SimonB

That's not a faq, don't think anyone has asked that before, or knows the answer probably! On the way to/from the 'ring last year my manual was a bit faster from 100+ up to 180 odd than CJs pretty similar auto I would say definitely, but difficult to be objective about it on the autobahn! For seat retrims you want to talk to Gibson&Boyne (millhouse on here is their representitive). They've done a couple of group buys on retrims - the last one was £500 for fronts in just leather IIRC. There's a thread for the last group buy here.

No extra for exhaust, gauges etc. No extra for my wheels (Lexus alloys). For a FMIC and after market front bumper they charged me 5% extra.

Yes, I've been with them the last two years, and several times before that. They've always been very good for me and much cheaper than elsewhere (I take it this was with the Jap import special schemes place?). They actually know what they're talking about with imports so you don't have to spend ages trying to persuade them that your car does in fact exist. You pretty much have to pay all up front though - they do have an installments thing but will charge you a fair bit for it.

...or may in fact experience absolutely nothing at all! Total bollocks I'm afraid IMHO.

Check out the technical articles - there is an engine components bit in there with photos. Also the technical FAQs have all the info you need about stock vs. aftermarket BOVs.

If you look on mkiv.co.nz under specs about a third of the way down the page there is a list of the first chassis number for each month of production - you can work it out from there.

I've got the Toyota brochures somewhere that state what the standard equipment was, and it's definitely as I said. The LSD was standard on manual RZ-Ses and optional on the autos, and the other stuff was optional too including the uprated ABS etc. The RZ was the top of the range one, the RZ-S was more optional. I thought mine was an RZ-S initially - I take it people who are saying they have an RZ or RZ-S have confirmed this with the chassis plate? It's the 2nd to last letter of the model code, Q (RZ), S (SZR), V (SZ or RZS), Z (GZ). More info on the models & stuff on the New Zealand site under "specs" - New Zealand site. Ah, I've found the brochure, this is from a 99 Japanese brochure:- RZ RZ-S The rest can be found on the US site http://www.mkiv.com under specifications.

Nope, after the facelift there was the RZ (which was 6sp only, with LSD, big wheels and brakes, Recaro seats) and the RZ-S which was the equivalent of the old RZ and was auto or 6sp, and came with the normal seats, small wheels and brakes as standard (although the big ones were an option). The GZ doesn't exist after the facelift.

Well, I'm off to a fancy dress party - theme is kid's tv. Which sounds really easy until you actually realise that most kid's tv involves animals or unfeasably difficult to make lycra costumes! So I've opted for Inspector Gadget, complete with red rotating police light on hat, which I'm particularly proud of. It's gonna fall off within about a minute though and smash into a million pieces and probably destroy half the flat I'm going to, but never mind...

Who's Alex? Anyhoo, the start thingy only makes a difference once the 2nd turbo has come in (as before then the wastegate isn't doing anything anyway). I don't think it makes much difference tbh, maybe it helps get full boost a bit sooner. I haven't really played around with it much - I might turn it up a bit and see what effect it has. Best thing to do is set your warning thing to reduce boost at 1.2 or 1.3BAR say, then at least you can't go too badly wrong. Then use the record facility to record a few runs at different settings and play back the results in graph mode and step through- you can see the boost curve that you get then and what effect the set and gain values have.

I have mine set to:- set 57 gain 35 start 0.9 (BAR) I have the warning feature set up to reduce the duty cycle when it hits 1.3BAR, this effectively stops it boosting above that. To do that I have the warning level set to 1.3BAR and the reduction set to -50%. With the controller off, my restrictor restricts boost to about 1 BAR.

Would that be why you are suffering with RSI?

Yeah, and do that at the ring and you're history! Current record holder for a road car is the Radical SR3 Turbo, with a time of 7:19 btw. What's really amazing though is the overall lap record which is Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 in qualifying in 1983, 6:11! 6.11 Porsche 956 sports prototype. 7.19 Radical SR3 Turbo 7.49 for that 700 bhp Blitz Supra Driver unknown 9:18+ Mercedes E300 Twin Turbo AMG modified 1998 9.30 ' 96 TT UK 6 Mods ? Bobbeh 9:40+ Renault 21Turbo - Whitelightning 1995 11+ mins 97VVti TT stock - Timwildman 2004

Dunno mine, my first law of track days is never time yourself - you always end up trying a bit too hard to beat your time before you know the track (which in the case of the 'ring would take a good few years!).

In case everyone who's seen me drive is currently frantically getting refunds on their plane tickets better point out that I'm not an air traffic controller! I'm a software engineer, and not on any of the operational stuff so all I do is work on ATC simulations. Mind you, having seen some of the operational code...

I work for NATS (National Air Traffic Services), so fairly close...

Yeah that's how I read it, they were just saying that the quarter mile time was slower than it could have been because they'd changed to road tyres for the top speed run.

Here's the bit that got confused regarding the gearing thing. It was explaining why the best quarter mile time was only 12.5s. There's some good photos, two double-page spreads, and the BBS gets a couple of mentions too.

Happy birthday mate, hope you have a good one!

You want to get a Santa outfit, saw a bloke out with one last year, you wouldn't believe the amount of attention he was getting from the ladies. Just think, all those girls wanting to sit on your knee...

Could be a dodgy ground somewhere maybe as it sounds like crazy electrical behaviour and that's usually the culprit for that sort of thing. I should check the ground connection at the battery and that you haven't got any other dodgy grounds on any electrical gubbins wired to the ECU. Worth a look anyway.

Nice one guys, congratulations! Supra wedding meet next year anyone...

Could have fooled me! When I asked for V160 gearbox oil, gave all my details and specifically told them I wanted 2 1l containers and it was special stuff after a couple of weeks wait I got.... a big 5l tub of automatic transmission fluid. Nice one. Always best to give them the part number - the J spec Supras are not on their parts database as they have the UK one. For Jspec parts they normally have to contact a Lexus dealer to find the numbers.

Exactly, it's just a cat overheat sensor that does nothing apart from light a warning light if it gets too hot. The lamda sensor is just before the first cat like I said.

The lamda sensor is before the first cat. There's a second one on UK cars in the 2nd cat pipe but not on J specs. The sensor you remove when you take the cats off a J spec is a cat temperature sensor which you can just tie up out the way. I believe you can get away without the 2nd lamda sensor on UK cars, but you're better off using one of Chris Wilson's pipes which have a hole for it.