Ekona

An alignment should really be one of those things that people get done on a yearly basis at least, if not every six months. I've got a specific set of figures I use for my alignments so I can get some particular handling characteristics out of the car, rather than just getting all the little markers in the green. Once you know how camber/toe/caster/thrust etc all work in relation to how the car feels on the road, you can absolutely transform a car with the right settings. I've had cars go from normal motorway plodders to nimble darty sportscars just by adjusting the suspension fractions of a millimetre.

You'd be best off on an open pit lane day where you can come and go as you please, and if you're that concerned about tyre wear either stick a new set on before you go or pick a 'proper' track as opposed to an airfield. If you go open pit then if you notice excessive tyre wear then you can back it off a touch without feeling like you're losing out too much. In all honesty though if it's your first track day and you're not going to spend all your time sideways then tyre wear will be almost unnoticeable across the tread, it'll be the shoulders you'll notice it but that can be minimised by keeping an eye on your pressures.

The V5 must be registered to the registered keepers name and address, otherwise you'd never get your tax reminder. Common sense surely dictates that much? Also refusing to go into the BiB car is just going to cause you to instantly fail the attitude test and isn't worth the bother. Even if there is only one of them they can make up any old story that they want, why would it be any different if it was two? It's actually more awkward with two of you as one would be relying on the other one to back him up and not drop him in it They should have no problem with you recording everything. If I were genuinely in the right then I'd ask them to write everything down on their notepad and we'd both sign it, if I didn't have a recording device on me. Again though, we're back to failing the attitude test in a big way. £30 is peanuts, consider it a lesson learnt to always have your paperwork in order.

They are stunning. Well, apart from the Zed logo which I hate, but the pattern and the colours are absolutely bang-on. Good choice sir

What do you want? f you want a roadster then don't settle for a coupe as you'll be tearing your hair out on those lovely summer days, but likewise if you're not bothered about dropping the roof then the coupe is the easy way to save a bit of cash. If the experience of driving a Zed is the most important thing, then get the convertible. I did. If the performance of driving a Zed is the most important thing, then get the coupe. It's a far tighter drive.

Except for today where the FI of Hulkenberg was top, you mean? Testing times mean absolutely squat, and it certainly seems this year that we have no idea how quick any of these cars are in relation to each other. Bring on the Aussie grand prix I say!

PSML Post of the year, right there.

Why? To reset the CEL and see if you've cleared the problem, or to see if any of the other free fixes work before you start spending big money. The question should be, why would you not do any of the stuff in the link above?

Perhaps also worth mentioning that if you do have a mis-hap on the Ring, you're potentially going to lose far more than just the car: At best you'd have damage to the scenery which I believe sits in the thousands of Euros range per section right now, and at worse you could have hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of liability towards others if you manage to take them out as well, given that you'll have no insurance for the Ring. What I'm really getting at is that trying to save a few £K in case of an incident at the Ring is really a drop in the ocean compared to what the actual bill will be if you do have an incident, and as such you'd be better off just driving it in something you enjoy and just accept that if something bad happens, you're screwed. If you're that worried, an even better option would be to trade down to something still fun like the Zed, and use the spare cash left over to hire something from RSR and use that to drive round the Ring in. You've still got excesses to pay if you get it wrong, but at least you're limited as to how much you could have to pay if the worst comes to the worst. I personally wouldn't consider swapping cars just to drive the Ring.

Which 996? S or non-S? 2 or 4? I wouldn't go from a 911 of any sort to a 350Z personally, but if financial needs must then it's a fine car. It'll take Ring bashing happily, but don't expect it to be much cheaper to run than a 996 as long as you stay well clear of OPC prices. A Zed coupe will feel a lot more taught than a 996 cab when driven hard though.

I wouldn't drive on a repaired tyre, full stop. Never, ever on track.

No probs

Just search the web and buy the most expensive Karcher you can afford. Tbh though even the basic one will do you fine. I've got one sat in the shed, I don't even use it to wash the cars any more. Only does the patio once a year, bit of a waste really.

EML isn't connected to the remap, it's just a diagnostic light, so the map will stay regardless of how many times you set the light on or off.

I'll be honest, you're really going to struggle on that budget.

God didn't let us invent the combustion engine just so we could carry on walking. Get in and drive, don't listen to these tree hugging hippies.

Ignoring the fact that anyone who WRITES ALL IN CAPITALS is automatically a *****, that line made me giggle as he clearly has no idea what he's talking about

Congrats dude, well chuffed for you all

Never heard of them myself, doesn't mean they're not good though. For stuff like trailers I'd either want a personal recommendation or to see them in person beforehand, they're a bit of a trek from you though. I've used Wesbroom Engineering for trailers myself in the past before, very old school set up but very friendly and fantastic quality gear, they may not be the cheapest or even close to you at all but they are very, very good

There is no specific law on wheels as there is on tyres, however you may fall down under whether your vehicle is fit for use on the public roads and the many penalties attached to that.

Italian eh? Speak very loudly, very quickly and wave your hands around a lot like you're questioning everything. You'll be fluent in no time!

Blimey, now we're going back! My first wage was just under £100pw working in a restaurant, so when I ditched that to take up a plumbing apprenticeship it doubled to £200pw back in 1999 which as a 19 year old felt like I'd won the lottery! I think you've got the right idea tbh mate, doing less work for a sensible pay rather than chasing all the cash in the world but having to work the hours for it.

Funny PC Format gets mentioned, I used to be the top poster on their forums until I got temp banned for calling someone a c*nt, even though they were and they'd deleted the entire database. A group of us disbanded and ran off to set up our own forums without any rules at all, which is still going strong long after the PCF forums have been swallowed up into whatever Future are doing now. /reminisces I gave up on building PCs years ago. My time is worth more to me than I can save by self-building, and I'd much rather have a warranty and be able to throw stuff back at the manufacturer to make them fix it if it breaks. I used to spend a fortune on PCs and gaming: I had one of the original FX5800 (the hoover!) cards, then I went SLi and thought nothing of spending £1K in one go on two cards. These days I couldn't care less about PC gaming as it's still shockingly fussy to get stuff working so I spend my cash on consoles for the games and just run a fairly basic PC setup for interwebs and PS. I say basic, it's still a 960 i7 with a shedload of RAM and decent HDs, but it's now running whatever crappy nVidia card it came with just to power the monitor. It's also housed in the most basic case I could get, as I don't care what the box looks like any more: Those days of cutting windows into the side of the case are long gone for me!

Best get this thing rolling then, yes? The reason for the delay on this has been because Squee has been incredibly awesome and made up a t-shirt for Zedley, so I've been waiting for that before starting his adventures. It came on Friday, so I'm only going to do a quick update here from myself before sending him onwards to his next home! So, without further ado, it's over to Zedley himself... "So you've already seen some pictures of me naked, which I find almost as disturbing as people pretending to write as a toy monkey, but now I've got a proper sexy t-shirt from the wonderful Squee I'm far warmer. It does get a bit cold outside when some idiot decides to do the obligatory car shots in the middle of February... Apparently the first car has the engine in the wrong place, the second one has a massive ironing board on the back and the third regularly gets covered in sh*t. Ace! I reckon the blue one is the manliest. All real men should have manly trucks like that. Back indoors in the warm, and apparently this is what is known as a 'Zelda': It kept licking my face. Honestly, I think that's a bit forward for a first date, so I think I'll be glad to leave before I get sneakysneakybumtimed one night. Onto far more appropriate things, TOYS! Lego space shuttle, and a small taster of a model car collection. Apparently Dan buys one every time he does a Le Mans trip, at least he does when not being pulled over and having his licence confiscated for speeding. Tut tut! And finally, this is me posing on a drum kit, which is all Dan is allowed until the next house move due to the proximity of the neighbours. Doesn't stop him cranking up the amps when playing the guitar and bass though, but they're apparently considered slightly more sociable. Slightly. I have also been told to point out that the room is painted in Gulf colours, and that it's the actual Pantone match. Yeah, I think he's a sad b*stard as well. Time for me to head off tomorrow to my next owner, so before I leave here is the obligatory pic of me with the sad b*st... I mean with Dan. See you soon!" Bye Zedley, see you in a few months! You try taking a self-pic with a frickin' monkey perched on your shoulder, see how cool you look!

Did you know there were cameras on the M25 before they flashed at you?