G1en

Welcome along 

Stick me provisional down for this Rob. Enjoyed it last year. 

I would say your decision boils down to what you want the car to be to you. As someone who is more performance minded than asthetics I would blow your money on the best tyres. They are the single most “performance” upgrade you can do for the money. If you care more looks or functionality and don’t intend to stretch the car than get the cheaper tyres and whatever else you have your eye on. 

 from me too

No idea on the pic but welcome 

Welcome along

Any before and after pics?

Welcome along 

Excellent stuff, braver man than me but i’m sure it will be very satisfying once completed. 

Any room for a slightly battle scarred Zed this year? 

If you have a standard car its just a case of making sure all your fluid/oil levels are topped up and take a litre of oil/coolant/brake fluid if you have them. Check your pads have plenty of meat on them and check your tyres for any damage before you set off, also check your treads and make sure pressures are all the same. If you havnt checked for ages you may have 1 wheel at 27psi and the opposite at 37psi which will catch you out on track. Its 35psi on standard wheels/tyres nissan spec so i would start out at 33 all around then come in after a few laps when warmed up and adjust accordingly if needed. Different size wheels and tyres may need other pressures, check if needed. Again take a tyre inflator and pressure gauge with you. Always best to take a proper jack and wheel/torque wrench with you in case you come off or need to inspect underneath etc but there will be plenty of others that will help with assistance or tools if required. Finally, its best to have a warm up lap and cool down lap at around 50-70% to A- get engine, brakes and tyres upto temp and B- help everything cool down before coming off track. 

And enjoy yourself. 

Welcome, great machine 

Welcome 

snap with mine for the colour and diff. 

I would rather take it to @Jez @ H-Dev than trust a local garage to be honest. Always used Mitz (cougarstore) but his lift is broke and he cant get lowered cars on his other lift so have to travel. The problem with your standard garages is they dont know what your asking for. When the clutch fluid boiled before and i got it back to a local garage i asked for the RBF660 stuff and showed him it on demontweeks. He rung his two suppliers who had never heard of it or knew what it was so then said he could only change it with the bog standard stuff he had in stock which is obviously no good for my use. 

I had mpss 245/40 and 275/40 on my 8.5 & 9.5 staggered wheels, probably best widths for your wheels, the 40 profile on rear did look a little baloony but nothing too severe, what shocked me more was the extra weight of the wheel and tyre. 35 profile on rear like you say is much more standard sizing and will look better but may cause some issues with the TCS. 

So its a compromise im afraid. 

The brake pad options will be brembo or non brembo (as in what calipers are on the car) if its a uk model you will have the brembo brakes, imports could have either. 

Well, new year, new update. Fair amount to catch up on but always forget to capture photos when I should do, anyway, here goes:

At the end of September/beginning of October, can't remember exactly, Harewood had its final round of the hillclimb championship. I arrived looking to get into the 64's again and after 3 timed runs my best was a few hundredths shy. The start was the big holdback, seeing me lose half a second on previous times by sector 2, I did manage to claw back around 3 tenths on the rest of the run as the -2 camber on the rear and slight toe out helped with cornering but just didn't make up for the time lost on the start line. I can see why on circuit racing the bigger cambers help but on sprints/hillclimbs there is so much time to be gained or lost from the start I am gonna have to go back to neutral toe or slightly toe in and -1 camber or even -0.5 as when the power is put down the rear squats down as well making any camber even greater. Also I always changed up gear into 3rd one particular corner as I tried 2nd at the practice day and ended up squirming/drifting out of the corner (but that was on road tyres) with nothing to lose on the last run of the day, I tried leaving it in second, powering out and gained 3 tenths on that segment compared to any previous attempt so definitely another banker for next/this year provided its dry that is.

Anyway, final results saw me comfortably take second again with @Kieran O'Quick taking the win again with a phonominal time in the 63's now he had fully got to grips with the supercharger upgrade and pushing right upto the limit.

I then decided to buy a set of rays to put some wet weather tyres on ready for 2019 in case we encounter another downpour at an event as not only is it no fun in slicks but its bordering on stupidly dangerous, so thanks to @ZMANALEX I purchased a set of 4 rears in order to have a square setup and make tyre purchasing a bit simpler. Now a lot of guys in sprints run Extreme tyres and for those many of you that will not have heard about these, they are rally remoulds from Poland that come in a variety of wet and dry compounds and depending on who you talk to in the paddock are either worth 2 seconds or are a waste of money. So ever the optimist I purchased a set of wets in a soft compound which in theory would be just the ticket for a wet cold british day. I got them on the wheels and then booked a full service down at Horsham Developments. Yes its nearly 200 miles each way but I thought the car never gets a good run out and I can bed the new tyres in and check them out.

A few pics below as I got the SSR wheels off for the winter, the new wheels and tyres on and whilst I had the chance, gave the wheel arches and suspension components a good clean.

Then with the SSR's off and recently powder coated in the satin gold, I used one of my many products on hand to get them ceramic coated. Gtechniq C5 is well known to most people and needs no introduction but I cannot stress enough how easy it is to apply and for the price is a no brainer if you remotely like your wheels (even on a daily) as it also makes cleaning them a doddle. It probably* saves its initial cost in the amount of product (wheel cleaners) you won't have to use over its 2 year average life span. 

*this has not been tested by @ilogikal yet and I take no responsibility for the accuracy of my own comments!!! 

Anyway, pic of finished result:

Onto November and the drive down to Horsham was straightforward and without drama. I even had chance to push the Extreme tyres on some quiet country roads which at the early hour I set off were very greasy and it was around 4/5 degrees. The exact conditions I purchased them for and they didn't disappoint. The grip was immense and beyond anything I had driven in damp conditions before. When I got to Horsham and for those that have been, will know its at the end of a gravel lane, the tyres were completely coated with gravel and debris and were hot to the touch confirming that they warm up remarkably in cold conditions. 

I took a taxi into Newbury whilst the guys at Horsham did there stuff. It was a full P3 service which also included changing every oil/fluid in the car. Jez was great as he had ordered in the exact engine oil, and clutch fluid I requested along with the various other bits. Now it may be me being a tight northerner but the taxi into Newbury was about £40 IIRC and for what, around 10 miles (15 minutes) needless to say I had the same charge coming back so my Costa coffee breakfast turned out to be around the same price as my holiday to Majorca.

With my pants pulled back up to where they should reside, I got back to Jez and the team to find they had finished the car in double quick time and got me away for around 2 so I should get back for 6 which is when I had strict instruction for (I was already braced for a massive argument so this was a god send)

BUT in true Glen fashion its never quite that straightforward, oh no, the good fortune from earlier was countered with a puncture in the outside lane at 69.99mph* on the way home. The car just switched lanes to the middle lane without any input on the steering wheel and was followed with the sound of a flapping tyre, I was very surprised at how stable the car was which I am sure is partly down to the many modifications done and the setup. Anyhow, I slowed down the the hard shoulder and got out fearing the worst knowing I don't even keep the spacesaver in the boot either (weight saving for racing yo!) The rear drivers side tyre was still inflated but the tread was literally flapping around and loose, I can only descried it as delamination they talk about in F1 

So with not only a poorly zed but the prospect of a wifes wrath (as lets face it, the puncture was entirely my fault and I did it on purpose in order to spend 8 hours getting home) I headed off the motorway and to the nearest garage which thanks to google was only a couple of miles away. The car drove but it had a mind of its own and just drifted left and right but keeping to 20mph and with hazards on I got to the garage who just as I would expect had no tyres in the right size, fortunately there was a mobile tyre fitter there who worked for a tyre place in Northampton (15 miles away) so he checked what they had in stock and I asked for Michelin PS4 which they did have. Off I trundled at 20mph in what can only be described as the topgear scene when they go caravanning with a mile of tailbacks. Eventually and £300 lighter I got both rears swapped just so @Ekona does not hurl any abuse at me. Car felt back to normal and I eventually got back home as I eluded to earlier at 10:00 taking 8 hours for the 3 hour journey.

It is worth noting again, when I inspected the tyres on the hard shoulder that were very hot, too hot in my view. The temp was still low around 5 degrees but it was dry and these are a wet tyre so possibly they overheated causing them to delaminate or possibly they were a bad batch, time will tell as I still have the fronts on (which didn't get as hot) Some people will say its the age old saying, buy cheap buy twice and these are a road legal tyre so the jury is still out, what I will say is in my opinion, don't buy them as a road tyre. I will fully update on their track performance when I get to use them (and also the PS4 performance)

So after that escapade, the Zed was tucked up in the garage for the winter.

Which brings it upto this week and on new years eve I purchased this:

Before you give the dreaded sigh, let me explain. The company car (Audi A3) is costing me a fortune in tax (£200 a month) I'll not explain how it works if you don't know as I CBA but also a big factor was the cash payment I get in luei of a company car if I use my own car so I decided to get a cheap daily driver for crunching the commuting mileage. With not having any spare cash so wanting to keep it as cheap as possible whilst still adhering to the company rules (5 years old max, 5 doors, euro ncap 4/5, I googled which cars depreciate fastest and the Peugeot 308 popped up on several webpages. Strangely enough its also fairly well regarded by most reviewers. So after scouring most options on autotrader I realised that yes indeed, you could get a newer, lower mileage example of the 308 than almost every other family sized option (Focus, Golf, Leon, Civic, I30 etc..) 

What sealed the deal was this is a Blue HDI version (I take full responsibility for the little bit of sick that appeared in your mouth) but needs must and I do a lot of miles.

A few stats, 120bhp 1.6l diesel, claimed 90mpg combined! Zero Road tax, emissions of 82g, and its is nice on the inside, full touch screen display with sat nav and apple car play etc.. All for under 6k

The only downside was the edge of the drivers door had a thin strip of grey paint down to cover what I can only assume was chips that had rusted so off I went to Halford for a touch up kit to cover the paint with the right colour and also fill the numerous stone chips on the bonnet. It looks a bit of a bodge but its only along the front edge and at least its now the same colour. Love this cup which I always brew a cuppa in when working on my cars.

So that's it, welcome 2019

A massive thanks to anyone that's become a customer of Wax and Shine

A Big happy new year to everyone on the Forum

Lets see what 2019 has in store for us.

Welcome along 

Wasn’t me. A few forum members from leeds/bradford area though. I am from Pontefract. 

Welcome along 

just down the road from you. 

Merry Christmas everyone. Heres to a great 2019. 

Welcome and happy birthday for tomorrow 

good luck in the search, plenty of info on here for what to look for. 

I was amazed how heavy the gt4 wheels were when i took them off mine. In 18” the lightest wheels are the rays that lots of people opted for  or the enkei rpf1. 

Then you take a big step up money wise to the legendary TE37s and other Jap imports. 

Lots of options that will be somewhere in between the above and what you currently have like the popular rotas that many go for. I went for some SSR wheels that are only slightly heavier than the rays but better offset and width. 

Wonder if they need a tea boy at the cosworth factory?

Welcome along 

Welcome along 

used to have a beemer myself as well as the zed