warps

If he can prove he took the same motor you sent him, and without doing anything else to it, he stripped it and found it to be obviously faulty, then there may be a case. If he had it for 2 months, how can he prove that he hasn't destroyed it himself? just because a mechanic can confirm that it is indeed faulty doesn't mean that it was that way when he received it. Maybe if it's full of rust (or some other fault that is unlikely to have occurred in a 2 month period), he may have a way to prove that the motor was faulty when he got it. Otherwise, what's to say he didn't cause the damage himself?

Don't know about Vic, but if you search, I imagine that there should be a few in the Melbourne area (probably up to 2 hours out of the city). Most cities usually have a track or 3 nearby. Here's a few to try: http://www.vka.asn.au/ http://www.gkcv.com.au/ http://www.ogkrc.com.au/ Go along to one of the tracks and start talking to them - mostly these people are very friendly and helpful. Just don't mention driving on the road

not sure if srs, but will give you the benefit of doubt No requirements to own one. Heck, you can just about own whatever you want. Don't know about all tracks, but I know that some dedicated kart tracks will let you practice pretty much whenever they don't have any club events on. To race, you need to register with the club (and I imagine get an AKA licence), but that shouldn't be too hard Driving on the street? Well, if you do I hope you get busted and get seriously f**ked over. Don't give legitimate motorsports enthusiasts a bad name. That's what Skylines / WRX's, V8's are for.

Location?

Check for barnacles, they often rust around the anchor chain, and make sure the bilge pump is working well Other than that, ot should be sweet to go.

Aren't those lay flat hoses? THey store flat on a reel (take up less space) and only fill out when they've got high pressure in them. If so, those kinks will do nothing to stem the flow. The hose is flexible enough to allow the water through, even with the kinks in them. The amount of water they flow is overkill anyway (if you have good pressure) so the small reduction in flow won't make a big difference to their firefighting needs.

Don't get me wrong, Harry. I agree that the tyres are crap. I have no illusions about that. It just seems that you've mounted this crusade about the tyres ever since reading the article you posted a few.... errr ... posts ago (how many consecutive posts have you made about the tyres now?). You've made your point. We've heard and acknowledged it. Let's move on. you don't need to keep reminding us. Some of us aren't brain dead reality TV show watchers, y'know.

Harry You don't like the tyres We get it. Move on. If it bothers you so much, don't watch it.

It's wrong in so many ways I do indeed "like" this

From sydney you can detour via the Hunter Valley and try some of the wineries. You can stop overnight at places like Cessnock / Pokolbin etc (clost to the wineries). Don't bother trying to get accommodation in Singleton or Muswellbrook - they're usually booked out with contractors and reps for the coal mines (and you've gone past most of the good wineries anyway) Then you can head back up towards Brisbane via the NEw England Hwy (inland) or head back out to Newcastle and make your way up the coast. Personally I take the NE hwy to Armidale then head back out to the coast to Grafton (or you can go to Coffs). Beautiful drive over the mountain, and can be fun if there's no traffic. Just watch some of the corners as they're not all sign posted, and a couple of them tighten unexpectedly. If you're into theme parks, then Gold Coast has plenty of them. That will be in the tourist guides anyway, so no need to go into detail about that. The drive north of Brisbane up to Mackay and beyond is just a shit of a run. I do it about once a year, and absolutely loathe it (used to live up that way and made regular trips to Brisbane. If I never have to drive the Bruce Hwy again it will be too soon). As for interesting things to see on the way - if you can swing an invite to the Bowdens motoring museum just north of Brisbane (Buderim), it's well worth the visit. They have many of the old race cars from the 60's through to 90's (mainly iconic Australian race cars). I'm not sure if it's open to the public these days, but worth finding out more and trying to get in for a look see. In rockhampton you can have a steak ayny way you like it, as Rocky is the beef capital of Australia. Nothing else going for the place through, so have your steak and get the hell out of there. Fromrockhampton, you can head inland 2-3 hrs and check out the coal mining areas. If you make it to Emerald, there are gem fields where you can buy gemstones for your mrs (we bought my wife's engagement ring sapphire from there, and had it set by a friend who was a jeweller - but I digress). From there you can head straight to Mackay via the Peak Downs Hwy - nothing to see apart from lots more coal mines (but then again the "coast" run from Rockhampton to Mackay is 343km and there's nothing much to look at there, either) From Mackay you head up to Airlie Beach and that's where a lot of the back packers go, as well as being the gateway to the whitsinday islands. It's well worth a look and heading out for a couple fo day cruises, or even book a few nights at one of the island resorts. Beautiful blue water and white beaches. Mackay / Whitsunday area also has great seafood, so check out some of the seafood restaurants in the area. When you get to Bowen, stop off at Joccheims bakery and order a carrot cake with a coffee. I guarantee it will be the best carrot cake you've ever tasted (even if you're not a fan of carrot cake you'll like it). Their pies etc. aren't too bad, either. If you like surf beaches, then most of them are in the southern part of QLD (and obviously in NSW too). Once you get much further north than about Bundaberg -4 hours north of Brisbane (oh, forgot to say - stop at the Bundy Rum distillery - another aussie icon and worth it if you're a rum drinker) there isn't much in the way of surf at any of the beaches, as the islands and great barier reef kills the surf. Plenty of other stuff I'm sure, but that gives you therecouple of other options to consider. One last thing - pack plenty of 30+ sunscreen, and apply it every time you're outdoors. Seriously. Your pommie skin will fry in 3 minutes in the Australian sun - even on a cloudy day. We have the highest skin cancer rate in the world.

What part of the gold coast? More info on suspension, driveline etc pls.

Nah def not doing ROQ - too fancy for me. Besides, at present the chances of registering my car are almost nil due to stupid QLD rego laws (I can probably get away with a dodgy backdoor rego, but that's not my bag, baby). Do you need to have a fire bomb for that event? At least at Border Ranges I may be able to get a NSW UVP for the event (again QLD won't let you run rallies on UVP's) I did Border ranges a few years ago in the RX2 and it's a great event. Many rave about the high speed long straights (hitting the limiter in 5th for a lot of cars) but that sh!t scares me. Give me the tight twisty stuff any day. Besides, my 120kW Honda is hardly going to mount a challenge to anything on those straight bits. The car is all but ready for a full rally (just need to install a light bar and the 4 Light Force 170's on the shelf and it'll be right to go). Oh, and sort out some kind of rego

"F1 Bahrain 2012 Hamil..." This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Formula One Management. GTFO!!

Duh! NZ exchange rate?? 2.3 NZ litres = 2 Australian litres

Well done on the win. Looks like you dominated all the stages No rallies for me - just a few khanaX and autoX. Usually pick up top ten, with 2nd in class (always make some stupid mistake and lose time). Have managed to beat a few 4WD in each event though. Am giving some ocnsideration to doing border ranges later this year, but need to get a lot of stuff organised before then.

Check this out http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/vsb1/vsb_01_b.aspx#15 It's a national code, so should cover what you need. Look at the section on brakes. It doesn't stipulate whether they need to be electric or not, but I don't know whether there is another style of brake what will comply with the requirements.

Hmmm interesting project.. For all the gravel heads like me, the R33 GTS is actually homologated with CAMS, so you can legally rally this thing as a PRC rally car. Would be sweet to have a 9000RPM RB throwing rocks in the forest. Just need to pull out another 2-300kg, and work out how to fit 15" rims over the brakes, and a rallying we will go I presume the cage is bolt in? Does it have harnesses?

Probably not. The rest of the trailer needs to be built to handle the heavier load (suspension, structure etc.) Break away system must apply brakes in case the trailer becomes detatched from the tow vehicle, and must hold the brakes on for a period (30 min I think). Also need brakes on all four wheels. I think it can only be done with electric brakes, but don't quote me on that. Mate bought a heavy duty trailer from the same guy I bought my car trailer from. His was heavier structure, upgraded suspension and 4 wheel brakes witht he break away system. IIRC, his cost about $1k more than mine. This was to tow a VY Commodore drag ute (in full street trimm, so a heavy lump of a car) You can actually load the trailer a bit more than the legal capacity, because the load on the tow ball is subtracted from the total weight. Check the standards and check the definitions of ATM (aggregate trailer mass), GCM (cross combined mass) etc. If you read the defnitions carefully you'll understand what you can and can't do. I haven't read the standard for a while so can't remember the exact terminology, and how it applies. From memory, the total weight limit for the trailer is calculated slightly differently to the total towing capacity of the tow vehicle. Make sure you fully understand this before making a decision. At a khana cross on the weekend I had at least 30% of the competitors commenting on my trailer, all wanting to know where I got it. It's just a basic car trailer but extremely well built, and I always get people asking me about it. Best rally investment I ever made (Made by Chris Wedding - Car Trailers by Chris - in Brisbane)

It wasn't mine, so I didn't have to live with it. At the time (about 96 or 97) it seemed pretty plush for a 4WD, and I got the impression that it was a luxo SUV without any real SUV capabilities, but I've always been that way about Cherokees, so probably a biased viewpoint. From memory, it seemed to do everything else well enough, the overheating trans was the only thing that stuck in my mind. It belonged to a company director, so he only had it for a couple of years before moving on to something else.

Definitely need to fit a trans cooler if you want to tow with the 4L Jeep. We towed from Maitland to Coffs, and the transmission nearly shat itself going up the range north of Tamworth. It overheated and started doing all sorts of weird stuff Apart from that, it seemed ok for towing, but it was nearly new at the time. don't know how they would have fared with 15 years and a couple hundred thou on the clock.

Auto Tdi's just work. I've gone from a 6 speed manual pathfinder to a 5 speed auto Pathfinder and the auto is much smoother and better for towing, specially reversing into the driveway, manoeuvring around the paddock at an event etc, I'm not a fan of autos either, but for towing, auto tdi is the only way to go. Just be careful as some might need a trans cooler fitted for heavy duty work. Huyndai have lifted their game, and the drivetrain in the santa fe (same as the Kia I believe) was actually euro designed and built. I don't care what anyone says - the euros have the expertise in turbo diesels, and Japan is only now cstching up with them. The mid range suv's make great family cars, by the way. Our pathfinder gets used most of the time, and it's easy to park, great visibility, comfortable and cheap to run. The rex only gets taken out when I want to get from point a to b quickly, or want to have a bit of fun. I don;t know what kind of TDI SUV you're going to get for $20k though. We sold our 5 year old pathfinder for high 20's, and it spent a good deal of time belting around mine sites and towing rally cars through the bush. Still, scrubbed up clean enough so we did ok on the resale.

As the oil heats up it gets thinner. It's being pumped with a positive displacement pump (kind of - not 100% but for this explanation we'll assume it is), and the pressure is caused by the resistance to flow within the engine (trhough bearings, etc). The higher you rev, the more oil it tries to pump (linearly proportional to the RPM). However, pushing the higher volume of oil through the same restriction causes pressure to rise (there's a bypass which prevents over pressurising the system) On the track, the oil probably gets hotter than normal, therefore thinner than normal. This is why at idle, the pressure drops away. In normal driving, the oil won't get as hot or thin, hence the pressure remains a bit higher. Synthetic oils tend not to thin out as much at high temperatures, which is one of the reasons they're used in racing. As the engine wears, the resistance to flow decreases, as the oil paths get bigger (more clearance in bearings etc.). You'll notice the idle speed oil pressure dropping away as the engine ages. Sounds pretty normal. Oh, as a side note, the numbering on your oil refers to its viscosity when it's hot and cold (5W30). The first number means it behaves like a single weight 5W oil when cold, and the secong number means it behaves like a single weight 30 grade oil when hot. Hope that (over simplified) explanation makes some sense.

Ben, you looked at the new SRT8 Jeep? They reckon they'll be around $90k on the road. Very tempting I must say. The Supercharged Falcons are tempting too, but I can't bring myself to pay $80k for a taxi with nice exhaust note and some decent poke. Mind you, the new Pathfinder tows exceptionally well, just won't sprint to 100km/h in under 5 sec. Oh, for those who think it's silly to pay more for your tow vehicle than your race car? what drugs are you on? I'm lucky to do 2000km a year in the rally car, compared to 30,000km a year in the tow vehicle. I can claim the tow vehicle on tax. I need to drive interstate in the tow vehicle. I cart my faminly everywhere in the tow vehicle. Sure, I'll buy a $5k shitter to tow the rally car.

Dam straight!! Weber's having a blinder start to his season. Why would he complain?

http://www.my105.com/ListingDetails/tabid/65/p/1/cid/522/id/4769/Default.aspx This will blow NA R34's and S15's away at all tracks, doubly so on the gravel. It's already caged so you can go to the track and let loose.. Guaranteed the most fun you can have with your pants on Probably not good for P plate laws - would have to check on that.