Ekona

What mileage? Must be stratospheric for the car to be for sale at £30K. The running costs on a £100K+ car are going to be insane, warranty or not. Service has got to be around £1000 for starters, then there's pads and discs and all the other bits that'll need doing... If you need to ask the question, then you probably can't afford it. Personally I'd rather have a 996 C2S than a turbo for the more involving drive, or even better a 993.

Mocking the interior of another car when you own a Zed? Glass houses, stone throwing and all that I'd happily live with an Audi interior over a BMW or Merc one any day. Those latter two just leave me utterly cold (new Z4 excluded, I really like the inside of that).

Ah, the infamous TMS dyno. Probably was about 17bhp in reality, given how notoriously dodgy their dyno is (strapping down of the VX tubbies and all that!)

:bye: Ex-owner of VXR no.20 here, used to post over on VX220.org too and even went to the National meet at Anglesey a couple of weekends ago and drove my old car round the track, thanks to the current owner who I sold the car to! TMS stage 2, few other bits and pieces but nothing else really outrageous, loved the car to pieces at the time but could never go back now.

I really like the Corsa VXR as it does exactly what it's supposed to: Look like it's doing a million miles per hour whilst standing still, be more than quick enough for the kind of person who's going to buy it, be cheap enough to buy and run that it won't bleed you dry, and be solid enough that it won't fall apart. It's a pretty decent drive too. It's just a shame that the Meriva and Zafira absolutely killed the VXR brand dead in the water, as it had such a promising start and could've become Vauxhall's RS/Nismo/AMG. /bitter ex-VXR220 owner

In all honesty it's unlikely most of us will keep the Zed long enough for the tiny differences in fuel to make any difference to our cars whatsoever. Put in whatever you want, drive as hard/soft as you like and revel in the fact you're driving one of the finest sports cars of the last decade

Waaaaaay down in Essex so couldn't be much further really

Got any pics of the y-pipe then? Would be interested to see how close it looks to my ESR one.

Looks like mild steel mid-pipe to me, can't comment on the y-pipe as I can't see it but bet it's mild too. Looks to be a top quality job, although I personally don't like the look of those rear silencers but that's just my taste. You done well there fella!

Tuning really isn't that difficult at all, as all you're doing really is adding/removing fuel where necessary to maintain the correct AFR and then advancing/retarding the timing to make the power you want. Obviously there's more to it when you start playing with cam timing and valve overlap, but that's the basics. I'm not sure what a course like that would really give you other than a chance to get a bit hands-on with an engine that isn't yours and the lack of worry that comes with it, but I know a few people now who have tuned their own car (using either a PFC or an EM) and had great success with it. It's something I'd consider trying in the future if I manage to find the spare time.

S'okay, I think it looks as ugly as sin too. Both the 360 and 430 weren't pretty cars either, but I had expected more from their replacement as the 599 is a very good looking car. I'm holding back my full wrath until I can see the car in the flesh as it's quite possible it will look far better there, as the shape is very similar to an Evora and that's gorgeous in the metal.

I'd say no. We all know that it's an engine with less miles on but there's still that nagging doubt that says if it's had a new engine then what else has/is going to go wrong? You'll lose about £1K off the value of the car I would imagine, and vastly limit the people who will buy the car. Given the choice of two cars, both identical except one has lower mileage but a replacement engine, most people (including me) would go for the one untouched.

I'll wave at anything and everything that's decent. Almost all softtops will get a wave if they have the roof down, anything British and sporty (think TVRs, Caterhams and Lotuses), even a Clio 172/182/197/ will get a wave if the driver looks like he's out for a bit of fun and not a complete chav. Got and gave a decent nod from a Z4M coupe the other day on the A120, made my day that did.

Nope, does nothing for me. On a Murci yes, on a Zed no: The car is simply too fat to suit the satin/matt style finish.

The car is worth what, £15K at least, and you want to be putting on £40 worth of cheap-ass eBay tat on the most important part of it? I can understand saving money where possible, but it's a got a thumping great 3.5L V6 so a couple of hundred quid on intakes pales into insignificance when you think about how much the fuel is going to cost you

Was the demo car white then? If so, I'd never have ordered a car without seeing if they'd got the colour match any closer. That said, I wouldn't have ordered the car full stop without seeing what the colour looked like in the flash anyway. Go with your gut. Red is also a really boring colour, so at least you didn't pick that first (or silver!).

Netgear, Netgear, Netgear. I personally wouldn't touch anything else, although this free black thing from Sky I'm using now isn't actually too bad either to be fair to it. Are you connecting via wires or wirelessly?

Must admit I'm not entirely sure why everyone has jumped on him for shifting at the redline in first either: As long as the car is warm first, then there's no issue at all. I wouldn't do it every single time, but every now and then won't hurt the car. It's a sports car after all, not a people carrier.

Snake oil. Utter garbage, and would do far more harm than good were you to actually ever fit one.

Synthetic leather is horrible, tacky, sweaty, ugly, cheap, nasty, thin and makes it look like you don't love your car at all. Think that covers it.

I loved mine on the VXR220, made me feel far more in touch with the car although it did get a bit frustrating trying to reach for the stereo

Any chance of adding the reg plate of the car and name of the place to the thread title, just to help anyone in case they try and go through the same thing as you?

I could barely manage enough enthusiasm to get halfway through the SP game before I gave up and realised what an utter travesty this was compared to the first one (which wasn't actually that great either, come to think of it), so how you've been brave enough to stomach it for that long is beyond me!

Put it this way, running the Zed without any exhaust in place at all but still with the stock cats on is exactly the same volume as having the K1 fitted, just a different tone. Without any cats at all it would be impossibly loud and you'd get stopped by the police within minutes (and rightly so IMHO). Either get a K2 exhaust and decat or go K1 and leave the stock cats in. I would go for the latter, as otherwise you're going to be swapping your cats/decat pipes over twice a year for the MOT.

Best way to go IMHO. Leave the Rays on all the time unless going to a show, not a bad idea at all that. *steals idea*