Mondo

I gave them a call this morning, Ali; the Zed's no longer classed as a classic car by them and they won't cover mods (even though mine are relatively tame in comparison to others) :( I can only assume that these people who claim to insure for £150 or so all have bone-stock cars, or at least claim they have.......

His ex-wife must be pure filth between the sheets if (based on that picture of her) she snagged herself some muscle-bound bepe DeMarco lookalike! :rofl:

It's that time of year again where the Zed's insurance is up for renewal. I'm currently with ClassicLine and they'd like £322.58 to insure her for the coming year. I keep seeing people boasting about how they can insure their Zeds for £150 a year so I thought I'd give Footman James a try... For a start, they don't recognise this club as being a valid one! I'm assuming that I'd need to be a paid-up member of Z Club or something? And I couldn't get a quote from them anyway as apparently the Z32 is no longer recognised by them as being a classic and, even if it was, the modifications would stop them quoting anyway!! So who do people use? How much do you pay? And why the bloody hell is it so difficult for me to get insured on this car?! Grrrrr!!

If you look at the bid history, there are lots of bids from a couple of people with single figure feedback... I'd say the seller's been using multiple accounts (or friends) to inflate the price! The whole thing just gets worse..... :(

Pretty shocking behaviour considering they've revised the listing once for things like a reserve price, but won't give an accurate and correct description of the car... even when various people have pointed out the error! Hope I see it relisted very soon.....

eBay link to an NA auto Advertised as a twin turbo and it looks like people are bidding accordingly. But I fear the engine bay is a little less cramped than it should be... I've taken the liberty of sending a message recommending that the seller correct the listing, but I can't imagine that's going to happen somehow.

When I was talking to Will Hinchcliffe about mapping recently, he said they were £250 fitted.

We've given them a name now...??! :lol:

The tan interior looks ridiculous in the bright yellow car! :rofl:

Surely part of the problem is, as Jeff's said, that some people are wanting to extract big power figures out of original engines? Take something - anything - that's using 20-odd year old components and ask it to do double the workload it's used to and you should surely expect trouble, right? These engines can be no different. Yes, I'm aware there have been documented cases of problems and catastrophes with newly-built engines as well, but the majority of problems seem to come from the original motor being pushed way beyond its comfort zone. There's a part of me that'd love to have big power in my Zed. But I know I never will because 1. I can't afford all the work and components required and 2. I have a horrible feeling that the car wouldn't actually be that much fun to drive anymore! It's a sad aspect of "the Zed scene" in this country that it's so fractured and divided. I hate all the sniping and back-biting that seems to be part and parcel of Zed ownership!

We'll get that Bird bloke to sort something out, and then you can get that Vert of yours up here :thumbs:

What makes you think this guy's surname is Quinn...? And why would the FSA have info regarding his family...??

Last online: 17th March 2009 Don't think he's gonna see your post, I'm afraid.....

We're a little more northern than you, mate :rofl:

I like the positioning... I just think I should've opted for slashcut instead. I'll see how they grow on me and, if need be, I'll just get a new catback made up.

Opinions welcomed :)

So I'm back from a couple of days down in Bristol and it's surrounding environs. :) Tuesday morning saw me heading to Powerzed to have my chassis cleaned and sealed, and also to check that the downpipes would remove without any major issues. I got to Jimmer's for around 10am and he set to work. Sadly, it seems I have some tinworm! :( It's not bad or terminal, but it needs dealing with now or it'll end up bad. So she'll be going back to Bristol in probably August to have the affected areas cut out and replaced. That should make her nice and solid again. :) Big thanks to Jimmer for all his graft on Tuesday! I left there and headed over to FunkySi's brand new house as I was staying there that night. Now, I thought he lived in Bristol but it turns out I actually had to drive past my dad's front door to get to Si's place! That's worth knowing for the future, I think. Big thanks to Si for putting me up for the night and providing me with pizza too. :) And at least he's now been out in a zed that has BOVs fitted...!! :lol: I left Si's about 6.45 yesterday morning and headed to Infinity to have my exhaust fabricated. After chatting with the fabricator, I decided against having the downpipes fitted at that point as I simply couldn't afford the cost if it turned out not to be straightforward. So the new system runs from the turbo elbows back instead. Onto the system itself: it's 3" all the way through, with an X-pipe where the stock cats would've been, and it ends with two 4" round tailpipes on each side. As per Infinity's reputation, it's beautifully constructed and the backboxes are angled to aid the gasflow (the tailpipes are straight though). Despite being 3", it's actually a little quieter than the Powerflow system that it replaced and doesn't sound as "raw" either. There is, however, a downside. I think I may have chosen the wrong tailpipes! It may just be because I'm used to the slashcut ones I had previously, but I'm convinced that the ones I've chosen completely suit the car :( I also think I may have situated them too far out of the bumper, although they don't protrude as far out as the old ones did (thank God!). So a mixed bag here, really, and any issues are entirely my own fault. If I can't get used to the current pipes, I'll simply get them to make new ones when I go back to have the downpipes fitted and the system adapted to suit them. For now though, it's nice to know that I have a top quality exhaust fitted and it does seem to have improved the performance a little... it also seems to have "smoothed out" the power as it feels more linear now and less "surprising".... I'll stick some pics up later this morning :thumbup1:

I'm always up for that sort of thing :thumbup1: It'd be good to see other NE folk, mate!

Snap :)

It'll be the factory stonechip :thumbup1:

Yours is a cracking Zed, Gaz, so I'm not surprised it's been picked as an entrant, mate :thumbup1:

All I can see is the front bumper.... ;) :lol:

I watched this on iPlayer yesterday when I got back from Turkey and it was just painful! There's far too much that has been carried over from the previous iteration of the show; the Stig's introduction, for example. It felt to me almost as if Chris Evans was just a stand-in for Clarkson, rather than trying to make the show his own. His intros to the films were far too reminiscent of JC to be comfortable. I didn't like the gag about no longer talking about catering either... I hope "The Grand Tour" is absolutely chock full of jokes about gingers and marrying girls half your age in retaliation! Most of the audience looked either bored or uncomfortable when the cameras landed on them, as did Matt LeBlanc. As has already been said, there was no chemistry between him and Evans whatsoever. That said however, I'd actually be happy to see Evans get the boot and LeBlanc take over as lead host! There was just something a little endearing and slightly amusing about his dialogues when he was out of the studio and I wouldn't hate to see a lot more of that. Jesse Eisenberg looked like he hated every single second he was there... All in all, I doubt I'll be watching any more of this. Perhaps if I remember that it's on, but I won't be going out of my way to watch or record it now.

Speaking as a Trader, my advice to you straight away would be to ensure that you can successfully create these carbon fibre parts before you start lining up potential customers!! Make a set for yourself and, if you're happy with them, sign up as a Trader and then start the marketing offensive. I appreciate your willingness to learn these new skills, William, and I truly respect you for it. But I think you need to do it all in the correct order :thumbup1:

I went to the next village yesterday to collect some dog food. 2 hours later, I came home. Why? Cos the guy in the pet shop wanted to have a really good nose around my Zed! :biggrin: I do think they're starting to gain a little (dare I say it?) prestige nowadays, and that makes me very happy!