Lauren

Just a thought now it's lower, get the headlight adjuster thingy from Cusco, makes a big difference. Quite a transformation there!

You need to make a hole (my dealer fitted mine) for the rear damper adjustment where the aduster pokes up in the boot, it's nothing though really.

Are you sure everyone's instruactions say 'off road use only'? I don't think they do! No insurance issues as long as you tell them of course!

Try them white, reckon it'll look fab.

Far better than the Primacy in all honesty. They eat the Primacy alive in all conditions really. There's not that much to choose from comparing the V105's to the C5's in the wet really. The C5's seem to grip better off the line, so under acceleration, but not quite as hot as the V105's when it comes to absolute grip, but the C5's are progressive. If you are thinking of TSS, go V105.

Contisport Contact 5's are a good road tyre. Really good grip in the wet and when accelerating. They don't seem to hold the lateral G that a Yoko V105 will, but are nicely progressive. I've not tried the Conti's on track but I'm going to take them off before the TSS. I prefer the Yoko V105 as they seem to hold up well on track and are a good all round on the road. Goodyear F1's are good for the road, but not so hot on track, sidewalls are too soft IMO.

I haven't tried the Conti's on track, only on the road. I think their grip is great under acceleration but less so under cornering, though they are nicely progressive. The Yoko's I've got a ton of experience with on road and track. I prefer them overall. For the new sprint season I'm going to lose the Conti's but I think they are a very good road tyre. Wear wise I got 7K out of the rears with the Yokos, expect similar with the Contis. The fronts will last three times as long I suspect.

Yes good point, Rich and Wedsport are of course a Japanese manufactured wheel.

I run stock tyre sizes on that wheel size. I tried 225's but they were too grippy and I didn't like the sidewall flex as it reduced precision IMO. It's nigh on spring, so see no point in winter tyres as such. Contisport Contact 5's are a really good road tyre, I'm running those on my rears at the moment. I'd take Yoko V105's though if you're going to go on track.

That is true, though cast wheels won't be as strong as forged wheels. So it's a balance between lightweight and strength. Whether a really light cast wheel is a liability in terms of strength it's hard to say. One would think it quite unlikely. Though TE37's have been a popular choice for racing as they are light for what they are and also strong. The TE37's in my size are actually 7.2kg though I guess my extra 200g accounts for the powdercoat. They are anodised from the factory.

I actually thought the debate was useful, so can't see why we'd remove posts. I have the Tein Streetflex setup which is the one they did before the A and Z were out. Mine are like the Z's but are rebuildable and I do have some custom valving increasing my rear rate. I find mine good, but yes, hit a pothole and you will know about it. Obviously when it runs out of travel you'll get a fairly big hit through the chassis. Is it worse than stock in this scenario? Well yes, it is. Although the general ride is more controlled and overall better. Sure, if you spend a fortune and I did look into it, then you will gain. Stuff like the monotube Ohlins and AST etc is appealing. My main reason with sticking with a twin tube design that necessitates a narrow diameter piston and less oil capacity was simply based on longetivity reasons. I'm not saying a monotube setup won't last, but it seems that a twin tube certainly does if that makes sense. Unless you've got £4-8K to spend on something really specialised like Reiger etc which top rally cars use, you aren't going to get the cake and eat it scenario, but you may find yourself coughing that cake up when they need a rebuild every 10K miles. So all in all it has to be some compromise and particularly so when it comes to a daily car. Add in a ton of mileage as I have done and I needed something that would improve the car overall but be reliable. I was a little worried about the EDFC with all those stepper motors, but over 50K+ miles on them, they have been totally faultless, so I'm very pleased with their reliability.

Yes, this is the inherent problem because as soon as you start timing your laps, you tend to be less forgiving when billies get in your way and you feel you are on a good lap. This is why timing is banned on track days. I guess if you want to look at it when you get home it's not such an issue, but I know that when I worked for Bookatrack, I would send anyone home instantly who I thought was timing, even if it was their friend on the pit wall. The main issue is, it invalidates the TDO's insurance. Maybe come sprinting instead if you want to pit yourself against the clock, rather than fannying around on track days?

Ah, that's good to know, Jeff.

His current wheel doesn't have an airbag. He will need one to pass the MOT.

Good stuff, Shaun! One for the summer though, I think! Reckon we should get some dates in for a monthly meet once Mike has done a recce of the pub at weekends.

Okay when it comes to wheels, a little known secret is that the lighter your wheels, the better. Now I know a lot will say forged wheels are expensive and that is true, but the opposing side of it is that a lot of people tend to go for bigger wheels and wider wheels, with inevitably wider and heavier tyres and before they know it, they've added a whole load of weight to their rotational mass which blunts acceleration, turn in, braking and well, everything else! So, with that in mind I was fortunate in that I was able to buy some Rays Engineering, Volk Racing TE37s, that okay needed refurbing, but most importantly with powder coating come in at 7.4kg. This is good as they are 17x8 ET38, so an inch wider than the stock 7" rims which weigh in at 9.2kg. So a significant 1.8kg per wheel weight saving. I had mine powder coated red, just for the hell of it really! TE37 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr How they look on the car: IMG_5453 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Obviously such things are hard to find second hand, but they do turn up if you look hard enough. Something else to add about wheels, is the width relative to the tyre. I opted to go for running stock tyre sizes on an inch wider rim. I tried 225's on my 8" rims, but I didn't like the sidewall flex I got on turn in and how this affected the balance when the tyres were in ther slip angle. I could feel the sidewalls moving as the car went to the limit of grip and beyond and to a point this dulled the responsiveness as I had to factor in the tyre wall flexing when going into a four wheel drift. So after some testing I went back to stock sizes of 215's as I found that the extra inch in width meant it took most of the sidewall flex out of the tyre. There is very little 'stretch' on my setup, but I much preferred the added responsiveness, even though it does make the car feel more alert and pointy, that to me is what I prefer. Choices and all that of course. But I do feel it gave me better control when I was right on the limit.

I've got Tein coilovers of the Streetflex variety. I run 5kg front spring rate and 6kg rear. I also have my rear dampers uprated 20% after some initial testing felt that the rear damping need to be increased a little. I worked with Tein UK and Fensport with two others that went for this setup back in April 2014. The Teins normally come with a 7/7kg spring rate but most are ordering 6/6kg setup as this is a little easier on UK roads. I went for the lower front spring rate as I wanted the car to move under braking and let me use that to rotate the rear when I'm trail braking and the like. I've tried the 6/6kg setup in other's cars. The 6/6kg setup seems to be a 'safer' option as it tends to bring in a little understeer, whereas the 5/6kg setup makes it a little more lairy though this is a matter of personal taste of course. With an appropriate geo setup I find I get very little or really no understeer at all, the car is quite pointy with a very good turn in. Obviously with the slightly lower spring rate on the front compared to the rear, it allows me to rotate the rear a bit more on turn in and this is great for being quick of course. I also have the TEIN EDFC Active Pro which I had fitted at the same time as the coilovers. This enables me to set the damping force according to lateral and longitudinal G-force as well as enabling me to change damping force according to the speed I'm travelling. There is quite a lot you can programme in here and to a point it's fairly complex. I guess the big advantage is I can have the damping force set low around town and then as I speed up it increases. This helps to give a decent ride but means that as soon as I push the car into a corner, it stiffens up instantly and gives me the control I need. I have run this setup for two years now and have fine tuned the parameters to set the car up how I like it to handle. To be fair it's a great system that has been totally fault free in over 50,000miles. I've done two seasons of sprinting and it's a real doddle to adjust your setup with just a couple of presses of the button rather than having to go round the car twiddling knobs! Incidentally the 5/6kg setup has I've been told by TEIN UK become known as the 'Lauren spring rate'. so if you fancy that, you know what to ask for! Overall I've been very impressed with it, it doesn't have that annoyingly bobbly ride you get with the stock setup and paired up with some very lightweight wheels I've transformed how my car handles. Some pics of my setup being setup! Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Untitled by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr EDFC Active Pro display: EDFC Active Pro by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr Front pillow ball mount with EDFC stepper motor on top: TEIN suspension 2 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr As they came out the box: TEIN suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr TEIN suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr TEIN suspension by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr At RRG after installation, ride height reduced somewhat! TEIN suspension 2 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

Sorry, didn't realise. But it's just a list of all the common how to's from changing oil to diagnosing technical problems etc.

I wonder if a section with 'how to's'/knowledge base would be a good way forward? That way we can put all hte information in one section.

I think it'd be a lot easier to pay for someone else to cook our food, Shaun, unless you're offering?

Post it up when you have a date. Cat and Fiddle is best on the downhill though if you can work the route the other way.

Could be a cunning plan there, Rich.

Welcome aboard. Hopefully we'll get things moving a little in the NW which is not that far from you. Could always organise a drive out in the Peaks, I'm sure a load of us would be up for that.

You poor Subaru owner. I've had my dealer's GT86 demo car previously. That's two TRDS's and a stock one. Do I win?

Yep, nice little meet and good to catch up. I wonder if that pub is a good place for a monthly meet? We could certainly do with a little more happening in the NW.