brillomaster

not sure what the awkwardness is... the E55 has 200bhp more than a zed, and twice the torque figure... towing a little ride on lawnmower is hardly going to slow it down. What would be interesting to see which is faster, a 350z, or an E55 towing a 350z on a trailer?

just gone for redstuff fronts on mine, no squeak at cold, seems to have a decent pedal feel.

quite a few sessioned trackdays at Croft circuit, not too many cars out on track at once. Javelin trackdays is the organiser, website here: http://www.javelintrackdays.co.uk/trackday/index.php next one is on sunday 22nd June, get your name signed on!

hmmm, july... we don't have anything for july... Bedford GT in May, Cadwell and Rockingham in June, Blyton and Bedford again in August! might be tempted to come down to Keevil for the day on 21st July... although its a very straightforward track layout normally, only got 6 corners. How about Abingdon on Friday 18th July? haven't done that one before and is supposed to be a more engaging track.

oh if you want to learn to drift only (with no track driving) then probably best to buy an old E36 BMW and weld the diff. pick up a nasty high miler off ebay for a few hundred quid, few hours labour to weld the diff and away you go.

agree with ekona, track driving and drifting are worlds apart - most trackdays will black flag you for drifting, even little ones. plus also, when you start you'll be spinning a lot, not something you'll want to do on a trackday.my advice is get down to santa pod on a DWYB day - don't worry too much about tyres as there are drift tyres available along with fitting for £10 a tyre if I remember correctly. Start out by doing donuts and figure of eights in the playpens, then when you're feeling a bit more confident move onto the kidney track. a zed would make a good drift car, lots of grunt, FR layout, LSD. drifting is very hard on clutches and gearboxes, so these might need replacing. Also watch engine cooling... bouncing off the redline while getting no air through the radiator does tend to overheat things.

good work from Red Bull! solid third place for Ricciardo, great result for him, and Vettel moving from 15th to 4th is probably drive of the year so far. Still miles away from the Mercedes, but definitely a move in the right direction. Glad Hamilton held on for the win, don't seem to get along with Rosberg. Maybe next race they should put Hamilton on the prime tyre first, give him a chance to play catch up in the final stages of the race.

you need a cobra resonated exhaust from CS, sounds lovely, no drone at cruising but opens up over 3500rpm to a gorgeous growl. Best ~£440 you'll spend on the car.

been driving 6 years, 3 of which in cars with >250bhp, so far none

Mod it, but keep all the bits as it WILL be worth more standard if you come to sell it. Apart from exhaust and stubby, nobody wants those standard!

hmm this is awkward... the first thing i thought of when i read 'best sounding engine' doesnt fit in any of those categories since its a rotary engine from a Mazda 787b

I strongly suspect 40 profiles will be better, maybe even 35s as they're so wide. maybe 255/35/18 front, 275/35/18 rear? And that'll still have some stretch, 11" is wiiiide!

Not a fan myself, sorry! furthest i'd go would be a gloss black roof, but not the pillars and boot. Also keep the spoiler on, zeds with no spoilers on makes a fairly large rear look even larger in my opinion, needs a spoiler to break up the lines.

wow seems i'm definitely in the minority lol had my zed 2 years and 3 months now, so far only extras I've bought were a stubby for £8 and an exhaust for £425, but that was because the old one started blowing, so it needed doing. Other that that, its been a P1 and P2 service ~£300, 4 new midrange tyres ~£450(Hankooks and Falkens) and then a few months ago the original 11 year old front discs needed replacing, along with new redstuff pads ~£300 fitted. next up will be some new rears (£280 fitted) but then after that theres very little else I want to do, other than drive it!

without cats.. not a lot! maybe 10-15 hp? with cats, maybe 10hp more. an uprev isn't really a power mod, more a driveability mod.

plenum spacer, better flowing panel filter and high flow cats. can do y pipe also but not essential, the cats and spacer will make the biggest impact.

hmmm uprev you say... might be interested, the weird throttle response in 1st and 2nd particularly is beginning to irritate!

good spot! which one was faster, surely the zed can get past a 330d was it?

In my opinion and experience from tracking a BMW, i'd say the order in which to upgrade things are: Brake pads, High temp fluid, Braided brake lines and then discs. Overheated pads is a horrible feeling, pedal is still firm, but no braking effect. Next up is boiled fluid - pedal travel goes really long, with no braking effect. if you're only tracking occasionally id say pads and fluid should do it, we've done just that with our beemer 10 track days ago and haven't felt the need to do anything more yet. We get through pads a bit quickly for my liking, but then again the pads are only cheap (EBC Yellowstuff) and discs are dirt cheap, (£24 each) so not really an issue. brake longevity is helped massively by being sympathetic to the brakes - only do 5-6 laps before coming in and letting the car cool down for 10 minutes - and the last full lap on track should be a cool down lap, with braking reduced to maybe 20% of maximum.

hmm, an 04 with that mileage, non GT, i'd say £5.5k - £6k for a good one.

whaaaat?!? thing I don't get, how is a pig different to a sheep or a cow, or a goat or a horse for that matter. if its got four legs and prances around in fields, its fair game to eat in my opinion! that said, if Muslims are unwilling to eat tasty tasty delicious bacon, all the more for me! Mmmmmm bacon...

In a word, awesome. took the beemer a few months back and had a really good time, some really good corners that make you think - theres a slight left into a tight right at the end of the back straight thats tricky, and then a long right that leads immediately into a tight left, easy to get out of shape as you're trying to corner and brake at the same time!

cobra res will be fine on the motorway... i've got one on mine, just driven leeds to coventry at cruise controlled 80mph, girlfriend happily nodding off in the passenger seat. Tres relaxing, the tyre noise is a lot more intrusive (but find some decent smooth tarmac and even thats whisper quiet!)

Great races so far, some great battles. Looking forward to race three hopefully Andy Jordan can make moves!