maestegman

Hi Sunset,

Would love to join you but heading up early Saturday evening. I managed to persuade the wife to come on the basis that I treat her to a nice hotel and a posh meal on the Saturday (i.e. Travelodge and greasy spoon - us Maesteg boys always do it in style). I suppose she's grateful that the Zed doesn't have a bigger boot or it'd be a night under canvas and cornflakes and warm milk in the morning

Has the programme been agreed yet? I'm just hoping that the starting point is near:

a. a petrol station

b. an expensive looking hotel that has an offer on

I'll pm you later with contact details anyway.

I probably know him. I bet I drive a faster car though

Might well have been sunset!

Blasting is a good word - I'm currently having difficulty knowing the difference between 3rd and 5th and I'm loving getting the wrong gear.

I've spent literally 5 hours in the Z today. Totally addicted.

I'm off first thing in the morning to plant some trees to offset my misuse of the environment.

Very good idea about taking my son to the meet. My eldest is 10 and he would absolutely love it. Nice one.

Many, many thanks martinmac - exactly what I'm after. I can see me spoiling this car rotten over the Easter break.

Newbie here.

Spr1ngy - the car looks amazing - nice one!

Apologies if this looks as though I'm crashing this thread although I'm interested in what more experienced Z owners use to keep their pride and joy in tip-top nick (i.e. car wash, polish, interior sprays, cloths, etc.)

Lomoto / Nixy - perfect! That's exactly what I'm after!

I note, however, that Tim's TomTom is quite small and the 740 GO looks a lot wider. A little bit of measuring up methinks.

Hi Guys. Sincere thanks for the warm welcome - massively appreciated.

OK, the grin on my face is now bigger than it was yesterday. I've just spent almost 3 hours solid driving. Up and down the motorway (no faster than 70 mph of course) and then did a 45 minute side-road excursion.

WOW!

The sound of that engine is absolutely amazing. And then the BOSE ICE - simply brilliant!

Thanks for the advice too Nixy - I'll take a look at Tim's post and give an update post later. The model I'm favouring at the mo in the TomTom 740 GO - seems to tick all the boxes and is on sale on Amazon.

Nixy - - Wales seems to have shrunk a bit since I bought my Z!

Would genuinely love to do the Wales drive - will need to earn some brownie points to gain an away day ticket from the missus though!

Cheers sunset - sounds good. I suspect that if I'm allowed to go (yep - still have to ask permission!), it'll be a Sunday only affair.

Better start saving up for the petrol now

Many thanks guys. Sounds awesome.

Thanks Macca/Chiili. I've just followed the hyperlink and had a quick look at the thread.

Obviously, I'm new to this and perhaps you/others could answer two questions:

1. Are these gigs suitable for complete noobs?

2. I notice most people are "carvery x 2". Does that mean girlfriends are coming too? I need to check because if she can't make it, I'll see if the wife is available

Cheers Chilli - quite appropriate following on from my original post

Cheers Trev. I actually live near Llantrisant but from the sprawling metropolis that is Maesteg originally.

Would have loved to have made Bristol this morning but family needs must . . . . . .

Doing my "dad duties" this morning, then out to expand my carbon footprint later today

Cheers Maccaman - I haven't tried playing CDs yet - been too busy enjoying the engine! The previous owner told me that he'd had difficulty in playing copied CDs in the unit. I'll explore further when I get bored of the engine sound (probably sometime in 2014).

Didn't I read the Wales May meet was in North Wales?

Wow!! Thanks guys. Even more surprised that anyone's heard of Maesteg!

Would love to do Bristol but I suspect the missus would be less than impressed if I told her that she'd be looking after the kids today while I pop across the Bridge to mingle with some other petrolheads. As you can imagine, she didn't see much of me yesterday.

Enjoy the West Country though fellas.

I'm jealous!

Hi all. Picked up my 54 Z GT yesterday and I haven't been able to stop smiling since (even during last night's sleep). After a bit of research, I think I've had a very decent deal = 54 Reg (on a private plate) GT in GM grey with orange leather interior with 70k with 12 months NISSAN warranty and service pack included in VGC for £9.4k.

I spent over 3 months looking for my new car, eventually narrowing the choice down to the SLK, the Boxster and the 350z. It will come as no surprise to members of this forum why I opted for the Z! What I can't understand is why more people don't go for the Z as it offers such incredible value for money!? Even car insurance surprised me - £390pa fully comprehensive (with Privilege)!

I actually stumbled upon this site while looking for similarly happy people on the web. Congrats on an amazingly supportive and seriously informative site. I actually spent over three hours trawling the posts last night after surgically removing myself from my new toy. BTW, another newbie poster referred to his son expressing delight at being dropped over at the school gates in his dad's new car - the exact same thing happened to me - my son can't wait for the Easter holidays to finish! Funnily enough, I also traded up from a Fiesta so, as you can imagine, the Z offers slightly more smiles per gallon.

As with most people, I'm after some advice:

1. I'm looking to replace a worn gear knob (orange leather). Where would be best to look? I'm not looking to spend a fortune.

2. Slightly off track, I'm looking to buy a sat nav to fit in the cubby hole above the BOSE head unit. I'm not looking for a unit specific to the Z. I'm more after a TOMTOM/Garmin type unit that'll store in the car. I need the following functions: bluetooth compatibility with my iPhone 3G and an FM transmitter to play MP3s off a storage card (as I'm led to believe that the BOSE unit won't play 'copied' CDs). European map facility is unnecessary.

I apologise if the second point falls outside this forum's remit although I thought I'd attempt to gather some collective wisdom

I live in the Cardiff area and I'm very keen to get involved in club events. I look forward to hearing from you.