51x

Yeah, I s'pose. Bit easier to see side by side like that. Don't s'pose anyone's got a similar pic of a standard one? Sorry I h'aint got any pics of non-busted ones (forged or standard).

Just thought it was kinda strange SE saying "don't go there" when they look virtually identical to mine... which are SE's. Dunno, maybe they measure up differently. Still, they look fantastic... freshly plucked virgin-pistons :)

They look kinda familiar. Dunno, what do you reckon?.. Forged / busted Mine were shiney and new once :) Baggins - you wanna drop the compression so you can run more boost, which is what the blurb seems to be saying.

Giss a shout on your way past my front door, Mr Groves.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! How's that for big power? ;)

It being the thought that counts... I forked out for my bro, his missus, and my two nephews, and my bro got me... ... ... a popcorn maker! Stu'd like it... it's chromed. It's my own fault of course - I should've made the effort to demand something decent.

Uhh... I gotta go to bed! Don't help that I'm ill at the mo, but sleeping at night is always such a waste. I generally sleep in the day when everyone else is tucked up at work, and work at night when average Joe is sleeping. I would suck the blood of young virgins, but I'm an Essex bloke so there's little chance of that (unless I commute).

pinky cootiepants:confused:

Hello?!

You gotta be kidding me!?! You wanna stop fannying around with PMs and just txt me! Bit busy at the moment you see :( Might get a bit of time after Christmas to sort this mess out. Sorry.

That's not a bad link, you know. I don't think they're specifically targetting "build your own ConZult". I was talking to John recently about doing something with the Consult port, just for an autobox related project. John's been working on the realtime mapping stuff for a while now. I can understand your concern Danny, but I don't expect ConZult rip-offs to be coming from people here. Cheers for the link John. If I get a bit of time (when do I ever?) I'd like to have a look into this.

Hi Stu. I hear what ttop's saying and I know that's what you'd normally expect from some pretty lary cams - the idle goes out the window, it sounds blinkin awful, there's no torque low down and you have to drive like your ass is on fire to get any real power going. But!... I can safely say I've had none of the above with the cams I've got. I talked to Pete (SE) about what sort of duration they are (and I can't remember the figures right now), because my mate Martin has some kick-ass cams in his M3. Pete says to get real power from a turbo'd lump you really *don't want* big duration cams because it starts having a nasty negative effect. So, my cams are the standard ones, re-profiled to give a bit more lift and duration - essentially, they shave a bit off the bottom (the wide bit). To be honest, and this probably sounds a bit weird, I've never had so much low-down torque as I've now got. The idle is a bit high at the moment - could still do with a bit more setting up (one day soon!) and it definitely sounds different low down. Pete reckons the extra torque might be something to do with the bigger turbos having better flow than standard ones when they're off boost, and they probably also account for a bit more noise. I should expect the power to arrive later in the rev-range because of the size of the turbos and the nature of bigger cams - it's delayed but should come in much stronger when it's all coming together. But, so far, it doesn't feel like any of the changes have made it the pig to drive that you might expect. I say "so far" because I don't really know what it's going to be like at stupendous boost. Sh*t-scary, I'd have thought! Possibly the other reason it's feeling better low down is because my engine was never running right before. Standing starts used to feel horrible. Now I have trouble getting decent traction (with an autobox?!). It only takes a little flick of the accellerator to get the back out. I'm well impressed! :D So in answer to your question: it feels great! You wouldn't get in it and immediately think it'd been cam'd up. This is a subtle fast-road re-profile of course. I can't imagine what race-spec cams would feel like, but I guess it wouldn't be nice. Depends how much power you're after - you'll probably get more peak bhp with race-spec cams but at the cost of driveability. Same thing with huge turbos... more lag but ultimately more power. Apparently you can play with the power band using a combination of cams and turbos - for ultimate peak power you'd want cams that come on at the same time as the turbos hit peak boost somewhere near peak rpm, but that's probably gonna make the power band quite narrow and means it'll be horrible low down. If you wanna stretch the width of the band (and lose a bit of peak) you can go for a set of cams that'll come on earlier. Or go for smaller turbos that spool faster with cams that come on later. I s'pose you really want a wider power-band with an autobox because the gears are longer. With a manual, it's probably easier to drive around a peaky engine but means you've got more chance to get it completely wrong unless you really know how to drive (at peak power, all the time! ;) ). I'd recommend SE's fast-road re-profile, but would say be a bit careful about what you get if they're not SE's. I know Pete knows what he's doing, so when I said: I want a car I can drive every day, I knew he wouldn't give me a race-spec daily nightmare. I guess we'll see how it compares (overall speed-wise) with Maccas - which will have bigger turbos and should rev higher (right Mac?). The down-side is the cams won't just slot in - hence the solid lifter conversion. You kinda have to know what you're doing to set this stuff up. I don't. SE do. I give cash to SE - job done! Bit more like what you wanted to hear?

I think they're called "chocolate raisins" ;) Dark chocolate covered coffee beans... hmm! Fantastic... just don't suck all the choccy off first!

Are you insane?! Chocolate is good for your soul ("FACT!"... probably). OK, so eating peas all your life might extend it a bit, but if that means you've got a bit longer to eat more peas, then what's the point?! I fickin' LOVE chocolate! In fact, the only time I've ever been in Woolies is to buy the stuff (at Christmas, of course). More shops should follow Woolies lead. I'd personally like to walk into Sainsbury's and see nothing but a million assortments of alcohol.

LMAO :D That green mush is baby food, surely?! :confused: After it's been eaten maybe.

As PaulC said at the time, it was a really surreal moment. Dunno if you noticed Jay, but they'd put a little pat of butter in the bowl too, cos they must have thought it was a bit strange someone ordering a bowl of peas on their own! :confused: I just don't get why the bird taking the order didn't question it. Possibly the best case of the customer always being right that I've seen for ages. You know this is never gonna go away now... it's bad enough that you didn't like peas to start with, but you're gonna get called The Pea Man or That Bloke Who Orders Bowls of Peas or... I dunno... some other pea related pun (The Peas-keeper). Man, it weren't exactly a small bowl of peas either! :D

Yeah - wowing your botty is one of those technical terms that just sounds painful until it happens to you... then when it does (and it will!) you'll really understand ;) It's not so much the pain, cos that's kinda over quite quick... it's the horrible discomfort and the running around trying to keep your butt-cheeks shut, trying not to fill your pants. Always good for keeping the rest of the slope entertained tho :D Be sure to get a look at the grimace on peoples faces - you'll be laughing about that in the bar later. I was trying to think of some more technical terms you might need, but could only come up with a couple: winding the windows... but you won't need that til you start getting some air, and catching an edge (shortly followed by: eating sh*t). "Don't lean back!" is something you'll probably hear a lot while learning. But I just do it for fun now cos I likes a bit of buttering. Try to watch some snowboard vids... that'll give you a massive R-don for it for sure. The TB vids are always good - I got hooked with TB2 many moons ago (when I were a lad). Insurance costs so little - I never get the insurance with the holiday tho, cos half the time they can't tell you if it's off-piste or not (and you don't wanna get into an accident outside the markers if you've not got off-piste!). I can't remember for sure, but I think it's about 30-odd quid for a couple of weeks, off-piste, Europe. Normally get it though a company that advertises in one of the snowboard mags. Tamworth's alright - been there a couple of times. Bit of a treck from here, but the BoardStore crew used to get a coach together and go up for the night. Be sure to take a beanie - they'll probably make you wear a sweaty helmet and it'll make your head stink without one! Hows your guts now James? Standing up straight yet? :eek: I like Tignes. We're thinking of going there end of March, but that'd make it 4 times... so it might be Serre Chevalier this time round.

Don't mean to put a downer on anything, but make sure you get some insurance before you go. Just saves you having to worry about forking out a fortune if you have any minor mishaps. I've had the.. erm... odd incident, but always been covered. Might be worth having a go on dry-slope before you go. If you've had a bit of practice on that you'll appreciate boarding on snow a whole load more. Maybe more desirable, a couple of lessons somewhere like Xscape (Milton Keynes) or Tamworth, could point you in the right direction. Depends how much you wanna be trying to learn while you're out there. If you're after cheap kit, try ringing round snowboard shops. The best one round here (The BoardStore) usually has some pretty decent second hand stuff, or knows people that'd be willing to part with some. It could be cheaper to buy some seccy stuff and know what you're going with (try it out and get yourself all set up before hand) rather than renting once and not knowing what you're gonna get. Hope you have a great time! I'm betting now, you'll get right into it and won't be able to describe just how good it is - that always happens! Be prepared for a bruised ass to start with... I learnt on dry-slope tho. Probably also worth buying some pads... especially if you're like me and throw yourself into these sort of things with reckless abandon. They won't set you back much - wrist protectors are kinda handy (s'cuse the pun)... I've never had any but you can buy shorts with padded areas in too, with a bit to protect your coccyx. I've "wow'd my botty" many times in the past (slam your butt so hard you think you're gonna sh*t yourself because you can't keep your sphincter shut)... come to think of it, I always try and squeeze a poo out before getting on the mountain just in case this happens some time in the day. Anyway, have fun!

Blimey Ian - I didn't think you ever took your car round bends! ;)

Try taking the ALC out too. That's gonna make gear changes a bit more violent at light throttle. I hear (just an opinion) they're pointless anyway, because the autobox ECU winds up the line pressure when the box needs it... the ALC just sets it high all the time.

I've had it both ways (ooer!)... momentary engine braking as I'm letting off, and the revs going up as I let off - both annoying. As Bilky says, it only takes a little tweak to the TPS to get it right. Basically, you're right... it's the lock/slip coming off too late. You haven't got an ALC I take it?

D'oh! Didn't realised the exhaust bit was a comp - would've given it some more beans if I had! Cerinas was way louder than anything else anyway (not obvious from the vid)... so no competition there :) Don't think Paul came back from the "test" with brown pants did he? I kinda did - damn slippy roundabouts! :eek: Cheers for putting that together so quick. Kavolity!

Cheers Stuart... I blinkin' missed it as well! I'll have a look tomorrow at work ;)

Cheers for paintshopping some shine onto me motor, mate! ;) Good day... even if the restaurant won't acknowledge Christmas at the weekend :confused:

Bowl of peas anyone? ;)