Kinks

love how he jumps out of the car with his racing suit half off!

My take on it is that if driving sedately will not get me to the destination much slower (eg you're in traffic, so why floor it) then you're avoiding extra emissions and money spent on fuel. Plus, when you DO floor it it's a bigger smile-getter than if you just floor it everywhere and are used to the power level. I love putting my foot down after driving gently for a bit and getting the "holy shit my car's quick" sensation

sounds like a bearing issue, but I would question why such a new car needed a lower control arm. I reckon it's hit a kerb.

Kimi has never fit the mold of the team. He is a talented driver but as far as I'm concerned the way he's been driving lately he can bugger off to rally. At least then he might be interested and give us a show. He will sulk as well, unlike Webber who realised he is about to be upstaged and pulled his finger out!! Alonso would be a very interesting choice to wear the red suit. Hamo in the wall, no damage to Schu and the stewards will be looking at something else when it goes down

shouldn't you be in school? Holidays are over.

I feel sorry for your car, it must really hate being driven by such a douche.

So you want to celebrate Webber winning by getting a hardon. Wait.... what? Well done to Webs, he has had a lot of bad luck and binned it countless times of his own accord but I'm still proud to hear our anthem being played for once. Hopefully he can win a few more now.

looks like Mosley is jerking everyone around until there's not enough time left to organise a breakaway for next year. I hope FOTA continue to put plans into action and then tell the FIA to go f**k itself.

aside from the question mark of the fan being much closer in the nulon test, i'd also want a separate test of each oil run for 5,000km in normal driving and then a UOA done on it. I care more about protecting my engine than 5kw.

I've had no trouble sourcing parts from 2 different nissan branches over the years, they have been pretty good about it.

sorry no constructive advice but I had to laugh at this: "Unplugged my subs and now they wont work!" gold!

News flash, you have a powerful RWD car.. I have the standard viscous diff and I have had one or two big "oh shit" moments when the rear stepped out on me. The only thing that'll save you in that situation is a diff that's completely open and single spins. Soon as both wheels are spinning you're going to get oversteer. A locked diff will definitely step out, but they are predictable in the sense that you know they will *always* make you go sideways. Viscous diff - sometimes it will sometimes it won't. Sometimes it skitters back and forth as one wheel slips then the other. R31 - locked diff will compromise your handling. Awesome fun for sideways action but cornering with a locker will always be slower than a proper mechanical diff due to inherent tyre slip. Slip is SLOW. V8 supercars use locked diffs because they are cheap, not because they are the fastest way around a corner. V8's aren't the pinnacle of racing that's for sure!

^^ good points, it could be debated that with less expenditure the requirement for sponsorship goes down as well, but maybe sponsors don't care about how much the team spends. They do care if it wins or not and how much air time their logos get on TV. However if F1 as a brand is diluted because they are penny-pinching and TV ratings go down as people lose interest then the sponsors will definitely go elsewhere. Pricing for components made in-house shouldn't be harder than components sourced outside - you still have to buy the raw materials from somewhere and employ somebody to manufacture it. Those costs are easily traceable as money flows. However if a company has a lot of manufacturing equipment which depreciate in value over time then you have a more interesting time trying to work out what the actual expenditure is!

The real WTF is that you made a thread about it.. everything ever said on that show is stupid!! Don't know why people watch it I can't stand it.

That's f**ked getting done for assault but I don't think the c*nt will bother your car again. He deserved worse. f**king thieves.

horrible.. just horrible.. and by the looks of it the inside stunk like the wannabe macho asshat who used to own it.

what a complete tool. throw away his car and make sure he doesn't drive for at least 10 years. Should have to do a traffic education course every year he doesn't have his licence too.

^^ +1 if I was a presenter on TGA I would want to level the place so nobody was subject to it any more. However, to spend your life swanning about the place driving fast cars for a living - now that's the life. TGA has nothing on the real show but the real Top Gear was a non-event at first until the presenters found some rapport and a formula that worked. It's obvious that TGA are copying the formula but they don't have the rapport, and it comes off very lame. Maybe it will improve after a few seasons but I'm not holding my breath.

Yep, a locked diff promotes understeer on trailing throttle and power oversteer. If you have a locked diff you need to drive around the diff, which is where the "experience" factor comes in. Despite that, after daily driving a car with a locker in it for years I overcooked one corner and the understeer was pretty savage. It just would not turn in. You need to get all your braking done before the corner and virtually be back on the throttle by the time you turn in, as you use the throttle to adjust your steering trim as you go around the corner. Trail braking with a locker is a recipe for disaster.

Oh for sure, even a winning F1 team would rather win spending $40 million than spending $400 million. But even if Ferrari win spending $40m then other teams will want to spend $50m to try and beat them. The big problem FOTA had with the FIA's proposal was that the cap would come in next year and would involve almost constant audits by the FIA to make sure the budgets were being kept. Most teams took offense to the intrusive nature of this process, which should give you some idea about how serious they really are about capping their costs. I think the budget restraint is just a facade, they will find ways to bury their spending. Ultimately F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport and if you have soccer players being signed for 65 million euros a season for ONE PLAYER then why can't an F1 team spend big as well? It's like anything, you never get the best of the best for $2.50.

Yup. All the teams got played. They have agreed to take an axe to their costs over the next couple of years so while there is no "cap", Mosley has still gotten his way by getting more teams into F1 and getting the manufacturers to spend less money. Mosley was planning to retire anyway so he loses no face by saying he'll step down in October. Ecclestone still gets to do what he has always done. The agreement appears to have restored balance, it is certainly not in FOTA's favour however FOTA are now a legitimate entity that can't be ignored. On the other side of the coin a breakaway series would have been a massive undertaking for FOTA and in addition to going racing, they would have to deal with the administration and finances of a racing league. I reckon Bernie would have defected if it happened, but even so it would have taken a few years for the new series to settle and then pick up momentum. I was hopeful that FOTA would break away but F1 has always been a case of "say whatever it takes to get your way". While all parties are busy swinging their dicks and talking things up, you can't trust a word of anything. This has certainly been shown to be the case with many FOTA people saying "doesn't matter what FIA say we are leaving" and now they've done a double backflip and agreed to stay.

bump

R31 pintaras have weak diffs/driveshafts, R31 skylines are strong as. I daily drove an R31 with a minispool in it for 3 years, busted the tailshaft in it from a hard launch but the driveshafts took all sorts of punishment and were still perfect.

fatz wasn't one of his mechs was he? still remember being taken for a few laps of EC in Pete's R31, most of it sideways, then he goes "we gotta go into the pits to tighten the wheel nuts they get loose after a few laps".

Price drop $150 for exhaust $25 for SMIC. Otherwise they go out with the council cleanup on Monday.