tomfromthenorth

Go on Russ! :biggrin:

I know I sometimes post these essays, I don't expect everyone to read them, but the SAR ones are very cathartic for me to write, often while still stinking of avtur, ears ringing trying to wind down. But these car ones I simply enjoy re-living the moment. I once read a mountain biking editorial, to paraphrase, it said, "Biking is all about the seconds. You spend weeks waiting for the weather, hours driving about from forest to field, days peddling, hours belting down hill. But perhaps once a ride, you set into a bend, your hairs stand up, you realise you have run out of talent and are relying on luck, you feel yourself slip outward on the loose gravel towards the edge, the one that if you cross will carry you into a crash. Front and back wheels squirming, the bike makes it round, you exhale, and add a few seconds to the bank. It is for those seconds that you ride." So now I will reflect on a few seconds that I banked today. The short version It was almost dry, the world was quiet, the car was happy and far more capable than the roads I led it down. It took everything in its stride, dancing eagerly with snarling lunges, squirming dives and scything yaw. I was left with chemicals in my bloodstream, ringing in my ears and a pulse in my throat. The Tom version I have had a long week, I have been examined, exhausted, dunked in the sea, woken in the night, scared half to death, and bombarded with paperwork. I afforded myself a teenager's lie in today with the plan of using my day off as an opportunity to do some paperwork. But as I woke this morning, the sun was shining outside and I knew what I was going to do. I said aloud to myself, "You put bloody hours and hours into that car, today go and enjoy it for once." So I filled it up, I washed it and I headed to 'that bit of road'. The drive was destined to be a great one, it was basically dry, bright but with cloud cover giving perfect flat light, it was the middle of a Tuesday and I was rested and perfectly comfortable. As I rolled out of town I set my seat to the "not mucking about" position, belt pulled tight across my front, shoulders gripped and controls falling perfectly to hand, locked in. I turned onto my road, checked the car's vitals with habitual mistrust between each gear, using an early straight as a chance to provoke a tantrum while still within pushing distance of the first world. But not today, with all the needles pleasingly central I settled into my rhythm. Starting steadily not wanting to make a fool of myself I began pulsing along on torque, chattering up from third to fourth before blipping down again with modest whoops of boost and started feeling the pads and tyres fizz alive with building heat, this was when the car reminded my why. Reminded my why, I will relentlessly work to restore it, why I don't drive a golf, or for that matter an M3. As my smile spread across my face, I was confronted by a fallen tree in the road, I braked hard and I think for the first time ever, really used the KSports, the braking pulled at my cheeks and the car squatted and squirmed, I again thought "you bought these to use them, all the up-rated parts, are built for this stuff." Any doubt was cast aside, I would not worry about the cost of new pads, or the water temperature, I would trust my carefully chosen components, and focus on driving well. From then on, I did just that, don't get me wrong, I remained mindful of the unexpected, the law and the public, the reason I didn't hit the tree was that I was at an appropriate speed, but I had full boost in most gears. The pinnacle of the drive was a very long left hander, the momentum was up by then and I was at a neutral throttle in third, the car beautifully stable and flat I fixed my eyes on the vanishing point 200m away and heard the turbos whistle softly, as I straightened I reached wide open throttle, the car just barked, I had been balanced in the bend at ~4500rpm and the thrust to the horizon had me using 1000cc sports bike techniques from then on, just to stay ahead of the car and to never fall behind it, keeping a wide view and fighting against tunnel visioning. I tell people who use my car not to use second gear, but transiently the car and I had come to a motoring cease-fire, an unspoken agreement had been made that we would not try to kill each other, if only for 5 miles. It was on those few miles that I found myself dipping my heel an inch further into the gas hard on the brakes second falling to hand. I should (and probably will) install some sort of warning light for second gear operations, one that asks "I hope you are as good as you think you are!" I kept myself in check with this thought at the base of my favourite set of serpentine heavilly cambered hairpins, everything is amplified in the latter half of second; weight slams forward as you lift and is thrown back again as you focus on keeping the revs only about 500rpm above where they should be as you scrabble out of the apexes, on the road less is definitely more. Those are "the seconds" of today, some others I will forever keep to myself but the ones I have shared I hope will bring a cracked smile to those of you that are lucky enough that you can reach for your keys. For those of you that can't, well I hope that it makes the tool kit feel a bit lighter next time you reach for that. I can't wait to hear from others enjoying your cars as we leave this winter behind. Safe zedding everybody, A very happy Tom.

Stephen, I admire your thinking on this one, exactly the sort of technical musings I love on this forum. And Noz, you're probably dead right :lol: unless you're in first you are in bother aren't you.

I had an exhaust place make me custom pipes for my 2.8 turbo Capri?

Welcome to the club mate :thumbup1: interested to see your 350 too, as Baz said, let us know how it stacks up :)

Any news that flashes at me on facebook, along the lines of engagements, pregnancies etc I try not to comment. I feel it makes light of what should otherwise be an important, respected or emotional piece of news, so if I want to comment, I try hard to do so face to face. However on this forum, I feel it is in many ways more closely knit than my own "friend" feed on facebook. We may not have all spoken directly, but as a group we share, we learn, we laugh and we argue. We are all in this together, in that we care about our cars, we care about the club and we genuinely care about each other. So I hope that this is received as it is meant, and in no way cheapened by its presentation. Mandy, my own and I am sure everyone else's thoughts and best wishes are with you.

Dave I ordered that stuff through your place today, thank you very much :thumbup1:

1% Better

Happy Birthday mate, hope the weather holds so you can enjoy your car. :happybday:

I have just done some googling to justify my claim that the car feels as quick as my 600 bike did. Well the numbers would call me a liar/idiot but, the big difference is gearboxes. The bike has straight cut sequential gears, the in gear pull in third from 40mph to the red line probably is comparable to a 600 but it will lose on shift times. I saw an incredible claim from bmw, it was a 0-100mph time of 10 seconds or so from a 300hp car... but it had a 7 speed auto box. I maintain compared to the heavy and slushy 911 turbo, the probably faster but NA GT3RS, mine pushes me into the seat harder.

This is a new world, I think I need jack to xlr leads for a lot of these boxes, cubase and probably any one of those usb boxes.

I have a zx10r, I have driven porche 997 turbos, gt3rs, caterhams, my car is the fastest car I have experienced, it feels about as fast as my yammaha fz6s2 which had 100hp. Get it running with bolt ons if you haven't pulled the engine, get some miles out of your internals and turbos, get the brakes and chassis and cooling etc sorted, then after some time with it, you will know better what to do during an engine pull. When I pull my engine, I will be buying a block from jimmer getting it posted to me, fit my accessories and send my turbos off to garrett for a rebuild with whatever modernisation they can offer without changing the AR. Then I will re fit it all. If that is somethung Jimmer can do when tethe time comes. A map is about £250 iirc

While my eyes are fixed on the horizon mate. Ill try to film it some time. I honestly think it is at 16psi by 3000 rpm in third, even if that isn't true it is absolutely on one by then.

Noz is very good, I think my car was made on a good day mate. Auto cams and turbos are a lot different to manual ones, compared to Si Mondos shorty. A bit softer perhaps but they pull really early. After my overhaul it feels a bit fitter, it is certainly smoother and the economy is at least 30mpg now. Noticeably more frufal.

Short list Power twin apexis, twin MAFs Selin 2.5 inch pipes bell SMICs Auto turbos at 16.5psi (and they have been for 20'000 miles) Deletes new wiring loom new new style injectors bcr8es japspeed 3 inch exhaust with decats bde recircs Hks evc 5 ebc Bigger radiator and oil cooler Noz maps x2 Other Xtd flywheel comp clutch 6 puck one piece prop K sport 356 and 330s meister rs stillen arbs It had 430hp at the engine quite a few mods and one remap ago, but that was on the road not on a dyno so the power will be similar to Noz' car (at the time of mapping) at about 450 engine. Believe me it is fast :biggrin:

That was easy haha thread closed :lol:

Cubase sounds like some of the better software, some of those boxes come with cubase LE6, is that a cheap man's version or the full package? http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Native-Instruments-Komplete-Audio-6-USB-Audio-Interface/FZQ

I need some advice from people who understand about music recording stuff. I can talk for an hour on how Radar works but looking at "low latency, 5KOhm impedance crotchet decibel hyper-mandolin" boxes on Gear4Music has blown my mind :wacko: I want a box so that I can record my electro acoustic guitar and electro acoustic ukuele to my windows 8 pc. Perhaps a mic in too. I have been looking at these http://www.gear4music.com/Soundcards/USB.html I need some help, both instruments have a freshman hidden pickup. Thanks guys.

I think the original question is hard to answer, in the Scottish Highlands the roads are long, open and wide, making my car feel underpowered. Some of the roads I drive in the north east can make an mx5 feel overpowered. The other side of it is that big power will start to require race levels of servicing and components. My car is in a great place right now, 400 and a lot horsepower, from really low down, a good smattering of suspension, cooling and brake mods etc. It drives normally and is also mega fast, it is getting to the point where full throttle is a carefully planned affair. It may not have the biggest numbers on the forum, but it is at least 450hp at the engine, it has power very low down, great response. It has driven 1200 miles since Thursday and never batted an eyelid. In short 450 fwhp isn't too much and is subjectively definitely enough. Edit, the conpetition clutch 6 puck is great (can be driven normally) and works with the xtd flywheel really well.

It looks to me like it has had a hot gas leak onto it, or has touched something hot etc. Making it brittle or whatever. Good find, and it seems sensible to me that could mess with an ebc. Also the ebc would compensate for that or at least try to.

While we are on that, has anyone driven a car with clown camber? How do they drive. I'd be interested to have a go but it's not my scene. I imagine they are vague in a straight line then dive into bends?

Couple of contradictions on that site. "for racing performance" on a car with no spoiler and daft camber. Then this...

Hi mate, that is a fairly gangster looking volvo :thumbup1: Welcome to the club, I hope you find what you are looking for. A zed can be a luxury cruiser, a sports car, a track car, drag car, sort of a drift car but not so readilly. But they are always a beautiful car and never a dull one.

Happy Birthday Alex :happybday:

I second that, block of wood, small jack, trolley jack, axle stand repeat :(