coldel

To summarise the above, for all your parts requirements PM Zmanalex, Steve 350z and CS. Having had dealings with all 3 all I can say is they get 100% service and confidence in getting you what you need

My Zed was my first two seater sports car experience and to be honest will never go back to hot hatches or the like, it just doesn't compare. As much as my mate tries to convince me after going out in his Scooby, then his 197 Clio and now his Type S Civic, they all feel like I am driving a van. Two seater sports cars are a true feeling of driving a sports car, no matter how much power the likes of BMW or Renault throw hatches.

Its a 911, the most boring looking sports car in the world. For all the tech that keeps it on the road, still looks as dull as the other 30 odd 911's I see every day

Beetle

Zed is a stunning car that has aged really well. Shame they restricted the ECU so much!

Done a bit of work on the interior - removed the centre tunnel and clad it with a leather cover. Also put some red 4d carbon vinyl on the dash to match the car Pic is a bit crap, but hey its dark out there today! Also changed the spark plugs, took ten mins

Common as muck these 350's

No bite...... bit like your cars Put a 'cap' on it mate - still pipe'ing the same old jokes...

...will...not...bite

Your vx220 turbo'd up on the other hand that could be a tasty 0-60 I think the paper times for the bog standard turbos are something like 4.7 seconds. I know the stage II superchargers on the converted NAs have been timed around 4 second mark. To be quite frank, I have a standard NA, and its launch capabilities are scary sometimes as you are not surrounded by airbags and car structure, but a bit of fibre glass and velcro! Makes for a whole different driving experience and to be honest quite happy to be stuck doing the 0-60 dash in about 6 seconds

+1 +infinity

My old Zed going turbo it seems

Go to photobucket, where your image is saved, click it, then click the 'direct link' to copy then come back here, click the little icon with a frame and a tree in it then paste the link.

Step forward Ekona?

To echo the above, Europa is basically a turbo vx220 with a roof and some slight modifications. The door aperture is slightly larger and the interior more comfy (although the latter is easily achievable in a standard elise with a couple hundred quids worth of work). They will definitely appreciate in value though...

Didn't mean to scare you with that link mate! Just wanted to give you an insight into ownership... Lotus are generally good, although they are as someone said 'niggly' - you get little bits and pieces going all the time but they are usually cheap fixes (well they are on the VX anyways with all the vauxhall parts readily available). If you got the cash spare, do the Noble for a year and sell it on then get something like the Lotus which is long term affordable? If you can get the Exige S, supercharged mental performance.

Clutches are random, mine went at 40k, others have gone on till 80k, all depends on how badly/well driven it was previously!

Funny lots of comments have been that the zed is slower than it looks. Seriously, looking at paper 0-60 times is about as useful as pi55ing in the wind, if you look at the various remap bhps of 'identical' zeds on here they can differ by anything up to 30bhp. Then you got tyres, flywheels and of course the drivers. Then of course lots of turbo cars out there are remapped, you average Seat Leon diesel remapped is probably not far off a Zed. All that said, they look great, I still love them, but what they are not are 0-60 cars.

Guy off the VX forum went from a stage 4 turbo to a Noble, said the jump was pretty big, as were the running costs

I bought a set of wheels from a guy who traded in his Zed for a Z4M. He could have been unlucky but the car had been off the road for long periods due to electrical problems. At the end of the day though they've got about 30 bhp more than an HR and are half a second quicker to 60, you really need something like TVR if you want any significant performance increase. Pete TVR, ha! VX220 Turbo, with a £300 remap 0-60 in a touch over 4 seconds And the TVR will come back past when it tops out at 120 0-60 times are for Top Gear and girls, real men quote 0-130 and standing quarters. Which the VX will still win, but y'know This is true, over 120 its the bigger engine all the way - and the amount of times anyone has gone over that speed on here on public roads is...

We are probably going to get rid of the focus at the end of the year, same conundrum, what to get next, Becks wont spend more than a couple of grand on a car (thats for me to do with silly go karts!) I think she likes the idea of a 4x4 but a smaller one, Jimny looks a bit too small though.

I bought a set of wheels from a guy who traded in his Zed for a Z4M. He could have been unlucky but the car had been off the road for long periods due to electrical problems. At the end of the day though they've got about 30 bhp more than an HR and are half a second quicker to 60, you really need something like TVR if you want any significant performance increase. Pete TVR, ha! VX220 Turbo, with a £300 remap 0-60 in a touch over 4 seconds

Its American, no matter how hard they try they make throw away cars - you get what you pay for and these are cheap for a reason. Yes they go quick, but suspect the handling isnt anywhere near any japanese/european sports cars and these will in 5 years time be falling apart. As much as they look good on the photos I wouldn't go near it with a barge pole unless I was willing to lose a lot of money.

Just to put previous comments minds at ease, I had mine fitted on with a milltek and it passed the MoT no problem, just needed to be on the pipe for a good 5 minutes with some revving to get it down.

I think Darren may be moving back to the dark side of go-kart cars