scathing

Why have a DB5 when you could get the DB5? http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article....vf=2&bg=24&pp=1

I'll back mokompri up on that. Most Bose speakers, especially their Lifestyle range, are more style than substance. Their floor standing range isn't as underwhelming, but that's about it. They're the B&O hi-fi for people who can't afford B&O. However, compared to the Mini systems and other pieces of junk that most of the Jap manufacturers sell they're still heaps better. In that way, I'd still class them as hi-fi. Just not very good hi-fi.

Its not that bad. I went down to watch Targa Tasmania 2004, following the course, and pretty much any decent sized town I stopped in to fill up at had Ultimate if they had a BP.

I came so close to signing up in the wake of the S15 "promo car" crash. Mind you, what I would have said probably would have gotten me death threats from the runts. I will never sign up to ns.com - their signal to noise ratio is horrible, and I know I'll not be able to resist giving them a serve.

The way I see it, unless you're the mechanic doing all the work yourself....you are not actually getting anything out of said package. I'm going to take a punt that most people building dyno queens aren't there losing skin off their own knuckles when modifying the car. They're paying for it, but that's like saying Wilhelm II came up with the Theory of Relavity because he was the Kaiser when Einstein published it while at the University of Berlin. They're being proud of someone else's work that they happen to own - its just "cool by association". Which is the least cool thing of all.

If you're going to buy them new, you won't get cheap Volks. Forged aluminium wheels aren't cheap at the best of times. If you're willing to buy second hand, check the trader section for the guys that scour the Yahoo! auctions.

Two words for you: Flat Shift. Actually, let me add another two words after that. Rev limiter. Most anti-lag implementations I've seen use a programmable rev limiter as well as the rich running, timing modifying, changes to the ECU. Mainly so you can just hold a specific RPM for your launch, without the user having to get their throttle control just right. Even if it doesn't, your ECU's redline rev limiter will do a good enough job of not having your engine rev itself to bits. With your rev limiter, you can just change gears without having to worry about moving your right foot. Your throttle stays open, and Bob's your uncle.

I could easily go an all-Porsche garage though. Track Car: Carrera GT Daily Driver: Cayman S Weekend Cruiser: Boxster S Street Sports / Targa: 911 Turbo S People Mover: Cayenne Turbo

Why not check your local classifieds, and find out?

Larger diameter exhausts permit the engine to expel larger volumes of exhaust gas from the engine easier. The engine's power will not taper off as much high in the rev range because it has to supply energy to push the larger volume of exhaust gas out of the exhaust pipe(s).

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I pretty much always walk around my car before I hop in. I'm mostly looking for scratches and dents, but I'm sure I'd pick up a piece of paper on the rear window.

The Sports are the "better" performance tyre, but they're also the more expensive tyre too. If you can afford the Sports, get the Sports. If you can afford the Precedas (which, being Michelin, will be more expensive than other tyres of its class) then they'd be a safe bet too. Those tyres also tend to score highly in the magazine tests.

What aims do you have from the tyre you're going to fit? Best dry weather grip? Best wet weather performance? Best tyre life? Least noise? If grip is all you're interested in, get a set of Falken RT215 / RT615s. If you want a good set of "compromise" tyres, I am a big fan of the DZ101s (which I can no longer get in 17" but are still advertised at 16"). The Goodyear Eagle F1s seem to piss it in when it comes to wet weather performance. Wheels and Motor both had the F1s pulling the best results in their tests.

I've heard good things about the quality of Heasemans' work, but nothing about their value for money.

Sway bars don't "stiffen" anything. Well, not in the context of chassis reinforcement (which is what a strut brace does).

Motorsport Car: Porsche 996 Turbo Street Sports: Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX Daily Driver: Volkswagen Golf 2.0L TDi DSG Luxo Barge: Audi RS6 Convertible: Pagani Zonda S Convertible All of them would be modified to some extent. The Porsche would be a stripped out car that I'd set up for Targa and track work. Hopefully I could get license plates to drive it to the venue, but if I can't then the Audi can tow it. The Evo would keep a full interior and "street legal", for club cruises / runs or motorsport events where I don't want to break out the Porsche. The Golf would be optioned out, and would have your usual bolt ons (cat back, pod filter, swaybars, lowering springs, rims). Comfort and ease of driving is what I want from this, as well as an ability to park it most places without worrying if it will still be there when I get back. The RS6 would only have minor performace mods, to free up the engine while keeping it linear and easy to drive. But it would get pimped out. Nice bodykit, deep dish wheels, mad stereo, etc. For those days when I want to show off and do some top-down motoring, I'll take the Zonda out. You can keep your Ferraris and Lambos.

I'm all for a minimum post count on forums before you can advertise stuff. Most of the forums I'm on are communities, not trading posts. Its about a group of people who are into certain hobbies. The guys who own and run it pay out of pocket for expenses. If they get donations, its hardly enough to pay for the hosting and bandwidth. And they see nothing of the transactions that their system is facilitating (unlike commercial trading / advertising sites). So if random tourists wander in to start whoring their wares without adding to that community, it just brings it down. As for banning you, that's about right for ns.com. Petty little idiots. Let them stay in their sandbox.

Neither, if you mean the best suspension setup to get you through a set of corners. Your suspension setup will be a compromise and dependant on the circuit. On a track with single corners and long straights, you'd run more squat so you can put more power down out of the corners. This kind of setup encourages a more "slow in, fast out" approach. On a circuit with more flowing corners and shorter straights, you'd run it a bit more neutral so you don't unload your front tyres when you pick up the throttle and cause understeer. Its more for "medium in, medium out". It depends on how easily adjustable this stuff is. If you can't do it without having access to tools you can't easily get a hold of (like if you need a hoist or wheel stands), or you don't want to go through the effort of constantly adjusting it, you're going to need to compromise and find a setup that's "good enough" for all the tracks you're likely to drive on.

Not unsurprising. Your fronts will do more work on the track. When you brake, the fronts to the vast majority of the stopping. Steering loads are higher on the fronts, and that will happens when you turn-in under brakes as well as when you hit the throttle post apex. So they're under stress more of the time than the rears. What's the weight distribution on Skylines like? Is it a little front heavy? That's going to exacerbate your wear rates too.

I think the caliper is the same (not entirely sure), but the mounting point is a bit different as people who've done Z33 Brembo upgrades on their S15s are not able to mount the same wheels on their cars as people who've done R34 Brembo upgrades. The Z33 Brembos stick out just a little further.

LEM does the same thing any other suspension does. It absorbs bumps. Its not "aware" of the road surface in front; the system is fully reactive, not proactive. The biggest difference is that the system uses electromagnets (like speakers) to provide your cushioning, and the damping rates are controlled by computer. However, it is an active suspension like the air suspension the high-end Euro cars run, unlike the passive suspension of your traditional spring/damper setup. Since it uses a system similar to high end speakers for damping they can get great resolution on controlling it, with their experience in producting high fidelity speakers. The biggest hurdle for this suspension setup on production cars is acceptance. Bose has refused to license the technology to car manufacturers. He says that he wants his company to design the suspension setups for any cars it goes into, rather than selling an off-the-shelf part or system and letting the OEMs come up with an implementation. As you can imagine, this isn't going down too well with the car companies. After all, for all its impressiveness, Bose still has zero experience in designing stuff for cars. But he wants to run lead engineering, and relegate the OEMs to a secondary role, on what will be on their flagship models.

You can rotate any tyre, as long as you pay someone to peel it off the rim. I do that, since my front and rear rims are different sizes and I tend to get directional tyres. Anyway, Pirellis always seem to do badly on Motor and Wheels' annual tyre tests. Not just for their exorbitant price; they do badly in general. Last year, the brand new P Zeros tested on the XR6T got pwned by the 15,000km old (and we're talking journo k's, so none of them were gentle) OEM tyres.

The VH block will also bore and stroke out to 6.0L, and make a lazy 400hp+ with that displacement before you even start looking at stuff like headwork and cams. Yes you can fit a 1JZ into a Q45, just like you could fit the twin turbo 3.2L V8 out of an old Maserati 3200GT. If you want displacement, a 7.0L LS2 out of a Corvette Z06 won't be that much longer, and you can get twin turbo kits for them. With mods to the firewall you can step up to the V10s out of the Gallardo, M5 or Viper, or V12s out of AMGs and BMWs. Why not get the supercharged V12 out of an SL65 that has a Newton kilometre of torque? The quad turbo W16 out of a Veyron will have the same length as a V8, so why not shoot for a stock 1000hp? Am I sounding a little stupid in this reply? The way I see it, I'm not being any stupider than the original post in this thread.

You must have driven some absolute shitters, then. My first car (a Volvo 240GL), and my old man's last two BMWs were only dangerous if I went out of my way to drive like a tool by pitching it into a corner way too fast, or when I was driving the tyres below their tread depth indicators, or just flooring the throttle around corners. But if you're the kind of driver that does that in the wet, it doesn't matter what kind of drivetrain you've got....and its probably not the car at fault. Either your setup or maintenance is shit, or your driver is.

The fact that you care about what "wanna bees" think about you, and feel the need to engage in stoplight drags with them, proves that you don't have the right attitude to drive a high powered car. I realise that you're 19, and I do remember what it was like, but its not worth it. Showing off to losers and beating them doesn't make you any less of one. All it does is make you the king of the losers. Make your nick more than just empty talk. The next time some tool lines you up and gives you the eye before smoking it at an intersection, just say "WAT EVA" and let them go.