Ekona

So yesterday I was at Bruntingthorpe at VMax Hammer, and never having been before I didn't really know what to expect. What I found was basically a load of proper petrolheads without an ego between them, and some of the nicest metal I have ever seen in the flesh having the balls driven off it. My personal favourite was the 599 GTO that turned up, the sound was utterly incredible: Noisiest thing by far, but what a noise! Anyhoo, obviously I managed to get a good few runs in, but as daft as it sounds high speed in a straight line isn't as easy to accomplish as you think it would be. I've driven at pace on many circuits and always felt comfortable, but even I found myself lifting off well before the timing beams on the first couple of attempts without even realising it, and I was peaking at around 165mph in the morning. Jo had a couple of goes after me and managed to hold her nerve better and pushed the car into the 170mph bracket which I was so proud of her for, although she did then rib me in front of complete strangers about it I did pick my speeds back up in the afternoon though and by the end I was very comfortable holding the go pedal right down from much earlier until right past the timing beams, but it was also a good day to try out the launch control function over and over and over again. I didn't always get it right though: I ever so slightly lifted the accelerator just before the go, and the whole thing cancelled itself but it still said LC Active in the display so I lifted off the brake and just sat there! Didn't matter in the end as the way to get the top speeds is to let the other person go so you can get a clear run at the corner at the bottom, so I actually got a pretty good number on that run. That GTR was absolutely immense all day. I did on occasion get the launch very much spot-on though, and the power and flexibility of the 997.2 C2S PDK is really shown in this next video. The car I'm up against is the almighty Ruf Yellowbird, so you know how powerful and quick that car actually is, but keep watching after we take the bend and start coming back up, and who pulls out on who: Okay, so once he got in his stride he breezed past me as you would expect, but I would never have given my car a chance against a legend like that from lower speeds. As far as the experience from inside the car goes, I guess the best way to show it is just to show it, and yes it is that bumpy! Shame the angle wouldn't let us film the digital speedo, but you can see the dial to the left of the rev counter well up near the top. Just an amazing experience all round, and I can see why people go there regularly with all sorts of modified stuff trying to beat their previous best. Car of choice seemed to be 996 + 997 Turbos, although the GTO and the 430 Scud (as shown in the video above) were fairly brutal too, and the various Audi turbo nutter barge cars were just completely insane. There was a chap there in his Atom who hit 155 every single time as he was bang into the limiter halfway up the runway! I guess I was most impressed about the 911 overall, as it took a serious pounding all day and not once did it moan or grumble, or even force me to stop doing the runs as it was overheating. The power was there every time, the gearbox seemed to enjoy the launches as much as me, and the brakes didn't have a hint of noise or fade about them despite the repeated stops from 170mph+ down to 30mph, and they have some serious stopping power too. A very enjoyable day, and I'll definitely do another one at some point. Top speed from me for the day? 176mph, which I'm very happy with. Top speed overall was a 997 3.9 GT2 with 206mph I believe

Do the ARBs and get the full set of Summit bracing on there, I guarantee that will solve your issues

Not being funny, but that's the wrong way to go about things. As was pointed out to me a while back, trackdays are under a very real threat of being stopped as the NIMBYs get all excited about a bit of noise, and the less ammo we can give them as trackday goers the better. You'd never notice 10bhp less when on track, nor particularly care, but if by putting bungs or silencers on it means that there is nothing for whingers to complain about then that's what we all should be doing. Yes, we all love it when cars are loud and I'm as big a fan as any, but when you've got your helmet on you can't hear naff-all anyway so you might as well quieten it down and help make sure that there will be trackdays for many years to come. There's no prizes for having the loudest car on a day, but there is a very real penalty if we all look at it that way.

Folks, these are an absolute must-buy, especially at this price

For people who haven't heard a K1 in person, to give you an idea of just how vocal it can be when I was installing my one I ran the engine with just the cats on for a laugh, and giggled as it was monstrously loud. I then finished fitting the y-pipe and K1 and started her up, and it was no quieter than when there was nothing on there cat-back! All the K1 does is add tone, whether or not it's a likeable one is very much up for debate /slightly_off_topic

Nah, he's just not pushing hard enough to know the difference The VUS give you so much more feel than the PS2s, that's what makes them so confidence inspiring. You will go quicker on the PS2s, but it takes a lot of nerve to know you can go faster rather than rely on the feedback.

Completely unused? I'd say about £400 for the wheels and £650 for the tyres, assuming RE050As.

Throttle response is marginally better with them out, but it's only a tiny difference and not worth risking a trackday over.

You'll be fine there, I've never been myself but I can't imagine any of the RAF bases being particularly fussy over stuff like that: Certainly Woodbridge were fine when I did a day there, and even asked me if I wanted to take the bungs out for extra power!

I can see this getting a bit out of hand very quickly here, so I'll do a pre-emptive lock. To the OP se350z, please don't take this thread the wrong way, it's all been pretty good natured and although many people here own their Zeds just for the styling purposes, even the most hardcore modder wouldn't dream of putting fake NOS purge kits (for that's what you're after) on their car as it's a little bit... how can I put this... tasteless? That said, if it's what you want to do then go ahead, if you Google the term you should find what you need.

With the bungs in you should be well under the 105dB mark, I was every time when I tracked mine. With them out you'll be very close and I wouldn't risk it. The only other thing is the drive-by (if they have a limit for that) as the K1 is noisy for that regardless of bungs, but the worst places are Bedford and Goodwood and you probably wouldn't pass the static for either place anyway. Where were you thinking of going?

I humbly apologise my friend. My first post was actually just me being helpful, that's why I put the smiley at the end. My next one was a jokey ribbing hence the laughing smiley which I hoped you'd take in good jest, but clearly not. For the future, maybe if you actually try asking the question you want the answer to in the original post then you may actually get the correct answer, rather than a few answers you see as sarcastic. Blimey, there's no helping some people.

If it was only the conversion ratio you were concerned with why didn't you just Google it?!

I really like it, but the Z needs to be black too for that oh-so-subtle look IMHO.

As above, if that's what the sticker says then that's what you put in

Brilliant, so the guy makes an honest mistake and the vultures jump, and then when he refunds people as soon as he possibly could said vultures then get the hump and try to take the bloke for all he's got. Sorry folks, but that's utterly disgusting behaviour. By all means take a punt in the first place on the off chance, but don't then get all high and mighty and We-should-make-ebay-rape-his-wallet as that really isn't cricket. Appreciate it's not everyone being like that, but I'm really surprised by the attitude of some people. /rant off

You know this is going to be awful and kill all fond memories of the original though. I was a huge fan back in the day as a metal-loving teenager, but you should never revisit stuff from the old days.

As always chaps, these videos are the equivalent of Top Gear and should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. They're entertaining but nothing more.

Of course it is, and that's true. That's also why they come back the next year and work harder (hopefully) to get the trophies. Playing pretty football is all well and good, but I'd rather see long-ball and have a few trophies than loads of intricate passing and nothing to show. Also Highbury was rubbish and although it was a shame they made it into flats (and it's very weird walking past them now), the Emirates is a wonderfully modern stadium that is the nicest I've ever been to. Just a shame that 90% of the crowd are so utterly silent, the club and ground deserve more support. On a side note, I notice that we're now selling Gradel as well so that's him, Kilkenny, Schmeichel, and Johnson all out the door this year. We've got naff-all up front as everyone's injured, can't stop shipping goals, and struggling for form big-time. Oh, and we've Man Utd next in the Carling Cup. Brilliant. I reckon you Gooners have got it easy compared to us.

I was thinking that, but didn't want to be shouted down by the hordes who think that a Zed should always be worth at least £27K. I would suggest doing what Lexx says and scan PH and AT for ideas of the market, but always stick to your guns if you believe you can get a better figure for it in your area.

That'll be quite difficult to do from the Championship Wenger is a great manager and has had some great success, but the truth is his Plan A is no longer working and there is no Plan B. He's picked up some great players and some true duffers, but then so has every single manager ever. The sad thing is though that Arsenal might as well stick with him as there's no-one else out there, unless O'Neill feels like giving it a go. Man Utd's debt is completely manageable as long as they stay successful, and the same is true with Barca and Real. I'm a Leeds man so no-one knows the pain of mismanagement of finances more than me and my club, but I wouldn't have traded those glory days in Europe playing some fantastic football for anything.

+ millionty Even if you just change the gear knob in your car, tell your insurer. The worst they can do is laugh at you and tell you they don't care.

The worrying part is that they also had players like Walcott, RvP, Rosicky and Arshavin on the pitch who aren't exactly kids any more! Made me laugh this morning watching an interview with Wenger who said that they are just about to sign another striker so don't panic Someone really needs to tell him that it's a back four and a midfield who can hold onto the ball that he could do with more than anything. Paul Merson in the TV box after the game was absolutely livid with rage, and rightly so. Speaking of pundits, that was the first time I'd seen Gary Neville in his new role and I have to say that he was excellent, as despite him obviously having a Utd bias (and fair enough too) it didn't come through in the slightest, and his commentary was both informed and fair. Tbh this title is as good as Utd's again. City will fall away once the pressure of playing in the CL hits home, especially if they make the final stages, and Chelsea still don't seem the powerhouse they should be and I suspect it'll take AVB a while to gel the team how he wants it. Whether he gets the time or not is another matter. Liverpool look strong and are playing well but I'm not sure what will happen once/if Suarez gets injured: He could be their next Gerrard in both quality and talisman.

I've still got the iPad as for the moment that's what I use to play music on the downstairs stereo, streamed via Airtunes from the PC upstairs and I know of no other way to do that as easily right now (any pointers on doing this via Android would be welcome, but I'm not not going to change from using iTunes as a media controller on the PC!). Is Splash Desktop HD the best way of controlling a PC from an Android tablet? It seems to be the most popular on the store, but that doesn't always count for a lot...!

Woah, where were you from 1990 until circa 2010?! Everyone hated MS until Win10 came out and now its 'cool to hate on Apple instead. I don't really see why people feel they need to sit in either camp 100%, since there's faults in both platforms. Anyhoo, back on topic, I've been a tad poorly this week so haven't had a chance to play with the new tablet until now. The screen is far clearer on the Galaxy than on the iPad, but its nowhere near as sensitive which leaves you hammering at the screen rather than tapping. The browser is far quicker in normal use than Safari though, especially when moving back and forth through pages. Navigation is also a pain in Android right now as you need to look all over the screen for the correct button for what you want, and this is an area Apple excel in. I like how I can put whatever I want wherever I want across the homepages, but as yet there's nothing I particularly want to put there. The text entry is vile compared with iOS and the amazing hold-to-zoom function, and its taken me a good five mins to figure out how to move the cursor to exactly where I want it. Intuitive it is not. If the Galaxy 10.1 was £100 cheaper than an iPad it would be a bargain, but its the same price and there's nothing here I can find to recommend over the Apple alternative so far. That said, this is very early days and I didn't bond with my iPad at first either, so I excited to see how I feel about it in a month or so.