bugglet

I enjoy driving the car too much to limit it to sunshine use only, and you can have lots of fun at safe speeds with the traction control off on a wet day, so it often has a used look about it. Sounds like there could be a "B Sides" calendar on the way then. I'll hang on to the pictures just in case.

Did a 180 mile round trip to visit the in-laws yesterday and this is the result... ...now waiting for a break in the weather that's long enough for me to get it back to looking how it should! By the way is there something about gritting lorries I don't know that everyone else does? I had to get past a gritter on the run home up the motorway last night, something I never like doing especially with Nissan's soft paint, (it also scared the living daylights out of my wife who was sleeping in the passenger seat! ), and there was a nice queue of cars behind it. Were they just too scared to overtake, or is there some bit of knowledge about gritting that I'm missing? Like do they only grit as far as the next junction, or turn the grit off every now and then? Just wondered as I often see people happy to crawl along behind them.

Had my P3 done recently, phoned 3 dealers in the Somerset area who wanted £308 (Weston), £314 (Wellington), and £340 (Yeovil) between them. Took it to Protech in the end who did it for nearer the £180 mark. (Cant remember exact price, had the clutch changed at the same time and did a bit of bartering over an all-in price which was a lot more than 180!)

Found each other last night somewhere after Taunton and were in convoy until J29.

Thanks for the tips guys. Much appreciated.

Does anyone know of a Nissan specialist within a sensible distance of Weston-Super-Mare? Mine is in need of a P1 and I need to get the clutch replaced so I was going to get it all done at the same time, and I don't really want to have to pay dealer prices for the work if I can help it. (I've not got any quotes yet - that's going to be an amusing lunch hour on the phone sometime this week! )

Don't take all this abuse from those who don't understand!! I too am a keen mountain biker and hit the very same problem as you and I did a lot of looking into the options. (As a point of reference I ride an 18" Giant NRS.) First off an MTB will not fit in the boot of a Zed due to the cross brace and the distance between the rear dropouts and the frame length between the head tube and dropout. I even tried with a the frame totally stripped down and there was no way. (Those pictures with the road bike should be ignored, the frame is significantly narrower than an MTB.) However - if you're desperate - the wheels and saddle will fit in the boot and the frame, (with forks and bars), will fit on the passenger seat. Personally I've never gone anywhere like this I just tried it for size and decided the risk of damage to the car wasn't worth it. But it would work if properly secured and if in a bike bag. I have seen a Saris rack on the back of a Zed... http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cycle&ProdID=5360009223&N=Saris%20Bones%203%20Rack ..and I borrowed one to see how it fitted. It fits ok, and lifts the bike good and high out of the way, but it still requires straps to hold it down which have to be clipped over the edges off the boot. I didn't like this as they are just points for the paint to rub off, plus it was difficult to mount without them resting on the lip of the spoiler. I also found the racks in the US that you have found. These require you to remove the plastic rear bumper section and mount them to the aluminium bumper and then refit everything. These looked the most promising option with minimum risk of damaging the car, but they were not cheap at $400 + shipping + import duty + VAT. Soooo....... I spent £100 on a rent-a-wreck that I can lob the bike in and not worry about mud or damage, plus I can use it as a cheap run-around saving mileage and fuel on the Zed. Oh and when you get out of the wreck and into the Zed boy do you really appreciate how fantastic that car is!! (I know you've said you don't want to go down this route, but it worked for me.) P.s. Don't get a TT!

A custard one on the sea front in the morning and a silver JDM on the A370 around Bleadon in the afternoon.

Only the volume control. The up/down button just switches radio preset. The unit is hard wired into the aerial feed so there's no transmission loss and less interference than on a standalone FM transmitter system. It also has 6 different frequencies that can be switched via a button on the cradle to help avoid interference. The guide to fitting one is here: http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2067&highlight=ice+link In general I have no complaint other than it stopped working - to start with it would intermittently not give any sound from the iPod, then I thought it was working again until I realised that it was blocking all other radio transmission! It was swapped without any trouble at the store, it's just a pain having to take everything apart again.

Before going for this set up I would take the head unit out and check. On mine (a '53 GT), there is no external changer connector (Number 4 on the picture from this link)

Parked in front of mine on the 6th of Sept crossing. Spent a week in France covered 1870 miles and never saw another Zed, do the French have something against them?! (Ps, twisty roads dropping into Monaco with the traction control off are great fun!! )

Thanks for the info. I've just lost an hour reading through all the details on the Pocket GPS forum. Sounds like it's not a lot of use without modding it to take an amplified external aerial. I now need to decide if expense x effort = worth it....

Hi, I'm planning on hard wiring my TomTom into the cubby and I've been looking at the TMC antenna to get traffic updates without the need to pay for a subscription to the traffic service and a data connection on my mobile. I’ve had a scout around the interweb and have found mixed reviews on the systems performance, so was just wondering if anyone had any experience of it on here and if you’d recommend it or not. Cheers.

If he'd said that he put the seats down to lower the centre of gravity rather than "reduce the weight" you might be able to forgive him for being a total plonker rather than a complete moron! As for polishing it, this would make sense if you were after an extra 1000th of a second to beat Hamilton to pole position, but in a Corsa????? Pleaaaaaaase! Love it, sent it to every petrol head I know!!

how the heck did you manage that You can get that figure if you reset your clocks driving moderately on the motorway. I once got 50+ MPG to show up on the clocks for a few minutes before it all evens out. Craig. Busted! I'd hit roadworks on the motorway having reset the clocks about 10 minutes earlier so I was ambling along at 50 in 6th. I took the picture so I could show it to all my non-zed-owning friends who harp on about my impractical gas guzzler!

Read it and weep! Whoever said the Zed wasn't economical??!!

Hi, I'm in need of a stock plastic brake fluid reservior cap. Has anyone got one going spare after doing a bit of detailing work or know where I can find one. Thanks.

Saw four in convoy just after 12:00 today heading South on the A382 from Whiddon Down while I was going North. I felt like turning round and joining in, but had to be somewhere so couldn't!

Sadly couldn't get one on budget under three years old, so no warranty option for me!!

If this doesn't work I reckon the Dension ICE Link FM is the next best thing. (Fitting one is covered in the guides section.) My system is the Bose one too, the only issue I have with it is the skipping on a cold morning so I'm also after options that don't require a full replacement.

Sorry for hitting a fairly well worked subject, but I couldn't find much on UK manuals from a search. I know there are CDs on eBay, but as far as I can tell they are US ones so I was wondering if anyone had managed to source a UK version and could point me in the right direction to find one. Thanks.

I've been looking at this too. This line about the CD6 button from the site has me well confused... I've been waiting for a free weekend when I can have a look at the back of the head unit to find out if there's a connector on the European unit. Surely they didn't make a different head unit for each continent?!

Golf just ruins a good walk...although those bunker things can be useful for catching some air off and they come complete with a soft sandy landing zone!

P.s. On a serious note, how long is your frame from mech hanger to the front of the head tube? I was actually trying to fit my bike in the other way round (forks first) and if the chain stays were 3 inches shorter it would have gone in. (Or if I take the cross brace out of the car!!) I'll try the bike tail first to see if it improves the angles at the weekend. (The last time I tried it was cold dark and raining so I decided that beer and GT4 was a far better idea!! )

Damn it, I'm going to have to try again!!! I haven't ridden my MTB since a bought the Zed just over a month ago.....oh how I have had much punishment from my peers about buying a car I couldn't even use to enjoy my hobby!! I'd almost resigned myself to finding a rack to go on it...although not in the style of the video, too much paint damage risk there! I was going to fabricate a bracket to go on the rear cross member so I could fit a rack to it, something like this... http://www.birdautomotive.com/Bike%20Rack%20Nissan%20350Z.htm But the gauntlet has been thrown, well kind of, it's only a girly plastic road bike after all, not a 30lb monster with tractor tyres!!