Lauren

Macc A523 to Bosley, then A54 up to the Cat & Fiddle then down the Cat & Fiddle (A537).

We'll just wear our Drivers Club Hoodies. Look for a cute Cavalier (called Indy) and you will find us.

What time are we aiming for Keith on Friday?

Looks like they have revised the menu since I last went to the H&J: http://cdn.webfactore.co.uk/sr_249396.pdf Must say, it does look good!

Nandos would do, I guess. Though I could recommend the Horse and Jockey in Chortlon, bit of a gastro pub which does lovely food. Been there many times and not too close to the centre. Indy could come too then! http://www.horseandjockeychorlton.com 9 Green Chorlton, Manchester, England M21 9HS https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Horse+%26+Jockey/@53.4387709,-2.2847359,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x487badebe09902ed:0xa4c32a28ed65d796 It's quite easy to get to as it's straight along the M56 if you're coming from the west then continue up the A5103 Princess Parkway and come off at Kids Allowed and follow the road into Chorlton.

I was gutted when I heard about it. I think though it could well that you were simply unfortunate with a faulty part, or a part that had a flaw in it that weakened it. It doesn't take much with a rod to affect it's rigidity. I'm sure HKS will replace the rod and piston, but I guess the question of the block remains. But, I think you've got so far with this, that it would be tragic to give up now, so worth hanging in there for I think.

At Amber was when the battery revealed it had problems as it couldn't drive the sound system. Obviously with the engine running it wasn't a problem, but with the new battery such issues will be sorted.

That's cool, I'll have a listen next time I see you. Can't remember if you've heard mine or not, but you're welcome to have a listen.

For the run up to the Legend Fires Northwest Stages rally I was asked to drive up to Blackburn today and have a chat with Legend Fires MD, John Stone, who's sponsored the rally for the past thirteen years! He's got a new car also.

I guess in terms of head unit, the choice is with the buyer, but I wouldn't touch something that isn't a decent brand. I think a head unit that interfaces properly with Android or IOS is appealing, but until Alpine and all that release something, I'll wait until then. The torque app is sort of useful for monitoring oil temps on track, though you don't need a head unit to know that. I found that once I knew where the oil temps would get to it would of course be the same everytime, so once you know, that's it really.

7pm meeting in the bar at the restaurant, table for 8pm. I'll send you an invite.

You want to soundproof on the inner side of the outer skin of the doors. That's where mine is, not on the door panels. When it comes to head units you get what you pay for. If you go for some cheap Chinese crap, then really that's what you are going to get. The head unit is what outputs the sound, so having something decent is key really. I went for an Alpine INE 925R.

Friday would help for sure. It's Mark's Birthday curry on Saturday night too if your're interested?

Ooh it's my last week in Reading next week and if I'm lucky I'll be back for 9pm on the Thursday, but that's my best case scenario really.

Those tyre pics are the fronts after coming back from Italy. This pic was taken in August 2015. I had the geo re-done when I had a new set of tyres fitted all round (that pic is of a Primacy tyre that has done lots and lots of mileage and was given to me secondhand by Jamie). The current fronts have been on since August and had done 20K and are wearing very evenly.

Church, the stock front speakers really are very poor. Sure you could try it, but I don't think you can really drive them any harder. Unfortunately there is nothing particularly good about the stock system. But I do think changing the front speakers is the first thing I would do if I was trying to do it as cheaply as possible. I don't think there'll be a benefit from an amp until you've changed the front speakers.

They did. 7K for the rears, but evenly worn tells me that's simply what I'm going to get from them. The fronts have done 8K now and still have 5mm of tread. Again even wear. That tells me that the camber isn't causing the tyres to wear unevenly, that was my point really. Those rear tyres did 3 sprints and a trackday too. The rears will just wear quicker as they've seen some abuse.

Rear light condensation is a warranty job, don't worry about that. It's due to the seals failing. Windows they will flash if they get stuck. Do what Rob said, hold down for ten seconds. When they're not flashing it's sorted. The keyfob battery is changed as a matter of course every 40K miles. Easy to get that sorted. The warranty is good, it's a Toyota warranty, you should have no problem geting these things sorted. Unless it's turning over particularly slowly and the battery is obviously dying it's unlikely to be the battery.

I'm running 2 deg neg on the front and 1.75 on the rear. Tyres are wearing evenly.

Sounds good, except I'm at the beauticians till around 2pm. So won't be able to make it, sorry.

My experience of driving my car with 5/6kg spring rate and Keith's with a 6/6kg rate is that Keith's tends more to understeer than mine. So I would say that the 6/6kg rate is a 'safer' setup as the car tends more to push on at higher speeds. There is pretty much a total lack of understeer in my car. It's simply a matter of preference, but suspension manufacturers will tend to specify spring rates that make the car retain the characteristics of the standard setup, which is towards understeer. Can you dial out the understeer with geo setup on a 6/6kg rate? Yes, I'm sure you can, but the 5/6kg rate tends to make the car more edgy and pointy at the front end. Choices and all that.

Just to add, I can report that in around 60K miles of driving they have been faultless and that includes the EDFC Active Pro and stepper motors.

I did it when I bought them, others have too. I was involved in the initial development when three of us had them fitted to our cars. So I had a bit more of a custom setup as my rear dampers were revalved to be 20% stiffer too. I was the only one that requested a 5kg front spring rate, which involved Yukiko from Tein UK speaking to headquarters in Yokohama and getting their approval before they air freighted them over. Yukiko showed me the slightly more complicated calculations for the ride height due to the greater droop of the 5kg springs in comparison to the 6kg. There is more difference than you may initially think.

It'd require Yukiko to converse with Tein JP I think to go for even softer rates, the trouble is you don't want it to be over damped as the stock rates shipped are 7/7kg. Though it may well be fine, but will require some back of the fag packet maths. My friends at Tein tell me that a number of people have asked for what is known as the 'Lauren spring' rate. I was quite shocked when I found out!

Also ideally a 10" sub is what you want. I went for a 12" as I wanted something with a bit of welly as I like to hear bass guitar, but a 10" is more punchy. I'm not sure what size you were offered with that Alpine one, hard to tell from the pics, but it did look a little small.