Quote from S14 DRIFT :

A good driver can overcome any of the issues by driving slower and paying more attention..

No - a good driver cannot overcome the fact his tyres have no grip, suddenly. It's physics.

Last year, I spent about half an hour getting used to my car in the car park at work, when it was covered in ice. Lots of time practicing braking, getting a feel for the conditions, and the odd bit of larking around.

When I decided to leave, I drove out of the car park, and towards a roundabout - now at this point remember I knew exactly how little grip there was, so I was going ~10 MPH, and had about 7 car lenghts to the stop line, where a Mondeo was waiting. So I applied the brakes... instantly the ABS comes on (because theres no grip), and the car just doesn't slow down. Nothing I can do.

Luckily, there was a very small gap between the Mondeo and the island seperating the lanes - I sailed right past the Mondeo, and ended up stopping in the middle of the (luckily empty) roundabout.

I'd promised a colleague i'd deliver something to a customer, and I thought that despite the conditions, it was only 10 miles away so I'd do it anyway.

Getting there was acceptable, and the customer was over the moon (think she had a broken leg so couldn't get to the store) that i'd delivered it despite the conditions. At this point, I realised what a stupid thing i'd done - she lived at the bottom of a valley. When I got to her house, there was a car struggling to get up the slight incline up the road ahead, so I took the road I'd just been down home. The valley wasn't steep, but several times I had real problems getting up it - even crawling along at 10 the wheels would spin and slip, and the second I touched the accelerator the turbo would kick in, the wheels go crazy and the car stop. It took several attempts to get out... After all this I was driving super-cautiously (the last 15 miles took me over an hour...), about 15 down some country roads. Slight bend, suddenly the car just stops turning and I kerbed it. Twice - very little I could do.

Even once I got onto the dual carraigeway I had traction issues... and before you say it, on the other side of the road there were 4 stuck lorries and 2 crashed cars in the 10 mile stretch home... In total that small journey (10 miles to the customer, 10 to work and then the 20 mile drive home) which would take ~50 minutes in good conditions ended up taking me over 4 hours.

Skill can help, but sometimes you wont find out how little grip there is until you need it, and the only way you can slow enough for it to be an issue is to travel at 5 MPH everywhere, which is not a solution unless I want it to take 4 hours to get home from work...

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

You can either swap the brakes to smaller sets for winter and use the smaller wheels (not a problem if you can do the work yourself)

Surely that is mega hassle? I'm sure i'd be ok doing it myself (before I go the ZT I used to take it to a garage to get the headlight bulbs changed & now I can do pretty much everything electrical myself), but bleeding the system sounds like a mega ballache, especially when I dont *need* the upgraded brakes, so would probably just not bother after a while.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Only going to flame you for the wheels. Who the hell has winter wheels anyway? Normal tyres will suffice. I went through winter on a set of budgets on my Corsa before I replaced them with the Falkens at the start of January and I didn't crash or burn once.

I would said the same last year, but I had a hairy journey last year where I very nearly rear ended a car, and kerbed it twice - and it wasn't even my fault, I just suddenly had no grip. The overriding throught as I slid ever nearer to that Mondeo was "I wonder how much winter tyres would cost, versus the damage i'm about to do to my car..."

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Guess 85% of the UK population aren't normal.

I'd think it would be probably more like 95% of the people don't have winter tyres. But why not? Might as well have tyres suited to the conditions (summer & winters), especially when (hopefully) 15" winter tyres will cost less than 18" summers (or at least no more).

Bought the larger discs / calipers for my car a while back, been spending a bit of time here and there cleaning them up. After that, gave them a few coats of paint (went for blue), and got them looking quite nice, although it took quite a while to do.

Today, my Dad took them to work to bake the paint in, but it seems not all the paint was done so they need a few more coats.

The brakes only fit under 18" wheels (and a few very wide 17"s...) - but not an issue on the ZT's 18" OEM wheels.

Unfortunately, I also bid on some 15" Subaru wheels with some snow tyres, and won those as well... so now i have to face giving up on winter wheels (which I really don't want to do), or give up on the brake upgrade (which I don't need, but wanted, and put a lot of work into).

Balls

EDIT - INB4 flames about the brakes.

CPU-Z and GPU-Z aren't in the same family of software (deceptive names, I know) - CPU-Z doesn't have any temp monitoring facility.

But, theres always RealTemp, CoreTemp & SpeedFan...

I'm guessing that (for some reason) the RPM of the fan was being reported below (some arbitrary limit).

Either you've upgraded the fan, and it no longer needs to spin as fast to cool the PC and the PC thinks somethings wrong, or there was so much dust and crap in your PC the fan couldn't turn...

If you have a look inside when it's on, as long as all the fans are turning it's fine.

Might be a good idea to get some temperature monitoring software though...

Quote from FPVaaron :

The first Stealth plane flew in 1944, jet powered and could fly at over 1000km/h, was not made public until decades later (1944 fighter planes still used single prop old technology design)
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multi ... 1438/stealth_1438973c.jpg

Been said before, but thats not a stealth plane - it's just a flying wing.

Quote from FPVaaron :

There is a 200x50km lake 4000 meters under an antarctic ice sheet the lake is at a life sustaining temperature, shortly after it was discovered private research was forbidden and it was made classified.

Quote from anttt69 :

B.S, your source? There are lots of scientists down there most of the year + half the world has laid claim to a slice of it. I never knew it was so popular.

http://www.antarcticconnection ... ctic/stations/index.shtml

I think you mean Lake Vostok.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Really? The bumper is ruined? It looked fine there..... The boot floor isn't compressed, a slight amount of distortion on hte hinges can render a door unable to open, OR close. Once the hinges aren't facing parallel the door will no longer open. And the boot lid was there.... That's the bit where the number plate is, you know ,the thing you fascinate about fading out?


Oh and by the way, the wind can blow a parcel shelf out of joint, infact, I can bash it with my hand (in a ford anyway) and it will jump onto the rear seat... I think you're over analyzing it, sure insurance company will definately write it off, but damage isn't that bad. Was probably your mothers fault anyway, braking hard for an amber light when another vehicle was behind.

I bet the incident was caused by her braking for a 'red light'.

Be honest, was it?

I dont think you'll get the rear bumper straight again, look at the distortion...



I don't think it'll be written off tho - it's a late 2004 diesel, which has a book of just over £3k.

By "gone" i meant "damaged beyond repair".

The hinges are probably fine, the boot line hasn't moved at all at the top. I'm guessing that either the catch has been distorted, or something worse.

The parcel shelf *could* of just been knocked out, but it could also imply that something has bent slightly.

And no, it wasn't her fault (although she has a lot of accidents which are). She was stationary, empty road in front (at a junction), van driver just assumed she was going to pull out so pulled away straight into the back of her.

I also said "I wouldn't be suprised if" the boot floor was compressed - I can't be sure, but everythings moved quite a long way back at the rear of the car. The crashbar is usually held ~6 inches from the wheel well by brackets, but these have been compressed to nothing so the crash bar is now touching the wheel wheel.

And dear god your an internet expert...

And on the subject of Fords, heres what a van did to my Mum's Fiesta yesterday...







Bumpers gone, crashbars gone, mounts for crashbar have all moved quite a lot, parcel shelfs popped out (suggesting some deformation up there), boot lids gone, boot no longer opens, wouldn't be suprised if the boot floor is compressed.

Quote from mrodgers :

I've never seen a Ford rust.

Were talking Ford Europe here remember...

My girlfriends Ka is covered in rust along the sills, to my knowledge I don't think it ever got any underseal from the factory. Just had to have a load of welding to get through it's MOT...

If I take a 75 for example, i've only seen one that required any welding - and that was due to a poor body repair which let rust in.

The ZT has a few tiny patches of rust where the mudflaps used to be thanks to them holding stones / moisture... will fix it over the Summer.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

Unfortunately, you are wrong. My Honda (as well as every other 6th Gen Accord I have driven.) has incredibly sensitive micro switches on the brake and clutch pedal. Yes, large bumps will disable it. The reason they are so sensitive is because they will pickup the bumps if you stray off the road (Clip a kerb, for example.) and then disable the cruise control. That way, if you fall asleep and go off the road, the cruise control wont stay set at 80mph and smash you into a house.

I don't think it's intentional (although i'm prepared to be proved wrong) - the switch is there so if you touch the clutch / brake it kills the cruise control. It's sensitive so the second you so much as breathe on the pedal, it will turn off, in case of an emergency...

I've not tried driving into a kerb with cruise on, so I can't confirm if mines that sensitive - but I doubt it.

Wierdly it says in my handbook that cruise turns off (on the diesel, only) if you use the throttle as an override for 40+ seconds.. but it doesn't. And I can see no technical reason why it would

Quote from JJ72 :

Stupid question - are those UK plates, or they just very similar in Hong Kong?

Quote from Flame CZE :

I agree with Tristan there. Sometimes I found myself thinking "How could the car slide in that speed" until I realized the speed was way bigger than it had seemed to me. The sense of speed is not very realistic unless you play around with FOV or buy an extra big screen or multiple screens.

^ this ^

If you look at the G you can produce in LFS, it's actually a little high (~5%) than similar cars would produce in real life with good tyres. They have more than enough grip - you just don't feel it.

Quote from JJ72 :

Anyone have experience with these?

I am looking for a set of their 8 spoke street wheels, 16 or 17 inch.

How much do they go for usually?

http://www.panasport.com

I'm geussing their just big minilite reps?

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Then they will go "Oh okay well in that case someone has cloned your car" and then the authorities would probably go do whatever it is they do in this situation - nothing.

If your plate is stolen / your car is cloned, your car gets marked as "stolen". Which means it gets pulled over whenever it drives past anything with ANPR, and the officer grills you for 5 minutes until he finds out why it's stolen... then he checks the VIN against what it should be, apologizes and your on your way.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

S59 is not something I am familiar with however again, if you can prove you weren't there at a given time then they cannot legally prosecute. They can impound your car and then you would probably get it back after your innocence was proven. (I would presume since that's the rule with everything else).

You can't. This is why S59 sucks. It's not a prosecution, you can't take it to court, you can't appeal it, you can't apply any logic to it.

(braces for paranoia insults...) and this is why I keep full copy of S59 (and the bit it references) in my car, "just in case" as it's getting used for more and more stupid things (such as speeding on an empty road... the police claimed it was "anti-social" to the two witnesses... who were the policy...

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

No that is true however all you need to do is to put the reg number into one of the many websites which sell you HPI checks and it will tell you what car it is.

Telling you what car it is could take a VERY long time to get the car you actually want, though. Plus you still dont find out the colour!

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Then they will go "Oh okay well in that case someone has cloned your car" and then the authorities would probably go do whatever it is they do in this situation - nothing.

To properly "clone" a car you need the registration documents or at least be able to have a look under the bonnet for VIN/Chassis/Engine numbers etc. And this is where people pay/hack/have access to the DVLA for...

You dont *need* to clone the VIN / Engine number. You just put the car up for sale, "lose" the V5 and hope for a less-than-savvy buyer. Sure, they'll smell a rat, but it will take long enough for you to move to a different dodgy lockup.

Speeding tickets - yes you *can* get off them if you prove you weren't there. But thats hassle! What if you cant prove it? Why even get myself in that situation for the sake of 5 seconds with photoshop?

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Again if you can proove your car was cloned (easy to do) you'd have nothing to worry about.

For the S59 thing, my car wouldn't actually need to be cloned. You'd just call up the victims nearest police station, say you've seen some guy driving like a tool, handbraking it around the car park, his reg, what he looks like etc. The police will put it on file, and put a marker on the car, despite nothing ever happening.

Then you get your friend to call, say hes seen the same thing on a different day. Say he nearly hit someone. Police are probably going to take this seriously now.

Then you call again, and get a third friend to call... and now i'm probably going to get stopped, and depending on how much of a bellend the officer is feeling, could have my car impounded.

There is no "I wasn't there" excuse to a S59, in fact there is no appeal process at all. You can't even take it to court.

Like I said, I doubt anyone would ever try such a thing to me. But, for the sake of 5 seconds in Photoshop per picture (which I already had to open anyway to convert from RAW), why not?


The comission number of my car cannot be linked to the registration number, fwiw. It's not a DVLA recorded number, and MGR lost most of their records when they got taken over so its something I can give freely.

My thoughts copied and pasted from elsewhere...

Have you seen the new Audi DRL / LED Running lights?

i'm sure the answer is yes... everyone has. Usually with an insult at the end... but everyone notices it!

A car is not hard to see, but often people see the car, but don't register it. A bright brilliant white light forces you to register that theres a car

Unfortunately most people look, but don't actually see...

Quote from Agniz :

wtf, those are gay led lights at the left side of fog light?

Whats wrong with "gay led lights"?

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

All number plates are on the internet. There is a site which has every single numberplate registered, you can browse by prefix, etc. This only applies to regular numberplates, I don't think that personalised ones (e.g B1G NOB - cause that's what you are if you have one) are listed.

It doesn't display my name, or what car it belongs to, though.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

So they can't clone your car? Sorry but that's a load of crap.

Well if you dont know my numberplate it would be rather hard to clone it... before I got it the cars plate was stolen for this exact reason.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

More people probably see your car on the journey to Tesco than those who will ever see it on this forum...so...this is the 21st century, the people who actually clone cars and do a good job have access to the DVLA database so can just browse through and pick and choose as they wish.

I'm sure people see it every journey I make - but the point is that if you've nicked a blue ZT, and want to sell it on pretending its straight (or just drive around in it for a while) it's going to be a LOT easier to type "blue zt" into Google images than it is to drive around until you find one (i see one like mine every 5k miles...).

I doubt that such theives are on this forum - but this forum (and others those pics are on) are highly ranked on Google searches... which means by keyword matching it will appear high in the image results.

I also don't think you'd need access to the DVLA to get a plate, it's easy just to browse Autotrader / eBay / Google, rather than go to the hastle of paying someone off.




Secondly, thanks to the infamous "section 59", you can start some rather scary legal shit going with no proof at all, and nothing but a reg plate and then some convincing details of the driver (which would be easy to gleam from my forum posts), and I would have absolutely no right of recourse and could potentially lose my car... (although I have to admit this is very unlikely to happen).

Quote from ColeusRattus :

And the speaker phone thing is even more strange as it's not a common practice on TV over here. I can't think of a single time I saw it on TV.

"The Apprentice" started it over here - dont think it was in the US version, but it was in the UK version. And then loads of people copied it, and looked like tools.

Quote from Scrabby :

They don't need your numberplate to steal your car lol

No, but they could easily steal my cars identity with those 7 digits... and theres a whole lot more a vindictive person could do with it as well.

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

I understand your need to be different but stop with the blanking out of number plates already.

It's not a need to be different. I simply do not want my numberplate on the internet...

Shameless pic whoring...

Quote from JJ72 :

It's really nice indeed, I only paid about 600USD for it and it has only 20000km on it, girls dig it too!

Please tell me you missed a 0 off the price O.O

Quote from Shotglass :

not that i really care what the village idiot has to say but since when has an r32 ever had any less than 280hp?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Skyline#R32 (the model that people actually care about that is)

I'm geussing he meant the Golf R32

Quote from RasmusL :

Not if you mess with other things it won't pass MOT

Yes, it will... MOT's (for diesels) in the UK don't test actual emissions, just visible smoke - a decat will give a little more smoke, but still nothing near enough to fail, even remapped / chipped / whatever.

For a petrol though (where emissions are tested) then you might get away without a cat, but you probably wont.