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James Junior

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Everything posted by James Junior

  1. Now that the car is in such fine form I am gagging for a proper test drive so have booked to go to Oulton Park on Friday for a track day. It has been snowing today and given rain for Friday, so conditions may not be ideal unfortunately. However, having driven the Sustenpass balls to the wall in heavy rain with waterfalls cascading onto the road, wet weather driving holds less fear these days! Famous last words... I am also taking somebody with me as I have started dating a girl who is a bit of a petrolhead herself who is bringing her Cooper S to take on track too...that's right....I can confirm am dating a unicorn!
  2. So, time for a proper update as it's been a while. Let's talk about adjustable camber arms! Since fitting the KW V3 coilovers the Z has been munching tyres for fun, wearing the tyres all round the inner edge due to the amount of negative camber. GIven that Michelin Pilot Super Sports cost around £250 a corner this has been an expensive habit! Marcus at MLM Motors has been fine tuning the suspension using laser wheel alignment to try to fix this issue. The spacers and KW V3s have been creating a lot of negative camber and we found that the stock camber arms just don't have sufficient adjustment to dial back in more positive camber to compensate for this. So it was time to invest in a full set of adjustable camber arms. I went for the Z1 Motorsport full front and rear kit, as recommended by Nic 'Nissanman' Hollingworth. Thanks mate! https://www.z1motors...age-p-4201.html The kit arrived a few weeks ago now and first impressions were very good. The arms are great quality and allow a lot more adjustment. When the old arms were removed we found that the bushes were goosed (see below) meaning the camber arms were a timely upgrade in this respect too. Once they were on the car the suspension geometry was thoroughly revised, with the toe, camber and castor painstakingly adjusted to work with the KWs and spacers. I actually took Marcus a full nine hours (!) to get the arms fitted and everything set up to his liking. Being the perfectionist he is this lead to him working on the car until nearly 9pm on a Friday! What a guy... So with the new camber arms fitted it was time to bed everything in. And over the course of a fortnight or so, the car felt....TERRIBLE! The steering became hyper sensitive, the ride was harsh and the car felt highly unstable at speed, with the steering wheel way of centre. I was pretty despondent as having spent a lot of money on suspension components and tuning I was worried I had taken myself down a rabbit warren... However, Marcus did say when he set everything up that it would drift out again a bit whilst everything bedded in and that we would need to make some final adjustments. I took the car back in to him and we got it back on the wheel alignment rig. What we found was almost comical! The wheels were all pointing in different directions and all the settings were waaaaay out! Marcus rolled his sleeves up and got to work adjusting and tweaking everything to bring it back into line. You can see the before and after print offs below. (Note that the toe on the 'after' print out was tweaked further to finalise) I left the workshop with a sense of major apprehension... And the results? Absolutely sublime! The car has never felt better. Ride quality has returned and high speed stability is amazing. Turn in is sharp and she feels absolutely nailed down and very confidence inspiring. It feels like it has tied everything together and has made the car feel almost brand new. At first I begrudged spending all this money on the camber arms as I didn't expect them to make any real differnence to how the car performs. I couldn't have been more wrong. They have made another huge improvement. If I was doing this all again then I would definitely fit camber arms and coilovers together. Despite the significant outlay, if I had done this sooner it would have saved me a fortune in fitting, adjustment and tyre wear. Hopefully this will be a useful primer for anyone having difficulties with tyre wear, suspension set ups and thinking about fitting camber arms. Pictures are below. If anyone reading this now or in the future has any questions just let me know.
  3. Great photos! I bet that was a bit of a weapon. What did the numbers look like after fitting the supercharger?
  4. Thank you so much! We are lucky to have some excellent driving road here in the south eastern corner of Australia, but we don't have much of the scenery you enjoy in Europe and the northern end of the UK. The pics really bring the stories to life for me. Cheers! Chris Thanks Chris, it's my pleasure to share it all with my fellow Zed heads!
  5. Totally agree Nic. Hope you and Rikki are doing well. Will be sure to come down to the next BHP Breakfast event. If you're going fur drinks the night before I'll do an overnighter and come for a few beers. Not staying in that hellhole from last time though!
  6. I don't really do New Years resolutions, but do set goals for myself each year. For 2017 I solemnly declared that this would be the year I cut back and saved up the rest of the deposit and stamp duty that I need to move to my 'forever house'. Me: 'This year we are going to be sensible and save money, maybe one holiday, but definitely no tours, or crazy mods for the car.' Inner monologue: 'Yeah but we could die tomorrow'. Me: ' Good point well made'. *Gets full camber arm kit set up, orders Stillen oil cooler kit **Books Geneva Motor Show and European Tour for July Three weeks into 2017 and things are not going well... Oh well YOLO etc etc. 'I am glad I had such a big house'. Said no-one on their death bed ever.
  7. Okay!!! I just repaired a load of the photo links starting from post #163 so if anyone wants to go back and have a nosey they are all there. Will go back a bit further and see if I can root out any more that have disappeared. Does anyone know why the images stop working over time?
  8. So today after a long session at my friends workshop (11am to 8:30pm ON A FRIDAY, what a guy) the camber arm kit is fitted all round and the whole set up fully tuned. Initial impressions are little short of revelatory. I'll post some photos and a proper write up when I have a bit more time. Thanks as ever for your interest everyone, I love sharing this stuff with you all. 😀â¤ï¸
  9. *facepalm* You clearly didn't read my post. First paragraph clearly states points that are nothing to do with racing round mountain passes, but that are applicable to every day commute driving. Go and watch all of Reg Local's YT vids, you'll notice that he's not remotely racing anywhere at all, but rather takes a more IAM-based (well, ex-police pursuit really) viewpoint on driving. Everything he mentions there will improve every aspect of your driving far more than even 100bhp more will. His books are good as well, but the videos explain it rather better. If you can't see how any of that would assist you as a driver, then I don't know what will. Power is nothing without control. No need to be condescending Ekona. I agree with both you and Nub. Overall no doubt driver training is the best modification you can buy. It's the mod you can take with you to every car you own. It makes you faster and gives a deeper understanding and enjoyment to your driving. However equally if you're regular driving doesn't put you on roads where you can actually drive hard, it's pretty irrelevant in terms of enjoyment, even if overall it makes you a better and safer driver. For a car that is a commuter and rarely driven on roads where you can start moving the weight around properly, a bit more power and a nicer sounding engine note can hit the spot nicely and increase your enjoyment of the car. 👌ðŸ¼
  10. Thanks Chris. The photo links are taken from my Facebook account and all are still live, so I don't know why they always seem to 'decay'. I've updated the links a couple of times but they always seem to break down which is a shame as I love sharing the content with you guys. When I have some time I'll spend it trying to repair them again. If you follow the thread hopefully you'll get a tip off when they're up and running again! 😀
  11. Yeah I hear you - when you're daily driving and enjoying six to seven tenths style driving a bit of extra surge and a rorty exhaust note that makes you want to wind your window down on your commute hit the spot nicely! 😎
  12. Back when I was running the HFCs with the other mods I dynoed at precisely 346 bhp and 300 ft lbs. After removing them and going back to stock cats, but keeping the other mods, the car dynoed bang on the manufacturer's numbers, 328 bhp and 260 ft lbs. I find it hard to believe that HFCs were giving a 40 ft lb hike in torque, but those are the figures. Two different dynos and two different days. Draw your own conclusions! What I have learnt from being on tour is that across most real world situations a marginal increase in power or torque is completely irrelevant. It is the suspension (KW V3) and the brakes (braided lines, better fluid and Endless pads) that actually give better real world performance over a distance. Being able to get on the brakes later and carry more speed through corner after corner is more effective than having another 20 or 30bhp. Ultimately however improving your skill and awareness through driver training are the most effective modifications that money can buy. I agree that the Z is not a particularly quick car. It could do with a bit more power and a bit less weight. That said, in a straight line there is little to separate it from a Cayman R or a newer Cayman GTS so its not that much of a slug. Some of the more exotic stuff meanwhile might leave it far behind on long straights and mountain ascents, but in the twisty stuff even their performance advantage starts to dwindle and the playing field starts to level. The Z is particularly good in tight and twisty situations in my experience as it has quite a short wheel base. If we are going up and over a mountain pass then some of the exotics will come past and gradually leave me behind on the ascent, especially when I overheat the oil trying to keep up! In those long ascents with hairpin after hairpin you really start to get frustrated by the Z's weight and lack of torque and need to switch the traction off otherwise the car just bogs down coming out of the hairpins. When we go down the other side of the pass however I often end up having to radio to go past some of them, as my braking set up is very fade resistant and gets better the hotter the brakes get. I got the bottom of St Bernadino one afternoon having passed four of my tour mates and I just gradually pulled further and further away by myself after miles of downhill hairpins and corkcrews. The brakes held up all the way to the bottom at which point they were hissing loudly they were that hot, so I just freewheeled through the towns for a few miles until I reached the bottom and parked up with the handbrake off. I can also remember a few drives in tighter country and forest roads last year where the Nissan wasstaying with some serious machines, having to switch places with an F430 on a few occasions and keeping a Mclaren 12c and a Gallardo honest through miles of twisting French countryside by using momentum and a healthy does of courage! The biggest determinent is ultimately the driver. I have seen guys with R8s and GT3s who just aren't confident and who start to fall behind, whilst on the other hand Pete and Dan our tour guides can outpace pretty much anything in their 235is they are that skillful. I am not saying I am a great driver, but have had some tuition which has definitely paid off. I have also got to know my car well over 30k miles and am a bit braver in chucking it in perhaps than some of the other drivers whose cars are worth substantially more! So my advice; spend the money on tuition rathert than power mods as trying to get more power out of an NA is an expensive effort in futility!
  13. I did have one fitted, one of the first mods I did. Car felt so much quicker with it fitted Now that the 370 is up for sale I have removed it Might that be to put it on a new car that you might be taking delivery of by any chance???
  14. P.S. you need to get yourself a GTR starter button. It adds at least 10bhp...
  15. Parallel lives! Bizarre... Clearly it is a cupholder/ mascot slot.
  16. Dude check out the kinetix combo kit I have it on mine great value and quality for what you get Without going silly on spl stuff https://www.z1motors...age-p-4201.html Mate thanks so much for posting this, this is just what I need and amazing value. Will get these ordered.
  17. It says 'keep calm and avoid marmots'. On the last Euro tour I ran over an Alpine marmot at high speed when it ran out into the road. When I pulled in to check if it had made a mess of the car there was no sign, but Stu who had been following me pulled in and declared 'yep - its definitely dead'. It was flat as a pancake a few yards back up the road... Oops. For the remainder of the tour I got ripped for it, with regular radio calls warning me of anything animal related either in or beside the road. For Scotland I bought that sticker for the filler cap and a fluffy marmot mascot. He now accompanies me on every journey sat in the round pot in the centre arm rest of the car.
  18. Unfortunately the trip highlighted an issue with the current suspension set up. It is chewing through the inner edge of tyres at an alarming rate, even with the car being fully aligned via laser wheel alignment. I think I am going to have to buy some adjustable camber arms which aren't cheap, then have the car sent for a full suspension set up with a specialist. I will report back as this little project comes together. One thing is for sure, whenever I eventually come to sell the car whoever buys it is going to be buying one very finely honed driving tool...
  19. A little late, but here are a few of my favourite snaps from my adventures in Scotland at the end of September. Sadly it wasn't a great tour for me. The inner edge of one of my rear tyres was a bit short on tread at outset, but I thought it would last the tour. I was wrong and it wore down much quicker than I was expecting. We ordered a replacement to arrive on day 2 of the tour at Inverness, but unfortunately they screwed up and ordered the wrong size! I soldiered on for a while with the balding tyre, but had to abort early on the last day and cruise to the hotel at 50mph as when I puilled in for fuel I noticed it was down to the threads! Still, I got to see some amazing scenery and also got a high speed passenger ride from Tongue to John O'Groats in a 458 Specialé, then did the return journey as a passenger in the AMG GT. In both cases there were some extremely capable drivers behind the wheel so was a great experience. The drive to John O'Groats is a great one - 35 miles of twisting B roads so really got a feel for the cars, even if it was only as a passenger. The 458 Specialé is scalpel sharp and feels like about as finely honed a driving tool as you're likely to find, feeling totally nailed down and stable under high speed cornering. The interior is pretty sparse with acres of alacantara and the engine note is a shrill howl that hardens as the revs pile on. The AMG GT meanwhile is more of a big burly muscle car, with a much more luxurious interior, piles of brushed aluminium details and a very long bonnet. This one had been breathed on and was pushing out nearly 650bhp. It was nothing like as composed as the Ferrari and the tail was a bit fidgety, but it still felt savagely quick and felt like it was pummeling the road into submission. The sountrack was awesome - a thunderous V8 growl which crackled on the overrun. Given the choise I think I would take the Merc. The road presence that thing has on the road is insane.
  20. Hi Chewy, I have a set. They're hardly used and in great condition. If you're interested please text me on 07748208090 and we can pick up from there. Thanks Nic, I owe you a beer. James
  21. Okay, here is the attendee list for adventures in Scotland next week: M235i M235i Boxster Spyder TVR Tuscan Cayman GTS TVR Chimaera Porsche 911 Audi R8 Merc C63 Nissan 370Z Porsche 997 lightweight Ferrari 458 Speciale Merc GTS (because the Focus RS is broken!) M235i 400bhp Aside from our freakishly talented tour guides Pete and Dan in their m235is, I know Adil is fast in the Boxster Spyder. He was quite a bit quicker than me given open road when we toured Europe in July. That said the power to weight ratio of that thing makes a mockery of the Zs. I don't know the drivers of the 458 Specialé or the Merc GTS (looking forward to seeing one of these in the metal), but no doubt they will be way too much for me to handle. I will still have a good go though! Quite fancy my chances jousting with the rest of the crew though. Looking forward to some more sparring sessions on good roads!
  22. Mate, if mine didn't have so many miles on it I would, She's on 55k now. If she was more like 30k then I defiitely would, but not sure how appealing a supercharged Z with 75k on the clock would be on the used market a few years from now. In the meantime F-Types are continuing their inexorable fall towards £30k.... Think it will be between an F-Type S and a 35is when it comes to time to change. In the meantime I am still loving the Z. Off to bonny Scotland next week for more shennanigens so will be fun to see how she holds her head up in exhalted company again! Will have a look for the attendee list, hold on...
  23. Been browsing some more wheel options today (hard at work on a Friday afternoon!) and came across these absolute beauties. They are perfect and exactly what I had pictured my ideal wheels looking like in my minds eye. Trouble is, as always I seem to have an eye for expensive things. When I looked at the pricing I realised that a set of 19s would be setting me back somewhere around £4,000! As porntastic as they are, I just can't justify dropping that much on a set of wheels for the Z as it would be around 25% of the value of the car, not to mention almost half the cost of a supercharger! Will have to revisit in the future when I am (hopefully) running something a bit more exotic. In the meantime I am just going to leave these here. Mmmmmmmmmmm, they are so beautiful....
  24. So thats me finally up to date. I am off to Scotland for one final tour at the end of the month, then the season will truly be over. I have just replaced one of Michelin Pilot Super Sports at the back and put the spacers back on, then off for four wheel laser alignment and geo next week before I go. Then once autumn/ winter is upon us it will be time for a few upgrades ready for spring. Definitely want an oil cooler and looking at Mishimoto and Stillen options at the moment. Might also add a Mines rear lip spoiler and have been hankering after a set of black BBS CH-Rs with the polished rim. Will keep the thread updated as it all comes together.
  25. And lastly here are a few video clips of the Z doing drivebys on the home straight! All the videos open in 'mute' mode for some reason so you just have to click the sound item to switch the sound on! https://www.facebook...?type=3 https://www.facebook...?type=3 Oh and did I mention I got to drive the Gallardo Superleggera?! https://www.facebook...?type=3
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