dandan

Nice motor, damn shame. Glad he's OK - sounds like a very, very close shave.

Good luck dude, let us know how you get on

To save the arch rolling (and body bashing on the inner side) you could go with a 275/40/17 on something like a 9.5" or 10" rim. I really wanted to try that but sold the car before I had the chance. You'll get the exact same sidewall height and appearance from most angles except straight behind. You'll probably save some serious money on tyres and have a lot more choice!

You need a sensible tyre that will warm up quickly in use, as much sidewall height as your taste can live with, correct pressure, supple suspension and a good diff. I tried multiple 17, 18 and 19" wheel and tyre combos on my car along with three different suspension setups. My optimum was a 315/35/17 on the rear with a TRD diff, springs about 10% stiffer than stock, plus CW dampers to match. On a hot day on a good road I could just about get full torque (590lb.ft) down in 2nd gear after a couple of pulls to warm up the tyres.

I'm not sure which one you mean when you say trailing arm but I can say for definite that the facelift cars had different sized bushes on some of them and the elastomer is stiffer. I went through the whole exercise of comparing the two with Toyota US a few years ago when I replaced all mine. I opted for the prefacelift lower front arms as they were stiffer bushings. I will have mentioned it in my project thread somewhere...

Cheers guys I've looked at the Audis....more money for the same age and mileage. If I were looking for something faster and sporty I'd go with the lighter Audi but it's just not that sort of car I'm after. Quite like the look of this http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201503091562319/sort/default/quicksearch/true/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/channel/cars/page/1/price-from/11000/model/7_series/radius/1500/price-to/12000/postcode/gl193nw/usedcars/make/bmw?logcode=p

I'm thinking about trying out one of these big saloons and just wondered if anyone here has owned either or both. Looks like a 58 plate BMW with just under 60k or an 09/10 plate VW with 50k for similar money. The VW has AWD and understated looks but there seems to be no escaaping the wood interior trim The beemer on the other hand can be had without wood but it suffers with the usual BMW rubbish snow and ice driving which is a slight issue. Any thoughts......

Yep, 209mm.

Unless your divider in the wategate feed goes all the way to the valve on the single wastegate setup.

Cracking of tubular manifolds is definitely related to the number of heat cycles.....

Thanks for continuing to post here, on something so personal to you. I read every update and have a great deal of respect for you bud.

I have a pair you can have, found them last week when I was doing my 3rd pass of the garage sort out! You can have them for £20 posted if you want. Cheers Dan

What are you trying to do Mike - any pics?

I had one between the head and runners and another between the runners and plenum. They were about 4mm thick from memory. I'll see if I can find any info on where I bought them...

I've probably got some -12 weld-ons in aluminium plus unused proper Earl's fittings too that were leftover from me doing my own setup. Drop me a pm if you want me to see what I have...you can have them for cheaper than any UK suppliers you can find

I bought a pair of prefacelift mounts from JamieP a while back along with the mounting brackets to fit them (apparently they don't just bolt on to facelift cars). They're no use to me now as the car is gone. If you can collect you can have the lot for £50....or if you wait till about Jan you could probably have them for nothing as I'll be fed up of selling spares by then and it will all be going to the tip!

If you know how to edit wheel and tyre sizes and can do the calibration/setup process do set correct abs sensor position, what's left that is a pain or dangerous?

Can I post up a dat file here or would I have to email it?

I think I have some from a few years ago. One was for a 6 speed TT with 18" wheels and and the other for a vvti 6 speed TT with 19" wheels.

After I changed to the Alcon monoblocks the pedal feel improved tremendously, I was no longer able to get any fade on the road at all and I also started to "challenge" the 255 front tyres Some of that fade resistance may have been pad related to as I changed from Chris' fast road pads to a Carbotech XP8 compound but the improvement in feel was almost certainly because of the floating discs and the massively stiff Alcon caliper design. Personally I would not change from UK to K-Sport or KAD unless I had weight saving in mind and had done the maths to check the aftermarket alternatives were not actually a downgrade in terms of outright stopping power.

Sunny, I've lost your phone number and addrss after changing phones. Drop me a text or pm with your address so I can post the cat to you please mate. Cheers Dan

I'll check and get back to you..

I have a set of unused Goodridge ones you can purchase if you like. Let me know the best price you find and I'll beat it including postage. No use to me any more, they're just in a box in the garage.

Sorry to hear that dude.

Well deserved