Tim S

Well that was about the worst kept secret in motoring! I have also heard that some manufacturers supply their own Stig, and that other drivers including Julian Bailey are used when Ben Collins can't do it due to racing or other commitments.

In which case for heaven's sake man up and take it on the chin. Having said that, have a quick look at the forums at http://www.pepipoo.com first to see if there are any mitigating circumstances (lack of signage etc.).

Hi all, I've booked myself on this track day. Any other Zeds fancy it? Event Location: Corby, Northants Event Price: £175.00 Noise Limits: 103dB @ 0.5m, 45° from Exhaust, ¾ max RPM (This limit will be fine for the vast majority of Zeds) Itinerary Full Day 09:00 Driver, passenger, spectator sign-on 09:30 Safety briefing 10:00 Driving begins 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Driving Resumes 17:00 End of driving 2nd drivers, passengers & spectators free Instruction £20 per session Booked through http://www.bookatrack.com/. My second driver's spot is taken but as passengers are free I'd be happy to give passenger laps - come and find me on the day. I've also posted this up on the other site.

Nice one - Brands is an awesome track. Are you doing the GP or the Indy circuit? Your tyres won't be knackered after a single track day unless they're marginal to start with (and you'd be daft to start a track day on marginal tyres). You will overheat the brake fluid though if it's still standard - RBF600 improves things no end. When I've been to Brands they've been quite fussy about camera mounts - i.e. it has to be on a proper mount (not sucker mounted to the windscreen). That might vary by organiser though. I reckon it's all going to come down to the driver. Don't let us down!

I think they probably get deluged these days with email/click-to-apply CVs, so most will get binned unread. I have found in the past I was far more likely to get an interview (or just some legwork from the agent) if I followed up any application with a phone call. The phone call can also help give you a better idea of whether the job advertised is real or not. I think judging by what's expected for the money a lot of the ones on Jobserve etc. are made up. Having said that I haven't looked for a couple fo years so it may have all changed. Good luck searching!

I think it looks quite good. My mum would think it's a real Ferrari! I don't see the harm in replicas. What about Cobra and GT40 replicas? Do people think they're sad too? I guess with most of those the engine is pretty similar to the original, and they tend to look the part a bit more.

My dad has an Exige S which we share for track duty. I would say that although you could use it as an everyday car, you probably wouldn't want to. It's extremely focussed - so not relaxing to drive at all - and it doesn't like bumpy surfaces. It is a fantastic track weapon though, and has brakes which make your eyes feel like they're being pulled out! Reliability-wise the only thing that's gone wrong in the 10 months he's had it is the instrument cluster (replaced under warranty). I haven't driven a standard Exige S2 but I'm told they're very peaky without the supercharger, and there's a big step in power when the variable valve timing takes over. If you're worried you wouldn't fit in it, go and find an Elise or VX220 to try sitting in - they're pretty much the same inside.

Thats clever stuff, I didn't know that. Then again I'm not always driving a Zed so I would be interested to know how many other cars do this. I know current Scooby WRX's do it too. I presume most quick-ish cars do these days. I always turn try turning the aircon off on whatever 1 litre shopping car we hire on holiday to see if it'll make it go faster, and it never seems to work!

I believe it cuts out automatically on wide-open throttle anyway.

I'm fairly certain there was no maximum to the number of people on that GB - if you contact Jon who was (is?) organising it it may still be going ahead.

Well given that the numbers of road deaths haven't improved in a statistically significant manner since the introduction of speed cameras, I'd be inclined to agree with you. And that includes the fact that cars are becoming safer and safer to have accidents in. I don't even think it's about revenue generation as there is some evidence that the scheme runs at a loss. I think it's the refusal of the DfT and certain police chiefs to back down and lose face.

Ah, sorry, I thought you meant overall. You may well be right about some roads. Like a lot of the current government's policies I think this one is based on a flawed assumption (that excessive speed is always unsafe) and speed cameras are a cheap way of addressing that assumption. There's loads of stuff about why cameras aren't making the roads safer at http://www.safespeed.org.uk/ (not bike specific).

I would argue that safety and speed aren't linked in the way the government seems to presume - i.e. you can drive/ride safely above the speed limit as well as drive/ride unsafely below the limit. Traffic police would be much better at catching the unsafe road users than automated cameras. There's no doubt that motorcyclists are more likely to be killed on the road than car drivers per capita - regardless of blame, if you're on a bike and involved in an accident there's less to protect you. I was just taking issue with the 50% statistic. I think the cameras face the front of the vehicle because they need the high contrast black & white plate to read it properly. The government could even the stakes by forcing motorbikes to have the reg displayed on the front if it wanted to. Perhaps it's not bothering because there aren't enough motorcyclists in total to make it worthwhile from a revenue point of view? The same is true of the fixed camera vans - rightly or wrongly motorcycles are impervious.

I'm sorry, but that just isn't true! I feel as a biker I should come up with some sort of defence. The data for 2002 (the last year I could find on the Office for National Statistics website) shows 609 motorcyclists or passengers killed out of a total of 3431 total road deaths for the year, which equates to 17.7%. This is eclipsed by pedestrians (696 or 20%). By far the largest group as far as road deaths go are car drivers and passengers (1747 or 50.9%). The data is here BTW: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=4031 I'll concede that there are motorcyclists that ride unsafely, just as there are drivers that drive unsafely, but I think you're being a bit unfair on motorcyclists. I agree with you that festooning the road network with speed cameras isn't the solution.

Not sure anyone will have spares Tim, as they only come with 4 if at all (I think)..... You could order some from Envy, Funkstyling or plenty of places in the states. I'd do the latter due to the double dollar at the mo! Yeah - I was hoping someone may have replaced theirs with the 'Z' logo ones and may want to sell the originals to me cheap! Probably a tall order though.

As title, I bought my Rays second hand and they don't have the original centre caps - anyone want to sell me their spares? Cheers.

I have a TiVo, as you say it still works fine. I've put a bigger disk in mine too. Shame it won't do high def when everything switches over to that.

Are you sure that's right? When I bought a Kuro touch-up kit from Nissan they provided a black one and a clear lacquer one in the same pack which implies there's a lacquer coat.

It's got Ohlins single-way adjustable dampers and a race ARB, and the suspension has been set up properly, but the engine is standard. It also has uprated front brake discs & pads and uprated fluid but standard calipers. Full post here: http://www.exiges.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=82354&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 (not sure if you need to log on to see it).

Just behind me Southbound on the A3 just north of Burpham this morning. 53 reg I think. Anyone here?

As description... you saw me first and flashed your lights. Anyone here?

To further confuse matters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower But broadly, 1 PS = 0.9863201652997627 BHP.

Press the actual light you utter dipstick Well, it's hardly obvious is it? Are you expecting me to have read the owners' manual or something?

You're so right. When they take you by surprise it reminds me of the stealth ship in Tomorrow Never Dies. The car is instantaneously surrounded in a cloud of mist. More annoying though: There's no map reading light, and the interior light can only be turned on by opening the door (unless I'm being stupid, which is possible). Plus the paint thinness.

That's good. You don't always get the same protection with debit cards as the networks don't have the clout Visa or MasterCard have. Sounds like Barclays have some good systems in place for dealing with this sort of thing. I would hope my bank (HSBC) would be as helpful if it happened to me.