dr_mat

I'm pretty sceptical about how many people claim to have amazing technical foresight in emergencies. Till it happens to you, dude, you have no idea how you'll react! Personally I'd like to think I know enough about cars to figure *something* out, but most people don't! For the vast majority of the population a car is a complete mystery, most of them only know not to use diesel cos there's a sticker on the petrol flap ... !

Depends on the model Jim ... If the ignition is interlocked you can't turn it off till the 'box is in "park"... You might be able to pull an important fuse or relay, but that would almost certainly result in locking up the wheels solid on an auto ... and it would certainly involve taking your eyes off the road ..

Sorry, but I don't believe the 216bhp either ... (210 lbft on a N/A 2.9 VR6? I don't think sooo..!!) Drop that left scale by about 20-30, and it might be representative! The loss of torque top end, compared to the 4750 rpm peak: That could be down to fuel supply, could be the cam sensor, could be blocked CAT (so I've heard). Got any errors on the ECU?

The "americans use lower octane fuel than us" thing is actually a very complicated argument ... Given that they don't rate Octane in the same way as the EU (in fact, in many respects their Octane rating is more stringent than ours), it's hard or impossible to compare directly. That said, I have no idea what the cam differences are. I think the VR has standard cams that are around 245 degrees maybe? Don't quote me on that... Most people over here seem to buy the Schrick 268's, or equivalent. Physically, the cams are the same, i.e. they're the same length with the same mountings... That's where I run out of info ...

"just turn off the ignition" won't work - you have to put it in "P" first on an auto, there's usually an interlock to the ignition system. Ever tried putting an auto into "P" at 10 mph? Imagine doing it at 130 .. ! Design flaw, IMHO. There should always be a way to kill the engine, ffs.

Cams and followers would be around 3-4 hours labour at Stealth, I would imagine. So £120-160 + VAT. Do you *need* a remap for 268s?

Well there's a VR6 under the bonnet... why not drive the wipers off that .. !? You could use the syncro gearbox rear-exit propshaft ...? This is just one of those lovely little features of having a custom designed and custom built car. VW didn't want to spend the £100k getting the wipers working properly, so they gave the job to Helmut the YTS trainee and told him he had till yesterday afternoon to design the bits... And I've noticed that replacement windscreens aren't the same shape, too. When mine was replaced last year I immediately noticed that it sat further from the dash at the bottom of the screen. Thought I was going mad for a while. (Turned out I already *was* mad, but that the windscreen really *was* a different shape anyway.) Oh and my Lupo wipers are pants, too. But then they're two years old. They were pants from six months of age though, and I hardly do 7000 miles/year.

Quite. .. and if you get the car HPi checked and they MISS an important fact like that, THEY will pay you up to ten grand to cover your losses.

264.2 lbft / 72 revs? Sounds a bit dodgy to me! Neither scale makes sense, from a torque point of view, though the torque curve *looks* about the right shape - peak at 4750 rpm (apart from you're missing the top end 2ndary peak around 5500).

That said, a 100k mile+ standard VR pump is probably not in best condition any longer. Nowt wrong with a new one though... So if you're really worried a) change the filter and b) get the pump pressure tested. There's a pressure test take-off point on the fuel rail by the injectors. It's hard to simulate full load, 6k rpm and full throttle with this in place, but if you don't see the full 4 bar when it's revving off-load, you can sure as hell bet it won't deliver it under full load ..

I don't think any of the unsurers will cover your modifications in full, unless you get special clauses in the contract...

Coil pack ... there's three coils in one unit, obviously that means if you lose one of 'em you lose spark on two cylinders ...

I'm curious - what noise does an engine make when the timing is out? You mean pre-ignition? BTW - re the chains, they will clatter for a veeery long time. There's very few cases of damage as a result of it clattering. It's just over a day's work for a garage, so it's not cheap. Get the clutch swapped at the same time with a genuine VW part while it's all off.

I think that the argument on that goes that just talking inside the car to another human being has both the driver and the passenger sitting in the car, assessing the risks of the situation themselves (even casually). The flow of the conversation will be impacted by the road conditions and the obstacles and manoeuvres that the driver is carrying out, whereas the person on the other end of the phone has no way of perceiving that and will talk using a rhythm that could be distracting to the driver at critical moments. Of course, small children could also cause the same thing ... but even they quickly learn when to expect an answer and when not ...

I didn't watch the bit with the simulator, but I can tell you that good drivers who are stone cold sober and concentrating hard crash that thing, even when trying to go in a straight line with both hands on the wheel... "Outrun" was a more accurate simulation.

Really? A consultant driving a VR6? Wow! ;) No, prolly not liable for tax on the car, but keep your eye on the petrol card. They usually require you to log the number plate when you use them, and the guys in the forecourts aren't going to necessarily be willing to turn a blind eye to you lying about which reg number. Plus the VR prolly requires Super and the company vehicle uses ...? The tax man will jump all over that if it comes up on the receipts. All gifts are taxable! At least, that's what I keep telling my missus.. ;)

Nope, I know that, just pointing out what they're worth...

I was referring to the use of the petrol card for your own car. If the tax man gets wind that your company pays your private petrol bill you'll be liable for that, big style...! And yes, technically if you have full use of a company vehicle, I think that is supposed to be a taxable benefit. If they can claim that you never EVER use it for personal travel (i.e. you leave it at work), then you won't be liable, but if you take it home every night that becomes impossible to prove. (Plus, don't mean to be stroppy, but I live in a small residential street, and it's really annoying when our limited parking is packed with massive bloody transit vans!)

If the camber goes way out on one side then the steering will "settle" to a different centre, so you'll probably find it drifts massively unless you hold the wheel over to correct it.

And yet, the only one of these sins deemed evil enough for an on-the-spot fine and 3 points on your license is holding your mobile phone, whether it's turned on or not... Yes, I saw GMTV where a bunch of holier-than-though presenters were going on about people who were stopped in traffic being evil citizens for using their mobile phones. I mean, wtf is the risk when the car is stationary?! The media piss me off with double standards. Look how much they go on about Kate Moss killing herself with white powder, when much of the london media scene is fuelled by the stuff...

You'd probably better not mention that to the tax man ...

Ah, but £100 is easily worth it for a good set of tyres ... The wheels come free. A mint set of speedlines without tyres are worth about £100-£125, which is less than the cost of refurbing them.

Ah, so you mean that, for a given gear, you get more pickup because the final drive is lower and the engine has more mechanical advantage over the wheels? Well why didn't you just say that?? ;)

Think someone else had similar symptoms recently and it turned out the MAF had a broken wire ...

Well, wet roads tonight proved that I can't put 190 lbft down through the front wheels in 1st gear, even on a relatively smooth, straight piece of road ...