lrh

I was informed that the new front end and suspension changes was for the US only?

Only the US range was revealed at the Chicago motor show but the rest of the world will almost certainly get the same facelift and wheels.

Their "Sport Package" is getting the suspension changes we got last year.

The 370 is a slow seller and the VQ engine has only got a couple more years in it before being replaced by Merc engines. So obviously they're not going to spend a ton of money squeezing out a bit more power (already 90PS/litre) or getting the Nismo version through worldwide emissions tests.

I'm fairly confident on saying that the R&D budget of Falken is dwarfed by Vredestein

Falken is owned by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which also makes Japanese-made Dunlops in a joint venture with Goodyear. Vredestein’s parent company went bust in April 2009 and it’s now owned by Indian budget brand Apollo.

You know in QuikFit et al where they put those signs on the wall that say how a worn tyre can take twice as long to stop you as a new one? Well they're right, but you can get the same difference between a good tyre and bad tyre.

You're equating the "bald tyre versus new" comparison to differences in performance of new tyres which is wrong.

If you have a look through various tyre tests that the press do (EVO magazine is an easy one to find, however I take their results with a pinch of salt given their huge advertorials these days) you'll see the difference between various tyres, and between the top premium ones and the bottom budget ones the stopping distance can be twice as much.

No. The differences between the name brands are at worst 10-15% in the wet. Source: Evo (Dec 2010)

Evo is part of the same group as Auto Express and tyre tests are often shared with other magazines in the Auto Bild group. Every major magazine test fully discloses where it was conducted and publishes the results of each test in full.

A good experiment is to find your favourite wide roundabout and go round it normally, then go round it 5mph faster, and then 5mph faster again

Advocating high speed cornering on the public road in a discussion about tyre safety is of course inappropriate. A bump or patch of diesel will likely to send you into the scenery no matter what tyre your on. Fitting higher grip tyres doesn't make you a better or safer driver, or turn a poor handling car into a great one.

F1 driver James Hunt used to drive an old Bedford van on the road because the limits we so low he could drive it flat out and explore the limits at safe speeds. Ultimately, it's about knowing the limits of your vehicle and driving.

Next time either myself or anyone says that you're better off buying X tyre over Y tyre despite costing more, have a read through this and decide for yourself after taking all the facts into consideration

You’re equating limited anecdotal evidence on forums to fact. Some advice (about specific tyres on a specific make/model in comparison to others) is useful but should always be treated as subjective.

anyone notice that the facts & figures dont relate to the car in the picture?....

The pics are press shots of a late car, even though the guide is mainly about picking up a cheap DE-engined car.

I rarely buy car magazines these days but this issue of Evo is superb

...it was just a friendly discussion when i had my 200sx' bonnet resprayed.

If you're coming from 200SX then the Z is a lot better protected. The earliest imported Z's are almost 10 years old now and there's no signs of rust problems... Although the rear arches aren't well lined and you'll find plenty of dirt stuck up there.

I gave mine a quick layer of Waxoyl just to keep it looking tidy and protect the brake lines/suspension bushes from the weather. Those items will cause MOT headaches years before you find a hole in the floor.

Short Z4M buyers guide in the current issue of Autocar... Few problems except £1,200 for a set of discs and pads

I know its abit silly but I dont really rate the hankook's. I know the v12 are ment to be good and when my tyres need changing on the clio il give them a punt but on the 350 I like to stay with tyres I know. Im still getting to grips with the car and keeping it preditable is a big thing for me.

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/hankook-ventus-v12-evo-page-10

"consistent laps with no surprises"

"In the wet, however, the V12s were as sporty and connected as they come, with grip second only to the PS2s’ and the best braking. The Hankooks were extremely consistent, likely because they were so well-behaved, which made them easy to drive quickly."

The bigger issue will be that phone manufacturers arent writing good enough drivers for it, I doubt its Andriods fault too much.

The drivers are written by the GPU vendors but until now most Android apps couldn't take advantage of the hardware. Android 4.0 requires hardware acceleration and looks pretty snappy to me (@1:30-2:00) if not quite up there with iOS and WP7:

The screens aren't as smoothly animated and they simply aren't as responsive, but they do just as much if not more.

Instant and perfectly smooth scrolling/zooming are certainly nice to have but not exclusive Apple tech... It's simply hardware acceleration and Windows Phone 7 has it too. Animations and zooming easily match iOS despite a feeble 2 year old processor.

Android has to support a huge range of GPUs from many manufacturers so hardware acceleration is difficult but things are supposed to be improving with 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Zeds engine isn't particularly highly stressed at about 75bhp per litre.

WTF!?! 370Z is 90PS/litre and even the early 350Z was 80PS/litre

A few motoring-related for Android...

My Cars (Stores refuels and other costs, displays min/max/avg MPG, cost per mile, graphs, etc...)

What Gas (Display nearest petrol stations on map, user-updated prices)

RAC Traffic (Accidents in your region or national)

If the UI really is that @*!# on all but the ipad then the ipad is the only way to go...

Claims that "all Android touchscreen stuff" is non-responsive are of course utter garbage... I guess swishing a static grid of icons backwards and forwards gives some people a boner

Sure the Android UI and scrolling aren't quite as smoothly animated, but for major functionality like browsing it can match Apple's latest and greatest:

I've got a laptop... i want a tablet for if im travelling on the train for work

I'm commuting into London at the moment and there's so many idiots on the train waving iPads around. You'll spend more time re-coding downloaded video than watching it, then have to watch widescreen video letterboxed. Meanwhile I can comfortably watch 720p videos full-screen on my ancient HTC Desire.

Combine this with a 32GB card and you've got a 5 inch player you can drop 40GB of video onto for £200: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Wifi-Inch-Player/dp/B005BD5BG4/ref=pd_cp_ce_2

No problem with tech moving forward, but I would prefer it if the 3G network coverage was half decent before they moved forward

3G in the UK uses a higher frequency (2,100 MHz) that doesn't travel as far or penetrate through walls as well as lower 2G frequencies. In most areas 3G reception is as good as it'll ever get. Despite the "Apple-knows-best" spin, 2G isn't going anywhere and is the best option when you're indoors, far away from a cell tower, or want the best standby time.

When my friend upgraded iOS it lost all her contacts and used her data allowance in hours. A "genius" gave up trying to fix it and had to replace the entire phone, now the replacement has a dodgy volume button... Despite being a huge iPhone fan she accepts Apple is now more interested in profits than producing hardware or software that lives up to expectations, let alone exceeds them. Even her colleague (an iOS developer) is defecting to a Nokia Windows phone.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/newreviews/207072/bmw_z4_m_coupe.html

For : Fantastic straight-six engine and performance, cabin design and construction, dramatic bodywork, robust mechanicals

Against : Stiff suspension, snappy throttle response, unsettled handling, cramped cockpit, heavy clutch and gearbox

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/BMW-Z4-./220047/

"A Cayman slayer, then? Not really. The Z4M Coupe also comes with such a litany of faults – including a cramped cabin, terrible rearward visibility, poor ride quality and shoddy cabin materials that you’d need to be short, brave and unusually numb of backside to use it every day."

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/BMW-Z4-M-Coupe/

"A TVR for people who haven't got time to spend hanging around hard shoulders, the £41,285 M coupe looks, and sounds spectacular. But the 3.0Si isn't much slower, drops as many jaws and costs £8K less. I'm afraid this time the M model isn't the default choice."

Nothing to obscure but these rarely get a TV showing:

Death Machine http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109575/

To Live and Die in LA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090180/

Thief http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083190/

City of Industry http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118859/

State of Grace http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100685/

Internal Affairs (1990) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099850/

Narc http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272207/

Primal Fear http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117381/

The Hot Spot http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099797/

The Last Seduction http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110308/

Midnight Run http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095631/

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373469/

There's more to life than Nordschleife laptimes.

Subaru version:

Same thing on the HP Touchpad... In portrait (768 pixels wide) those 2 buttons don't appear, flip to landscape (1024 wide) and they reappear.

Even in Firefox for Windows the "X new messages" button disappears if the frame is narrower than ~990 pixels.

no way is an £8k S15 better than an £8k Z!!!

Different markets. The S15 is in enthusiast/2nd car territory, will hold its value and be far cheaper to run/modify/drift.

You have to spend an astronomical amount to add 150bhp and mod the suspension on a Z.

Bear in mind most of these heavily discounted cars will be 2010 models, not the revised 2011 model.

Plenty of barely-run-in 2009/2010 cars out there for £22-23k

Nissan UK were allocated 1,000 cars per year (although 350Z sales halved in 2008/2009) so something between 5,000 and 6,000 UK cars.

There were a lot of imports in the early years and so given the figures above, there were probably ~2,500 imports.

Despite the claims above Falkens are pretty poor in the wet, especially when it's cold.

I've done 7,000 mostly motorway miles on Kumho's and only lost 1-2mm of tread. The soft sidewalls aren't really suited to the Z though.

Thinking about this a bit more, would it be wrong to compare Job (and Gates for that matter) in the same breath as Bell, Turing etc?

Jobs' contemporaries in the tech world have all (quite rightly) praised his abilities in business, marketing, leadership... None are throwing around words like "innovator" or "inventor":

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/bill-gates-leads-tributes-to-steve-jobs-1032067