coldel

Which is what I did. Carpets are still carpets and they wear quickly no matter how much you spend on them. I bought some nicomats at £60 and 4 months later they still look like new and look very smart in the footwells.

The Celicas are creeping up but are not going to give you returns like you are seeing with Supras and GTRs. To your last point, the cost of keeping the car outweighs the gains in price and removing inflation I would say I could easily get £7k - £8k for my Celica, I paid £5k 3 years ago. It is difficult to price the market though as so few are ever for sale in the UK. Love the thread though! Before I bought the Celica a few years back my wife and I sold her flat and I suggested for a laugh to use some of the profit to buy a £25k R34 GTR as an investment, she actually said yes and I bottled it

Aye fair enough, maybe not all Jap cars but certainly within WRC the non-Jap cars are higher valued it seems. R34s are priced as silly money, but do seem to see the same ones constantly for sale. I wonder what they actually sell for? Anyway in terms of the humble 350z, as above think you are at least a decade away from any sort of classic status that would push values up to levels that you can honestly say you made a few quid on it.

A gentle bump, still for sale.

Well the WRC is interesting, as most people throw superlatives at Subaru but they won it less than the Celica and they competed over a longer period of time. The ST165 won it in 1990 and the ST185 won it three consecutive years 92,93,94. When the ST205 came along it was smashing its way through the stages only to be done over for having a restrictor in the turbo or something which allowed more power (which it didnt actually need!) so they were booted out and never returned, funny enough thats when the Evo suddenly appeared in versions 3,4,5 appeared and won loads after their Evo 1 and 2 was blown away previously by the equivalent Celicas. Anyway, the upshot is that it was as goodas its contemporaries on track, but too expensive to buy on the road (about 30% more than a Cosworth). All these Jap cars funny enough are not as expensive to buy as the Integrale or Cosworth, the Cosworth has no rally heritage to speak of, yet now at stupid prices in the UK due to some very rose tinted glasses You do wonder if there is a resistance to Japanese cars here vs the Italian or Ford bias...

I know I am going to be unpopular for saying it but I cannot see 350z values going up any time soon. In 10-20 years time there will still be a few kicking around and they might start to look like going for x2 to x3 what they are going for now. I think 370z's will always be a touch higher in price as the interior is better and refinements but anyone owning a 350z right now is going to be looking at the long game in terms of seeing prices go up due to classic status. 300zx's were Ferrari money new, and are now very rare and aged at over 25 years old but good ones still can be had for £5k-£8k. Even my own Celica is knocking on the door of 24 years old, has rally heritage, even had its own game on Sega but are pretty cheap to buy. I am not sure the Z badge has the kudos of something like the GTR badge to be pushing silly money. Anyway that's my tuppence worth.

So, from the top. Last year I developed a nasty form of arthritis which meant I couldn't drive, walk etc. fortunately some medication sorted it out I was very lucky. My wife said to me, what about that European Road trip you always spoke about doing, why keep putting it off, you can never take for granted a healthy future. So on that rather somber note, albeit with full endorsement from the other half, I started dreaming up what it might look like. Usually on a road trip you hop from one place to the next so I thought I might do it differently... The plan turned into this: Drive to France and stop in Strasbourg Drive through Switzerland and into Italy and stay for four nights in Cernobbio at Lake Como Drive back up to Metz for a night Then drive back to blighty So the idea was that we didnt have to pack up and check in and out each day but have a base camp we would venture out from. The location was a nice spot as Monza, Modena, the Swiss Alps and Stelvio were all within reasonable distance to pop out in the cars for the day and get back. So with that in mind I set about finding some recruits. The dream team ended up lining up as my friend Martin (Boxster), @SuperStu (BRZ), @Spatt & Damian (C63 AMG) and @Paddy78 (911) along with myself in the old Celica. We did as much prep as possible, planning routes, getting paperwork in order from the Swiss vignette to the French toll tags. We all met in Canterbury for a bonding session the night before the ferry and possibly had a beer too many which led to some weary heads the next morning on the ferry! Once in Strasbourg we were lucky enough to stumble across and see an amazing light show over the river by pure chance which blew us all away. Then on to Cernobbio via the stunning Gotthards Pass where we found the villa had just enough space for five cars outside, the area itself is stunning and lake views out of this world. It became the perfect haven for us each night after a long day out in the cars. I wont go into too much depth about the next 5 days but the highlights were certainly: Monza F1 Circuit where we got a tour which included seeing the press rooms, sitting in the drivers press chairs (which you will see the top three sitting in a couple of weeks!), going on to the podium, seeing all the race control rooms as well as a visit to Bernie Ecclestones 'special room' he had built there... A drive out over the San Bernardino Pass, through Davos, Stelvio Pass and back to the villa - again stunning views and driving Heading down to Modena and Maranello to see the Ferrari and Lamborghini museums - the absolute highlight though was visiting Pagani and talking our way (with best puppy dog eyes with the receptionist) into the factory tour to see these wondrous machines being made Drove back up to Metz, the guys went via Interlaken whilst I took the motorway due to a top mount that failed on my car - Metz was, erm an experience as we found the hotel car park less secure than it appeared with random scooters buzzing through it so we parked our cars up by the hotel front door instead of the car park On the way to Calais we stopped by in Reims to sample the Pommery Champagne Caves - we all spent a bit too much money there to be honest! Overall it was a great trip, lots of nice unexpected things discovered along the way and we all had a great laugh over the radios. I will drop some photos below for your enjoyment of course as otherwise and I am sure some of the other guys will chip in (Matt, chip in, maybe a pizza photo?) with their own. Strasbourg Petit France The Villa Cernobbio Monza F1 Circuit Drive through the Alps Museum visits Also finding a disused circuit in Reims before we went on the champagne tour! We discovered so many different locations and routes over the week, if you are planning your first road trip out this way please do shout as I can offer some informed advice! Col

Well as the old girl is going to carry me nigh on 2500-3000 miles to Lake Como and back next week thought I would do the honourable thing and give the car a polish and change of oil/sparks, replaced the passenger window motor which had failed and an upper ball joint that was getting a bit of a wiggle on... So some TLC of a snow foam, wash, clay, and then some Scholl S20 with a DA followed up with some Soft99 wax Followed by the grease monkey work (known as my dad the retired mechanic) - that joint took some effort with the press, and a large hammer...

Exactly if the mapper has got consistent gains across the rev range it will feel faster which is what you want. The number 332 is largely irrelevant as you do not have 332 at all times only for that fleeting moment when you are at those particular revs. Does the graph look improved? Ideally you will also see flattening, removes any troughs etc.

As always, area under the line is more important than peak BHP improvement which really doesn't show anything. You want to see daylight between pre and post tune lines all through the rev range, a car with a bigger peak BHP increase than another might not necessarily be faster or better to drive if the overall curve is poor.

Aye, it glosses up like liquid

Looks great. I bought a Worx portable pressure washer it's brilliant as you don't need to be near a tap or power point.

Good to see some numbers for this now. Have fun everyone and we'll done Andy for organising

Wheels look spot on - nicely done

https://news.sky.com/story/driver-to-face-court-after-using-a-bucket-as-a-car-seat-and-pliers-to-steer-11436044

I always have a PB big towel for main work - think its about a tenner on the site, its fantastic. For general stuff you cannot go too far wrong either with Kent yellow towels on ebay. Its well worth reading up though, watching YT vids etc for tips. I remember in my area struggling a bit with water spots but then discovering the effect of using Sonax XBS as I dry the car, what a difference it made, wouldnt do it any other way now. Not sure what your car parking situation is but I bought a Worx Hydroshot as I park on the road, it really helps with all the efforts on looking after the car, and comes apart and easy to store literally in the space of a small bucket.

It is a joke you know that we kind of know it's never coming home but sing it each WC anyway. As doc said Southgate has completely moved the goal posts here. Instead of picking the best 11 players (and avoiding big name players) he showed that right now the best way to progress is to create a system and a base to work from. And these guys now have some tournament experience with them. I watched the German games with a German friend and he fears for the future as there is a lack of young players for them at the moment in key positions. They have a few like Sane but absolutely no stand out strikers or defenders. It's not a given at all that in four years Germany or Spain will suddenly have a world beating team again.

As above everyone says their products are the best, but of course they would otherwise why would they use them But some good practice is most important. Two buckets. MF cloths ideally edgeless and remove any washing labels that are attached to them. Don't wash in direct sunlight. You want as little dragging across the paint as possible. Make good use of snow foams if possible. Etc. For the inside of the exhaust its slightly easier on my car as I can put my hand inside it comfortably but I generally clean it with a soft brush with shampoo then finish it with a cloth and metal polish. Doesn't stay clean for very long though!

I remember it clearly! Shilton sheparding the ball without realising the italian player was behind him... Other than that one, can anyone genuinely remember another one?

You are not looking at what experience brings to the game overall in the right way though - you can have inexperienced players like Mbappe play well, but they need experienced players around them to perform to that level, Greizmann has been there done it in many competitions and must be brilliant to have him in your ear as a 19 year old all match helping you through it. We didn't have enough experience to carry the less experienced players on to that next level they needed last night when things were going against us, that was obvious. Kane is our captain but still a relative novice when you look at the career of someone like Modric or Mandzukic. Greece won the Euros with a lack of quality, so did Denmark, they won the competition through excelling in other attributes. Very rarely do teams have all the attributes perfectly aligned, thinking only teams like Spain late 2000s and 70s Brazil otherwise teams win based on outstanding quality, or outstanding individuals, outstanding team work so on and so forth. This England team can only get better...we should be excited about it.

You mean the one right at the end of the first half? That was VAR'd as the ref walked off the pitch - because you don't see a big 'moment' of players standing there waiting doesn't mean it's not VAR'd. I think ultimately experience counted and a lack of depth in the England team counted against them. Alli and Lingard were not performing but there was a lack of options off the bench. Dier and Hendo in the same team has always been a disaster so can see why he resisted that. Alli especially is carried by the other 9 outfield players in most matches when playing out and out central midfield and only gets game time due to his league form. Personally I think the future is bright, joint youngest team at the tournament, England are current U-17 and U-20 world champions. If these players can come through at good clubs and get game time we should expect more examples of England finishing in QFs and SFs.

I think that was less clear cut and they did VAR it, Croatia did the same on Maguire at one of our corners. What Croatia did well was use their foul count efficiently, when England did look like breaking in came a body check or the like to break it all down and with the ref keeping cards in his pocket just meant the tactic could continue, and any advantage of pace in the England team was reduced. The Lovren foul on Kane on the halfway line when Kane was breaking and he ignored the ball, body checked him and didn't receive a yellow set the tone really for why we couldnt hit as hard on the break as we would have liked.

Unfortunately its in the English DNA to more readily accept failure than to give credit to success That match on Saturday is such a waste of time, no idea why its even played. Can anyone even remember any 3rd placed play off winners from previous world cups?

I would disagree it was on balance fairly even over 90 mins. Kane should have finished from the same position Croatia got their second and hit the post with the follow up (VAR would have shown that the offside call was wrong and any goal would have stood) and Stones had a header off the line. Extra time first 20 were Croatia and last 10 were England's. First Croatia goal was debatable, a foot that high was dangerous play and anywhere else on the pitch and it's a stonewall free kick. The Kane miss was pivotal as England would have seen out Croatia second half at 2-0 up. Stones went to sleep for the second goal, just walking out whilst the ball was still active in the box was bizarre. But they have done amazingly well. 28 other teams didn't get as far as England who were highly tipped to fail much earlier in the tournament, no other British teams even made it to the tournament. There are always the doom merchants moaning about opposition and basically anything that will take away any credit to the team but forget that the much lauded 1990 team only had to beat Belgium and Cameroon to get to their semi final (not to mention it was a set piece goal against Belgium and two penalties against Cameroon). As for the final, its hard to look past France at the moment with Mbappe really coming on song. It will no doubt take a fair bit of luck for Croatia to win (as well as some more generous refereeing, how Rebic stayed on the pitch last night I will never know) but luck can go with any team.

Huh? Set pieces are not open play, I'm not sure how you derived that definition? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_piece_(football) And yes, was a bit of a pop, whilst slightly inebriated, for which I apologise...