TimFF

I'm at work but from memory the sensors were £75 each and fitting a bit more than that but not into 3 figures. So if you're getting the EPS's for £75 fitted and it takes an hour from start to finish (well, that's what it took my experienced fitter) something seems remarkably cheap... cheers Tim

I haven't got these exact ones but I did get a pair of Parking Dynamics ones fitted to my Zed and Managements MINI Cooper S. It's a 'bumper' off job to fit those - but I had someone do it... They are much more sensitive than the ultrasonics and can be affected by the movement of the wheels / suspension as they don't 'point' backwards from the rear of the car - which means reversing out over the pavement crossover can give a warning for no obvious reason. The plus side is that they work over the entire width of the rear and don't have blind spots where a bollard can sneak between the sensors - guess how we discovered that... cheers Tim

Ouch! Did you manage to grab any independent witnesses? I must admit that I'm now really conscious of this sort of incident where it's unfortunately just the 2 drivers stories to go on, and am really seriously contemplating one (or 2!) of these cameras in the car: Roadhawk or Novus just so there is some sort of unequivocal record... I recently had 2 separate close calls (not in the Zed) at 2 junctions I hate, both involving a road narrowing from 2 lanes into 1 after a set of lights, both in 30 limits too. In both cases it would be my word against the other drivers and video would have shown my innocence.

My dad was an perfectionist DIYer and then some... He built the garage complete with pit, a conservatory from scratch, a kitchen extension, the kitchen itself from scratch and his crowning glory a 2 story pitched roof extension to the front of the house. His only 'problem' was his approach to safety... The worst tool I ever saw him devise was his 'saw' to cut off the roof rafters to create the lower edge of the roof. He tried his circular saw but it didn't have enough depth so he took the saw blade out, found a drill chuck thingy he had and attached the saw blade to his power drill. He then climbed up the ladder and proceeded to cut 20 or so roof rafters to size...

Nope, I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to phones - sticking with a boggo mobile that only makes phone calls (and takes photos and plays games and is an alarm clock and a diary and...). Parts now all in stock at RR so install scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully there's not going to be any extraneous noises whilst the Imprint setup goes on otherwise they'll do that bit early on Friday morning. Can't wait...

Going for the IVA-W520R, and as I've got a 313 I'm expecting some face plate fun too...

For the first time ever, yes. But only coz the rego on the car when I got it was YCK... And 'er indoors usually names cars from its plate so there was NO chance that was staying. So a cheapie ZED plate was acquired. I did notice quite a variation in prices for the same plate, some places were double the price I paid! Tim

I've finally taken the plunge and decided to replace the Bose headunit with an Alpine Imprint unit ,only to find that Road Radio in Crawley can't fit it till next week as there's already a 350Z booked in who's going to use the last adapter they have in stock... So is that anyone on here? Tim

You'll be after extending the house now too eh? The Rays are still stacked up waiting for me to wear out my current set of boots... Is the ST safe too as it's only got the 4 seats? Hope you buck the apparent trend on sales, midsummer is a far better time to have to sell a roadster. Tim

Was walking with the mutts so didn't wave, you'd just passed mine on the driveway...

By coincidence on Wednesday this week I did a whole day Ride Drive course, including an hour or so at Longcross near Chobham in Surrey. Not only did my 'instructor' (it's far from a driving lesson) point out several areas for improvement but he also (fortunately!) reinforced what I'd already learnt doing the IAM bike test rather too many years ago. The track time was very very useful - not only were parts very familiar from TV and film (from The Professionals to Wheeler Dealers) but you have the place to yourself to see what the Zed can and can't do without (much) fear of hitting anything. And of course there's no speed limit... and there are also the usual skidmarks heading to holes in the undergrowth. Without really going for it I saw 125 on the main straight before braking for the large bump before the first almost Karussel like bend. It showed me just how effective todays electronics are at keeping everything under control - from understeer to oversteer - and just how crap I am at drifting! No photos as it's a film studio - we were asked if we had cameras the second we arrived at track control as there were some VERY interesting 'bikes' parked up about 100 yards away... After 6 hours and 200 miles of every type of road I was mentally knackered, but I'd thoroughly recommend a session to anyone who enjoys driving. Tim

I had something really sensible for a 20 year old - a full size 1976 Chevy Caprice estate that was just 4 years old... Front bench seat column shift, electric clamshell tailgate - with the rear seat down it would take an 8x4 sheet of ply! It was a sea of red naugahyde (vinyl...) inside, sadly I didn't take any photos of that. I got it as it was going very cheap - bought the year before for £4000, mine for £1000 as he'd emigrated to the US and needed it sold. I added a towbar - it simply bolted to the bumper! The bumpers were the jacking points - literally 1/4" steel plate. Mind you, wiring the indicators to the towbar drove us nuts due to the US habit of using brake lights as indicators by earthing them out, I recall we had to splice into the dashboard repeaters. It towed a sportsboat I had - so torquey you never knew it was there. Bit of a sod when it came to width barriers though, it was 7' wide. Parking was fun too, it was 20' long... It still seems to be about according to the DVLA, although it's changed colour to black. Ah, happy days! The neighbours loved us - my old (just resprayed) Rover 2000 parked outside (mine at 19), my brothers Escort estate and just visible the rear of my fathers Granada 2.3. There were 2 bikes in the garage too...

I've been on both sides of this in recent years, most recently when I bought my Zed in March. I also sold a car for cash a few years ago; both deals were well into 5 figures... Cash can be dud, and Bankers Drafts can also be well counterfeited. I didn't have the time to check every single note and no way would I be able to detect a dodgy draft. (I'm not paranoid but I KNOW I'm being watched...) So when buying the Zed I made sure I had a substantial cash deposit - enough to prove I was real, not enough to get too worried about carrying it. When it came to the day of acquisition I had my seller accompany me to a local bank where he saw me draw the draft - I then kept it until I got the keys and docos. The catch here is that it needs to be withing banking hours. When it came to the sale, I made the buyer come with me to the bank where we paid it in - once the notes were accepted by the bank (now their fault if dud) and I had a paying in slip I gave him the keys. I'd suggest if anyone didn't like either method then I'd be wary of doing a deal... cheers Tim

And another to thank Chris for great service... I took advantage of a group buy and shortly after the HFCs arrived it was pointed out to me that I'd got the wrong parts - entirely my own fault as I didn't do any research on model changes and simply said 'I'll have some for a 350 please'. Not only did Chris arrange for them to be sent back to him at no cost to me but he then honoured the group buy price (I had no intention of asking for a special price!) and had then delivered direct from Berk. Now that's what I call service! Tim ps - if I'd looked at the other end of the box when it arrived I'd have seen it said MY 03-06. D'oh... pps - I have a feeling I may well succumb to Keysers syndrome

We've got an early R56 Cooper S, now with 36k on it. It's good fun and nippy, I can't find any real noticeable turbo lag but then the only previous turbo'd cars I've driven recently were diesels! (That's not counting an Escort RS Turbo in 1986 which really did have lag - and massive torque steer...) I believe one gotcha is the power steering motor - it's normally noisy but can and does fail without notice. Ours hasn't exactly been the paragon of BMW build quality - one headlamp had to be replaced under warranty as the levelling device (it's a Xenon) had failed; it's had a failed crankshaft seal and last week an O2 sensor failed. If I'd paid BMW the going rate that lot adds up to nigh on £2k... The wife loves it though! Tim

And I'm another lifelong biker - I've been without cars since I was 16 but never without a bike... I've done a fair few miles over the years having started with a Fizzie, which tells you when I started! I'm yet another Fazer owner, mine's a 'full fat' FZS1000 gen 1 (the carburetted one) and it's been Ivanised - that's an Ivans jet kit plus airbox mods which together with a Bos pipe adds hugely to the mid range, right where I like it! I've not gone down the sportsbike route - a knackered left knee means I can't bend it too much for too long - my list of bikes (at least those that stayed more than just a few days!) looks like this: Yamaha FS1E Yamaha YAS1 Honda CB175 Suzuki GT380 Yamaha XS750 Suzuki GSX750 Honda CX500 BMW K100RT Honda ST1100 Pan European (80k in 3 years, all it needed was head bearings other than tyres & fuel!) Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird Yamaha FZS1000 Not that big a list, but from the XS750 they tended to be stayers... Tim

Mines not in daily use yet, but going out for odd blasts during the weekday lunchtimes means I get nothing like 30mpg... I too tend to use cruise on long motorway hauls and try and avoid touching any pedals, keeps you alert if nothing else! Bloody handy for those endless stretches of roadwork 40s & 50s and SPECS camera avoidance. Thanks for the heads up on the HMRC rates - they have indeed changed as of this financial year. I get nowhere near the HMRC rate, although on the 17th April our rate went from 37.4 to 37.7 p per mile! Wow... At least that means I can claim a bit more back from HMRC next year. And for some odd reason my lot lower the rate at 7000 miles per annum too. Still, I'm still in profit and will also get paid to use the Zed, can't be bad...

Mine too before lunchtime yesterday! I was hoping to be about when they arrived to, er, sneak 'em off to be hidden in the garage but I had to go in to the office for a late day. Now, how do I convince Management they're to help keep the car clean - and I don't mean environmentally!

55,271

Only a year later... Here ya go:

Oh go on then... 1 Gman '370z' 2 Tarmac '350z' 3 MacW '350z' 4 TimFF '350z'

Nope, not on a 313 either... I have to admit to doing a double take the first time I looked inside a boot, I couldn't really believe there was no handle of any sort! Finger on the edge of the spoiler for me though. How Management will do it I'm not sure. Come to think of it, she's never likely to be needing to do it...

Hi Josh Depending on how south in South London you are and want to travel, I've previously used these guys down here in Crawley with no complaints http://www.wheelworksuk.co.uk/index.htm. Did a great job on a set of knackered Schnitzer wheels of mine a few years ago, and they've recently done a good pair of jobs on sets of Minilite and Peugeot GTi wheels for neighbours. Decent workshop setup too, they don't operate out a tiny little backstreet shed. TimFF

Thanks to my wife 'filing' away the road tax reminder for her car we missed the deadline by 2 days. Oops. I assumed the DVLA system would simply rub it's hands with glee and fine us but nope, it seems some leeway has been built in...

It was my slight concern over the oil circulation that prompted me to ask in the first place. I can't imagine Nissan making an engine management system that creates unnecessary wear though! I'll keep an eye on the oil pressure gauge itself (at least it has one instead of a warning light!) on the next cold start and see how long it is before it moves after the engine fires. That's the most critical moment, but I guess so long as oil hasn't completely vanished from every bearing surface there's no cause for concern.