ianphampton

I have a Japspeed system Y pipe was fitted initially, and as the Y pipes have the flexible couplings, it wasn't too bad The Mid section and backbox needed some adjustment - as the quote: You really need to do this with the car up on a 4 post lift, so you can get underneath and give it the adjustment it needs with suitable rings and levers - you need to be able to bend the 10mm dia stainless hanger rods to fit, so it takes a bit of effort and you obviously have to bend these without levering against the car. We took mine off after the first fit, adjusted it, and then put it on again, and did a few final adjustments. Booking this with my local garage, who I've used a few times, was fine - but you'll need to make sure your garage is not doing it with other customers queuing for the lift as it will take a bit longer than a standard fit. Having said that, my garage fitted the mid section and the backbox for £25, which I thought was very fair. And now - sound is LOVELY but still is quiet enough to listen to music on the motorway. Accelerating up gives you the real howl, and once over 5500 revs you get the same - but cruising at 3000 - 3500 in 6th you can hold normal conversations. And then, after you've done the stainless exhaust, you'll just have to go for the Berks HFCs as well as they improve the flow further (needs a remap to make the most of this - I had Abbey do mine) and they add a bit more 'edge' to the tone! Edited - Forgot to add - the difference is - Japspeed YPipe back is about £349, and the Y Pipe is about £230 I think - other systems arre better but you'll pay quite a bit more. You get what you pay for - as in all things.

Maybe I'm still a child at heart - body may be 55 but brain is " . . .about 12" (as the advert used to say) However- I fully understand the desire to play with your car, and with the torque and power in a 350Z, part of the joy is doing stuff like this which you'll never get to do in staid little Focus or something. (especially front wheel drive!) I'd always wanted to do a donut - so when this particular middle aged . . . child . (me). . . and his old Bridestones got low verging on illegal about a year ago, rather than do something silly in a car park, I went to Santa Pod for a "Drift What Ya Brung" day. A couple of advantages - plenty of room, and people around who really know what they're doing and they were willing to teach me. For what its worth - if you want to spin the wheels easily - put the pressures up to 60psi. If you are running at your normal 35psi the tyres are continually trying to re-establish grip - at 60 psi you can spin them much much easier. One of the drift guys told me that and it made a big difference. Had a great day, burnt the tires off and then put the new ones on. Interestingly, also found that the 350z has enough grunt to spin the wheels without having to drop the clutch - so I'm still driving on the same clutch I had when I did this. It had about 30k miles on it then - has 40k miles on it now. The smaller cars (like an MX5) had to hammer theitr clutches to get the wheels to spin - with the Zed I could just plant the pedal and turn and off she'd go. Perhaps doing it in a car park, with normal tyre pressures contributed to burning his clutch out? However - I'd suggest doing it somewhere safe, but apart from that - - - Go On, have a go! (Doesn't everyone - secretly - want to have a go? You've heard about it - you're driving a great car which can do it - don't you want to have a go?) http://Link to YouTube:

Ran out of time today - will deliver it to you tomorrow

I have a standard Y Pipe available, it's done about 24k miles. Condition is OK. I'd be looking for about . . . .£60? Delivery would be on top of this, but I'd happily deliver it within a radius of about 50 miles from Hyde (Gtr Manchester) or we could meet within this. (edited - to clarify - I mean, within this 50 miles delivery is free!)

A couple of points here - firstly - here's a couple of pictures of the flange on my backbox. I think they look OK, but have a look and then it's your call. After this - you asked about Japspeed K2 :- On the subject of the K2 exhaust - I really like the sound. It's definitely louder than stock, but it has a real throaty howl. I listened to several different exhausts (people have posted loads of clips both on this forum and elsewhere) and my opinion came to: The K1 is just too loud. I like to listen to the radio / CD / mp3 - and on long journeys you don't want something too intrusive. That means it has to sound nice - especially when you're giving her some throttle, but it's got to be reasonable when at normal motorway speeds. Likewise, all the single exit clips I heard were just too . . . well . . .chavvy. If you want to sound like that - well, go and buy a scooby or something. The Zed has got class, so let's keep it civilised. I really like the Milltek but it's something like £800. I got my system for £329. If you buy Japspeed you need to allow a bit of extra fitting time, as the fit is . . not as good as you'd like. (paraphrased that bit) You may be able to fit a Milltek with the car just on axle stands - but if you're going to have to bend some of the hangers and make adjustments - which you will on a Japspeed - then you'll need to do it on a lift so you can get underneath her. Also - when it arrives from Japspeed, open the box straight away and inspect everything to make sure all the welds are there. On mine there was a 15mm section with no weld, so I took it back and they swapped it no problem. That was OK for me as Japspeed is in North Manchester - from Essex you may need to send it back. (or be prepared for your local guy to weld it up) Having said that - my exhaust has given me the sound I wanted. I added more rasp to it when I added Berks High Flow Cats as well. In essence - when you accelerate, you get the howl, and you get this when you're over 5500 revs, but at 3000 / 3500 cruising she's quiet enough on the motorway to hold normal conversations and listen to music - and you can listen to Sibelius if you want, not just Led Zep and ZZ Topp. Anyway - over to you

The card reader says ETC on it - I think that's the automatic toll system - mine had a box stuck on the dash in the centre which the importer removed (really scruffily) Anyway - it won't do anything (either good or bad) so you can leave it or remove it as you like (I think) Don't know about the other stuff - but I hope you enjoy your Zedding as much as I have (and still do)

The extra studs come out - I took mine off last Saturday when fitting spacers . . . .

Took this off my 05 roadster about a year ago - done 30k miles approx Selling for £45 plus carriage -

I bought a spare plenum for £40 (though I had prices of £55 and £70 offered, too) and polished that - it took about 10 hours to get it to look like this: I didn't think this was good enough so had it machine polished at a local plater, which cost me £35 for cash - if you really want to do it yourself be prepared to spend a long time doing it, or Tamac does exchange ones which I think are pretty competitive when you cost in well over the 10 hours of graft and scuffed knuckles This is what it looked like after the machine polish (and in the car) If I was doing it again . . . I'd probably go for the powder coated option, to be honest, get it done in a metallic gunmetal or something or colour match it to your car.

Standard Backbox, reasonable condition ( IMHO) see pic of the ends as well as the overview It's done about 30k miles (when I swapped it for Stainless K2) £45 plus shipping - say £60 all in - unless you're within about 40 miles of Hyde (Gtr Manchester) and I'll deliver it to you - or we could meet up somewhere within this radius if you prefer

So, bought my girl a set of spacers from MWTech, and as winter is coming up, thought I'd take the opportunity to clean the wheels while I had them off to fit the spacers. Saturday was fine and clear, so jacked her up, took front wheel off . . . and it was DREADFUL inside. This was going to be a bit more of a job than I'd thought! Whilst on my knees, scrubbing with the Bilberry wheel cleaner, with the normal wheel brush and then the non-scratch pan scrubber, leaving it to soak for 15 minutes while I had a coffee, and as my back began to ache - I started to think - What motivates guys to do things? 1) Sex. Well, Ok, but there's not much of that involved in scrubbing your wheels. 2) Money. Not much of that involved here, either, apart from the fact that I've bought the car, and want to keep her in good condition to protect my investment (or minimise the depreciation) 3) Promotion and advancement - Not much of that here either, as I'm unlikely to get promoted because the inside of my wheels (which can't be seen anyway) are clean. 4) So - what else . . . . and in the end, the only thing I could think of was . . . for me and my Zed . . . it must be love! By the time I finished all 4 wheels, and refitted them on the spacers (all nicely polished with Poorboys and the spacers carefully Copperslipped on the bolts - it was pretty well full dark, and cold, and I ached and had 2 cuts on my fingers - and all so my girl could look her best. As I say - is this sad . . . . or is it . . . .

Mine is an import so no clock . . . .but I changed the stupid Jap radio to a UK Sony (with bluetooth etc) so have that set to display the time - so now have a nice clock, easy to read, in pretty blue, right in the middle!

I'd prefer May or April ( May 1st choice to reduce the risk of a wet lap) (but April would be OK if that's the choice of everyone else) I'd prefer NOT June as I'd like to go to LeMans and would like not to cram both events into 1 month . .

I had the same letter today from Westway in Stockport - so probably there's only 3 in the country! My letter said the cars come with the GT pack, too. The offer was good enough to make me think about it, for a while . . . . . Umm . . . . . . . in fact . . . . . . . .I'm still thinking about it!

Nobody has mentioned Caterham . . . . I hired a Caterham for the weekend before buying my Zed, and loved it. Not entirely practical, and nowhere near as nice in the cockpit (my son got wet feet when I drove through a puddle in the rain, too. Umm . . . that's not good ) but they now do wider bodied ones - anybody tried one? The driving was as much fun as the Zed (though not as quick in the model I hired) it was just the comfort factor which made the Caterham a "No" for me

Thanks for the help, guys, I'll call them

I have a couple of scuffs which need painting / repair on a Sunset roadster 1st was done from chafing with the tie-straps when I transported the car on a trailer to & from Santa Pod 2nd (worse) I backed into the towbar on the caravan (Stupid!) Does anyone have any recommendations - preferably around Manchester or in the Northwest? (Apologies for the poor (phone) photos)

Y pipe off a 2005 JDM roadster (276) available - not sure what that makes it . . . See the photo - can you tell from this? It's done about 25k miles, looks reasonable. Make me an offer - unfortunately mail to Bristol will be around £20 on top

When I had a Sales Rep in Holland (in a previous life) the Hull Ferry was always the best way to go - you get a good nights sleep and arrive there refreshed, breakfasted and ready to go. I 'd vote Hull Ferry every time for the trip going out - but sometimes the timings don't work so well on the way back, and it's possible to chunnel it and save a night away if you're in a hurry to get back

I'd be interested, subject to when you want to go - I'd prefer a weekday at the Ring if possible as it would be my first time and I've heard the traffic there at weekends gets busy - could we make the Ring day on a Friday - adds an extra day, I know, but what do you think? I'm planning on going to Le Mans in 2012 so would like to leave June out - funds not being unlimited, if I'm going to Le Mans lets do the Ring in a different month Ian

I had BC Coilovers fitted (by Abbey, as it happens!) and they were able to fit with extenders on the coilovers and so we only dropped the car about 15mm. This has a couple of advantages - a) you can still drive on UK roads (othewise known as pitted cart tracks ) and you keep the wheel camber within the range of the existing link arms. Of course, it also means you're not getting into the full track setup range, but I opted for this as my girl spends most of her life on roads with only the occasional excursion on to tracks. There are obviously other coilovers available, (and BC do a more advanced range than the ones I selected) but I thought BC were competitvely priced - and they had good reviews on several other forums and owners club posts. As an aside - I really like the feel of her now (she's just a bit firmer than OEM stock for my daily driving (and I can firm it up more for those 'vigorous' runs)) but it is also very nice to soften the suspension if you're just taking the gf out for a jolly - it's a really quick adjustment to get her handing and feeling how you want her. (The car, I mean, not the gf ! )

pic of the end of my backbox for jmh

I've never had any additional demand from HMC&E so I have ended up with a pair of Berks for £333.12. I must say I really like the performance boost - and the sound just goes through me every time . . ! Just in passing - buying stuff from the USA is really no problem, especially if the parts are light weight. I bought a carbon fibre engine cover too, and saved probably 35%. Obviously you need to weigh up the advantages against the disadvantages - stuff getting damaged in transit, for instance and hassles over sorting that out. Paying guys like the traders makes sense as it means THEY have the admin and the frieght to worry about, and it's worth paying a premium for that. Saving 10% on £60 or £70 may not be worth saving the money, when buying from a trader is easier and you get the peace-of-mind. But then - saving 25 to 30% on £300 for robust parts, from a reputable US dealer . . . well, maybe then it's worth thinking about. I have to admit the start point on my Berks was that I'd just missed a group buy, so the motivation was that I wanted them. . . . sooner than I was prepared to wait for another group buy, and as buying from the USA is pretty easy - the price differential of £70 staying in my pocket was a helpful extra.

Mark I seem to recall that after you remapped my '05 roadster (UpRev and subsequently remapped again when you fitted the plenum spacer and the Berks) being told that she was mapped to run on 95. Maybe my recollection is off but I think I was informed that there was no point in feeding her the higher Octane fuel now she was set up for the 95, as any benefits would be transient when the ECU learned the higher octane settings - Please put my mind at rest - am I OK running on 95?

Apologies for the delay How about. . . . say £50 for the Y pipe £70 for the back box and. . . umm . . £125 for the cats? I'd probably round this off a bit if you wanted all of it, too. Depending on what you wanted - carriage would be around £15 for the cats and £12.50 each for the other bits - but depending on where you are we could perhaps meet rather than spend £40 on carriage - I'd travel say 50 miles from Hyde (Gtr Manchester) if you were in that range - or we could meet somewhere halfway or something Cheers, Ian