corozin

As a piece of entertainment it was top notch. The part when Clarkson returned to the campsite with a dead buffalo strapped to the roof of the Camero was as funny as anything I've seen on telly in years. Also thought the commentary about the state of post-Katrina New Orleans was very well made, and the fact it was juxtaposed right next to all the "cocking about" made it all the more powerful IMHO. That place is a shame on the US Government. As PhatVR6 says, not much about cars, but great telly. John p.s. I am not 'Big Stig' :wink:

Can anyone explain to me why so many corn-fed country boys all think they're members of NWA? [sigh]

I have to say only the Golf & Focus ring my bell out of that lot. The Maxda-3 would be really interesting if they threw the Renesis (RX8) engine in there... The new Civic-R looks like a dogs breakfast and is (apparently) 150kg heavier than the old one, but has the same power, the Leon would have been the one I would have gone for 18 months ago but (again) the new design isn't a patch on the old one. The VX Astra has a tonka-toy bodykit fitted that would have seemed chavvy even in 1980s when everyone liked them! It's just a shame that hatchback design these days seems to be gravitating towards mini-MPVs for old people & housewives. Then they give it a red badge & 200bhp and expected performance enthusiasts to go gooey for them... bOllocks...

From what I gather, they've been particularly badly hit by changes in payment terms imposed by the German market. Invoices used to be on 30 days, but now the manufacturers are commonly imposing 90 day payment terms legally. Also sounds like there has been a lot of Management fracas/politics at BBS, & one of the key banks had enough and withdrew. The issue over price of aluminium is a bit bogus because this applies to a large section of the motor industry generally. The good news is that BBS have a strong customer base, and one of the best names (and products) in the business. I would lay a sizable bet that they will find a new owner and be back trading fairly quickly.

Check for mice :D

Yo Charlie, Well on one hand you don't do big mileages in yours, but on the other hand the roads around your way will pull them about like there's a rope attached with all the potholes & ripples etc. Remember that the "un-nerving" first journey I mentioned up top where I scared myself with the tramlining effect was driving across Wiltshire to your place from Swindon! Perhaps I'll have to take you out in it properly (unlike last time where the suspension bushes were hanging on by a thread), let you experience some g-force and you can make your own mind up... I just want an opportunity to scare the beejeezus out of you really... John p.s. I said in the original post that "what are those tyres like?" is the most often asked question I get when people see the car for the first time. The next most-asked questions are: 2) Why didn't you bother to clean it? 3) Is it really true that dent in the driver door is Guy's Hartley's arseprint? :D

He's made a really excellent wheel choice to go with the colour. Great eye I reckon. Nice to see some Americans really getting into the Euro look and dumping all that frigging chrome and airbrushing they've obsessed with for years.

I agree. The first thing I would check is that the rear bearings are nipped up just snug. If they aren't the car will feel like the front and rear wheels aren't connected to the same car. It's also a common oversight for garages to make. Hell I even had to tighten some rear bearings fitted at Dia.... no - I won't name them.

I approve. Some nice lines there. Your Nurburgring video is better :)

Well yeah, but not in bloody Oxfordshire! Everyone know's the roads are teeming with angry plods up there!!!

I can only say that I used Koni coilovers for over 4 years on a variety of tracks and that for track work they are simply fabulous. In fact I didn't upgrade the ARB's on that car at all, as the car cornered fairly flat on the standard ones - the Koni dual rate springs did an excellent job of flattening the car, and stopped a lot of dive under heavy braking as well. Of course the nice part about them is that they were still compliant enough to be nice to drive on the road. If you want the ultimate though - go for the Leda kit. I only say that because the bound & rebound on the Leda ones are adjustable seperately, where as the Konis (and almost eveyone else's) are only rebound can be adjusted. Depends on how serious you are really.

Although many of my friends will disagree with me saying this, clearly I don't drive as hard on my R888's as either of you guys. Seriously... I get overtaken about 4 times a year anywhere and I still get 6k out of a set of fronts. I don't know how you guys manage it ! Well... that is a bit of a lie... I've seen PhatVR6 drive a few times and I know how he melts his tyres... LOL

It's not that I don't know what to do, it's just I had a bit of a "senior moment" and forgot as it's been a year or so since I last did that job. You forget these things when you're my age y'see :wink:

Hey, no problem. Sorry if my post looked a bit intolerant, that wasn't my intention at all :)

Hi Eric, I think I'm struggling a little to vision exactly what your situation is, but as a suggestion, have you considered lowering the car back to the ground to let the thread push through so you can put the bolts on? Maybe it's a stupid idea, but at least it's an idea?? John

Koni or Leda adjustable coilovers. For the uses you are going to put the car to you should save up and accept nothing less IMHO.

Out of interest, what is your own experience of the wear issue as fitted to your Golf? I know it's subjective & depends a lot on your driving style etc but would be interested to know. I have to say that the Japster-owners have picked up on tyres like the R888 with enthusiasm, but they are still a very rare sight on other performance cars outside of the light/sports models I mentioned. Certainly rare on Volkswagens anyway.

Yeah... perhaps as well as Golfsburg we can look forward too... Kor-ado-ea !!! :D

I thought it might be of interest to write about Toyo R888's from an owner's perspective. Many of you will have seen my "rat car" Nothelle at shows in the past 12 months that I've owned it, and one of the more common questions I get from people is "what are those tyres like?". Overview : The R888 is Toyo's entry into the trackday/xtreme sports car market. Originally introduced in 2000, the R888 has firmly established itself as a favourite among both trackday drivers looking to extract more consistent performance with grip levels well above that available from normal road tyres. The rationale behind the tyre is to have something which delivers exceptional performance on road or track, but which at the same time is road legal, allowing the owner to drive the car to the track without having to lug a spare set of wheels along. In recent times, the R888 has become a common fitment on sports cars made by Lotus (Exige 240R), Caterham, Westfield, Arial and Brooke to name but a few. In those markets the limitations of the tyre as a general use item are outweighed by the kinds of useage those cars get, which tends towards track use and weekends/summer use only. The R888 is available in a wide variety of fittings, including the common ones used by Corrado owners. There's a lot of debate as to ultimately whether the R888 is as good as it's main rival, the Yokohama A032 / A048 range. In my experience the decision is (in part) swayed towards the Toyos because they are generally quite a bit cheaper than the A048 equivalent. The A032's really are very soft even by the standards of these kinds of tyres, and it's important to factor in some level of wear resistance if you intend to use tyres like these on a daily basis. As we will see, high wear is one of the key disadvantages of this class of tyre. To be honest if you must have the stickiest tyres on your car when you go out at Brands, it's probably a better bet to go all the way and put some full slicks on a second set of wheels. Construction: The R888 is an R-rated radial tyre, but with a number of key changes compared to the T1-R and T1-S road tyres. These are Use of a medium race rubber compound, increasing dry grip and expense increased wear and reduced cold weather performance Fewer, but larger rain channels, exposing a much larger percentage of rubber to the road than found in a road tyre Significantly strengthened and reinforced tyre casing compared with normal road tyres Inflation pressures are similar to those used on normal road tyres, but a few considerations need to be understood (see below) Out on the Road: In truth the R888 is an acquired taste. You will either love them or hate them. The main issues with using the R888 on an everyday basis are: The Noise The first thing you will notice about the tyres is the drone from them. These are not designed for "comfort". The combination of sticky compound, motorsport "cut slick" design and heavy steel reinforcement within the carcass makes for a relatively noisy journey. On a personal level I have to say I don't really notice it anymore (the induction kit and stereo always drown the noise out!) but even now passengers are sometime given to asking if there is something wrong with my CV joints due to the noise. Noise is a penalty you have to pay for the performance these tyres offer. The Tramlining The R888's sidewalls are significantly stronger than anything you will find on a road tyre. Under extreme conditions on the race track this means that the sidewalls will not distort in the same way that a normal road tyre will, and results in both a much higher level of cornering performance, but also means track use wears the edges of the tyre far less quickly than a road tyre will. There is a downside to all of this of course... the rigid sidewalls (which hardly deflate even when the tyre has a puncture!) mean that the wheels do tramline badly compared to road tyres, following every groove, ripple and white line marking on the road surface. This effect is even more pronounced in the wet. To start with I found this aspect of the tyres' performance fairly un-nerving. In my case the effect was amplified by the car also being fitted with a (smaller) aftermarket Momo steering wheel as well as a Quaife ATB. However I found that this tramlining is something you quickly adapt your driving style to, and I don't really notice the effect any more unless I jump into someone else's car and suddenly find I'm not gripping the wheel quite so hard! The Soft Rubber Compound Let's make no bones about it. The R888 is a racing tyre made road legal. As such the tyre is made from a significantly softer compound than anything you will get on a normal road tyre. Whilst this means that when in the dry and at the correct operating temperature the tyre's dynamic envelope is extrordinary, it also mean that the tyre will wear approximately twice as fast as a road tyre. The soft rubber is also prone to punctures and cuts, and small stones will be picked up and hurled at the car behind you (which is why I always tell A1VR6 and Wendy to drive in front of me to VW meets!). As a racing tyre, the R888 is designed to operate within a different temperature range to road tyres. The typical road tyre is designed to perform best within a temperature range of 10deg - 50deg, whilst the R888 is designed to perform best in the 35deg-85deg zone. This means two things; firstly that they can be quite skittish until some temperature is in them, but also that they are working thier best when being worked on track at temps that melt the rubber of normal road tyres. Unsurprisingly the wear rate of the tyre is higher in the summer months compared with the colder winter ones, as the hot road surfaces in July almost pull the skin off them in daily use. At these temperatures (which are typically attained after 4-5 miles of modest driving) not only do you have access to extraordinary levels of lateral grip, but also braking power as well as the tyres resist locking very well even with big brake kits fitted. One of the unexpected side-effects of this is that you learn to check your oil more often; the G-forces produced by the tyres in braking and cornering can be so great that oil surge can become a genuine problem should the oil level get much lower than ½ dipstick. I always seem to carry a spare 2 litres of Castrol in the boot these days just in case I get caught out... As if that wasn't bad enough consideration must be given to the state of your suspension if you decide to fit the R888s. The G-forces and sheer duress placed on the wishbones, steering, shocks, top mounts, CV joints, bearings and bushes from these tyres will expose problems in any of these areas very quickly. Also you should expect some reduction in the life expectancy of these items should you run the R888's and drive hard with any regularity. Checking them regularly becomes a necessity, not a once-a-year-at-MOT time option. Grip in the wet is actually a lot better than you would initially think. In fact the tyre exceeds the grip of a normal road tyre in wet/damp road conditions due to the sheer amount of rubber contacting the road. However all this changes as soon as water begins to sit on top of the road surface; with a large rubber area and comparatively few water channels, the R888 is a tyre you have to treat with great respect when standing water abounds. Indeed even maintaining a steady motorway 70mph in "medium" rain is a matter of bravery, and so 60mph becomes more the norm in those conditions. Aquaplaning is an almost common occurance - you only need to hit a puddle at 60mph and you're there. Again this is something I have just learned to adapt my driving style to, but some people might find it very constraining or risky. Wear is not as bad as you might think, but still bad by road car standards. Typically I have been getting through a set of fronts on my VR6 at around every 6,000 miles. The rears are holding up better, but will still need replacement at around 15,000 I think. BY comparison I used to get 11,000-14,000 from a set of T1-S road tyres on my previous Corrado. Costs: The R888 is not as expensive as you might think, but the costs of running them are obviously significantly higher as they wear so much more quickly. In my locality R888's in 205x40xR17 can be had for £105each incl fitting and balancing, compared to £90-£95 for the equivalent Toyo T1-S Summary: In summary the Toyo R888 is a specialist kind of tyre which may not be to everyone's tastes. On one hand you get a tyre with extraordinary performance, capable of G-forces and cornering you would not believe possible, especially when combined with a Quaife ATB. Realistically you are very unlikely to exceed the grip of the tyres safely on the road once they are at operating tempereture. However there are sacrifices to be made; the noise, the wear rate, the tramlining, the increased chances of punctures, the poor wet weather performance... If you think you can stand all that lot then the R888 might just be something you might want to consider. Certainly I don't ever want to go back to normal tyres again...

Bad steering response can be down to a lot of things. I'd check the ball joints, and the wishbone & ARB bushes before getting stuck into the rack. Also, it might also be worth getting the rack examined. If there is "slop" in the rack that'll more likely be because of a shagged steering rack than knackered bushes.

Coilovers have bumpstops already built into them.

I don't know. Lotus is not only a "has seen better times" sports car maker with a gold-lined brand, but you also get Lotus Engineering as well, which is the real prize as they have just about the best chassis/dynamics engineers anywhere in the world. As for Proton? Well it would give VAG a cheap way to expand production into Asia. I know no bugger buys them in Europe, but China, Korea and places like the Phillipines are full of them? Sounds like a smart move in VAG's expansion plans to me

The Aston Martin Lagonda may look exotic, but it's worth less than £3k. See this months Practical Performance Car if you don't believe me

My 2p: American Chopper : Used to be good. Now it's rubbish American Hotrod : Still decent even if Boyd keeps sacking everyone Great Biker Build Off : Still fabulous after 4 seasons, still my favourite Prison Break : New discovery for me last week - think I will keep watching Deadliest Catch : Absolutely gripping. Never gets dull although it should when you consider the simplicity of the story Battlestar Galactica : The best sci-fi on TV right now. Accept no substitute. Mythbusters : Crazy pair of brothers keep destroying stuff! I agree the Americans are kinda on a roll these past 3-4 years/ Of course one of the reasons thier stuff is so good is because UK television is so completely and utterly crap. The yanks get scrubs and we get shyte like Casualty

See here : http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArtic ... rs/223989/