DannyBoy

Great film Can someone tell me where I've heard that music before, it's driving me nuts DB

Sorry to interupt but would the whining happy more from cold then disappear when warm? Because mine makes some odd noises sometimes from cold Had the same issue with mine last winter (so when it was actually cold weather, rather than just meaning when the car wasn't warmed up); new diff fluid sorted it as far as I can tell. DB

8/20, was doing so well and then only got 1 right of the last 10. DB

I don't know what noise the diff on the zed make when it's unhappy, but generally IME knackered diffs whine more than grumble. Grumble makes me think wheel bearing. DB

That's the key. Rotary wing aircraft are so much less stable than fixed wing. Doesn't even have to be a full on engine failure or anything like that, its just so much harder to recover from anything going wrong because they have the inherent aerodynamic properties of a brick. They'll always be less safe than fixed wing, but given that the only real alternative in these situations is a boat, you're better off in the aircraft. DB

Chestefield's advice is pretty sound. You may well have got rid of everything with the security software, but personally I'd want to re-format after someone having such an extended period of unrestricted access. At the end of the day the security software can only detect things that it knows to look for, and updates against new threats can take several days to be published and sometimes aren't fully effective until further updates have been applied on top. I don't know how your home network is set up, but if it's as lax as some I've seen then it's possible that they could have had access to other machines on the same network through that laptop, so that's worth bearing in mind. Hope they didn't get what they were after and you get it all sorted. DB

Yea, being the other side of the bulkhead from a Merlin is on the bucket list, just not quite managed it yet. To be fair, it's probably still cheaper to run than a Veyron, and rather than one weedy little W16 you get four supercharged 27 litre V12s with a combined 6,000bhp. I know which I'd rather have DB

Have to agree with the general 'best ww2 aircraft' feelings, they are just spectacular. Good news about the second Lancaster,I think all planes should be valued in terms of the number of merlin engines they have, so a Lanc is worth two mossies anyway I've seen all the BBMF aircraft fly numerous times during time in the RAF, but one that really stuck with me was during a family walk around Grafham Water. Just the Lancaster flew directly overhead at what was probably about 2000ft but felt more like 300, four merlins that close was an amazing noise, so much more intimidating than the single-engine aircraft. God only knows what it sounded like with literally hundreds of them in the air at once. DB

I've heard of these and my gut reaction is that if they were really as good as they claim to be, everyone would have them. From an aerodynamic perspective (coming form an ex-pilot) I can't personally see how their claims can be true, but then I'm not an exhaust expert. the other thing to bear in mind is that nothing will produce any gains on a Zed without a remap. The high-flow cats route is much more tried and tested, and will produce small gains with a remap. I have HFCs and havn't had issues with warning lights, but it will obviously make the exhaust a little louder, but not stupid. DB

The point with the standalone is that ITBs require a good old-fashioned cable controlled throttle, but the stock ECU relies on fly-by-wire throttle and gets massivley confused if you change that. Even if you added an airbox to use the stock MAF (makes the ITBs sort of pointless surely?) the cable control issue remains. It may be possible to somehow piggy-back the stock ECU but every Jenvey build I've seen (admittedly only three) has used a standalone for simplicity and enhanced tunability. Totally with you on the HR though. You wouldn't need to do anything to the intake or internals on an HR, just cams and you'd have a pretty sweet N/A motor. It would cost soooo much more to make a DE produce the same power N/A as an HR with cams. For some reason that doesn't stop me wanting to do it though DB

One of the biggest obstructions to high rev power on the DE engine is the intake system. Other restrictions like headers and cams are pretty easy to fix, but the intake system is a tricky one. There are only two intakes that I know of which allow significant power to be made at high revs. the cheaper option is the cosworth intake plenum, but while this seems to allow more power to be made up top it also has a reputation for no gains or even small losses on N/A engines within the low to mid range. Jenvey ITBs are the ultimate solution, but they aint cheap, and there's the small matter of converting the car to run on cable-controlled throttle amongst other things, so basically you'd be needing a standalone ECU for it to run properly. I'm not sure how high it's safe to rev the stock bottom end on a DE either, but given that the rods are the weak point I'm going with not very high. DB

If it's the one I'm thinking of It's 374 (/pedant), and its wheel horsepower, not brake horsepower, so well over 400bhp. However the car in question has Jenvey ITBs, longtubes and a straight through exhaust, rediculous cams and revs to like 8,500rpm. I'm more than certain that spending the same money on a twin turbo kit would get you more power for less money, but it is also about what sort of character you want from the car as well as just the numbers. DB

Are the EP racing ones not just covers? I've seen a set before and they didn't look like full replacements but I could be wrong. If they're covers then you may not have to remove anything at all, so I'd wait and see. I've taken the sills off mine before, and whilst I can't remember exactly how I did it, I DIY'd it with no guide and I didn't break anything so it can't be that hard. DB

I think the procedure is on for 3secs, 5 times in 10secs, then out for 7secs then in for 10secs It should then start flashing the code, on a loop, so just video it for a few minutes then go write down the string of numbers and find what it's repeating. Most of the codes start 01 or 11 so that's what you should look for. Bear in mind there could be quite a few codes. DB

I'll let you know when I get the bill. I've also had a (suspected) failed bearing in my swapped CD009 It's being done at the moment, so I'll PM you when it's finished if you like. DB

Like that Has a bit of a Lambo feel to it but its not over the top. DB

Whilst they can now take you to court to recover costs, I also believe that they now have to prove that their charges are justified. They can't just say 'that'll be £100 please' in court because there's no way any magistrate will agree that this incident cost the operators anything close to that amount of money. At the implied rate of £6 per hour the OP would owe them £1.10. I suggest the OP offers them this in writing because I suspect they know that they'll never get £100 out of him if it goes to court (which I think should be avoided if possible). The phone call logs should prove that the OP had full intention of paying for the parking, but for various reasons was unable to and so left the car park never having parked or attempted to avoid paying. If you can prove that beyond reasonable doubt then you owe them £1.10 for the time you spent on their property (even that's dubious as you never used a parking space for its intended purpose) and nothing more. DB

Thanks Ian. As far as naming and shaming goes, I'd rather wait until the situation is resolved, however that happens. Everyone cocks up every now and again, and I think how they deal with their ****-ups often says more about a company that the mistake itself so we shall wait and see for now. DB

Thank you. Yes, close family member, and trying to participate in funeral arrangements by phone is not ideal. I fully take your point about getting deadlines, but this particular garage is pretty high profile and has a pretty outstanding reputation, and I would never have expected them to do anything like this, so I was fairly happy to leave them to it. Thanks for the replies people, I think I'll be going to get the car tomorrow and giving it to someone who actually values the work. DB

I would say I was shocked, but I've also experienced stunning levels of customer service muppetry from Admiral. I would have though this would be well worth reporting to the ombudsman, as they're basically straight up calling you a liar and telling you to do something completely impossible and unreasonable to prove to them that you're not. Cancel the policy and go with someone who employs humans instead of telephone-trained zombies. DB

My Zed is currently in at a garage for some work. The work itself is relatively complex and I'd expect it to take some time, but there's a bit of diagnostic work that comes before it that's more simple and should take less than a day. The garage need to call me after this diagnostic work to find out what I want to do about any fault that is found. My car originally went in to this garage on monday 1st october (a date that they suggested), with a loose deadline of 'later in the week' for the expected phone call. Come thursday 4th I hadn't heard anything, so thinking perhaps I'd given them the wrong phone number or something I rang them. I was told that work hadn't started yet and it would now be 'early next week' before I heard from them. It's now the 11th and I've still heard nothing from them. Given the nature of the work that needs doing before the phonecall I have to assume that they haven't even started yet. Am I right to be a bit put out that they've had my car for nine working days without doing anything to it with no explanation or even any contact from them, or should I stop whinging and accept this as normal practice? I'm strongly considering just going and getting the car back, because I'm having to travel a lot in the near future due to a family bereavement, and not having the car is really causing a lot of stress just when I don't need it. Any thoughts would be appreciated. DB

Doesn't need to be Zed parts Can I have further price enquiries via Pm please. As I do projects and work the costing out I will add them to a price list in the first post. DB

Dry carbon finish can be done as well to give people a rough idea, the piece above would be £250 (primarily because it's such an arse to do), with the gear surround/upper dash combo being £200. So £450 for the whole central cabin section. Door switch covers would be £50. To put it in perspective that's hundreds of pounds cheaper than the RSW kits (If you can get them) which don't include the centre console (I.E the biggest part) for something that doesn't look stuck-on.

Well, after a LOT of development, I'm pleased to say that I can now offer a carbon fibre skinning service that genuinely produces fantastic results! After trying the publicised DIY methods, and finding the methods and materials pretty lacking for anything other than simple shapes, I've spent some considerable time trialing different materials and working out a process that produces consistently good results. Such as this 350z centre console: This is a layer of real carbon fibre bonded onto the original part. Not vinyl, not hydrographics, real carbon fibre. When done right, this process adds so little extra thickness that there will be no fitting issues, even on close-fitting interior parts. I can now do this to almost anything, but will be sticking to cosmetic interior parts until I can do some more testing on how structural the extra layer of carbon is. In the near future I hope to be offering an exchange service on main interior parts, but for now this will work in the following way: PM me for a quote or to discuss options (payment will be in advance due to the custom nature of the service) Send me the pieces you want skinned I do the work, this will usually take between two and three weeks depending on the size/number of parts I send the parts back to you (postage included in price) My current supplier can provide red, blue and green coloured fabrics and silver fabric, and these options are available at no extra charge. I have another supplier who could provide a wider range of colours but this will be more expensive. I can also get hold of a very fine weave fabric that very closely imitates pre-preg, again this is more expensive. Modifications to the parts is also possible, so for example blanking off unused switches or creating space for new ones, no real limits on what can be changed prior to skinning! Remember this doesn't just have to be dash parts; it can be door sills, rear strut brace covers, switch covers, even whole door cards if you want. This service is ready to go now, so PM me for details if you are interested. DB Ps. can an Admin contact me re: member trader fees, I have PM'd but had no reply. Thanks.

The genuine Nismo spoiler is not carbon fibre, and as has been said the factory fitted kits fit perfectly and look properly OEM. The fibreglass means that the bumpers tend to split/crack rather than bend if you bump something so if it were genuine I'm not sure how the paint would have cracked without the bumper cracking too. I don't think that's a factory kit, or even a genuine Nismo one (replicas can be perfectly good, just don't get carried away because he says it's a 'genuine' factory kit). I'd say you'd need to be paying under 6K for a car that carries so many potential big bills. And seeing as he's asking 7 I doubt you'll get him down to that. DB PS. can someone more informed confirm my hunch that the factory Nismo cars came with a supplement in the handbook, or was that just the JDM Nismos?