scathing

Hand-eye co-ordination skills are best learnt at a young age. Its science - something our current goverments seem ignorant of. Raising the learning age just decreases the likelihood that motorists gain the trained reflexes to "instinctively" control a car. Without instinctive control, the motorist needs to consciously think about what they're doing. Thinking about the mechanics of steering a car is id mental effort not used considering what their fellow motorists are doing, what pedestrians are doing, what warning signposts they've passed, what the traffic signals are doing, etc. The lack of structured driver education, and pitiful testing criteria, means there's a pretty weak standard that motorists are measured against. You put those two together, and you're just going to see more accidents.

Ask them to confirm the anti-squeal shims are in place. If the shop has Wurth anti-squeal spray on hand, they should be using it. If they don't, go somewhere that does.

And even "Porsche Design" stuff is pretty generic. Look at this external hard drive enclosure: Look! A brushed aluminium rectangular box, with 4 cuts and the Porsche Design ogo on it! Their design team must have pulled some major all-nighters to come up with that design. Don't even get me started on their phone - I don't think it could be possible to make a telephone look any blander.

I never said Porsches haven't getting better and better from a technical standpoint. However, that wasn't the discussion. We were talking about value for money, and in that respect Porsche is resting on its laurels (as do all manufacturers with a storied history, just look at what Ferrari can charge for their cars). Porsche knows people will buy their cars because of the badge and what it means to some people. As such, they don't feel the need to be competitive in pricing.....just so long as their product is cheaper than a Fazza. Given that an entry model Ferrari is around $400K, and for the last decade or so we've been in a major economic boom so cashed up people are looking for brand names to show off, there hasn't been much call for Porsche's accountants to sharpen their pencils.

That's possibly because they made most of last year's profit from trading in the stock market. In other words, the vast majority of its recent profitability has nothing to do with making cars. On topic, what's to say Porsche isn't overcharging for their product? They're resting on their laurels and know that their badge cachet will convince the ignorant to buy their product for reasons that don't relate to technical merit or cost. Their vehicle-based profitability (assuming there is any) could be a function of charging too much, not because their competitors are charging too little. Anyone who's ever driven an entry level 3 Series BMW will wonder how the company can get away with charging almost double the price of an Accord for a car that isn't much better. That doesn't make an Accord particularly good value for money, it just means a 318i is a rip off.

The only thing that raising the learning age is going to do is shift the age where inexperienced drivers die due to a lack of skill.

Yeah, that stupid appendix thing is a resonator. The US models didn't get it. I am pretty sure the Japanese cars did. It's for NVH. Honestly, if you bought a 350Z you shouldn't be allergic to a bit of induction noise.

If you can prove it, you can get a refund and back out of the formal order without penalty. Its not the ideal solution since you actually want the car, but you want the car they're advertising and not the car you're getting.

Yeah, pretty much. The owner was away on holidays. The son took 2 people out for a joyride, got it airborne at an estimated 200km/hr, and a telegraph pole cut the car in half.

I wonder how this stuff matches up with your statutory warranty.

If you're comparing apples with apples, what's the worth of a "thrashed" R35 GT-R with no warranty, thanks to your track work? Your cashed up social climbers wanting to be seen in a GT-R aren't going to buy a tracked example, especially it if Nissan gives them grief when it comes time to service it. Your enthusiast track day guys are too busy spending money on those consumables you mentioned to buoy up the prices. It might be worth more than $50K, but relative to how much you paid for either car the R34 still makes a more cost effective vehicle for track work. At least with a modified R34 you can strip the upgraded parts out and try to recoup some of your outlay. Define "hard". If you were driving hard you'd go through a set of R-Comps in 3-4 track days if you don't street drive them in between (you might stretch it to 5-6 if you're not concerned about outright grip, or road legality). You'd probably go through a set of OEM pads in 10,000km mixed in with regular street driving if you did those 3-4 track days during that period. That's before you get into fluids that you should be changing after each "hard driven" track day, or other incidental costs. Nor does it include the cost of breaking something. 3-4 track days in 10,000km of daily driving might be a bit more than what a lot of people do, but if you consider your car to be a "race car for the road" and you plan on enjoying it in a legal manner then it's also not unbelievable that some people might do it.

I copped a stomach bug the night before, and missed it.

No idea on the dB rule.

Too much cross sectional area. You're basically running an exhaust too big for the engine (and, before some bright spark chimes in, that doesn't mean it has "too little backpressure"). I've run my car back to back with another owner when our only powertrain mods were the catbacks. His APS true dual pulled 2rwkW more than mine, but had lost a noticable amount in the midrange. You could feel it on the road, as well. The HiTech guys tested several exhausts of differing shapes and sizes (they had access to Nathan Pilkington's grey import GT-P 350Z) and settled on the design they have - 2.5" Y pipe into a single 2.5" mid pipe - as the best "total area under the curve" option. Of course, if you use the APS exhaust the way it was intended (i.e. with their twin turbo kit) then it works a lot better than an exhaust that goes into a single pipe.

Yeah, these rumours about "average speed" cameras are older than dirt. They're not true. The only such system around in NSW are the Safe-T-Cams, which only pick up trucks on the highway. If anyone's driven down to Melbourne you'll notice that the truckies stick religiously to the speed limit on the Hume until the end of the dual carriageway, and then drive like crazy f**kwits all the way to the border once they're out of the Safe-T-Cams' monitored area.

To give you some food for thought, a good catback exhaust does not make the car loud. When I put my HiTech on and left the rest stock, my car sounded as quiet as stock up until 3000RPM. I picked up a bit of volume and a more growly note higher than that, but it wasn't noisy. Your only problem is that it dones between 1900-2200RPM, which is 60km/hr in 6th gear. Drive at 70 around town, and you'll be fine (although cops may not feel the same way). If you can afford a Fujitsubo Legalis-R, it has the same RPM attributes with a slightly more aggressive note up top.....and no drone. Definitely worth the money if you can afford it. The APS exhaust is about as quiet (its noise legal with the turbo kit, not sure if it is without the turbines providing an extra muffler), but a true dual isn't the best option for a NA road car. If the HiTech and Fujitsubo aren't noise legal, they're close enough (and look stock enough) that no cop would give you a hard time over it. Just don't do extractors and high flow cats, and you'll be fine. The difference in peak power output between the exhausts I mentioned above, and the noisy ones, on an otherwise stock car is sweet FA, so you're not really losing out either. I'd just avoid the true dual ones, so you don't lose midrange torque for practically no gain up top.

Simplest solution would be to get flanges welded onto a flex pipe, and use the result as the extension piping to make the Z exhaust fit on a V35.

They look very good.

Yes, in general. There are specialist wheel repairer/painters. As long as you don't have some esoteric colour like RAYS bronze or Top Secret gold, the repairer should be able to colour match them too.

If its anything like the JDM ones, there's some security feature where the car shuts down if a certain button is pressed without the key in that ignition (or that proximity dongle thing in range, I forget). I had a chat with Carl at a Circuit Club event, and when he let people sit in his R35 he told them specifically not to press something or he'd be stuck there for hours. You can re-mobilise the car, but its a massive rigmarole with a really long instruction sheet.

I'll be there on Sunday. I am not sure if I will be driving, but I will spectate.

I wouldn't disagree with that. Street-wise, I think the car is good enough. I circuit drive my car a lot, though, so my requirements may be different. I don't think any reasonably-sized N2O tank will cover me for a 15 min session, let alone an entire day. It could be worse. You could have a fuel tank leak.

The flex joint isn't mandatory, but it is recommended. I cracked my exhaust in 3 places (exit flanges for the cat, and the mid muffler) when I slid off the track at Wakefield, and bashed the exhaust on a ripple strip. I'm not sure if flex piping would have saved it, but it wouldn't have hurt either. As for cost, no idea. The pipe isn't exactly complex, and the extension won't be that hard either.

That's a matter of perspective, which is my point. After all, that's what hardparking Civic drivers say about their rides too.

If you're going to HiTech anyway, why not get one of their Y pipes? Their bends are a lot more gentle: And you can get them to make an extender that turns the 2 pipes into a single, and mate up with your single mid pipe.