image into 3rds horizontally and vertically like a game of tic-tac-toe (some cameras have these lines as an option on their displays) then when you're framing the shot make sure that two of the intersections always have something interesting in them. In the one above your headlight and door handle just about hit the lower two points. There's loads of other rules about breaking the edge of frame and whatnot but I can never remember them - better to either get a good book or develop your own way by taking hundreds of photos and critically evaluating them ... which even if you get a good book you'll have to do anyway! Oh, but there is one golden rule, which you have followed but gets lost a lot, particularly with digital cameras. It's that the fewer photos you select from a group the better. 5 perfect snaps on their own beats 5 hidden away among 20 less amazing ones. Especially on the web. Especially when you can take millions for the same price as 1. Fewer pictures means people look at them instead of having to work and skim past. The internet has decreased peoples attention span not improved it. If you look at my "Black is not a colour" thread you'll see I've failed to follow this advice ! I should have picked just the two standout ones. If I had taken this picture I'd maybe have tried to arrange it so the lines on the hill framed the car more carefully ... but that would probably have been over-thinking it, as it is you have a sort of subliminal airflow effect going on from the path and the wall, which works for me. The reflection of the sun/cloud really helps the car stand out (it is, after all, green on green in overcast sky, everything helps). It's a very nice photo. Raining ? Didn't you get the memo about suffering for your art !

1. Beavis +1 2. martinmac +1 3. AndySpak 4. Shire +1 5. Stanski 6. Little Miss 7. Squarehead 8. Maccaman 9. H5 10. flirt 11. Chesterfield + 1 12. M13KYF +1 13. IanS16 +1 14. Drewbie 15. nurrish 16. Chris`I +1 17. nixu +1 18. xStric9x +1 (TBC) 19. jonb Will be my first meet! There's no unpleasant frat-style hazing that goes on at these right ? I think the 5th is moderately safe from work-related inteference, the end of the month would be less reliable. I saw the picture thread from the last one but not the route etc. Is it basically the evo triangle ? (I've heard of it but never driven it) Will be cool to see a (what is the collective term for our cars? a Zzzzz?) on the road.

I love all that high-speed stuff, but the circling camera is particularly cool, the footage is 40x slower than normal but the camera seems to circle at a fair old speed. But for high-speed film/car heaven it's tough to beat this old drag classic - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RWzg0A2g6YQ and this car films one from 1969 is fascinatingly cheesy - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8lgELwHxpWQ&NR=1 There's going to be a lot of high-speed stuff everywhere since this consumer camera came out for around £500 ... 1200fps (though at sub-youtube resolution) ... http://gizmodo.com/383843/casio-exilim- ... y-powerful

I really miss NZ. I worked in Auckland for a few months but lived in Wellington for 4 years about 4 years ago - still miss it. 90 mile beach is the obvious choice if you fancy the trip. I think all the car adverts are shot there.

Hah it definitely wasn't 50 layers ! I washed it, clay bar then a squirt of Meg Gold Class and later some Autoglym final finish stuff (the one like white spirits which was more to get rid of the dusty bits from the glass cleaner I also used). I also hate the claybar, one for basically being just an expensive piece of plasticine and second because you get to review, in detail, every last blemish fade and stonechip ... a harrowing experience. Though it does remove dirt from surprising places! It wasn't a massive production, an afternoon's elbow grease, I want to get the bonnet/bumper sprayed and another stonechip sorted soon so didn't want a thick crust of wax making life more difficult for that. Yeah it's raining this morning, it's also been collecting insects on the motorway too and was pretty much "far less shiny" by the time I got it home. But the price you pay for the beauty is brevity. Easy come, easy go!

Had time at the BH to wipe a wet dishcloth over the paint, Monday was sunny so took some pictures, I definitely remember pointing it at the car even though I only seem to have pictures of the garage door and wall ?!

Cancelling the indicators ?! Wow, the bottom of the barrel for things wrong with the car has been well and truly scraped ! I agree about the 100hp more, it cancels out the 'modern safety' weight penalty. Is that a wide fender or a love handle? If Nissan had put the GTS out into the wild it would be selling like crazy.

Worst things about my car ... #1 - by a mile - everybody wants to race you on the road, I'm thinking of getting a sign made up telling tailgaters I'm not going to race them, and that they consider instead sex and travel. #2 - that's it I'm a new enough owner that I'm still in honeymoon-mode!

Why are you choosing between them ? I would have voted for both.

Well I found a car I liked and finally took ownership today! It is the sc black 53 gt I saw on here. The extra power really adds a bit of urgency to the standard's already decent output. It turns it into the kind of car I'm excited to drive without making it too impractical on the queen's highway. Since the install and map had all been done by a well-known Nissan tuner (Abbey) I felt fairly confident buying this modified Zed. Best bit is the completely stock-standard exterior, apart from the faint slithering of belts, rumbling of clutch and slight note to the exhaust at idle you'd never know it was anything other than a regular model (ok, actually it's quite a bit noisier overall). But I didn't buy it to sit in traffic idling my petrol away ... there's no chance of mistaking it for standard when it's moving. PF brake setup is waiting to go on, bronze TE37s are a cheeky twinkle in my eye when the bank has recharged somewhat, the grin though - is permanent, my face muscles ache

Sorry to disappoint - http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp From April 1999! Which was the date of my last bath BTW. (Strangely randomly posting stuff here on the forum hasn't made my car arrive any sooner, can't wait until I've got better fossil-burning things to do instead)

If you don't want the functionality of anti-lag, just the anti-social pleasure of exploding fuel in the exhaust system then I'd "recommend" an after-market spark-cut rev limiter instead ... or ...just get ready to duck any return-fire depending on the neighbourhood. I'm sure Bee-R have a model for the fairlady, I can't imagine the cat will enjoy being doused in petrol and set fire to, the first time you switch it on it will probably spit most of the honeycomb onto the road. But the look on the face of the pimply oik in his rapidly melting corsa will (probably) be so worth it as you sit at the lights in launch control mode shooting four-foot flames (bits of piston etc.) through his radiator grille. (Sorry for resurrecting this tumbleweed thread)

I'll give Chris Knott another go With a £350 excess I'm not going to be pursuing very many 'borderline' claims ! It will have to be very broken to be worth phoning the insurance

Hi - I've been ringing round getting quotes from the usual insurance recommendations. But the thing I've been struck by is that each and every one is always cheaper than the last. I've managed to get my quote down from £930 with a £450 excess to £734 with a £350 excess ... obviously with the exact same details each time ... only now I've run out of companies to call. Is it worth starting again at the top or does anyone have a longer list of companies that don't mind insuring modified cars. To be honest the amount shaved off each time has been decreasing, tending to zero eventually I imagine - and I doubt I'd be able to crack £700 without an insane excess and at least 5 more quotes. But in the space of a few painful hours of repeating my details in detail I've saved almost as much money as last years insurance (for a non-Z) was in total! I can't believe car insurance is also a buyer's market ?! Is that possible ? Everyone buying 1-litre eco-band-wagons that cost 50p to insure because they can't get enough speed up to dent the plastic bodywork, leading to a severe shortage of juicy policies on 'big-boned' cars ?!

Well, I'm giving the PF a go, there's a ton of happy customers on the wider internet an awful lot on racing oriented forums so let's see how they work out!

It's spelled "traditional" not "predictable" I'll give ESR a ring tomorrow.

New front rotors, (brembo) pads all round and stainless/braided hoses are all on the shopping list. I'm guessing about 300-ish rwhp so stopping should be positive but not fierce - one or two track days max per year - it's a weekend road / motorway car mainly. Keen to hear of others experiences with braided lines and different pad/rotor brands. Is it better to mix and match or stick to one supplier ? (A supplier who might have tested more combinations more reliably than the random hearsay I'm asking for!) Anyway it's a big hit in one go for me so solutions that don't break the bank but make a noticeable improvement are dearly sought!

They'd have to be quite badly wrecked to be worth scrap, you usually just need a good welder to fix them. If you were nearer I'd recommend - http://www.aluminium-welding.co.uk/alloywheelrepairs.html - who is in Welwyn Garden City near to me. Decent welders are fairly scarce and most bog standard guys won't touch alloys, a bit of luck and some searching is probably what you need. You haven't described the damage so it's impossible to say, even if you had it's still a subjective decision, but it's more common for people (or refurb shops) to say they are beyond repair when what they mean is that they don't personally know how to fix them.

Wow, even the guy who did the donut challenge ?! The saturday morning ladies-eye-candy is an annoying jerk but Tiff's a hero and the chubby chap can stay. VBH wins for the petrol-bird angle and because I'm genetically programmed to like posh-girls chortling ... I'm not proud about that last bit though. Anyway, I don't even get ch5 on digital any more (!) I haven't seen the last series or two. Last one I saw was Tiff at the drift comp (snapping soarer prop) and the other guy donutting a sunset roadster with 30-odd driftworks people.