Ekona

Yeah, damn heavy those hoses

Bah, you suck

Cripes, I wouldn't buy an X5 of that vintage unless I had deep pockets just in case. Put it this way, you could easy double that £4K in the first year if something goes pop. I'd be looking at either a much cheaper and smaller 4x4 if you must, or a FWD car of some kind. Like my old favourite, a mk1 Focus.

OMG Road America now available as free DLC!!!

See, I find any non-M cars to be dull places to be, regardless of turbo and LSD (a car doesn't need one to be fun, y'know), and couldn't see a 135i of any power output this side of 500bhp to be fun. A good 1M yes, or the E46 M3, but not the shopping trolley models. Still great cars, don't get me wrong, but if I was buying as a fun car I'd want a little pizazz to go with the (probably) grey car.

I wouldn't say a 335 or 135 is either, but their on the OPs list regardless. Besides, he didn't ask for better!

Maybe I'm thinking of LPL, on second thoughts. Never tried LP, so apologies for any confusion.

RX8!

Lime Prime is fine for soft paint, it's as mild as anything, Unless you're polishing to remove defects, there's no need to clay or strip the wax off. Just wash and top up the wax, until you get to the point where you feel you need to start again (once a year should be enough).

If a 996TT doesn't excite you, I'm not sure what will. Granted, the interior is challenging, but the drive is immense. And the Mezger! Tiv Cerb? Get a sorted one and you'll be okay, at least as good as an E46 M3 in terms of costs at least.

<---- Essex, so might as well be

Whereabouts are you based? If you're local, I'll help you out if possible.

Might help if we knew which company... Also, I'd like to see them get the 14 days payment or interest thing past either the insurance or financial ombudsman. Not calling BS on it as I trust the source, but I wouldn't remotely worry about it.

Tbh, as long as you use a DA not an orbital then you'll find it almost impossible to make things any worse. They're safe as houses, unless you're a massive pillock. Which I assume you're not

The designer was colour blind. Or he only had a greyscale monitor. Or probably because those colours are cheap to produce and are the most common ones that people purchase.

You will have to tax on the 1st of March, else if you do it online after being SORN'd you'll find that it might want to get you to cough up for Feb. That's what I've read, anyway. Might well be wrong, never tried it myself. Go on the site and see what happens?

And I do like my black cars too!

Yeah, the hot start thing pretty much ties in with what I've read too. Ironically the bigger wheels of the R3 do put me off, as it just means more weight, a worse ride and more expensive tyres! If they're popular though I could sell them on to fund a different set. Uprated suspension and exhaust from OEM sound good in theory, but could I do better going aftermarket? I don't know.

Hmmm, that may make an R3 either the wise choice or I bank the cash and put it towards a rebuild...

Top stuff, thanks for that bud Disappointed to hear that corrosion may be an issue, I wouldn't have expected that on a 2000+ car. When you say they increased the oil flow on the R3 models, any ideas how? Just bigger pump matched with the bigger capacity, or any internal changes you know of to the block? I assume a larger oil pan is easy to fit anyway, so probably retrofittable. Looks like satnav was a rare option, which is good as it means I can install a new head unit to control that function too. Got a few months to go, and I still need to drive a 350Z again to confirm that I don't want one again, but I have to say I was incredibly taken with the '8.

N17 is a great song, too.

Heh, two different trains of thought there then! Neither are wrong I think, personal preference or choice of pad/polish can make a difference.

No, no need to wet them. Just do a '+' across the pad with whatever product you're using, splodge that across the panel, then start it off on the slowest speed and cover the entire panel with it. Then you can start working it properly.

Good link, thanks

Wow, that's great news. /sarcasm The idea of donuts, burnouts etc being seen as cool to do after a race is because you know you really shouldn't. By formalising that celebration they've effectively made it an incredibly uncool thing to do. Spontaneity > being allowed. So does this mean that Alonso is allowed to get flags again? Or does that not count? Once again, F1 is a million miles away from what the fans actually want.