Kevin Bacon

Really? Even though it's filthy? Thanks, that's very flattering :) Only 4 sets, wow, I know Ross and Nick Wood had 2 sets between them! Super rare wheels! Speedline must still have the casting moulds for these? I think they will entertain dusting them off for a 20 sets minimum order, possibly! Actually, scrap that plan, we want them kept rare and therefore valuable :lol: Cheers Clumpy, and yeah, I'm Hayward as in the pickled onions :) I did appear in a feature or 3 back in the early days when I was a bit more sociable :lol:

Another 16" Speedo custodian :) There really can't be any more than a handful of (usable) sets out there now? Do the 15" speedo centre caps not fit? I had some weird VW ones in mine, but I can't remember if they were OEM or ebay jobs.

That's the problem of not using the car daily. Things don't break and you lose interest ;) I'm exactly the same. Unless there are jobs to do on a car I just get bored and sell it.

A lot of ginger women having cracking bodies to make up for it though ;) No German performance car is free of problems. M3s, M5s, 911s, Audi RSs..... they all have an expensive weakness. You just have to choose which frying pan you want to jump into :) After reading a few posts, the IMS can be changed in situ on the 996, which saves a lot of labour cost.

Sorry about your financial woes chap. Been there, got the shirt, but I didn't bother with the babies though! Personally speaking a bore gauge is the best method but if the budget is miniscule, I wouldn't bother going down this road at all as rebuilding a VR6 can get expensive! Maybe try and find a decent low mileage lump on ebay, even if it's just a 2.8?

The chain tensioner (if that's what you meant) is supposed to be spongy. It's spring loaded (as well as hydraulic) on the 24Vs to prevent tooth skipping before the oil pressure has built up, which was a problem on the old hydraulic only 12V tensioner. Can't play the clip as I'm at work.

The 3.6 engine in the 996 should be problem free. The 3.6 VarioRam lump in the 993 is a strong, torquey and very smooth beast and should be a nice motor in the 996 as well, albeit water cooled. Apparently the Cayman's 3.4 engine is a stretched out unit on the ragged edge of performance and emissions and suffers from bore scratching. And then excessive oil scoffing follows! It's also difficult to predict when or if this will happen and the experts recommend checking the cylinders with a Boroscope before buying. Hmmmmm. Hassle! Jim I think the 996 snobbery comes from a few narrow minded types. 996 saw the end of the Air cooled engine, the arrival of the ugly headlights and the arrival of a notable drop (by Porsche's usual standards) in cabin quality. But without going water cooled, Porsche would have been stuck in the 70s and with the bhp outputs to match. The headlights are marmite, as is the cabin, but the actual car underneath is all 911 goodness. Jump onto the EvoTV youtube channel and check out the Cayman S (current one) vs 996 GT3 track battle. The two cars put in an identical time and that's a testament to the 996 if you ask me. Sure, the GT3 is their flagship but 15 years separate the two cars! Bovingdon loved the GT3! Great cars.

I could detect waning interest and more frustration from him (forum related, not sexual, lol) ever since he sold his Corrado, so I guess it was only a matter of time before he moved on! It's been ages since I spoke to him, so if you track him down, nudge him to say hi to the old team and let us know how he's doing! :)

See if Practical Performance Car have any back issues with a 996 buyers guide. They speak to the experts concerned rather than offering conjecture. For example they did a Cayman buyers guide this month and the 3.4 engine was a picked out as a known weakness, potentially costing £1000s to put right. They said the less stressed 2.7 version was a safer bet. I know forums can sometimes be opinionated, biased and prophets of doom but I've generally I've always found stereotypes and horror stories come about for a reason. If I was in the market for a 3.4 Cayman, I would have been extremely thankful of PPC for mentioning that!! I've only driven a 993 and personally that felt really old and nothing remarkable. I think they're one of those cars you just like because you like them, but I know the 996 is a big leap up from that. If you can overlook the minor negatives and be prepared to risk the more serious ones, go for it! It is a lot of car for the cash!

You can get a bore gauge for £70. They're made specifically for that task, so why use any other method at that price?

Wow, a blast from the past /\ :) Too much time spent on the rock did his brain in I think :lol: He is genuinely a decent bloke. We all face various challenges in our lives as we get older and our priorities and interests change. I've been over to the rock twice to see him and he came over to blighty a couple of times too. We had some brilliant laughs. He's an intelligent, intuitive and witty bloke. The indoor barbeque he did in his house (I kid you not) is one of my best memories of him :lol: And thanks to him, I ended up with a pig's snout grafted onto Kevin Bacon's face :lol: Anyway, I wish him all the best in what ever he's up to these days.

Have to agree with this. My advice, take an S2 for a spin first because they feel incredibly old and dated, and the UR is even older. If you don't like that, you definitely won't like a UR. That much is certain. Or you will like it for a month because it's an obsession, and then reality will kick in. I can see the appeal, especially if it's the more sought after 20V (you don't want a 10V anyway, engine parts are scarce) but it's one of them meeting your heroes things. I sold the Corrado mainly because it was feeling too old. There's no way I could go back to something that ancient again, lol

Very unlikely to be the oil pump. 20-30 seconds of running isn't long enough to fill the head with oil but the fact oil is getting up there at all is clue enough the pump is fine. If it wasn't, you'd be getting a god awful racket from the bottom and top ends of the engine.

"Slightly different"? You lot are clearly blind!

These are early R32 seats without the lumbar adjustment, but you can clearly see they are nothing like the ones for sale here, or is it just me?!?!

Sorry to be a pedant but they are not the same model of Konig fitted to the R32.

Sounds like the ECU is losing sync with the crank sensor. Is the QPeng an MBE unit? Could try them directly for some help? The only time I saw that happen with my DTA ECU was when the crank signal wires were reversed. You'd be surprised how often that happens with crank sensors. I would only ever use genuine with a critical part like that personally. Another thing you can check is the crank sensor distance from the trigger wheel. The 2 sensors may not be identical and the air gap could be too large.

Lol, yep! People selling cars seem to think their audience are stupid and won't notice an obvious lack of driver's side shots. As already said, why not just be honest! It saves all the awkwardness and wasted journeys. Why isn't there a company called "We Buy Any Car - 4 U". I'd happily pay someone a fee for buying a car on my behalf as it saves all the messing about taking time off work, travelling half way across the country and dealing with liars. He's not a big lad :D I agree though. How often do you see people sitting on the bolsters when working on their cars or cleaning the interiors etc!!!

Mine never looked like that. I cut that mounting lug off and used a rubberised P clamp to secure it elsewhere to the block.

The PAS pipe just hangs there in MK4s as well. Just have a play with it until you're happy.

Edited for accuracy ;)

I'd always take a regular spring of the correct length over a shorter progressive wound spring any day of the week. Having said that, there are progressive springs and there are progressive springs. Cheaper ones tend to be too soft initially and then suddenly hit a rock. Decent progressives should be seamless to the driver.

Greed and preying on the ignorant is where they get their ideas from. Ebay is full of Dick Turpins these days, but people do seem to pay these inflated prices. Kudos to those who can be bothered with it all and have no conscience.

I think 55 profile 15s will look a bit silly and also give some pretty soggy cornering past 7 tenths! The early VR6s do seem to sit a bit lower but I don't think there are different p/ns for early and late suspension parts, apart from the front spring top plate, which is bigger than the late one.

I'm sure you used to be able to get MAFs direct from Bosch through a garage (I.e. Stealth or DG) for about £150?