DannyBoy

I remember you posting about that at the time, shame nothing got done. Funny this should come up really as i've just got in from the gym and most of the 20 min drive back I had a white van about 12mm from my back bumper. Now anyone in west london will know it's been raining constantly since about 3pm, so it's soaked here, and this was in a residential 30 zone, if I'd have had to brake for someone walking into the road or something I have no doubt he would have gone straight into the back of me. The Irony is he was so close i actually never saw his plate to report him. And this after a good friend of mine got smashed into the ditch on the A14 yesterday by (you guessed it) a tailgating white van man who then drove off, leaving her in the (written off) car in the ditch pinned in her seat by the airbags! i've never got the whole 'white van man' complaint before but it's all starting to make sense. DB

Great post RT, puts across the public sector point of view from an informed perspective However, my issue wouldn't be with those like you who have actually addressed the facts and realised that however rubbish it is (and essentially having been lied to about your pension is pretty rubbish) there's no alternative and it's a necessary evil. I'll try and put this across without it sounding like a rant, but what really gets me is that a significant number of public sector workers are having a sh*tfit because they'll have to contribute more to get their still very competitive pension when they retire a bit later than they thought. Can we have some perspective here? I hate to use myself as an example, but it's too fitting to pass it up: I signed on the dotted line for 19 years of military service, 19 years during which I could not leave without permission (which may not be granted) and without losing most (or all of) of my pension and all of my final payoff that I would have effectively been paying into for my whole career, so quite a comittment. In return I get the assurance of the government that despite having no Unions and it being illegal for me to strike, i'll be treated fairly and my interests will be looked after, they call it the Military Covenant. So two years of training later, bang, i'm redundant, nothing i can do about it. I have no transferable skills, i get nothing for the two years i served, and i now have to try and find a job in the most competitive job market for decades despite being vastly under-qualified and under-experienced for my age. But sh*t happens. As RT said, I don't think for a second that the government would have done that unless they felt they really needed to. I can see that, why can't these people? Far worse things are happening in the private sector, everyone is getting hit, and actually the public sector workers who are striking seem to be coming out of it ok compared to most. When will people start looking beyond the end of their nose at the demonstration of an unsustainable public sector which is very conveniently playing out in Greece right now? DB

They're all quattro i though the 1.8 turbo was FWD, only the V6 came with Quattro Nope. I had one All UK cars had Quattro. 180, 225, or 3.2 I think there were a few 150 bhp FWD cars in Europe. But every UK TT you see is 4WD Was very good in the snow last year Sorry buddy, not true. They did a 1.8 180PS tiptronic in front wheel drive only. I know this because my mum just bought one, and i think that should indicate its intended market ST would win for me over any Mk1 TT. DB

Knowing a thing or two about jet engines, that doesn't quite fit the bill to me. A jet engine should be self sustaining: the compressor is driven by the exhaust gasses, not by an external piston engine which would be a HUGE limiting factor in power output. Taking nothing away from the guy as he was clearly ahead of his time (the RAF still though piston engines were the way forward into the 40's), but bouncing off a runway before bursting into flames without actually demonstrating that the engine can produce sufficient power for flight isn't really a resounding success. Very interesting though DB

That's going to be epic mate, and about a million times better than the 'yankee chrome' of the stillen. Power curves for the C38's seem to be almost turbo-like, they just get better and better through the revs unlike the stillen which pukes and dies at about 4500-5000. good choice, can't wait to see what it puts down DB

I just don't get why no one did this before GTM, the Rotrex C-38's they use in those kits are just so clearly better than the vortechs and the C-30 (HKS). Can't wait to see the results, from what's been said on the US forums, that's a quality kit, just wish they'd get on with it and make one for the DE. DB

Thanks, any bad points. Dont want it to look like my car's been in an accident when I finally decide to sell it. I would be slightly unsure of a car that had a full respray. I'd be much more unsure of a car that had a significant partial respray (i.e whole front end) than one that had a full respray, and anyway as it's not due to any damage I wouldn't have said you'd be under any obligation to tell anyone about it when you come to sell it on. As long as the colour matches the V5 and the car looked straight, i'd see a full respray as a bonus when buying a car, especially one with crappy thin paint like the Zed. If it really is a full respray for £600, bite his hand off and go for it DB

Not sure how much experience you've had of the K2, but my car had one on when I got it and I certainly found it quite droney at motorway speeds, particularly over about 65. Have a Milltek now and it's just in a different league as far as sound goes; slightly quieter under 3500RPM (even with HFCs) and much less droney and normal driving speeds.J ust food for thought, and I realise a Milltek isn't exactly equivalent in price, but i only realised how much i didn't like the K2 once i changed it. DB

I.e. none My mum just bought a Mk1 TT and on the test drive the guy from the dealer was sitting sideways across the driver side back seat with his feet in the passenger side footwell. In fairness he was about 6'8" by the look of him, but i think Audi designed those seats for handbags rather than people. DB

One of the big laughs on the original thread was the claim that it'll do 480 miles to a tank at 120mph It's stupid stuff like that that makes me doubt how well that work was done, someone willing to spout bullsh*t about one thing is probably willing to spout Bullsh*t about other things: 'yea mate, it's all been checked out and approved by VOSA/the AA/NASA and they said it was fine!' DB

More West than South-West, but I've used these chaps and they definately know what they're talking about, and won't take the ****. http://www.scraudio.co.uk/ DB

Short answer, it allows more air to enter the front two cylinders which are apparently slightly choked off by the slope of the unmodified plenum. OP: To be honest if all you did was fit the plenum spacer on its own with no supporting mods or a remap i'd be very surprised if it made any difference at all to anything. The plenum spacer as such shouldn't have caused a drop like that in MPG, i'd suspect something in the throttle body/MAF may have got nudged out of place during the install. There are reset and position re-learn procedures for all of that stuff in the FAQ section I believe. DB

Short term insurance is effing expensive in my experience, but it does seem to be mainly because i'm 23. There are plenty of brokers though, just do a google. If you don't need the money I think I'd leave it in storage for your trip as when you come back it will probably be well under the average mileage for its age and so easier to sell. Trying to sell a Zed at the moment looks like its going to be a pretty heartbreaking experience: worst time of year, temporary (IMO) peak in fuel prices, slow economy. It may not be what you'd have chosen but a year in Oz could be epic if you make the most of it. DB

Could be on its way out, it seems they can go as early as 40k in some cases and high biting point is a telltale sign. That said, mine's coming up on 50K and feels absolutely fine. DB

Not really sure what you mean by movement 'under heavy gear changes', as surely changing gear involves moving the stick anyway Mine moves SLIGHTLY if I take my foot off the gas completely quite suddenly, but I've always assumed it was just the engine/transmission shifting under torque and i've never worried about it. DB

http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=23843 All you need to know And welcome to the Forum DB

Ahhh, Mr Anderson Welcome DB

Agreed, calling them all murderers isn't helpful, it's not like they just started doing it last week because it sounded like fun. If you look at where the Faroe Islands are, you'll understand that whales and dolphins WERE a necessary part of their life, but as Husky says, as times change and populations grow these practices escalate along with the population even though there is no longer any requirement for them. I think the Danish government needs to slap a reality check on the Faroe Islands. DB They are acting like murderers. I'm not about to knife up a whale or a dolphin, it's sick. It might have once been done out of necessity but it isn't now, it's done for a laugh, a bit of a sick laugh. I'm surprised Brussels haven't stopped them, instead they preside over pointless rubbish. Whilst I couldn't agree with you more on the Brussels statement, you have no proof whatsoever that this was done for 'a sick laugh'. You're making assumptions based on a source which has a vested interest in casting the worst possible light on this activity. I'll repeat here that I'm not approving of this at all, and nor am I about to 'knife up a whale', but it's all very well us getting high and mighty on principle when our society until very recently found it acceptable to watch foxes get torn to bits by a pack of dogs; an activity with very similar historic basis. It needs to stop, no question. But labelling people as murderers for enacting a tradition which has formed part of their culture for centuries is over-simplification. DB

Agreed, calling them all murderers isn't helpful, it's not like they just started doing it last week because it sounded like fun. If you look at where the Faroe Islands are, you'll understand that whales and dolphins WERE a necessary part of their life, but as Husky says, as times change and populations grow these practices escalate along with the population even though there is no longer any requirement for them. I think the Danish government needs to slap a reality check on the Faroe Islands. DB

Aaron Rosa = hilarious joke All the finesse of a house brick combined with the conditioning of a 3 day old kitten. I just don't get why he keeps getting on UFC fight cards. DB

Thanks for the swift replies chaps, I'll have a rummage under the seats and give that reset thing a try later on, and it's good to know the squeek probably isn't anything to worry about. DB

Last November I was posted at the MOD in london, and so took part in the ceremony at the cenotaph (the one actually on the 11th, not the one on the sunday with the Queen). I have to say I was very impressed by the reaction of the public, even those who were very obviously foreign tourists kept absolutely silent and respectful. This of course didn't extend to the group of people who felt that a memorial service was an appropriate place to demonstrate against conflict: I don't even have words to express how distasteful I find people like that, although I have to say it was gratifying to hear members of the public telling them to shut up and bugger off. I consider myself very fortunate that even though my career has been somewhat prematurely ended, I still had the chance to be in London in uniform for rememberance day at least once. DB

Nice one Octet, good job organising this and keeping everyone informed, top stuff DB

Hi all, took my car out for the first time in almost three weeks today only to be greeted by two completely new and seemingly unrelated issues: First off there is a lovely chirpy squeek coming from the OS rear wheel at very low speeds (sub 5 MPH) that gets faster as speed increases until it disappears at about 5 MPH. It continued doing it for throughout both legs of the journey, about 40 mins driving in total. Could this be something serious like a wheel bearing or should i just put it down to leaving the car standing for 3 weeks? Secondly, the airbag warning light is flashing. It wasn't flashing when I last got out of the car, but as soon as I started it up today it went straight from the constant 'on' on startup to blinking at me. Now I have taken the seats out previously and put them back in again, but that was all done with the battery disconnected and it was quite a while ago now. I've done a quick search but I can't find any other instances of the airbag light just popping on unprovoked, so any ideas on what could have caused it and how can I get rid of it as it's very distracting. Would greatly appreciate some input on this as I have no idea potentially how serious either of these issues are. Thanks, DB

Looks like a Nismo v1 bumper and skirts, with a splitter on the bumper and the cross bar over the rad cut off. I suspect there has been some arch widening gone on there as well, looks a little too butch to be stock. DB