Kieran O'Quick

Yes, cruise around a bit to let them cool. Then park-up in gear. It's generally recommended to do that on trackdays too. Also, cooling down on the move is better than parking and cooling because that can actually boil your fluid and make it worse - (hot components near brake hoses with no air passing around).

Costco are worth a look aren't they?

Eh, generally not good form to put the handbrake on when the brakes are hot... ... can cause pad transfer. Leading to brake judder.

Yeah, exactly. I brake in gear against the throttle and drive a few hundred yards to warm things up before sprints. Throttle doesn't die. Is there a rev point where it stops?

Other day on the outside lane of two-lane motorway I got stuck behind someone in a Fiat 500 doing 35mph and weaving. I thought I was a cynical twot but it turns out I'm the only Christian motorist in these parts. I sat behind him for a bit to see what was going on, gave him some room etc. Everybody else judged him as an impediment (not a human-being) and barrelled up the inside lane like a big 70mph train. So he's totally trapped now. How's it going to get better from there? FFS, he's obviously got something going wrong - he's in limp-home mode, broken gearbox perhaps... there was a really low sun ahead - maybe he'd run out of wiper fluid. So I dived to the left and tapped on the brakes to warn the left lane. Slowed to his speed and held them up. Flashed the guy and he gratefully headed to the hard shoulder. But it turned into 3 lanes just at that point so the knob behind me in a Freelander whipped up the inside, gestured at me and sped off... He got some twos but that was about it... couldn't be bothered.

This one has been up for sale for a year - wonder if they're taking offers? http://www.ktgreen-subaru.co.uk/used-cars/5295615-subaru-brz-i-se/

Please make the trip up to Harewood this year (Britain's longhest hillclimb ). We've got a 2wd class now and they've just voted to go to List 1b tyres too. On that basis they've moved the bogey time by 3% so the target is 62.5 seconds. I did 67.7 in a boggo Z on 1a tyres so there's 5 seconds to find. What you reckon? It sounds like a lot to me. Doable?

You're right Stru, you'll be fine if you drive with a bit of sense. Where and how the hell are people driving that stress their tyres? Who throws it in to a T-Junction? Who pushes out of a roundabout? Who needs to get to work/home/the shops - a few tenths quicker than the other guy? Assholes? Seriously, I don't get it. Roads are for moving around carefully on, well within your limits. Go to a track for fun. Sheesh. (unless there's no-body around ..)

Don't be too harsh on yourself - it's easy to get caught out, even with the TC left on. I was crossing a motorway bridge the other morning (icy, D'oh!) and had a brown trousers moment... Get yourself to a trackday at Blyton Park. Javelin Track Days run a good event there. If you can go mid-week they're often quiet. It's tight enough in terms of a defined track to make you concentrate - but there is lots of run-off and nothing much to hit. (I saw a guy in a GT3 RS go a few hundred yards into the field once with the instructor on board ) The thing with a trackday is to build gradually. Push a little bit to start with and experiment as the day goes on. Generally speaking, if you don't arse about near other cars you can get a lot of angle with no admonitions. And if you hang around till 4pm when everyone is packing up to go home you can take a few liberties on what is virtually a private track.

I loved episode 2.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-freezer-spray-400ml-n68an

Good info on the tyres there, thanks. As for the ARB, you're right, an experienced hill-climber did mention that to me. He reckoned just dis-connecting the droplinks was the way to go. Have to say, I haven't tried it. The problem is there are so many mods you can do to get competitive and chase times. But it all comes to nowt if someone enters against you with a huge spend. I'm trying to be really disciplined with the goal-setting and not worry too much about others. Sounds a bit defeatist but at the end of the day the Zed is probably (ok definitely) the wrong car in the first place. It's just fun getting it out there and giving it some. A well-developed SC Zed would be very competitive however...

Just looked at the price of them - I may choose to believe and join the Nankang converts. Interesting stuff, ta.

All very good points gents. The car had a track alignment done a couple of years ago so that probably needs a refresh. I did all last year on MPSS standard sizes. Mucked about with dropping pressures throughout the day which definitely helped. I was all set to get a diff to improve things next year but they're changing the regs to allow stickier tyres next year. But as Docwra says it's going to be hard to get an extreme track tyre warm. No blankets allowed. They used to allow burn-outs before the line but they were banned last year. My PB launch time was done when burnouts were allowed - never got within 0.15 of it all last year Well one way or other, I'll be at least able to gather some real world data...

Interesting, ta. My hunch was along those lines. It seems to make a lot of sense. Our cars are obviously overpowered - why else would they come with traction control as standard? So grip is the biggest issue. It's probably the way with most performance road cars. I've been competing all year against a guy in one of those V8 M3s and it's silly how little grip either of us has - especially him, even with a good chassis though.

Just a performance question really. I'm doing Hill Climbing on a Clubman's budget. On a twisty track, lots of second gear exits. The Zed spins up road tyres pretty easily and that asks questions of the standard diff. Which by now is usually (as in my case) an open one. What I'm wondering is, would trackday tyres lessen this effect? And to what degree? As in, MPSS with a crap diff would do a certain time. With a good diff they'd do a better time. But would good trackday (List 1B) tyres beat that time even with a bad diff? And is a good diff even necessary if you have surplus grip? What's the best way to spend a grand given this choice?

You can nearly trip over the front of that car - always been a beaut. That's probably why they never got cheap.. Did they ever go for less than 15k?

Got my set today - spot on.

Nobody put a Saab on their list? NSX in white Toyota 2000GT with a lady chauffeur 200sx S14 in the worst colour Lancia Thema V8 500SL - from the 90s with the pop-up roll bar FWD Elan just to be awkward Any Ginetta - hipster points? A Porsche - whatever their best is, let them choose A VW - Ogier's Senna's McLaren You didn't put in any rules against race cars. Too late, I got 'em now - YES

...and it's great for getting chewing gum out of carpets too.

Well, add on the price of a S/H coil so maybe £46.

If you want to identify the hot failing coil then get a can of freezer spray and keep it in the car. When you get the intermittent hot mis-fire you can jump out and spray the tops of the coils in turn. Honestly it's like magic. When you hit the bad coil the engine runs silkily - for a bit, till it heats up again and starts banging. Give it another spray, it goes all smooth again. There's your culprit. £6 fix.

How the hell do MPSS handle 720 bhp? Is that down to the ability of the car? Or the driver?

Aw sh*t. That P0300 is a fairly useless code. I've had it it for what turned out to be a collapsed cat. It also came up for intermittent coil failure. Good luck.

Ah, sorry. I fixed an intermittent one that was driving me mad recently but can't help with a constant. How did you check your coils?