Ekona

Could well be, unlikely but not impossible good spot matey

I did wonder that. Whilst it's not impossible you saw one, I must admit I think it's very unlikely since it's literally only just been launched for the first time anywhere at a car show.

One's the concept. Or you've really missed the joke

GAIDMGLOL

I keep telling you people, no scrabble wagons!

Serious?! Well f*ck, I'm out then.

305bhp, 290ft/lb, £29K. And it looks like that. Where do I sign up? Seriously, I'd be very happy with that assuming it still has unequal headers.

Yeah, the 3S-GTE block is a little bit good at taking power. Bit heavy, but then it's an old engine so that's to be expected.

As in the ST205s?

Not big talk at all, in fact he didn't use a single capital letter

Don't go anywhere near the Alps, it'll be snow covered and you won't get any decent roads. Loads of great roads in France, or if you can get there then the N260 in northern Spain is amazing. No idea how that would sit with snow though this time of year, I know the French bit will be awful but the Spanish bit might be okay. Ferry across to Santander and go from there, or just drive all the way through France. May or may not help you?

Why do I never get these calls

That's very cool mate, nice one. I'm looking at replacing my wedding band at some point and that kinda thing appeals to me too, any ideas on cost?

Surely you just get your butler to do it, not that it would need doing anyway as the car is kept in a heated garage. We do all have butlers and heated garages on here, right?

Heh, that's one car I've got masses of experience with FSBs and flexing: I remember when I had my first one and had to take it off to get some extra bits in the front, ended up with chronic understeer and nearly put myself into the armco as I wasn't expecting it. Not fun.

Large capacity NA, allegedly. That's for this concept, though. Which looks great. Which means the final version will look nothing like this, if indeed it ever gets built.

Those wheels suit the blue well, don't they? I think I may have a set of gold ones from my old race car project somewhere, might need to fish them out... Well worth doing mate, it's amazing the difference a fully stripped interior can make to the car. So much lighter, so much noisier, it's brilliant!

So I did some work on the car over the last couple of weekends. First up was to decat it. Not for the noise (it's a four pot), not for the power (2bhp max?) but for the weight saving. It makes a massive difference losing a few kilos at the business end of the car in terms of handling, so it feel a lot looser at the back end now. Oo-er missus indeed. This was coupled with an overdue oil change, nothing fancy going in there just the regular Mobil cheapo Ford stuff they've got on special in Halfrauds. Interestingly, and other more knowledgeable folks out there may already know this, but it seem like there's only a couple of different types of oil filter thread out there across all cars, which means you just pick one that is the size you want. You can go larger for more capacity, or smaller to save money. I'm currently running one from a Honda Accord, and it fits perfectly! Decat was a bastard to do, as there are three studs on the exhaust manifold that are commonly referred to as The Three Amigos in MR2-speak, and they always seize up and snap. Mine was no different, so we had to remove the whole thing and drill the stud out. We butchered the threads doing so, and just about managed to get a stud back in hanging on a handful of threads right at the bottom. I wasn't happy with this, so I ordered a brand-new performance manifold from the US (it's a Che manifold, if that means anything to anyone) which solves the problem and should give me around 10bhp with the decat and the Cobra exhaust I'm running. Oooooh a whole 150bhp to deal with...! Next up was some serious surgery on the seats. The previous owner had fitted a Sparco Sprint V seat, the same as I ran in the MX5, however he hadn't done what I would class as a proper job at all. He'd basically drilled the aluminium floor pan, and bolted through using M6 bolts and washers to space where necessary (!). Seriously not good, and I wanted to sort something out properly before I drove it in proper anger. As such, I borrowed some 3mm steel sheet from a mate, and set about cutting some brackets to suit. One was easy as it now fits in the stock holes, the other was a faff as I had to drill through the floorpan again. This time however I used the sheet to create a sandwich of steel to stiffen everything up, and then layer it to get the correct height. It's worked beautifully, and the seat is now at a much better height and angle than before. I can put some runners on it if I want, and I do have a spare set indoors, but for now I'd rather stay a fraction lower than have the ability to adjust fore and aft. Best bit? I celebrated my handiwork by booking another trackday at Spa in March Just need to get her weighed now. Oh, and fit the iPhone mount and cigar lighter socket I've ordered. Guess I'd better fit the front strut brace that's coming tomorrow as well...

Y'know, I've only just got that joke there You may think your paint is smooth, but if you've never clayed then you ain't felt nothin' yet

Very, very sad

Were I not out this weekend, I'd have been on this for sure.

Seems reasonable enough, my own experience of the AD08s is limited so I'll gladly bow before you on this one

I've yet to race, however I've come close to doing so and it was purely funds that put me off. Myself and a mate were going to share a drive in the MR2 Championship, in a mk3 MR2. We bought the car, we sorted it out in terms of parts, and then we did the figures for the racing. By the time you add up accommodation and travelling costs, plus the entrance fees for the race, plus consumables (set of tyres and pads each race at least), plus budget for damage, plus a couple of track days for testing, we were looking at sums that were getting daft just to tick the 'I've done a race' box in our lives. You need to allow for all the time spent away at race meets as well as time working on the car too, and that's a lot of your year taken up. It's why I've started ploughing money into trackdays instead. I don't doubt it's not half as thrilling as racing, and yes it's something I still very much want to do at some point, but unless you've got a solid budget as well as the time then for me it was a non-starter. On the other hand, there's people like MrLizard who have had huge success and some cracking tales of racecraft in the recent past, and he will give you the other side of things.

For me, it's a straightforward case of this: 1. What are the monthly repayments? Are they affordable? 2. Does it have vaguely normal servicing requirements (i.e. not like Ferrari where it's £3K every 5000 miles)? 3. Do I really, really want it? That's all. I don't look any further than that, which means ignoring anything about depreciation or fuel costs or insurance. Driving is my hobby, my passion, and I have no qualms about spending obscene sums of cash on something that gives me so much fun. Some folks have nice houses and luxurious holidays: Me, I have my cars.