jowen7448

Apart from the obvious the first thing I noticed was they misspelled frost leather

Well colour me embarrassed, I was thinking that was a phenomenal coincidence and what a small world it was. I will chalk this up to it being a long few weeks and try not to be such a gullible weany in future. Unfortunately the story that followed my reply was true. They still haven't let me forget it. (and still have a saxo)

Not sure if this is a joke, (tone very hard to gauge in online comments). If true story makes me wonder how many Saxos had a linkage rod go. Also not entirely sure how a linkage rod going would induce a crash as you can just roll until a safe place to stop. Terrible things those Saxos, lift off oversteer was a nightmare, particularly in the wet. I hated mine, still the worst car I have ever driven. When I first met my partners parents I had just bought a Mondeo to replace the Saxo with. I sat there during dinner, after they had made a comment about how well looked after my Mondeo looked, and said something along the lines of "yeah much better than the sh**ty saxo that I had before, that thing was awful". Turned out they had one, and her sister had one too. Ooops Edited since BulletMagnet threatened to call the grammar police. (Nark)

Haha brilliant

Another thread got me reminiscing about my first car which I fixed after a break in using bits from the local scrappy. It also prompted my memory on some fairly dodgy budget motoring in the first couple of years of my driving life. So I was wondering whether anyone had some interesting dodgy fixes for things that they had done in the past. I will set the ball rolling with one of mine: My second car was a Citroen Saxo (1.0 not VTS/VTR). It was bought out of necessity from a local garage when I had my AX towed there with what turned out to be a packed up ECU and I had no way to get home. Anyway at circa 130k miles a gear linkage rod decided it didn't want to play ball any more and would periodically disconnect itself. Not a huge issue, as with the ground clearance under the saxo, whenever it happened I would roll to the side of the road and could reach under and reattach in a few seconds and I would be on my way again for a few days. Not having much spare cash at the time, and getting sick of lying on the floor every couple of hundred miles I decided to fashion myself a new gear linkage purely out of cable ties. Lots looped together nice and tight with the two ends just tried around the appropriate other pieces, drove around like that for another few thousand miles no problem until I sold the car back to the garage I bought it from. I was thoroughly amazed that my cable tie linkage rod worked with no issues whatsoever and cost me pence as a fix. So what stories have others got to share in this same vein?

Seems like a very low quote, hope he has many years of happy safe motoring now he is out on his own. My first car was a citroen AX. £425 from a mechanic who lived round the corner. Cost me £700 for my first year of solo insurance. I lusted after the AX GT at the time but couldn't afford it and they were pretty rare even 10 years ago. I think to this day I have only actually seen two on the roads, and one of those wasn't even in this country. I had a 1.0, a quick check on parkers suggests it was 45 bhp when new, had ride height to rival a Land Cruiser but was very chuckable into tight bends and roundabouts, was a right laugh. Got broken into by some local pikeys who wanted to steal it, according to the police they were popular as they did well on fields etc, they didn't manage to steal it but made a complete mess, smashed a window, ruined the rear window seal, dash ripped apart, ignition barrel destroyed and bent steering column. Another one living half a mile from me on the same night was targeted too but wasn't so lucky in that it had disappeared. It was at this time that I learned how valuable the local scrappies were when it came to budget motoring. Fixed the whole lot for about £30 although it did mean I had a separate key for the door and ignition. I eventually sold it to a garage it had been towed to when the ECU packed up. Apparently they did get it back on the road again and I have wondered what happened to it ever since. (Sorry didn't mean for this to become an essay, thinking about my first car got me all sentimental)

Didn't feel it flying throug the air over that huge downhill That did make me chuckle. Having another go at this had been added to my todo list, I will reclaim first prize muahaha

And saint, fair play. Rules are same for all. You are best so far. Would you like your gamertag adding to the OP so others can add you?

Wow nice one, that lap looks very under control. Well played. Certainly laid down a bit of a challenge there. I will have to find some time this week to try knock u off the top spot again

Well done, good on u for admitting untoward tactics. I'm considering pulling RBR as the track limits seem to be somewhere outside of Austria.

No problem. Sorry your reign at the top didn't last long.

There isn't much you can change to be fair. Haven't messed about with ballast yet but I personally never get much out of it.

You aren't wrong. Am sat in mine at the moment having a breather. Washed, clayed, and then 3 stage paint treatment, clean Polish and wax. Full interior hoovered and wiped down. Just contemplating treating the leather seats to some feed and restore stuff. On topic I reckon I have a few tenths from malmedy to pouhon entrance over my best time. Although I consistently am a tenth or two down by the end of the kemmel straight. Absolutely nailed eau rouge on my best time so far. Apart from that reckon there is a few more tenths here and there if I knitted together all my best sectors. I found I consistently improved on this one by shifting brake balance forward slightly to help with the big stops into les combes and bus stop. The one that's winding me up is matterhorn. I know I have at least a second there if not more. But it's sooo hard to keep every bend together as the bumps etc have the car so on edge. If I have more time once I have finished out here I will have another go.

You are welcome to come join us on the new GT6 challenges

Welcome back, glad you saw sense

Was sat there wondering how on Earth my original post had been updated with your gamertag until I remembered you have mod magic

No worries, I have to admit I hadn't realised quite how much you could cut off the corners, I am now finding that almost whatever I do the lap is not made invalid. I am still enjoying the RBR one though as trying to keep on top of the focus understeer while keeping momentum up feels like a fine balancing act, especially through the 3 quick bends half way round the circuit. Any way, cut a couple more seconds off the first two, not gone back to matterhorn yet, I did have some help though:

Glad you enjoyed the challenges, sorry RBR wasn't your cup of tea, I was quite enjoying that one, although I hadn't realised when I started it quite how forgiving the track limits would be which does take away from it a little. Got some time this afternoon now I think so will have a proper go at each one. Will update OP to include your times, do you want to share your psn gamertag Stu and do you want it putting up next to your time?

Whatever was delivered with the car. Which if I remember correctly is sports hard.

Had half an hour to do a few laps this morning so took a few seconds off each time. Got to go out with the missus now, hope to see some times when I get back

I hadn't seen this specific thread before, thanks for trying to help, but I have tried battery disconnects, ECU disconnects, pedal dance resets numerous times, hard reset, ECU reflash that really should reset everything and still not perfect yet. Thanks though, appreciate all help and contributions.

Thanks for checkin back, unfortunately not yet, it's all a little strange. Mark @ Abbey had my ECU through the post and reflashed it. Mega quick turn around by them and stunning service so kudos to him and at first it seemed ok. But then went back to being mental as soon as I went for a proper drive. The really bizarre bit of this is that I have recently had a couple of 100 mile plus journeys to do, Mark assured me it was fine to drive til we get to the bottom of it, and whilst the idle is strange at the start of the journey, by the time I got to my destination each time it had settled down to what it should be. Mark on hols at the min so attempting a resolution has taken a brief pause but he has been ace so far and I am looking forward to speaking to him again when he returns.

In the interest of reinvigorating some life into this I present to you a new GT6 challenge cup. I have started a new thread which can be found below such that I can maintain times on the first post. http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/107344-new-for-2016-gran-turismo-6-challenge-cup/

In the interest of finding a reason to get back into GT6 myself and to reform the friendly competition amongst members of this site I present to you the GT6 Challenge Cup. I have started a new thread here so I can maintain the times for the new challenges. For the initial 3 challenges I chose 3 circuits and 3 cars aiming for a bit of variety. So I chose: Red Bull Ring in a mk1 Ford Focus RS: To celebrate the upcoming new RS on a simple track layout where understeer in the FF layout will hurt you. Spa Francorchamps in a Tesla model S signature performance: As with the RS there is an upcoming new model from Tesla as I am sure most of you know. What could be more different to the RS to drive than a high powered, high torque, electric rear wheel drive. Spa chosen as one of my favourite GP circuits that should provide a fairly technical challenge overall for the Tesla. I personally also find it really hard to get into a rhythm when the engine is on mute. Matterhorn Rotenboden in Nissan GTR (07): A car that needs no introduction, the mighty GTR. The circuit is full of steep gradients, blind crests, off camber bends and nightmare braking zones providing a hearty and frustrating challenge for the mighty beast. For this I propose completely stock, apart from an oil change (and a wash), any set up goes. I will try to maintain times periodically on this post. I am not Bernie Ecclestone so am happy for other challenge suggestions etc. However I will ask that anyone who throws down a new challenge maintains their own record of times until at least 5 others (6 in total) have attempted it. Once this is the case, send me a PM or whatever with all of those times and I will add it to this post and track it from that point. That should help make my job a little easier and weed out unpopular challenges. To submit your time, include your psn gamertag so that people can connect with each other if they so choose. Focus RS Red Bull Ring: saint - NA - 1:47.724 SuperStu - Reed_Rockhard - 1:47.839 jowen7448 - optimossprime - 1:47.946 Tesla Model S Spa: jowen7448 - optimossprime - 2:48.639 SuperStu - Reed_Rockhard - 2:48.819 GTR 07 Matterhorn: SuperStu - Reed_Rockhard - 1:40.246 jowen7448 - optimossprime - 1:40.592 Challenge Two Permitted Mods: Big Brake Kit, Stage 3 Weight Reduction, Racing Soft Tyres Cote d'Azure - Renault Sport Clio V6 24v 1:39.731 - SuperStu 1:39.798 - jowen7448 1.41.972 - Saint Circuito di Roma - KTM X-Bow R '12 1:04.712 - jowen7448 1:05.746 - SuperStu 1.06.715 - Saint Trial Mountain - Vauxhall VX220 Turbo 1:27.701 - SuperStu 1:27.833 - jowen7448 1.28.927 - Saint Let's race!!!

Glad to see that we have a reasonable resolution to the qualifying fiasco.