Ekona

Sorry, I just meant that if I bought something that was missing some very tiny but critical parts, my first stop would be the manufacturers. If you weren't fitting it yourself, then you could just drop it off with a garage and let them deal with it. Failing that, exhaust paste would do the job too.

I won't buy BMW (Mini) again but that's because their customer service is crap. My Zed had a few parts break, so did my MR2, so did the 911, and my VXR220 left me stranded once. It happens. Ironically, when the 911 did let me down I had such good customer service that I would definitely buy another one because of that. All manufacturer's revise parts, the Japs do it as much as anyone. It's a good thing, as it shows that they're not just inserting crap and ignoring it. Don't kid yourself that a Lexus will never let you down: You could just have ended up with a Friday afternoon special 335i, and you could end up with another Friday special from Japan. Your car is also massively modified, you can't expect it to be 100% reliable. It's the price we pay for modding.

Take it back, get them to sort it.

Mid pipe to centre pipe will be a Nissan gasket, so try Nissan. Other one will be either OEM as well, or you could try Cobra themselves, or just take the thing to any decent exhaust place locally and get them to supply for a couple of quid. Very straightforward.

This. That chart is utter b*llocks. Repair costs and labour costs will of course be higher, they're premium makes for a reason! And as for the 'Time off the road' scale, I've never seen such utter gumpf in all my life. I have NEVER taken a car in and left it there for less than a day unless it's for an MOT, and although they'd have worked that out I'm guessing by dividing total ownership length with total time spent off the road, that's still massively misleading. £180 p/h for labour is a joke as well, you'd never be paying that, much like you'd never pay £150 p/h for a Honda. Buy a decent car, don't just buy the make. For all we know, more BMW and Jag owners are likely to kick up a fuss and complain, hence the skewed stats. Could well be true actually, as Civics are normally owned by old people bored of life who "don't want to bother any one, dearie". If you want an XE, then get an XE! Stupid chart is stupid.

My brother actually had to change arms from right to left because his right forearm was getting noticeable bigger than the left, due to the constant self-pleasuring. And no, I'm not making that up.

Not a huge difference between the 050As and the MPSS. The Michelins have more feel, so you actually have more confidence to push the car harder.

Bargain.

Huge wrists, though.

It's taught on the driving test, and it's in the Highway Code. There is zero reason to not be aware of it.

No, you can't do a straight swap with the s/c on the 2ZZ as it massively fouls the firewall. You need to do a fair bit of cutting to get it to fit, and in the end the Rotrex route is an easier one to take. Depends on condition, but I'd say around £2K would get you an average car in reasonable nick. You might pick up the bargain for a grand, or you might want to spend £4K and get a minter.

Nah, they only ever did the 140bhp 1ZZ and not the 190bhp 2ZZ, I guess due to cost reasons. The 2ZZ swap is very common now, quite cheap to do and ultra reliable, but getting hold of decent 2ZZ engines is proving a harder task now. The prices of them have gone up too, as now you've got moneybags Lotus owners wanting them as well.

I guess anything is possible, but 1ZZ gearboxes are so cheap that no-one's really bothered looking into it I think.

I took piano lessons as a kid, but cancelled them when I realised they clashed with Thundercats

Yup, spot on matey. The engines are pretty good for up to around 320bhp, but the gearboxes tend to go pop with the torque at that kind of level. I'll be keeping the power down to around 250, which will be safe enough.

That PRS is stunning in that colour I don't like Strats, so I'd probably get the PRS out of the two. If just for the colour.

Drift it like you stole it, bro

Wow, awful news, just glad your wife is okay. I take it the van wasn't indicating at all?! Berk.

Eeep, not good! Then again, if you're on cheaper road rubber (don't think you're on 888s yet, are you?) I guess that's not entirely surprising, especially if the car is moving around a lot.

Yup, you can do some looping with the 1000 on the fly which is a cool trick, it mucks my own timing up though so I don't use it often. I've played a couple of PRS guitars in the past, but tbh I didn't really get on with them. Tone was great, but there was something about the feel that didn't sit right with me, couldn't tell you exactly what though sadly. Just one of those feelings, y'know?

I'm still enjoying my Fender Mustang Cobain edition, bought early last year. Not sure it would work for you tone-wise, but the short scale neck makes it a breeze to zip around and the phase switches let you create some awesome sounds. I run it through a Digitech RP1000, and then through a red stripe Peavey Bandit 112. The pedalboard is a superb bit of kit, and allows me to go very easily between my own sound to massively overdriven tones back to twangy country stuff, or just to plain crunchy metal. I also own an SG as my other guitar, and that's a real nice bit of kit but the balance isn't for everyone as it's massively head-heavy. I had to sell my Riviera to fund the Mustang, which was a shame as that was a beautiful all-rounder.

People are 'tards.

Good post That's pretty much it, yeah. Do you guys not have to make compromises on a shared car with regards to setup?

When I had the VXR220: "Hi, nice looking car. Did you build it yourself?"