Ekona

Which weigh less with tyres? Bearing in mind if you want to upgrade the brakes to Brembos in the future these won't fit under the 17" wheels though.

Does anybody else want to tell him, or should I? Only kidding mate, it's good to hear she's appreciated for the work she does

No, I meant the F1. The one with the BMW V12. Nothing to do with Mercedes at all.

Apart from the F1 you mean?

Chris is as honest as they come. It's why he constantly gets slated for liking Pork, as well as being firmly off Ferrari's Christmas card list. He's got enough kudos now to say what he thinks, even if it's not really what he should be saying.

So, where do I stand with this now? In a much better position, is the short answer. The MOT was passed second time round, and the welding work to the sills was done very well. There's still a bit more starting to creep through, but I'm going to strip back and undersell the rest to hopefully protect it. I may be fighting a losing battle on this, and if I see another year out of the car I think I'll have done well, but we'll see. I gave up on trying to fit the Cobra seats I had as it was going to prove both too expensive and give a compromised driving position in the car, so I've taken a slightly different route. Okay, so this route actually cost me more but at least I can sit comfortably in the car! I've now got a Sparco Sprint V seat in the, on some custom side mount brackets that fit the stock mountings. I'm much lower, much more supported, and I've plenty of room for adjustment so a good result really. I've also had the alignment now done at Blackbootshe/Wheels In Motion/Atomic Wheels in Milton Keynes on recommendation. I asked them for a pointy nose and a lively rear, and that's exactly what I've got. They've done wonders, and despite me not being a drifter at all, on a drive out this morning early door I was able to string a couple of 90deg corners together with relative ease. There's perhaps a little too much understeer still, but it's far more controllable than it was before. Sadly the oil leak has become two oil leaks. Both front and rear crankshaft seals appear to be letting by which is frustrating. The front just needs the rad removing to gain access, but the rear needs the entire gearbox off. Neither are horrendous right now, so I'm going to see if they can wait until I can source a lightened flywheel to make the process really worthwhile doing. Unfortunately, my tyre experiment is a resounding failure. I put super cheaply crap on the with the intention of wearing them out pretty quick on track, but I'm finding myself really missing the security of decent grip in the wet. They do allow the car to move around, which was also an intention of fitting them, but they have a tendency to roll around on the tread locks too which is horrible. I can't wait to kill them off and put something better on there, although I'm not sure what right now. There's a distinct lack of decent 14" tyres out there, and while the R888s are an obvious choice they're just going to be too sticky for what I want the car to be. Despite that, the drive this morning was the most fun I've had in a car in a long time. Genuinely, my MX-5 is more fun than the 911, which is both a very good and a very bad thing!

It was 20mm, but it's more than enough to completely change the balance of the car. Do the same on the Zed and it's a 40mm difference. The Zed doesn't understeer because of the tyre sizes, it understeers because of the standard alignment settings. If you alter them out of the Nissan settings, you get a much more fun car. There's a lot of weight over the front too, so you also need to balance the weight as you enters corner to get a good turn in. Apologies for the late replies (!), only just seen them.

It's completely offensive. Someone needs to tell McLaren and Ferrari that sometimes it's okay to turn down money when people want to build things that look horrendous.

I miss Le Mans

Disconnect the throttle switch in the footwell and see what happens.

Z4 isn't even close when it comes to handling. Might as well put a TT in there if we're just playing the numbers game and ignoring what makes a decent handling car.

They do make a lovely noise though Certainly a much riskier route than the Zed, and I'd definitely rather take the Zed over a TVR too.

Heaven forbid I should correct something that was wrong. What on earth was I thinking?

I'd use it, no probs. I've got existing clay that's been opened for about that long that I still use. It's still in good nick as it's never done a seriously dirty car, so I've no fear of it adding other scratches.

The whole point of the comparison is that the three cars chosen are what people are comparing the GT86 to on many a forum. Every time we, as car nuts, go shopping for a new car we always have the choice between a used bargain or something brand new, so it's a perfectly fair comparison. Your examples miss the point as they're an incredibly capable executive saloon, an all-round 4-seater superstar, and a bonkers 4WD mentalist. None of them are 2-seater sports coupes, and believe me when I say the two seats in the back of the 86 are purely to tick a box, much like they are on the Evora. You would never get a person in them if someone is in the seat ahead. Not sure how the R35 compares in those terms though, but the turbocharged engine and 4WD trickery push it out of the direct rival option IMHO. All three cars in this video are perfectly usable every day, what I believe Chris was aiming at is which one is the most fun to drive.

So buy one that's only done 30K for £30K. It's a fairer comparison that way too

He has a 997.1 C4S, that's got 355 bhp (more likely a bit over, Porkers always make more than standard figures).

It does on a desktop, not on mobile. Worked first time on my PC, didn't on my iPad.

What time? Can't be arsed to sit through 4 and a half minutes of that.

Kinda what I was thinking. Lose the rear seats, remove the silly intake pipe noise (easy to do, I found the correct pipe under the bonnet ), sort the sat nav out and I'd have one.

I use the latter, and without hockey pucks too. I don't trust the ratchet ones, too much to go wrong. The simpler the better really when it comes to things like this.

I drove the GT86 again today. Some more thoughts on it: It's better to drive than I remembered. Being chucked the keys sans salesman automatically makes it better, but being able to take a few more liberties with the VSC off really opens the car up. It's actually far more capable of being lively than I was brave enough to try before, and when the missus is moaning at you in your ear you know you're doing it correctly. The balance and flow is pretty damn good if I'm honest, and I may have been too harsh in my previous words. In fact, I'd go as far to say it was one of the most fun drives I've had in recent memory. If you're proper brave with the throttle, then you can dial in as many degrees as the road allows and hold it there. It's a serious delight. I gelled a lot more with the gearbox too this time, and it's almost identical to the other half's Impreza. On the other side, the interior is much worse than I recall. The plastics on the door near the A-pillar look like they've already seen 40K worth of miles, in a car that's barely seen 1400. That is atrocious, and the gutless engine still doesn't give you any impetus to rag it hard except the knowledge that the car will plod along if you don't. The standard audio is worse than the one in my Transit, and there's either far too much middle at low volumes or it's too bright and bassy when you crank it up. That's after playing with the equalizer, too. The more I drove it, the more I liked it. It's a car for a proper driver, for someone just like me, but the state it's available in now simply isn't acceptable. If it was sub-£20K then it would be a bargain, or in base-tuner form like they get in Japland for £14K then you wouldn't worry about a bit of crap trim or a rubbish stereo. As it stands, for £28K it's simply far too expensive for what it is. When even the other half, who although drives a 330bhp Impreza STi doesn't particularly like fast cars, says that it's too slow and she wouldn't want one, you have to wonder if the party trick of the car is going to be missed by the vast majority of people. The vast majority who Toyota would like to sell the car to.

wash your mouth out your dirty man! Its a beautiful sounding engine! It's really not, especially stock. Not in comparison to the grumbly roar of the M97 in the OPs 911. It's not bad at all, it's just not as good. Both are excellent in the grand scheme of things. Worse than 15mpg??? Unless your on a track I don't think anyone would be seeing less than 15mpg in a zed. Most are well into the mid to high 20 mpg's. Mine was at 24mpg over a full 12 months......... My bad, I didn't see where he wrote 15mpg It'll be the same then, as 15mpg on a 997 is a car that's being used properly, and if you use the 350Z in the same fashion the fuel economy will be at those levels, if not a tad lower. I am indeed, I get around everywhere, no-one can ever get shot of me! 0-60 isn't a reasonable comparison really as Tain says, because it's when you get moving that the extra shove really comes into play. Look at the 30-100 times for both cars and there will be a significant difference, and the 911 will keep pulling where the Zed has stopped. I had 140mph out of my Zed at the back straight of the Ring and it simply stopped pulling, but my 911 will see 170mph and still be tugging onwards. Again, I'm not trying to wee on fried potatoes here, as the Zed is more than enough for the roads in the UK. It's more that to try and say that the performance is roughly the same simply isn't true. 2nd on a 309HR is still quick, it's just not as mind-bendingly quick as the 997. It will definitely pin you back in your seat though, and more importantly put a smile on your face. If anything it's a more rev-happy engine than the M97, which makes it seem quicker than it actually is.

Rather that than the Scirocco R, good shout