brumster

The one inside the input shaft or the one on the end of the layshaft, that sits in the front of the gearbox casing? Unfortunately I never upload them. I could root around and see if I can find them but I've since moved to a house where the broadband is very *bleep* (1Mbps upload), so it might take some time to get them uploaded (maybe trip to somewhere with a decent wifi hotspot and I'll upload from there).

Dean, what's the database (technically)? Might be able to help change the text depending on the answer...

It's nothing special, as Stu says you've still got that manically short 1st... mind you, it does have much better spaced gears from there on up the box... so if you like stirring gears, it's an option, given how expensive Type 9's are getting these days (£200 for a snotter!). If you look in my attachments, there's a spreadsheet you can use to map gearbox options and ratios/etc.

It might be BGH Geartech? They do uprated gearsets for the Type 9 that address ratios and improve lubrication on 1st/2nd gears, along with an uprated front layshaft bearing - just good durability improvements as well as performance. Gareth, that's probably your first and cheapest port of call. Or look for a Caterham 6-speed but they're a bit like hen's teeth. After that I think you'd be looking at one-off adapter kits to get alternative gearboxes onto your Vauxhall (Mazda?), or else expensive aftermarket gearboxes from Quaife, Sadev, 3MO, Elite, yada yada...

I can't really vote as to give it fair judgement would mean I'd tried them all, or at least a fairbunch of them! I would guess maybe Snap-On as that's what you see a lot of mechanics use? Me, personally, I'm fine with my Halfords Pro stuff. Had it for years and it's as good as new, all the ratchets function perfect, and they honoured warranty for me once (on the bloody box of all things, not a tool), and it's sensibly priced. Certainly for a home enthusiast... Sealey stuff seems overpriced to me, what bits I've had (inspection lamp/etc) didn't last well.

Totally agree. The reality is I'd probably be more likely to choose a more 'retro' classic car than anything the manufacturers punt out these days. Modern new cars great for doing the job of being a car, that's fine, but very little floats my boat too apart from the uber-expensive silly stuff. Even then, give me an old F40 , or a Lotus Carlton, or an air-cooled 911 Turbo any day of the week

Good choice. M5 was a close contender for me for the same reasons - what a do-it-all car - but they don't make them any more in the touring so I dropped it. Only a 540i these days (straight 6), no more V10s boooo!

Keeping it to just one car is tough but I'll honour the OP, otherwise we can all list cars until the cows come home I'll go with a (genuine) works-spec Peugeot 306 Maxi rally car please. If I can be cheeky and take an extra half a 'mil to keep it running for 20 years that'd be cool too, thanks

You lie like a cheap watch, sir...

So explain NOS to me, does it only fire at WOT so you get 55bhp (or whatever) in a very 'binary' fashion or can it progressively add more NOS into the engine based on throttle position, so you can 'feed it in', if you see what I mean? A brief google seems to suggest you can get some quite smart systems now so it's not just about drag-racing and instant power IF you don't want it to be (for a road car, for example, or a circuit racer)?

Be interested to see how this goes, you going to get any numbers off a rolling road at all or will you just use your ArseDyno?

Yee-har!

Could be pretty much any TVR 90's onwards, I suppose....

Assuming it's not some ginormous fuse/capacitor, presumably a dump valve of some description ?

No, before that, I'm trying to remember when mine was but it was an early chassis before the arched rear wing chassis tubes and the supporting plate for the top rearward wishbone at the front (amongst many other things). Fairly sure it was 2010/2011.

Early Zero's are pretty bad, the powder coating wasn't up to scratch. Mine is showing rust already (I bought it off ebay as an unstarted project, so it's an old chassis in that sense even though it was only put on the road 2 years ago, at which point it was all fine bar some blemishing on the roll-over hoop). I'm fine with it; GBS told me as much, they advised I got it stripped and re-powder-coated as the early cars were known to be bad. I chose not to, it defeated the point of getting the chassis cheap and would have made more sense to buy a brand new one!

Just in case you're not joking/misunderstood me..... what I meant was, the plasma cutter I have draws something like 18A so it can't be wired to a 13A plug at all, it needs the old 32A "blue" industrial sockets and a dedicated wired supply...

Just to forewarn you, check the details on it but it's unlikely to run off a 13A plug handy kit but cutting straight, pretty lines is.... errm.... rather difficult! I chopped up an Exmo with one, made my life sooooo much easier!

The IVA doesn't check tracking as such (not to any specific specification), so you can set it to whatever is your personal preference. As a general principle (but this really is very generic, as the whole aspects of suspension setup encapsulate camber, castor and so forth as well as toe-in/out), toe-in is 'safe' approach that gives stability, toe-out would be more typical on FWD cars or things that were looking for more directional change.... and parallel is, well, in the middle... ie safe. But it also depends greatly on how the toe changes during driving. On a FWD car it can move under power but I think, on our type of cars, it's more stable. For that reason I'd suggest parallel or slight toe-in to start with. One side point - it won't really contribute *that* much to self-centering, on the Exmo I'd look more at your castor for that. The Exmo setup is quite bad for it and there's not really a lot of adjustment in there; the exmo has quite a nasty over-centre feel to it on extreme lock.

Well on my Zero I just did the flap + sealant thing. I think if you was set on shaping them, then the bottom aluminium frame should bend into shape with a bit of heat but the glass I would be getting cut by a specialist. Seems a whole load of hassle to have an odd-shaped windscreen !

Not sure he really had in mind spending that much

Further to this, he's identified it's just the tail casing, that's all he needs. If anyone has one kicking about...

Watch for high hours if buying second hand. 1 year of mowing is probably about 25 to 50 hours depending on how much you're cutting. I had two trains of thought given my budget - by a high-end brand 2nd hand (Honda, John Deere) or buy a cheaper brand new. In the end I took the latter and picked up a Cub Cadet at a good discount (they are basically MTD/Lawnflite). Mulch versus Collect : think about what you need. If you're doing lawns you probably want a dedicated collector. If large amounts of fields, mulch. The downside with collectors is you need somewhere to dump it all! You can get mowers that'll do both - mine is primarily a collector but you can put a mulch plug in the back if you want. Very handy. And the collector can be used to vac up leaves in autumn too. Westwood/Countax are expensive for that "roller" effect broom on the back, only really for formal gardens and lawns but if you've got uneven ground/fields/etc then don't bother. Hydrostatic drive; don't touch anything less (belt/gear driven) There are bells and whistles that you pay through the nose for - electric grass box emptying, electric deck height adjustment, cut-in-reverse, etc. They are largely all expensive fluff and doing without them is no hardship, it really is no time at all to reach behind and manually dump the cuttings, or reach down to the side and lift/lower the deck. And manual means less to go wrong and easy to fix yourself. Otherwise obvious stuff - check comfort/seat, cutting width suits what you need to get around in your garden. If you're cutting thick stuff you probably want to go up to a larger V-twin/Briggs & Stratton engined option or you'll be doing multiple passes. Likewise, don't buy bigger than you need or you'll just be burning petrol for the sake of it.

You're on about fixed 3 point harnesses, not inertia-type belts like in production cars (doesn't really apply to our types of cars) right? I get the focus on racing/etc but it's not something the average joe on the road really needs to worry about. In our types of cars, you have to be pragmatic for the general types of users we have; I guess 95% of sales are to road users. An inertia reel isn't practical because of the car design (you could get the mount up on the rollover hoop, sure, if GBS were that way inclined) but I'd probably err more on the side of strapping myself in so I don't come out. Submarining or not, I think if an impact was that serious in our little tin cans you'll be waving goodbye to your legs pretty quickly, whether it's a 3, 4 or 20 point harness :). A frontal is probably not too bad because there's a heck of a lot of front crumple (ie. the entire chassis forward of the bulkhead) but anything remotely side-on, or something that splits a chassis tube and had it poking into the passenger compartment.... I think the least of your worries is "damn it, I wish I had a crotch strap to stop me sinking forward" Just wouldn't want people worrying over nothing, or at least putting it into context. The guys who popped their testiles out thanks to a 6 point are probably very annoyed about it, sure, but I bet they're glad they were wearing something more than a 3-point intertia reel !! edit: I should say, you're totally right, a badly-adjusted harness is going to do next to nothing, and at least that's the one good thing about a 3 point, it's less prone to incorrect adjustment. I have an issue with the GBS/TRA lap straps, they constantly loosen, I was speaking to TRS at Autosports about swapping my harness for ones with reversed lap straps with motorsport adjusters on them... bugs the hell out of me

Can you elaborate? I get the anti-submarining idea of a 5 point (although I'd argue for a road car we're getting a bit over the top), but 3? How is it better?