scathing

It will have to be engineered to be legal anyway, so find one and ask him / her what bonnets are OK. Then go buy one from the list provided, and have them sign off on it. Depending on construction some definitely aren't, so there's no simple "Yes / No" answer.

When I googled for your tyre, the first hit was 101tires.com's user reviews. Most of them complain that the tyres have shithouse sidewalls, so maybe you will need to run the pressures high. As an amusing aside, you'll notice that all the reviews by Yank Tank owners (Lincolns, Mustangs, and other cars not exactly reknown for their handling) think they're a reasonable tyre, whereas the people that are putting them onto Euro or Jap cars think they could have defecated on the rim and come up with a better tyre. Not sure how long it'll take your tyres to run in. However, they won't grip very well for the first couple of hundred kilometres. They use some lubricant during construction to make it easier to remove the tyre from the mould, and then when they spray everything with tyre black (to give it that lovely sheen that all new tyres are blessed with) that doesn't help with grip either.

Dunlop Sport 2000 Dry: 4 Wet: 4 Value: 4 OEM tyres for my last car. Typical OEM tyre: quiet and reasonable in wet and dry, cold and warm. Not much of a sports tyre, though. Silverstone Something, who cares Dry: 4 Wet: 3 Value: 3 Silverstone make some of the crappiest tyres on the planet. Every person I know who's used them has hated them; no grip and wear quickly Pirelli P5000 Drago Dry: 5 Wet: 6 Value: 6 These are a good wet weather tyre. Two big centre channels and directional tread. I found myself doing Old Pac in the wet only 5-10km/hr slower than in the dry. Even though I had them for longer than the Silverstones, when I had to swap 2 out due to puncture the Pirellis still lasted longer than the Silverstones I replaced them with. Falken Azenis RT215 Dry: 7 Wet: 4 Value: 5 Everyone knows about these tyres. Didn't last long, but I could hammer my car and the thing would just stick. In the wet you noticed the lack of tread blocks, but in the dry I was finding myself taking corners flat that I'd normally have to lift on. Shame about the tyre life. Bridgestone Potenza RE040 Dry: 5 Wet: 5 Value: 5 OEM tyres on my current ride. Great OEM sports tyre. Progressive, and with a reasonable amount of grip even when cold. They also do OK in the wet. The only problem is they can't handle heat. The first time I took them to the track, I baked them and they didn't grip properly cold after that. I'd get a fair amount of slip until I got heat into them. Falken Azenis RS-V04 Dry: 8 Wet: 2 Value: 4 Ignore what some people tell you, Formula R semi slicks are not daily drivable. They were noisy as hell, and only by babying them did I get 8000kms out of them. I'd average one oversteer moment per drive in the wet, and they'd pick up stones and either embed them into the rubber or flick them up onto cars behind you. But, in the dry and in anger, a Formula R tyre redefines what you think your car can do around a bend. I had a couple of situations where I went into a corner too hot and I thought I'd slide out; on these tyres the car just did what it was told. And, on the track, they'll do it lap after lap. Definite "second set of rims" rubber. There are better Formula R tyres out there, but not for the pittance I paid for them. Dunlop Direzza DZ101s Dry: 6 Wet: 8 Value: 7 Current tyres. In the dry they provide good grip (at least as good as the RE040s, if not better) and in the wet they're phenominal. I can't believe how much grip I can get, even in standing water, and even when they let go its progressive and its easy to bring them back on line.

How long have you had them on for? If you literally just got them, you need to run a higher pressure to bead them in. I'd probably leave it for a little while before changing the pressures. As for what pressure you should run day to day, what kind of tyre are you using? It can make a difference. However, 44psi sounds way too high, especially for a 45 profile tyre. Aside from the water evacuation reason given above, there are only 2 other reasons I'm aware of to run high pressure. If you're doing a fair amount of highway cruising, then you want to run them high to lower the rolling resistance (which improves economy and tyre life as there's less friction). The other is to use air pressure to stop the tyre sidewalls from flexing. Obviously with a bigger profile you'll get more potential flex, so you need to run higher pressures to offset this. However, aside from decreasing your tyre contact patch there's also the issue that the tyres are more likely to overheat. This means you'll get more squirm from the tread block, and drastically reduce tyre life. But, you'll need a sustained load on the tyres to generate enough heat for this to be an issue. I'd hazard to say that, even for most street cruises, a sensible driver will never get their tyres hot enough for it to be an issue. For day to day driving, if you're on a nice set of street tyres with a reinforced sidewall (or a set of Formula R semi's), run a lower pressure. You'll get more grip and more resistance to overheating, and you let the tyre construction avoid sidewall flex. If your sidewalls are soft, then run slightly more to improve turn-in. So how much you run is a balance of these factors, which is obviously going to depend on your car and your tyres. Its not possible for anyone to give you an exact number unless they've been in your car. In the end, someone has to do "tyre tuning" to get the pressures right for your rubber and your car. We can only tell you what effect changes will have.

I voted for the Evo. Purely because, for street twisty work, I'd take power-on grip over handling. I'd say on a Nasho or Old Pac run, unless you're a very good driver and you know the road is clear of debris and other traffic (or you don't have any sense of self preservation) the Evo will get you to the other end faster. If I was to keep it to track work I'd probably take the RX-7. Better handling and balance, and when the course is wider and you know what the road conditions are like you can put the car to its limits.

You'll notice that they want to add to the list later, etc. So what happens if you buy a car that wasn't banned until after the purchase date? I notice that the brand new 500hp BMW M5 is not on the list. Its not a V8, and its not a turbo. Same with the Dodge Viper. The S2000 is also not banned. An old Charger is still perfectly legal, and that used to be the quickest car in Australia (and will still give quite a few modern sports cars a run for their money in a straight line, while probably ending up as an oversized tree decoration should you hit a bend at speed). Go figure.

They say that Nismo's got the car down to a 10.06 0-400m. Part of me wants to get it to dip in to the 9's. The other realises that doing so means it'll have to be caged for most drag racing venues internationally, so keeping it just above 10sec might be a strategic choice.