Ekona

30mph in 6th is pushing it, any acceleration and the engine labours like buggery which isn't good. It will take it though. I used to stick to the old 'one gear for every 10mph' rule and it never saw me wrong. It's one thing to potter around in 6th at 30mph for fuel consumption purposes, but it's bad driving practice as you can then leave yourself in a situation when you really need a quick blast of acceleration to get yourself out of a pickle.

Yup, or 15 kg or nearly two and a half stone in other money. It's also unsprung weight, which makes far more difference to the handling than sprung weight

Clicky

600rpm seems a tad low but I don't think it's anything to worry about really. Anywhere between 600-800rpm is fine.

Gloves? When working on a car? - 10 manliness - 5 testosterone level + 5 big girly woofter

Unless you have access to a wind tunnel or some serious track time and datalogging equipment, you'll never really know exactly what wing size you need for high-speed. Also worth bearing in mind that they're needed to generate downforce through a high-speed corner, not just a straight line: Look at the Veyron when it goes into it's max speed mode, all spoilers stay firmly down and it drops itself to the floor. That's what you're after for high speed stability in a straight line.

Road surface, tyre pressures, tyre tread, crosswinds etc. Loads of variables really.

@Mike: See, I tried waiting a day or two and then putting some Red Mist on but it just didn't give a good result for me at all, and my bottle of RM is now consigned firmly to the window cleaning section of my washing tray! I much prefer the Last Touch stuff as a pure QD, which I admit I've never tried using post-wax. I think I'll give that Blackfire stuff a go, I need to order some more clay anyway so I can combine the two. I suspect a big issue is that I've never owned a black car before, and I wonder if my technique was fine for the blues and reds I've had before, but needs improving on black where every little detail shows.

Tbh the Zed's got pretty bad understeer from the factory too, but then 95% of cars do as the manufacturers have no idea if they're selling to someone who can drive or a complete numpty, so they dial in the understeer on purpose as it's the safer option. When cars go out to test days for the media they'll set the cars up far more neutrally for better write-ups, or in the case of Clarkson they'll set it up for massive oversteer. Any car with a huge engine up front is going to have issues with understeer if you don't get the weight transfer correct during cornering.

I don't use any QD after waxing, only when the car is wet to aid with drying. The wax is the last thing to go on.

Sorted! Clicky clicky Aside from that, I'd still go for a 335i/d. You need to go and drive one before completely ruling them out, they're brilliant and so capable.

I've noticed recently that I'm having a couple of issues with my general car cleaning and would appreciate any help you guys can offer. A regular routine for me would be wash with DJ BTM using the TBM, rinse with open hose, quick spray of Last Touch QD, dry, then a single coating of Swissvax Zuffenhausen if the car needs it. The car is then put into the garage (concrete floor, brick walls, timber roof) where it's left overnight at a minimum, usually a week or more. 1st issue, and I suspect the easiest to solve as I think I already know the answer, is that when I remove the car from the garage afterwards the paintwork seems slightly hazy still. A wash or so later without a wax and it seems fine. My guess is that either I'm applying too much wax or I'm not removing it properly, but given the cost of the wax and how tight I am I'm fairly sure I'm not applying too much! Not impossible though. Could it be anything else though? 2nd issue is a bit weirder. Imagine you've got a perfectly clean car, and you slightly overspray some QD on the odd panel but you don't notice it. You put the car away for a few days, then take it out and notice these darker wet patches on the paint that QD can leave (completely different to leaving water on the panel). Well, I tend to get this on the car in random places, but mostly on the top of the wheelarches but slightly ahead of the middle of the wheel. However, so as that's not too misleading I do get these marks on the bonnet, the engine lid, sometimes on the doors etc. There's seems to be no logical placing of the marks. This can happen after a clean + wax or just after a clean, and it's not every time. A quick wipe down with some QD and a microfibre gets rid of them with minimal effort, but I'd rather prevent them in the first place. It's not me over spraying QD on the car either, as they can occur when I've not even used any, not even in the drying phase. Could it be random condensation going from a warm outside to a cold garage? Or something else? I'll take any ideas on this one! As always, any comments are appreciated.

Ghetto engineering at it's finest, good work

I'If you really want a product that cleans everything out, get yourself a can of 10K Boost (available from Halfrauds). Comes in a spray can and you inject it directly into the intake post-MAF (so very easy to do on a Zed) whilst someone sits in the driver seat and puts some mild revs on the engine. You'll be amazed at the amount of black crap that flies out of the exhaust!

Plenty of equally valid points, but let's calm the posturing a bit chaps. A quick Google will give you plenty of positive reviews on the stuff so I'm fairly convinced it's not going to damage your engine, and tbh it's probably just a different mix of the usual kerosene/random additives that you get in any other engine/injector cleaning stuff. Worth a punt I reckon.

They. Are. Vile.

Cheap, powerful, quality. Pick two. If it's a faster car you're after then I'd sell the Zed, put the £5K into the same pot and then just buy something faster in the first place.

Private industrial estates are still counted as public access, so any speeding or dangerous driving can and will attract the local Plod. Not passing judgement, just trying to help you out. There are exceptions of course, but you'd need to have some very secure access barriers to make it any different, MoD is a good example.

EBC discs are awful. They really need to spend as much cash developing their range of discs as they have into their pads, which are actually pretty good now.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Unless you're good at it, in which case it becomes the most powerful weapon in a lexical ninja's arsenal. Tbh I'm pretty impressed with the way this thread has gone, this kind of thing normally goes downhill very quickly and had I gotten here earlier I'd probably have locked it after the first post to stop it getting out of hand. Credit where credit's due folks, you can behave yourselves when everyone's away

I wouldn't upgrade the rears alone as you'll adversely effect the braking bias of the car, so either stick with stock replacements or go for something like the DBA + DS2500 pads all round

Not really, because pics won't tell me what number VXR out of the 66 it was (unless you've got one of the interior plate) and it definitely won't tell me who did the upgrade bits on it

Do not speed anywhere, they can fine you 750EU on the spot and take your licence away. /VOE Remember the speed limit drops when it's wet, and that means if it's even a fraction damp on the road nt just if it's physically raining.

Stuarty, which number VXR did you have? Thorney or Courteney for the mods? Also, this thread has a remarkable amount of fail in it at points.