Benedunn

Mines freeeee! (well i say free, i didnt have to give them any money when i added the zed to my insurance - said insurance is a fortune mind haha ... but then again im paying that anyway so free it is)

thinking about it mind mate you may be getting me mixed up with hadlowj there? he was the 1 that was buying the broken 1's we started about the same time and still work closely together mind so an easy mistake make if youve not been around a while do you ever miss the 8? out of curiosity

Cheers for all the welcome messages guys @sam - your not kidding the zed is a very easy drive compared to the rx8, never in the wrong gear and feels very 'planted' all the time as a car to drive i love it! i love having the roof down, i love the raw noise you get from the V6 and i love the way it gets oggled as a drivers car though i have to admit the rex wins its more involved and generally less easy going but when you do get it right she repays you in the bucket loads. i think, had i sold the rex to get the zed there would be times when i missed it and times when i didnt ... i guess im lucky i get to have both! Anyone whose never had the pleasure of owning a rex really should get 1 ... they make no sense at all until you get to drive 1 for a while @azcry - good to 'see you' again mate how are ya a lots changed since back then ... nearly 100 engines later The forums not the same anymore either. though there are still a lot of active members its just not the same the price of the car is a lot to blame - ive seen good healthy examples (all be it needing coils and a little tlc) sell for as little as £1200 recently ... which is really mad since you still pay £1000 for broken 1 lol

I have a weird story like that! Im a rational kind of chap, i dont believe in ghosts or heaven or any of that nonsense But i did have an experience that will stay with me the rest of my life that i cannot come up with any realistic excuse for About 3 years ago i was seeing a girl that lived in a house in the centre of bath, i drove down every other weekend to see her and shed come up the others. The house (like most the houses in bath) was extremely old. So one evening getting ready to go out i went into the bathroom, locked the door and had a shower, after the shower i got dried and put on a pair of boxer shorts ... nothing else. Then i began brushing my teeth. so stood brushing my teeth something touched me at the top of my leg/ arse, it wasnt a stroke or rub past it was a very distinct touch ... so convincing that without even a thought i turned around and smiled at what i genuinely expected to be Vicky (girlfriend at the time). Quickly i realised that obviously the door was shut and locked from my side and theres no way she could get in ... duh! the window was also shut tight and all i was wearing was the boxer shorts ... nothing else was even close to me other than the sink which i was stood in front of The ONLY plausible explanation i could possibly conjure up was that there was a crease in my boxer shorts that unfolded and gave me the sensation of someone touching me! But, as much as every part of me wants to accept that as the explanation ... the feeling of a crease unfolding wouldn't linger, wouldn't be so prominent and wouldnt induce a reaction I mean eh? Still dont want to believe in a mad concept like ghosts .... but i have been left wondering My brothers a Royal Marine Commando ... hes got some pretty nuts ghost stories told from experiences

Sorry buddy, I meant a relatively soft sidewall compared to the RE040's As I say very a good compromise! As a road tyre they are brilliant, generally get good wear out of them too but when the going gets really tuff there are much better options. There expensive too :-/ You really do sacrifice a bit of dry grip for wet grip with them over the re040's ... Try it you'll see ;-) Still swear by the Vred's! Cheaper better dry performance than the 40's and wet performance than the 50's (Note that my experience is all in a car they weights 250kg less than the 350z but will put the tyres under a lot more strain in the corners so I guess I could be wrong or more right :-/ )

The RE050's have a relatively soft side wall, they are a good compromise between dry performance and wet performance. A very popular choice for people that dont have jap sports cars that came on RE040's and dont like the twitchyness of them in the wet. RE050's are more of a saloon car tyre - expected to be found on the likes of a 5 series BMW - a good compromise but not ideal ... and quite expensive too (sorry to barge in on the tyre thread guys ... im a true tyre geek haha)

VREDS!!!! a ken track dayer the vreds are IMO the ultimate in road tyres with good all round grip ... switched to them from the 452's (didnt like how they held) and from the re050's before that and the re040's before that! the vreds whilst been extremely grippy in the dry offer better wet grip than any competitor that ive had the pleasure of trying! the only other tyres id use are Federal RSR 595's (semi slicks) available for a competitive price and outmatched only by the Toyo proxxy 888's - though at £200+ each i think they are a none contender ... neither are any good in the wet ... at all! i take a set on a spare set of rims to the track incase it is dry otherwise the vreds stay on For the money the Vreds are unequalled IMO. I swear by them as do many of my customers! Ben

dammit you got me no that i dont .... that said we do only charge for 20 hours for a full rebuild, thats out, stripped down, cleaned, rebuilt and refit so not that much of a crook

so what will you do when you get a private plate and want to put it on a car :-( just ordered my trade plates ... gonna take 8 weeks to get them wtf

haha on a serious note, try loosening the other 3 bolts and see if you can move the seat into place then. if youve tryed that then i guess adie grinder (or file if you dont have 1) would do Ben

thats cool removing engine is what we do ... as they say practice makes perfect! it used to take me 2 days to take an rx8 engine out in the garage at home ... now with the workshop and proper tools we can (no joke) take 1 out from driving in in just 45 mins zed engines watch out

i saw this for sale on ebay when i was looking! extremely nice car and had i not wanted a convertible i would have phoned you! i did want a black 1! but convertible first ... who knows i might just want a hard top later on in the year mind! Anyway, the reason for this post! i have to say the for sale write up is excellent and for no other reason than i enjoyed the read did i immediately want to buy this car Go on you mate! Ben

cheers buddy your a star got to love forum based traders!!!

good idea :-) i did just do it now so its not like ive been waiting for it or anything im sure it went through fine!

i like the sound of that! Thank you so much for the very good reply too! youve helped a treat 1 last noob question - coming from rotors i have no experience with a hefty v block .... whats the benefit of the true dual systems? Ben

bought and payed for through paypal ... could you confirm everything went through please? it was all a bit confusing as i had to click go forward a million times or so cheers Ben

oooo i love NA engine mods :teeth:

PM sent cheers mate! ill just buy some springs to put me on till after sunday then looking forward to getting the spacer

i am doing ... this sunday ;-) carnt wait to meet you all! Ben

I have no doubt this that gets asked over and over again and im very sorry to all you lot that have been around a while Im mulling over exhausts .... as all new owners do i guess but im struggling badly with the options Anyone who saw my hello thread knows i fix and mod rx8's for a living so i have a lot of experience with most jap performance exhaust brands from £180 toyosports (japspeed) right through to the £1200 HKS systems (i have 1 ) so this is where im stuck - i have my favourite exhausts for the rx8 - that doesnt mean im gonna like the same brands for the 350z but im really picky this is where id like your help! now with the 8 i like the exhaust noise to be loud but not over powering ... BUT you also want a full stainless system ... which is difficult! and in the end i had to settle for monster intake and exhaust ports, headers, stock cat and racing beat on 1 car (subtle low down but opens right up at about 6000 - 9500 rpm) and the hks on the other (cawwww i love it! sounds like a formular 1 car ) - i hate that when under the car the stock cat looks ugly as. anyway so on the 8 toyo (japspeed) -cheap, nice noise, horrible fit, common as muck and generally to be avoided where possible - but not bad for the money cobra - would genuinly prefer the toyo - the cobra back box doesnt have nearly enough baffles in it, drones and is like a jigsaw puzzle to fit - no fun at all! japspeed - still no better than the toyo for sound but a better fit - not bad racing beat - at 700 quid its getting expensive but very well made and subtle unless you want it to be loud - de-cat ruins it completely and makes it sound a hell of a lot like the toyo - Ok for someone a bit older with good taste and angry neighbours Miltek - at near £800 retail shes crazy expensive BUT one of the best put together systems ive ever had the pleasure of working with, sounds amazing when the rest of system is stock - as soon as you decat the miltek it sets off car alarms and makes small children in Uganda cry, a bit of an oversight IMO since you wont be allowed on any UK track with it Greddy - £900 - too expensive HKS legamax - at £1200 its still worth every penny (but them im bias) etc etc etc what about with the zed though? ive seen the Miltek's for sale and i like the look of them but are they as overpowering as they are on the 8 with a full system? im really tempted to just go the full slog and get a plenum spacer, headers, y pipe and back box all right now .... long term id like a cossy plenum (zmanalax did a deal on them £650 or so - reccon thatll evr come back?) so together will this work? and how loud is it gonna be (note: i know you ideally need to take the engine out for the headers ;-) ) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NISSAN-350Z-EXHAUST-MANIFOLD-DECAT-DE-CAT-PIPE-PIPES-/270412222723?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3ef5d31103 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-350Z-3-5-V6-2003-MILLTEK-EXHAUST-CATBACK-/271039145521?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3f1b312631 or would a full dual system be better? anyone recommend a decent plenum spacer? preferably bought from a UK company? (keep it British and all that) hope you can help! Ben (sorry for all the rx8 blabbering its all i know just at the min, ill catch up quit enough i promise )

I told you get yours trimmed in red and ill swap you + some money your way

cheers for the warm welcome guys!!! Ill be starting modding in the not too distant future first things first though. The car does need a bit of TLC so ive ordered everything from oil to aux belts and plugs for a major overall service. Once that's done i think the next port of call is going to have to be the clicky UJ's, ive done a bit of reading and there seems to be a couple of fix's like re-greasing, 180 turn and replace for new ... i do like new so quick question if you all don't mind, where can i buy some new ones? all the links to them seem to be broken on old posts. are there any after market upgrades available that fix the issue permanently or is there no real benefit to replacing them altogether until you've turned them around and they start clicking again later on? as soon as ive sorted the clicking id like to change the clutch. i really dont like the 1 in there at the min - its past its best and doesnt bite at all like id want it to! its my understanding that they are dual mass ... are the solid flywheel clutch conversions something people do or do they cause the car to shudder badly? (id love a nice stage 2 and light fly for it ) Then we can get onto the fun stuff ... im thinking Miltek but not sure since i havnt heard any other exhausts yet. i know the miltek is an amazing system, the zorsts they make for the 8's are incredible quality but lack in finesse, very loud and to be honest you can get the same unmuffled noise for a lot less money! so what they like on the zed? i love the standard noise and would really like to just enhance that with the odd pop here and there (i have a HKS legamax for 1 8 and a RacingBeat for the other - the HKS is absolutely incredible!) cheers in advance! sorry for all the questions Ben

bought her her new reg today :-D X6ENS - to go with the rx-8's plates X3ENS supposed to say BENS btw Ben

and the new Zed dont have many pictures of her ... yet these 2 shes blending in nicely at work youll have to excuse the quality of the pictures, the camera on the iphone 5 is good but struggles with oil and slime :-( Ben

think ive sussed it this is my original 8, still got her but shes getting old now :-( the new 1 is a full resto project despite, that is, she has only done 33,000 miles