Mondo 300

How many times do we see accidents when cars accelerate too hard on poor tyres, bad conditions etc. and simply over do it lose grip, lose control. Also people crossing the road but the car is up the road and puts its foot down much quicker than a normal car, cars pulling out of side turnings, people having accidents doing the grand prix off the lights trying to beat someone else. All acceleration issues. Just make all cars accelerate the same slower conservative speed, have the same top speed to abide by the rules using GPS location tracking restricting the engines, and just keep going - I mean why would you not want this? It will save lives after all...

Coming back from Spalding yesterday, I joined the A1 Northbound where it changes from the M1 - just before Junction 44, I believe.

About 5.20pm, so a reasonable amount of traffic. And that area is notorious for slowing everyone down as people swap lanes and join the network.

Cue the guy behind me in his BMW Whatever, who joins the road at speed with no indication whatsoever and proceeds to fish-tail his car almost completely sideways in his haste to get into the outside lane!

As I said, the traffic was reasonably plentiful at the time so he caused a lot of other drivers to slam their brakes on, whilst he's drifting his way across the motorway!

Absolutely can't stand idiots who drive like that!

I was previously a civil servant, with all the benefits that it entailed.

Decided to go full-time as an upholsterer just over 2 years ago (partly for health reasons) which was a BIG leap of faith on my part, but I'm now booked up for the next 18 months in one form or another so I guess I must be doing something right!

Is now a good time to mention that I used to work in Tax Fraud Investigation for HMRC...?

Anyway, haven't we already had a bit of a saga about rear window louvres manufactured here in the UK? I seem to remember that there was a considerable amount of R&D involved before anything even went into production.

Also the poster seems to be forgetting that there will be man hours involved in creating these things - he didn't factor that into his "greed" calculations at all.

I've not watched the vid, but I assume that's Ians car Si?

You assume correctly, mate

My mate's car, that one

I'd assume Falcon Performance in Middlesbrough.

I do log back in to the forum now and again and saw a guy start buying up cars in Japan and importing them over for an immediate sale, he was putting prices on them of £6k-£7k and upwards which drove up prices also. Given there are usually no more than 10 for sale in the UK at any one time it had an impact on prices I think. I am still tempted by one, but do enjoy my 4WD agile rally car, I do though like the idea of climbing back into a 2 seater...

You're referring to Gazwoz. He's definitely brought some cracking examples into the UK recently, but only if you want an automatic. I'm assuming that a TT manual would be around £11k - £13k imported and I don't think he expects many people to be prepared to drop that sort of money on one...

Before I bought my old SS-III Beams, I was determined to get a GT-Four. I just couldn't find one within my price range at the time. I still love them, but I've grown rather fond of having turbos at my disposal and having open-top motoring at the same time...

Really wanted a 300zx before I got the Celica, but so many are owned by people who paint over the rust and hope you don't notice, some shocking cars I went to view, this one looks stunning though.

I had some serious reservations as to whether my Zed was up to the required standard to be on display at the NEC. Yes, it won an award for Best Interior, but that didn't automatically mean that the exterior was up to scratch...

But she didn't look out of place whatsoever there. She shined up nicely and really stood out. But then she did have some rot cut out and replaced earlier this year, then the whole underside was thoroughly cleaned and sealed. So she's completely solid now.

A lot of the rotboxes have now either been broken for parts or have simply dissolved now, so the only examples that are left are decent (at least) and ones that have been well looked after. I think that's a large contributing factor as to why the prices are now on the rise

Really nice Z car that. Preffered it with the diablos though.

I liked the Diablos too - I didn't think they spoiled the look or anything like that. I love the CC-Fs though, and I've honestly lost count of how many people (at shows, on the street or even people just coming to the house) have said something along the lines of "Those wheels are perfect!"

Just caught up with this. Think the seats look spot on, ...not too OTT.

They're embellished enough to really stand out and to be obviously different to Recaro's original design, but still subtle enough to blend in with the overall look and finish of the car.

That's my opinion, anyway

There's some hours gone into it, I know that much! It was a bit of a mad dash to the finish to get it all ready in time for the show.

Thanks for the appreciative comments, guys

PC building is another of my many hobbies. Overclockers used to be a regular haunt for me and they build some great systems, but their parts can be expensive. If you know what you want and shop around it can be done quite cheaply. I though I would share pictures of my latest build using the following.

 

Thermaltake Core P5 - powder coated white with custom decals.

Intel 6700k processor

MSI Z170A Gaming Motherboard

32Gb Vengence memory

2x MSI GTX980ti

3x 500gb Intel SSD drives

950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe SSD

Samsung blu ray drive

 

EK waterblocks for motherboard, processor, memory and GPU's with a 480mm Monster rad, TT fans and Mayhems 16mm glass tubing. I still need to sort out my wiring.

 

 

Holy good God... you've actually built a small nuclear power station and put it in your cave...

You are Tony Stark and I claim my £5!!

Time to give this a little bit of an update!

My humble old Datsun was recently on display at the huge classic show at the NEC, and that gave me a problem to sort out: the interior.

Yes, it won "Best Interior" at our AGM earlier this year and yes, it was all very pretty and eye-catching BUT... I knew there were some parts of the seats that I wasn't happy with and I wasn't actually happy with the overall design...

So I had to start planning. I wanted to keep the period-correct Recaro Speed seats but I wanted to update the design a little bit. Make them a little more "showy" without going too OTT with them. Considering that this car is kind of a mobile showcase for what I do, I had to come up with something that would reflect my current "abilities"...

Not too radical a departure from the previous trim - still using exactly the same materials - but updated enough to make quite a large difference to the look.

I built the new covers from scratch (as you'd expect) and adding the Alcantara inserts on the inner bolsters has helped to make the transition from that to the leather a little less blunt.

All the topstitching and embroidery has been changed to silver from the original design's dark grey, and I think this really "pops" against the dark red leather. I've purposely avoided using silver thread on the Alcantara, so the only visible stitching on it (the vertical seams in the seat centres) blends in and keeps the look very subtle.

I've also trimmed the three trim pieces behind the seats to match the new design, so there's now a reasonably seamless transition from the central T-piece to the armrest in front of it.

I'm much happier with this design than I was with the previous one. I think it looks striking without being too "in your face." The car gots lots and lots of attention at the NEC and yes, a large proportion of that was people admiring the cabin. I had some pretty serious doubts about whether my Zed was of a suitable standard to be on display at such an event but she scrubbed up really well!

2017's plans include a brand new wiring loom, a new clutch and flywheel, a new engine bay, new brakes front and rear and, hopefully, a new rear spoiler. I love it to bits, but this car just makes me bleed cash....

My $0.02...

I think a black handbrake would look a little odd if the gear gaiter stays in orange. Both in one colour or the other would be my recommendation.

As for the wheel... I've always thought that having only the South section coloured (never mind perforated!) was an odd choice for Nissan to make. If it was down to me, I'd do the North and South sections in the orange leather and use perforated black for the East and West. Finish it all off with orange stitching and we're onto a winner

If that was the case, then I think a black handbrake and gear gaiter (both with orange stitching) would tie them nicely to the wheel. Especially seeing as the gearknob itself is orange, to match the upper and lower parts of the wheel.

Yeah, interior design is kinda my thing....

It's absolutely positively definitely the same colour as the gaiter and the seats, Dan.

I'm prepared to stake your reputation on that...

The gearknob looks the exact same colour to me. Are sure you don't mean the handbrake (which I haven't trimmed for him yet)...?

You know I've trimmed the gearknob, right...?

They look even better now they're back in their rightful place, Andy!

I once had the gearstick in an old Fiat Uno snap on me.

Late at night... on the moors... with a "lady friend" in the car... and looooong before the advent of mobile phones too...

That fairly killed any passion that was building, let me tell ya!

I am indeed! weather permitting these are getting fitted tomorrow, pics to follow... Thanks again mate these look amazing...!

You're very welcome, Andy Glad you're happy with your new orange seats and bits

All collected now and on their way back home. He seemed like a happy man when he saw his retrimmed parts...

Any advice on the best way to send them?

Seats and doorcards together are probably best shipped on a pallet. The ideal is to have the entire car here, but then you have the logistics and cost of things like train or airline tickets.

First Class Si ... What a TRANSFORMATION ... B) B)

Now imagine how good yours are going to look early on next year!

Whats the best way to send seats and door cards to you? Is there a courier you use?

It honestly depends on whether everything was coming in boxes, or on a pallet.

nice work! what would something like this cost as im weighing up having mine done at some point

A pair of seats is around the £650 mark

I'm looking forward to seeing Andy's reaction tomorrow as the transformation is pretty striking!

Matching steering wheel and gearknob/gaiter?

Yes, but someone else is doing the steering wheel. Andy wants one of those reprofiled ones... that looks like it's melted in a fire or something... I'm providing a section of leather so that the wheel matches everything else.

Seats all finished. I've taken these in what's left of the natural light so there's a better idea of the colour Excuse the positioning of the driver's seat - that was how it was delivered to me and (of course) I don't have a suitable power source to change the recline... that made fitting the new cover a little tricky...

Just the gearknob to do and everything's ready for collection tomorrow

^^^ I have no idea what that means...