Pingu2

I was inspired by this thread and the fact my Z is going for its MoT at the dealer on tuesday (it's 3 on thursday - should I bake a cake?) and my car is now considerably cleaner than yows..

some chav has half-inched my stubby!!

I am Jeremy (not a very penguiny name I'm afraid!)

well its ordered anyway! cats/plenum and nismo exhaust should all be winging my way - led rear lights fitted this morning.. there goes last quarter's bonus

if you can take any pics of cable routing that would help for when I get round to it!

yes

the driver is dependent on what touchscreen you buy - they are normally supplied with the driver CD...

nismo now ordered - halls proved annoying - the guy you dealt with before has left it seems.. anyway, ordered from leeparts.com - price not too bad I hope!

have enquired today about high flow cats and plenum I guess this is the best way.. ?

it shouldnt be difficult at all providing the touchscreen provides mac drivers.. they mostly do I believe - the one I linked does.. then you just connect the screen to 12v power source (ie car!), and to the computer via usb (the touchscreen part goes over this) and vga (the picture goes over this!).. once you install the drivers the screen will act like a mouse - albeit with 1 button (but then you are used to that using a mac i guess!). The touchscreen driver software normally allows you to calibrate the screen so that where your finger is and where the computer thinks your finger is match up

actually you're right - i want to change my nomination to the fact that you cant fold the damn mirrors in once you have removed the key from the ignition.. I am forever forgetting and having to put it back in, and as I live in a busy road with cars parked on each side that people love to squeeze through side by side it really BOILS MY FROG!

there are a whole host of touchscreen options you can buy - the standard thing is to get a 7 inch touchscreen.. this is what I have, it's 800x480 resolution and has a vga connection and a usb connection for the touchscreen control.. there are many makes of such screens, the 2 best known being lilliput and xenarc... you can also get screens that fold out from the radio DIN holes or are roof mounted.. check: http://www.cartft.com/catalog/gl/1 my screen is a bit like: http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/45 (but its not actually made anymore) to fit a screen like that in the sat nav cubby you have to make some cuts into the cubby plastic (behind the facia) and remove the touchscreen from its casing to fit it in..

As I posted in another thread here a couple of days ago, I am in the process of doing this and can probably do a write up as I go. I am installing a mini itx pc and touchscreen system - I have all the hardware I need now I think, except some wiring and a 2003 satnav cubby, going to order that on tuesday when I am at the dealers... I am thinking to visit a car audio shop to get some of the wiring done unless there is someone around sw london here who would be interested in helping out

yes its a mac front end.. (hence why I don't know if its any good, not having a mac myself!) there is also a program called tetraapp which is a mac car pc front end probably more if you searc around!

have you considered running a dedicated car-pc front end such as Amp? http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78868 (btw I don't have a mac and can't say if it's any good or not!)

you are both wrong (as per normal)

and his wallet... Carbon Rear Trunk High quality dry carbon fiber rear trunk designed by St ... Version: unpainted +0.00 EUR Carbon matte +249.00 EUR Carbon shiny +399.00 EUR New Item Details € in VAT 5.459,95

I quite like it too

Yeah I am definately planning to s/c rather than turbo, so I think the level of back-pressure isnt really so vital.. am trying to source nismo now anyway

I am also working on this car PC thing - I have replaced the nissan stereo with one with aux inputs and plan to plug the pc sound directly into the head unit (I have bose system and dont want to go down the route of seperate amp/speaker install). I have a small form factor PC, running a via epia 1000 chipset with 512mb ram, cd drive and hard disk - also have a power regulator that will convert the 12v battery supply to allow the pc to run (the touchscreen will run directly off the battery supply). Something low power and light is what you want of course - but something powerful enough to run the software you want. You will also need a power/shutdown control circuit of some sort that will start up the computer AFTER you have started the engine (or cranking will reduce the battery voltage and the computer will just shut down mid disk-access) and then shut down the computer a set time after you turn the engine off). I have bought this -> http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/574 to use - it seems the best option (along with Opus made ones) I am intending to mount the pc in the large rear glove box and route the cables through to the dash, where I will install USB sockets. I have a USB bluetooth adapter and a bluetooth GPS thingy that I will be mounting somewhere it can get a lock on some satellites. The 7 inch (800x480) touchscreen I intend to mount in the satnav cubby - apparently it's best to get your hands on a 2003 cubby as they are easier to fit a touchscreen in. You will need to do some cutting of the cubby and remove the touchscreen from its casing to fit this stuff. Once the hardware is set up there is of course the problem of what software to run - check out www.mp3car.com and there are quite a few different front ends available, that do most of what you might want (music,dvd,satnav etc). I have been writing my own software but its a very on/off project for me - and I will probably end up using some of the pre-written stuff in the end (I have the music stuff written nicely, and some satnav working using mappoint 2006 api's). Anyway if you want to read up about it I would really recommend the forums at http://www.mp3car.com and for buying bits you might need I would recommend http://www.cartft.com (this is a german website/company but I have ordered from them before several times and also had to get replacement items sent and they have no problem dealing in english).. I would budget 800 pounds for doing a proper job of this btw (unless you already have some of the things you will need)..

I have the bose yes - and it works pretty decently with it, no noise or anything and sounds fine.. the kenwood unit is OK - it plays CD's and USB fine (providing they are 192kbps or less); you get some software you can use to copy stuff to usb sticks etc (the software is pretty decent - and does include functions to create voice indexes so that it will say what album youre selecting etc).. the display is pretty readable except in direct bright sunlight. I am not experienced at all with car audio installs and managed to get it working - after I realised it needed the pwr/ant connection connected or it wouldnt power on (seemed a bit strange to me!) i didn't want a screen based system as I am intending to put a touchscreen in the sat-nav cubby at some point, and I didn't fancy the look of 2 screens (visual overload!). anyway if I wasnt intending to add a car pc I would have spent more and got a screen based dvd, probably jvc one..

not sure about the micro harness - still havent got round to fixing my steering wheel controls back up to the head unit since I changed it.. I have installed the Kenwood DPX-501U that you *were* considering and the used the pac kit.. works OK but I don't really like the headunit much, one major pain in the bum is that it only plays files from USB stick when they are encoded at 192k or less and skips terribly on higher quality stuff.. which means I have to re-encode stuff for the car.. I also find the radio on it doesnt have much gain on the antenna - hard to receive channels even in SW london.. not that I use the radio much..

make sure the screen is clean and dry (and warm is best!) and then hold it firmly in place for around 10 mins (or until you get cramp, whichever comes first!)

mm I think you're right .. although he took it off as it was too noisy for him, is that right?

Is the Nismo exhaust suitable for a vortech s/c setup? Looking to get an exhaust sorted soon and the vortech later on, don't want to have to buy a different exhaust then..