sasha@lazytrips

Test drove an Alfa GT (was some sort of a Cloverleaf Black edition or whatever) before getting the zed. Really disliked almost everything in it. From the internal look to the seats to the driving/handling. But I guess that's just my personal opinion.

Yup. Good points on motorways, night-time, etc +why do you do the test in a car of your choice. The minute you walk out, you are theoretically equipped to drive any car of your choosing, so you should be made to do the test in any reasonable car provided to you by the instructor, etc, etc, etc. What ticked me off was the fact that all driving tests got canceled when the snow & ice hit the roads. So if the person passed the day before, went and bought themselves a £200 banger, they'd be safe to drive that in the conditions, but not a certified, regularly serviced quite new instructor car with dual controls.

The problem is that the most up-to-date speed limits were introduced on the basis of calculations done in 1960, some 50 years ago. Back then they had to account for cars from the 40s in calculating sensible speed limits. Sure there are a lot of plonkers on the roads, but let's bring things into perspective. When talking about "old" bangers from the '90s, you are still talking about cars which are 50 years more technologically advanced than when the current speed limits were introduced. Most of the accidents I see day-to-day on the road are nothing to do with the speed limit of a road, but are to do with junctions, not paying attention and not keeping a safe distance. All these will continue to cause accidents whatever the speed limit. I don't want to be bringing up numbers, but there are plenty of examples (eg. Poland with huge speed limits or Germany without them at all) which prove that in the modern era, it is all about the driving standards as opposed to the legal speed limit. *** One important thing that really gets to me is the argument that "bad" drivers are the reason speed limits should not be increased. Surely, the implication should be the eradication of "bad" drivers and the subsequent re-in-station as "good" drivers. Harder driving tests, more scrupulous driving education standards & programmes, re-testing, you name it. If you have a leaking pipe somewhere in your house and you wish to install a power shower, is the answer to not install one as the leak will get bigger and the pipe might burst?

I had something that sounded like a constant knocking and still do albeit not as much. One thing it could be is a lack of pins in your arch lining. Check how much it moves. Sometimes they free up and bang about when you drive.

I bought a very late '04 with less miles on it privately around 9 months ago for a lot less money. Go figure. Mine was Kuro and admittedly did have the odd stone chip on the front as they all do and did also have kerbed Rays, but fixing all that would have been a whole lot less than the price difference.

We wants to know the nitty gritty details!

needs spacers and lowering.

Saw it last night, but not on Hollioaks. I love my wii, but the advert is great!

Hi guys, My plans for the summer have changed and having searched the breadth and depth of the intrawebs, I still am none the wiser. I am planning to go down to Seville, go here there and everywhere and come back from Malaga. I've looked on forums of pensioners plodding along this route and used viaMichelin to try and predict how long it'd take me. viaMichelin gives quite a long time estimate, but when I look at UK road breakdown, it assumes I'd be going at <60mph on motorways which just ain't gonna happen. I appreciate strict speed enforcement in this country and France/Spain, but if we're talking realistic brisk driving, what should I be thinking in terms of travelling time from Chester all the way down? I'm thinking of doing it with an overnight stop. Leaving in mid-afternoon and aiming to get there at a reasonably early time the next day. Sleep-wise, I am cool with a motel for 6-7 hours. Anybody done this before? I've driven through spain in a hired car before and am pretty sure I could get more than 60 miles per hour on average.

send a pm to CS (member on here) He'll sort you out.

The solution is to buy one and get two spares for breaking and park them at your garage of choice. As soon as something breaks, you go and sort it same day

If I was spending a few hundred thousand pounds on a car, I wouldn't give a monkey's as to how often it needs servicing. I'd get a Zonda instead any day as once you get to those levels of performance, Zonda's styling wins it hands down for me.

I have hated every Aston that has rolled out in the last couple decades and then I saw this...

you'd notice a difference in the thickness of your wallet.

The temptation is killing me...

Time to grab the popcorn. The fight is about to begin!

Are these gassed for a normal bonnet of cf?

A see-through bonnet would indeed be pretty awesome. Group Buy?

That sounds but is a whopping load of cash. LS9 type engines generating >500 before any tuning + installation doesn't seem very different far price-wise.

Depends on which service you're talking about. If you mean a P1 (ie you drive low amounts every year and this is the 3rd service), then this is a tad expensive. I live in Nottingham at the moment and use CS in Leicester for my needs. If you don't mind the half an hour to get there, you'll get a great service, top parts, good price and excellent customer service!

I have been looking at a 4th gen LS2 with centrifugal supercharging. Rumour has it that it could fit inside the engine bay and produce around 1k horses... As for the size of the wallet dent, I have absolutely no idea.

Try sending a pm to ZMANALEX. He may well be able to sort you out

Looked through the intrawebs and played with the search function but I am still none the wiser. What engines have been/could be fitted into a zed (+supercharged)? I have seen a few threads about cosworths, but trying to think in more general terms. There isn't any particular reason for thinking this other than this being my last day in my current job, but I guess what my question boils down to is to get some kind of list along the lines of: 1. Type of mod (eg. supercharger, engine swap - if so to which engine, etc) 2. £ wallet dent 3. Benefits From what I've seen so far, about £10k gets you 400-420hp with a supercharger, all the trimmings, fitting costs and all the auxilliary work (eg. dyno). *** Note that I am not looking to be sensible and I appreciate that for the money you could probably go buy much bigger & better things. I just want this to be reasonably hypothetical. On the other hand, I do want these to be realistic and mildly practical (ie. engines that won't explode every other day and no massive nitrous canisters instead of the passenger seat.) Also, I'm not particularly interested in things like making the car uber light, etc as style also matters I prefer to talk horses and torque rather than 0-100 speeds.

Apparently it is indeed a rusty variety underneath all that dirt which makes it look black.

I was thinking about this and aside from differences in the chemical make-up of the different paints, my thoughts are that black would be fastest in warm weather, ie summer. The two reasons for this are both to do with heat absorption and distribution. You would have both, better airflow over your car if your panels are warmer (My maths degree days are a little hazy here, but I think that's right) and your liquids will be a fraction more viscous (eg. oil) which is good I guess. I'm not sure how engine performance would depend on temperature though as it would probably be hotter in a black car.Naturally any air intake would provide slightly warmer air in a black car too as it will warm up on its way in. Thinking about it, you would also have marginally better grip and brakes as the wheel arches will be warmer and the air flow around the wheel will be warmer too.