Lauren

I guess it depends upon how expensive the rose joint is, so can it be replaceable if it's not too expensive?

Welcome aboard. Do you have any plans for the car? As Dan said, have a look out for local meets.

Coming to see what it's all about Adam.

Cool, I'll wait and see what they come out at. Quite interested in the SPL ones.

It's normally about a tank and a half. Arrive with a full tank and take a 20L jerry can. Sorted.

Just a thought, Jordan. If you're up for a meal on the Saturday night, it may make more sense to get a hotel nearer my way. I live a 25 minute drive from TD. Manchester Airport is where I live. Lots of hotels around, I can easily give a list. Just thinking if you wanted to drink rather than drive.

Is it really April, since I udpated this thread? It seems it is. Well since then, I had my 90K service over the summer. No problems at all with this, just a standard intermediate service at RRG Macc' of course. I'd noticed over the summer that there was a bit of rattle in the front suspension that you could really notice at slow speeds over rough urban roads. I'd been meaning to get in touch with Yukiko from Tein, and well, I eventually got round to it. Yukiko responded and said that she could service my Tein Street Flex. The way that Tein do their servicing is you send it down to them, they service it and send it back. When my coilovers were dismantled, it was found that the top mount bushing which screws into the top mount had pulled it's thread. There is only a very short thread on these and through discussing it, we came to the conclusion that when the suspension is running near full soft, it may have allowed for that movement putting stress on the thread. But really, we have to accept that this car has done 70K miles on that suspension and it regularly gets a pummelling on poorly surfaced residential streets when I do my rounds as a duty social worker. The top mounts and bushings were replaced. It was impressive to hear, that the dampers measured correctly on their damping settings after 70K miles and there were no leaks either. So pretty straightforward and an alignment at RRG. One thing to note is that the stock droplinks are fit once or twice if you're lucky, but not three times. The poor design of needing an allen key to stop the balljoint spinning means the allen key bolt hole tends to get messed up everytime you do it, so it doesn't take long till you need a grinder and a hacksaw to get them off. Tein kindly supplied adjustable drop links with a better design that won't have this problem. Mark and I took the suspension off and put it back on. Save for the PITA droplinks, it all came off easy enough. Putting it back on was even easier. Must have taken about an hour and half. If you're thinking of fitting this suspension yourself buy some new droplinks and that aside, it really couldn't be easier. Last week I was driving around for work and I noted a slight rattle. I immediately thought it was the drop links coming loose. So I jacked the car up yesterday. Drop links were nice and tight, but the nut that sets the ride height on the coilover had come loose, allowing the spring to fall slightly out of it's seat on full droop. I duly got my Tein spanners out and tightened it up and pre-loaded the spring slightly, like the other side. I think it's great that I could still spin the nut on the thread after the mileage my car has done by hand. I also managed to do it without taking the wheels off, so I now know I can adjust ride height with the wheels on, it really is that easy. The car is back to it's quiet comfortable self and more importantly no rattles! One thing I've been thinking about getting is adjustable to rear lower arms, as poor Gareth at RRG had a right nightmare adjusting the camber to take out half a degree which meant getting the bush out and ever so slightly turning it, before putting it back in. Question is, which ones to get?

I guess we'll know about February or so.

No worries, Ross you're welcome, first one to says it, bags the room.

Wicked stuff, Mike. We may be able to coordinate a curry night or somesuch in Manchester the night before. Also I have a guest room available if anyone fancies a free bed for the night. Let me know. As long as the date doesn't clash with TSS, I'm good.

You can only go in one side of the pub though. You can't go in the restaurant side. The Horse Shoe looks a lot nicer than the Cat and Fiddle.

Is it open? Not a good pub I think. It's not dog friendly either. In terms of preference, a good dog friendly pub with good food, but happy to anywhere.

I've got one of these; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CT23TY33-Car-CD-Stereo-Double-Din-Fascia-Panel-Adaptor-Kit-For-Toyota-GT-2012-/400361531619 To be honest it's absolute crap, but I've had it in place for nigh on four years now. Needs sticky stuff to keep it in place or it falls out.

Welcome aboard.

I've done 92K miles now. Still on the original windscreen. It's got a few chips in it, but otherwise okay. I never bothered filling them or anything and both have been there for about two years now.

Try tapping the three lines on the door handle with your finger. That will lock it.

I would say that the real temperature (marketing stuff aside) where winter tyres prove advantageous is 2C and below. I live in Manchester, it's a very mild and wet climate in the North West on the Cheshire Plains. If I lived in the south east on the London/Kent borders where I grew up where colder temperatures and snow are more likely, I'd consider winter tyres. I've tried them though for two winters and it's just not cold enough to warrant it where I live.

Welcome aboard! I'd guess winter tyres are a good idea where you live. 3mm is getting a bit low for dealing with lots of rain. I will certainly give you a shout when I get round to doing the NC500 again. There are some members based around your neck of the woods. If there is nothing going on, why not organise a social meet, I'm sure you'll get some attenders.

You can do it easily enough, but you cannot have four stock wheels with tyres on flat on the floor unless you like licking the windscreen.

Plus the one at the junction to Ringway near the airport and Bonis Hall Lane as well.

Lighter is better, of that there can be no doubt. Yep, a lot of people won't gain a huge amount of benefit if they're a moderate driver with lighter wheels and don't really push their car. Depends what you want of course. But if you do, lighter is definitely the way to go. I only highlight this as it does make a difference. And yes, Jeff, I was a bit concerned that one of my wheels had a bent rim on the lip, but that was easy to sort out and though it's not perfect, it's good enough and has been no issue at all.

Yep, I totally get that, but I guess it's a case of where your focus lies. Function over form for me, but if I can have both, I might as well. It didn't cost me a fortune either. £800 all in including the refurb on second hand wheels.

It's a fab series as it's all about driving technique and Takumi's development as a driver.

They were a bit shit come the afternoon though.

Well the difference would certainly be more tangible going from light wheels to heavy wheels. My only good comparison was swopping between my TE37s (7.4kg) to OEM wheels (9.2kg) and I could certainly notice it. Obviously you acclimatise to the heavier wheels, but it really is surprising the difference it makes when going back to the lighter wheels. The thing is, though, the difference is absolutely everywhere when it comes to how the car accelrates, how the suspension reacts, how it affects the general feeling of the chassis. I wouldn't call those 'miniscule' differences. Kev tried some super heavy wheels with 255 tyres and his wheels were something like 5kg (it may have been more) heavier than mine. It crucified him in the sprint and he was way off the pace. Not being able to get heat into such large tyres was another factor, but it blunted what the car could do everywhere.