corozin

Suggest you call VInce at Stealth Racing as I'm aware he's had VSR's rebuilt in the past and may have either spares on site or be able to get what you want made.

All in all a very entertaining & satisfactory start to the season. I'm really pleased that Jenson Button & Rubino did the business and clearly this is going to be a fascinating season as the other teams now rush to update thier cars and try to catch up. But despite the masterful way that Button controlled the race from the front I have to say that the driver of the day for me today was Lewis Hamilton, who drove through pretty much the entire field to end up third on the podium (Trulli overtook Hamilton under the safety car and has been penalised since the race finish). Any time a driver cuts through the whole field in a clearly not-the-best car like that is something special. Also I have to say I liked the slightly more mature approach taken by the BBC to F1. The interviews were informed & intelligent (remember ITV inserting Lewis Hamilton questions into just about every interview they did). I think Jake Humphries did a really competent job today (fact: he started out presenting on CBBC!) and I think he will grow into the role & add a more natual style to add to his already apparent subject knowledge. The commenting of R5's ex-GP man Jonathan Legard & Martin Brundle is a vast improvement on the useless James Allen and I don't suppose I was the only one who didn't miss the bloody adverts. I started watching GP racing back around the time when James Hunt won the championship and I have to say the quality of the racing action I saw yesterday was as good as anything I recall back in the 'golden days'. The drivers are now able to dice with each other again with these new cars; outbraking, overtaking, slipstreaming, bumping into each other occasionally. If today's race is representative of the future of F1 then we should all be in for a treat, as it's been far too processional for the last 10-15 years. John

You should really order new bearings with the top mounts. For the price involved it's stupid not to. All the other parts you carry over. The settle in time for good quality coilovers is around 1.5 metres. :shades:

Well it was almost inevitable that with the huge rule changes there would be some significant pram-shaking from anyone who came out of design and realised they'd missed a trick or two. Back in the 1960s & 1970s whenever a big technical or design leap was invented everyone would be pissed off about it but accept that someone else had come up with a smart idea and just try and catch up as soon as they could. These days they just phone thier lawyers and protest. Should be a good race this weekend. Will be interesting to see if the Brawn car really has got the minerals it's been promising in testing. john

I havn't heard about the restriction of supply for R888s. My local supplier down here is the main Toyo agent for the area. It could well be that supply is being restricted to the main agents (these supply all the other local trade outlets).But I'm sure I recall seeing a distributor list of Toyo agents on the R888 page of Toyo's website a few years ago. That would certainly be worth looking for. Alternatively if you are still stuck then give Simon at Mike Stokes Motosports down here a call (01202-547555) as if they can't point you as to where to find a local agent they may be able to ship you a set or something. Personally John I'd buy a set of normal/cheapy tyres for the solitudes at this point rather than the R888s. As you say there are other things which are more worth spending the money on (like better brakes or an oil cooler) and to an extent if you are new to track days it's nice to be able to slide it around a bit and get it all out of your system while you learn track craft. HTH John

Like your feet! :gag: 15 vs 17.. consider weight of complete wheel/tyre package too! John, you'll burn a set of 888's in a couple track days so pick teh cheapest option, go with 15's and if they make a big difference then upgrade to some cheap light 17 (Team dymanics, or similar) and tyres.. Trust me if you have anything left from a set of R888s at the end of a single trackday you should have been driving faster. I'm lucky if I have legal tread to drive home with (and have driven straight from track to the tyrefitters on a couple of occasions to have my spares fitted!) It's actually a good tip to know where the nearest tyre fitter is to your track location if you go. Indeed it's a good idea to know where the nearest petrol station is as well... John

Hi John, Just stick with the 15's for the moment as it's a relatively cheap experiment & you may not be using them too often. Don't worry about baffling your sump - just make sure the level is topped up before you go onto the track & then check it during the day. The baffled sump on a Corrado is an old wives tale (even though I have one myself). But before you go out try and check underneath that all the bushes, hoses & cables are all in good condition & nothing's close to rubbing. If anything is leaking get it fixed. Also take a spare set of front pads with you (and tools) in case you toast them during the day. Frankly if you have anything mush less than new pads you could well burn them up in the course of a whole day if you drive hard. Other thoughts for you: 1) Take it easy on track with the R888s. If you overdrive and slide the car in your enthusiasm for track driving you may shred the fronts down to the canvas in as little as 70 miles. Nice smooth inputs through the steering, using fingers rather than grip the wheel to feel out the optimum input. With these tyres you extract the performance by using the the extra grip, not by sliding about. 2) Before you go to the track put the wheels on for at least 2-3 weeks and run the tyres in. Run them through some heat cycles, wear them in a little bit and get used to the feel. If you havvn't actually driven with this kind of tyre before you'll be surprised how different they feel to road tyres. They tramline a lot more for a start. If you just put them on new & go on track you'll kill them quickly. 3) Set the correct pressures in the tyres (30-32psi minimum front & back) and work them up to temperature over 2-3 laps before going hard. These tyres work at an optimum temp of 50-90deg. There's a download pdf on the Toyo website that tells you how to look after them if you're interested. 4) Bear in mind the extra grip from the R888's puts lots of strain on all the rest of the drivetrain; brakes, shafts, ARBs, gearbox, CV, bushes and suspension will all take a complete pounding on track and even more so with these kinds of tyres. If you car is mega low (and from recollection of your car last time I saw it I think you might be close on this) you may well get rubbing in the arches as the suspension compresses more than it ever has before. If you and adjust it try and make sure you have at least thumb clearance from tyre to the arche when parked. 5) If this is your first track day, do try and grab an instructor if one is available. There's no loss of dignity involved, and you will learn more in 20 minutes with an expert about fast & safe driving than you will in years on the road. You'll also probably end up going a lot faster than you ever thought yourself possible, and they'll show you how to preserve those lovely R888s a bit too. Good luck fella- John

Well here you go, turns out it was just a bit of pre-season bullsh*t to wake the tabloids up ahead of the first GP http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/ma ... stem-delay

My apologies if that appeared as a 'pop' at you as that certainly wasn't my intention. It's perhaps inevitable that someone with largely executive powers over the way F1 is run and marketed will cause controversy by the very nature of the way he runs the operation. After all you ain't going to make everyone happy all the time. For what it's worth I think he's done a fairly good job of controlling the political influences that the various manufacturers, teams, governments and sponsors try to exert on the sport over the years. Ferrari's alleged "favouritism" in F1 is more a result of FIA decisions in my opinion. That said, it does seem that Bernie's decision processes (particularly with regard to the circuits) is tinted not by what the Teams, Manufacturers or (mostly european based) fans want, but by what deals can be made which enhance his own considerable personal wealth. His long standing spat with Silverstone is merely an extension of the one he had prior to that with Brands Hatch in the late 1980s. In both cases his ambition was to gain control of the circuits themselves, and it is the BRDC's refusal to cave in which has resulted in the British GP being moved to Donington Park, in the same way that Bernie moved it from Brands to Silverstone when they refused to sell to him. Many people would say the same selection process is true with regard to the Singapore and Valencia rounds which appeared in 2008 - both cases where local Governments were desperate to pay whatever and whoever it took to get exposure. That's a nice little earner for his company. But to address your last point is does seem as though the Brawn (ex-Honda) team have been dominating the pre season testing times so far. With the drastically new configurations of the cars this year I don't think any team has had the space to be doing any sandbagging (except perhaps the unexpected poor performance of the MacLaren team) so it could well be a very interesting first couple of races. Personally I'd also like to see Jenson Button grab a few wins as he's clearly a quick enough driver to win races. john

I think there are people who would argue that Bernie's appalling haircut alone should be grounds for knocking him off. I've seen street beggers who comb thier hair.

That must qualify for post of the month. I almost died laughing at that.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! No wonder he has such an attitude problem. The man is a fool. We'll ignore the time he apparently ended up in Brands Hatch's carpark during an F3 race then! :ignore: That's not either fair or accurate. Ecclestone bought and ran the Brabham Team successfully for many years including the season when Nelson Piquet won the world championship. I don't think that anyone would argue that commercially F1 has blossomed since he got involved in it's management in the mid-1980s. But that doesn't change the fact that this is a stupid rule change. Sometimes I think Bernie dreams these things up just to provoke the team owners into revealing thier positions on other more important things. He's maintained his grip over F1 for over 20 years by dividing and manipulating the teams with considerable skill. This *could* just be another ruse.. or it could even just be a cheap way of getting F1 talked about 2 weeks before the season starts...

I have to say I think this rule change is just a stupid idea. Back in the early 90's Nigel Mansell won the first 5 Grand Prix of the season in a row. By the 10th GP at Hockenheim he'd won 8 races. Under these rules Mansell would have won the championship with 6 races to go and could have had the rest of the season off, or just pottered around at the back waving his trophy at the fans. Consider that in situations where the championship leader is being harrassed by a slower contender there will under these rules now be a huge incentive to "do a Schumacher" and punt the overtaking car off, even if that causes both to retire. Where the win is all that counts a lose-lose will be a preferred option to a win-lose and that is just outright dangerous for the drivers. Anyone who says drivers won't shove other drivers off-circuit in these cirumstances should look back to incidents involving ex-F1 champions such as Schumacher, Senna and Prost. This is a stupid, stupid idea. I'm sure the calculation behind it is to ensure that MacLaren don't get into another one of thier historic periods of domination, but if (as pre season testing suggests may be the case) Jenson Button wins a lot of races straight out of the box with the new rules then I wouldn't be surprised to see Bernie trying to backtrack on this. You can certainly expect Ferrari to protest (and in court) if they come to the view that thier driver's chances are adversely affected by this change.

As someone who runs R888s on a daily basis I'd venture that fitting R88s without also modifying the suspension accordingly could potentially make a VR6 almost dangerous. You really need to run much higher spring rates or the additional grip will just compress the springs beyond where they should operate. Fitting coilovers is still an option for the OP who wants to retain the standard look of his car though - you just set the ride height up where you want it & you'll still get most of the benefits, albeit without the improvements of having a lower centre of gravity. John

Buy an Audi RS6

Have we got to the point where filthy innuendo begins? i.e. Does he like his ride bouncy bouncy or does he prefer it hard and firm ? Fnaar, fnaar, snigger. :D

I live in Dorset and it's rural roads in every direction down here. I use Koni coilovers and they are excellent. Small bump absorbsion is excellent and keeps the wheels in contact with the road very well. Over country roads (and I travel across Wiltshire's Salisbury plain fairly frequently) ride quality is firm but totally planted. The adjustable damping allowed me to set the feel up just the way I like it (i.e ¼ turn from max at front, ½ turn from fully soft at the back). The Koni's also have a lifetime guarantee, and I've never had a problem with failure on either set of Konis that I've owned. Frankly though opinions on this topic are like backsides - everybody has one. Everybody has a different view of how they like thier car to perform and feel so there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Personally I think the Konis are worth the extra money but I also don't doubt Pianowire's feedback on the KW's he uses for a second as I havn't tried them. You will really just have to pick a kit that suits your budget and take a chance like I had to. I have drive a Corrado on H&R coilovers and they were also very nice, albeit the spring rates felt a little bit softer than the Konis do (and I prefer the Konis). The last thing I'd pass on (if you're running a VR6) is to avoid Bilstein kits which are very firm and more suited to smooth German roads, and also those godawful 'trackday' coilovers (were they H&R's?) which came out a couple of years back, and which despite thier motorsport marketing managed to have have non-adjustable dampers (yeah... right...) Hope this helps, John

Suggest you telephone DVLA and they will advise you on your responsibilities towards this 'export' from the UK side. Presume there will be (at least) a form to complete to remove the car from the DVLA registers & allow it to be registered in the EU. Hazarding a guess but your buyer will have to book a TUV test his side before registering it in Germany.

That is a sneaky move he he. Have you got a link to your car mate would like to check it out Matt Nope, because there is no link. To tell you the truth it isn't at all special to look at. All the good stuff is hidden beneath! I did promise BiggerBigBen to write it up for his Coupehaus site a while back but I still havn't gotton around to doing the words & pictures.

No offence taken at all. My "Nothelle" has long since been so heavily modified that the interior and the flowed head are about the only parts left from the car they tested in 1993. Indeed the observant amongst you who read the Nothelle Road test will have spotted one of the secrets of the car's performance : running 40 section tyres on 16 inch wheels... no wonder it accelerated well. Today the car is a beaten up road/track day warrior. All the good stuff is hidden beneath the dented & mucky exterior :)

Here you go - proof. The car in the article below is the one I've now owned for 3 years. It's on a different registration these days, and is thankfully no longer on those appalling Zender wheels. It's also a lot more dented than it was...

You say that like it's a bad thing ? LOL :norty:

Pah. Lamborghini's are just so obvious. Give me this instead : or perhaps it's big brother with even more horsepower, 4 doors, a decent boot and old-skool German http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIt8MXGW1q0 ** WARNING TO CHEESEWIRE ** Don't blame me if either of these videos end up costing you lots of money :D

Well if you're car is on the cover of VW/Audi Driver then you'll be in rare company, as my own car was on the cover of the same magazine back in 1993 when it was Nothelle tuning's UK press car.

I've been on PH for many years now. I don't think the quality of the news or articles on the site have deteriorated at all (or since the site was sold by PetrolTed to Haymarket in 2007) but I definately think the quality of the forums has changed very noticeably in the past year or so (or maybe it's just my idiot tolerance threshold is less than it used to be) Subjectively I think that in the past PH had a large population of posters who originated from the TVR/Lotus/Porsche origins of PH, but as it's continued to grow and become increasingly popular it's attracted more & more plonkers, trolls and general morons. Honestly many of the old 'characters' have been driven elsewhere by these idiots. The Speeding & Plod forum used to have some excellent discussions back in the days of Supercop but frankly some of the coppers who've replaced him on there are the kinds of jobsworth-types I have nightmares about - all rule-book-enforcers and no common sense. As a result that forum has degenerated into something that Monty Python would create to host the Argument Sketch in. The Pie & Piston forum is still silly, but then it always was. The VW/Audi was always pretty quiet and is now dead as Kev says. General Gassing is now littered with posts from idiots, little englanders, pedants and people with anger management issues. I still browse through regularly but frankly it's not the 'must stop' is used to be these days. Many good people are still there (because I talk to them via email & meet them off-forum) but as a forum it's starting to die I feel. John