brillomaster

this is the awful, awful driving by said green Ferrari a couple of years back... truly cringeworthy

marginal that the Bentley was at fault if you ask me - slightest touch at the rear while the car is accelerating is gonna make him swerve to the left - and the Bentley was in front when the contact happened. Very lucky the Bentley didn't also go head on into the barrier. I'd actually say its a racing incident, harsh that the Bentley was eventually disqualified for that IMO. And what happens after is just racing. its a very expensive game, don't start a race unless you're prepared to write off your car before the first corner! the blancpain series is always fun, there was a guy a while back in a lime green Ferrari 458 that basically went off the track at every turn as they had no idea how to drive the car!

I've only ever driven an MR layout once, let alone owned one. so yeah, would like to give it a go! boxster is certainly winning so far.

wasn't that impressed by combe... I suspect part of the problem is the beemer really doesn't like chicanes, and they're always an afterthought. and once you take out the chicanes, well, its a right, followed by a right, followed by a right, and so on... Oulton park gets away with artificial chicanes cos all the other corners are all excellent. give me fast and flowing circuit rather than a tight twisty one!

and I know I should do Anglesey, maybe i'll be a convert... but with a good half dozen tracks on my doorstep in the midlands, travelling all the way up to Anglesey is a long way. have you done croft? that's a surprisingly good circuit... very picturesque and the second half of the circuit from tower, through the esses and sunny in/sunny out is a really good sequence of corners. again, wish that was closer, needs a special trip for me to go that far north!

whaaaat! although slightly unrelated, its a really nice venue, the theatre of being inside the oval, good garages, excellent bacon butty to start the day. and once on track, you have a banked turn 1, which is pretty much unique in the UK, then attempt to get it stopped and turned in coming off the banking into the hairpin. And further round the pifpaf chicane good fun jumping the kerbs, and the long left at gracelands is good, really fast turn wanting to carry maximum speed. then get it stopped and turned into the hairpin at tarzan, which even an 8 yr old could get a nice slide on the exit. I always have an enjoyable day at rockingham, despite crashing there twice now

Yeah, but for the people who don't live in north wales, it has to be Donington Park. keeping it pinned through craner curves and then taking hefty kerbage through the old hairpin is epic. Even more so when the cars in front of you aren't going as fast as you think they are and you're applying a quarter turn of opposite lock just as the car goes light through craners. And a close second is cadwell park - sure its a little narrow, but its such a 3d circuit - the double apex right, down and up the dip, then the never ending right to take you round to the gooseneck, most excellent. top 5 for me are: 1. donington 2. cadwell park 3. oulton park 4. rockingham 5. snetterton still need to do spa, potentially next year i'll make the trip over there. Surprisingly nonplussed about doing the nurburgring though.

well, I think the Porsche I was thinking of would be a 986 boxster S of around 2000 vintage - which I read has far fewer problems - as long as I check the servicing is up to date. Something like this looks great value and fastidiously serviced. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201704194552905?postcode=cv339re&sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&make=PORSCHE&model=BOXSTER&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&maximum-mileage=70000&radius=1500&minimum-badge-engine-size=3.0&page=1 unfortunately elises are probably out my price range! surely boxster S prices can only go up, much like elises, TVRs and S2000s have all done? Kinda wish I'd have bought a chimaera a few years ago when they were £7k, now they're starting from £13k!

So, I've been zedless for a little while now, and while the 330d is great for the daily commute and long distance touring, I'm beginning to miss the excitement of noise and revs, so thinking of getting a second car for weekends. criteria are mainly under £10k, likely 2 seats, likely a convertible. must also sound good, and make decent power. The shortlist as I see it are: Porsche Boxster S (sounds glorious, plenty within budget, I've never owned a Porsche) BMW Z4 3.0 (sounds good, but heard questionable things about ride comfort and also it'll be quite similar to the other bmws I've had) Honda S2000 (perfect opposite to the 330d - so many revs! but 4 cylinder, and prices are creeping up) 350z convertible (I do miss the zed, but I fancy something else) am I missing anything? an mx5 is out as a) I've had one before and b ) they're too slow and don't sound great. An SLK is too old man. and I suspect an Elise/VX220 will be too Spartan, and not sound that great. it needs to be something the missus wouldn't mind sitting in. Am I missing anything? what would you buy given my situation?

yep thats my lunchtime reading sorted! thanks for posting!

good commitment! loving the black on white combo

Err, also, 32psi is far too low. the zed is a heavy beast. once the release agent has worn off, try the fronts at the recommended 35psi, and the rears slightly higher at 37psi. also, you'd need to do about 200 miles before id say a tyre is performing optimally. which id do at a slow steady pace!

buy a zed, you wont regret it. pros for me are: its a handsome coupe sounds awesome with a simple exhaust upgrade great to steer down a country road engine has bags of torque nice unstressed, simple engine - no turbo plumbing to worry about - petrol goes in, power comes out. get the GT pack with cruise control, leather seats and bose and its a very nice place for long distance cruising. cons are: an early DEdoes have a dated interior, complete with cassette deck check closely for rusty wheelarches traction control is quite simple, if it detects slip, it pretty much cuts all power. coming from a 1.2 clio it'll feel like the power steering is broken and the clutch needs replacing - they don't, the controls are just really heavy. the CD player will break and the electric windows may be tempermental. but for under 6 grand, you're getting a great car with loads of character. and don't worry about rwd handling, as long as you've got decent tyres and all the wheels are pointing in the right direction, its perfectly easy to keep it on the road.

well, it used to be that a cars handbrake handle simply connected an earth to turn on a dashlight warning that the handbrake was on... so id start by removing a bit of trim round the handbrake, and disconnecting that switch if there is one, see if that works? the video feed might be simply tapping into that?

i can vouch for the longevity of the Federal RS-Rs... my rears have managed a dozen trackdays on the beemer, and still have tread remaining! plus they're unstickable. If I was tracking a zed and didn't have a second set of wheels I'd be all over these, decent tyres are a must for track work.

Just a thought, are you running correct pressures of 35psi all round? Cos under inflation could cause the outer edges of the typetyres to wear.

only stopped the once... back when I'd been driving about a year, was just pootling around university campus late at night, when I was stopped by the plod. i had a hatchback, moderately loud exhaust and he thought i was speeding - pretty sure i wasn't, i was doing about 35 in a 40 zone... to be fair he was quite polite, turns out there had been a few incidents of foreign students either not looking or looking the wrong way when crossing the road and getting hit. i think he was looking for someone else. and that's been it! been caught for speeding once, late night at the M4/M5 junction an overhead gantry snapped me doing 85. volunteered to do the speed awareness course rather than put points on my clean license. but generally i wouldn't have much reason to be pulled over - i don't speed through 30 and 40 zones, only open it up on country roads or motorways. the M45 past Rugby is great, since it doesn't really go anywhere... frequently use that when travelling back from a trackday at Bedford.

Unlucky dude, say goodbye to your social life and your spare cash. Oh, you're talking about a car... in that case, congrats! you must be so proud!

is it not just missing the cap that normally hides the wheel nuts? PS a bigger picture would help...

nice.... wish I'd have filmed some of my laps from my last visit to rockingham in the pouring rain... fully sideways through yentwood, chapmans and gracelands, but having far too much fun to get any photographic evidence

hmm if you can drift an MR2 reliably you're a better driver than me! oulton is a middling track, need both power to get up the hills and handling to get through the chicanes, but donington is definitely a power track, albeit carrying as much speed as possible through the old hairpin and chicane.

well there she is, with Wendy behind the wheel I believe. Was a really good day, stayed dry all day which is a good start. Car was performing well, I think the main problems were the drivers... Bedford has a lot of long straights followed by big braking zones - easy to brake too early and then coast into the corner, or brake a bit late and miss the apex. Also, the hairpins definitely need a slow in, fast out approach, and a late turn in - apex early and you just run out of road on the exit. also the brakes were feeling a little weird in the morning - inconsistent pedal feel. did a precautionary pad change at lunch, to find the old pads still had material on - so might consider a fluid change (hasn't been done yet) and braided lines before the next trackday. by the end of the day I think we were both improving - after some scruffy laps just after lunch I think we got braking, turn in points and corner speed dialled in, and were carrying some good speed. Also using all of the road, and occasionally a bit more. Wendy even managed to get the back moving a bit, which is impressive given how much grip the rear tyres have. Very much looking forward to the next one, but not sure what it is yet!

wendy, you have PM

On another note, where are all the people on here who do trackdays! I do pretty one trackday a month in the beemer, usually on weekends, and I very rarely bump into anyone else on the forum who does trackdays! would love to see how cars compare. tell you what, it was mega satisfying reeling in a Porsche Cayman at Bedford the other week, despite a major power and handling deficit!

Kinda depends what you want from a track car as to what is best, and also the tracks you'll likely be driving at. if you want light, nimble and frequent smaller tighter tracks like cadwell park and blyton park, then I'd go mx5 or MR2. if you want a bit more straight line speed and drive more power circuits like donnington or snetterton, I'd go for some kind of beemer. personally I like a bit more power and a front engined, rwd chassis with a relatively long wheelbase for ease of driving, even in the wet. sure we're not so good through chicanes, but fast flowing stuff is great. but quite frankly, anything is entertaining when driven on a track... even the worst handling fwd POS can be made to rotate with aggressive use of the steering and brakes.