Lauren

What is going on with your car, Rab?

I'm sure Toyota will continue with it's hybrid technology in the economy market. Making a performance Prius or Avensis will not be on the agenda. But that doesn't mean we won't see it for the more expensive sports offering like the FT1 where people expect good performance and would like to see a performance hybrid.

Plus Toyota are beating Audi with a hybrid currently in the world endurance championship: http://www.toyotahybridracing.com Hybrid can most definitely mean performance. TS030 how it works: http://www.toyota-motorsport.com/images/tmg/thr-graphic.pdf

It could well be a resonant frequency that is interfering with the speakers through the amp (I think). This tends to rise with revs and will sound like a whistle. I had this problem initially on my aftermarket sound system. But for me it was just a matter of changing the input level. Obviously you can't do this. I didn't have that issue on the stock system for the month I had it in the car. Just wondering if it's a bad earth somewhere?

But, if you build a hybrid you can simply tune it to compliment the performance and/or the economy. Toyota already have the technology for it, it's just a matter of setup.

Hybrid can be good though. Look at the P1, La Ferrari etc. It's the way of the future I think.

I might give you a passenger ride in my NA.

The 6th August is the correct date for it (would be the 3rd this year for a Sunday) But we thought we'd do the 8th June. If people want to change it to this date, then that's fine. I'm going to the original at Fuji Speedway on the 3rd August.

I kept up with a new TT TFSI (208bhp) without a problem, though it was pretty even. These are about the same weight as the GT, but your dad's car is 200kg heavier and will be slower as a result. I was a fair bit quicker on the roundabouts though which helped me gain on him all the way up the straights.

I was around that way my friend lives there. I went up there for a natter and dog walkies in the rain. It's quite hard for it be someone else!

Interesting, but not convinced that's going to happen. We shall see. If there's a handling penalty then I'd say they wouldn't do it. Far easier to go forced induction really.

Thanks, Mike, I just remembered it somehow. At least with going the wrong way we were able to use the quick turn around technique with the help of the LSD.

When it comes to tyres only buy premium brands, it's the only contact with the road you have after all. I wouldn't touch Nankangs with a bargepole. I'm happy to be proved otherwise but until I've tried a set of Nankangs and found them to be good, I wouldn't consider them. For tyres you want: Goodyear Assymmetric (I think the sidewalls tend to be soft on Goodyears though) Contisport Contacts. 5 are the newest ones. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup et al. Bridgestones (various options), but at least Turanza. Yokohama Advans V103,V105 or S Drives etc. Yokos tend to be stiffer on the sidewalls which I prefer. If you have to go budget, then Toyo Proxes. Though I reckon the sidewalls are too soft. You need to know the width and offset (and weight would be nice) of the wheels.

Well, Matlock is a very nice place I agree. Get's silly busy and if it's a nice day it will be packed with bikers. Ditto anywhere near the Cat and Fiddle around those areas. That's not to say it's not a good day out, but it will be busy unless the weather is poor. North Wales has better driving roads IMO and is quieter. But, it depends what you want really.

I'd really rather retrieve them if it was me. But it sounds like they're down the front somewhere. Try a magnetic telescope thing?

Could do. I was only there last weekend. Could do the EVO triangle as well?

Okay at the moment our plans for this day consist of a meet up and drive out. Later perhaps a meal out. RRG couldn't help us with this date unfortunately. Does anyone have any plans preference for what to do? It seems we're getting a bit last minute dot com with this one.

I wouldn't worry too much. An Audi TT is going to weigh more so proportionately it won't be any quicker really. It will have a worse power to weight ratio being 200kgs heavier.

Don't worry about the smell thing. This will continue for a while yet. You will get the smell after really working the car hard on the track or on the road. Eventually it goes. There is a rattle at high revs when in second, but I'm guessing you've not been doing that as such yet. To be fair it's not a car that ever seems to be rattle free.

Sandwich plate for the oil cooler and the filter is fitted? Good to see it's coming together.

Good stuff! I reckon that the car is fully run in at about 10K. But at least you're getting there.

Some new settings I'm trying out. Note this is supposed to be a good all round road setup for general driving with the idea being it's full soft below 20km/h for speed humps and bad surfaces and then it stiffens proportionately. Note that the increases in lateral G are more than G2 stock settings. I haven't messed with longitudinal G, I just use G2 at the moment. Speed and lateral G have been changed though. Will be interesting to see how it pans out. The idea was for it to be comfortable when not trying that hard and then it stiffens up significantly when you push on and load up the G force. We'll see. NB: now corrected to show cumulative speed increase to stiffness.

The 20% increase in rebound damping on the rear was only done for mine and Dave's cars on Adrian's advice. This is not standard now as such as far as I'm aware. EDFC Active Pro is a lot more than just being able to adjust damper stiffness (bump & rebound together) in the car. It's active has G-force sensors longitudinally and laterally as well as GPS for speed so you can program in what you want it to do at user defined settings for both ways of G and speed independently of each other. You have ten presets. http://www.tein.com/products/edfc_active_pro.html

Well if you fit Street Flex the road noise will increase but obviously you can adjust front camber with the top mounts. The plus points are a sharper front end and more steering feel. I have the EDFC and I find I'm always playing with it. What I like about is that after you drive with it on for a while you start to feel the changes of different setups. I've just been sat in my car adjusting the change in damper stiffness for lateral G and increasing it in my case. I've played loads with the speed settings in a bid to find a good all round road setup that ticks all the boxes and reckon I'm getting close now. I've also been experimenting with track setups and faster road handling setups. It's great if you love to fiddle with such stuff. Stock spring rates on the Street Flex are 7/7kg. I'm running 5/6kg which is a bespoke setup. Keith and Dave are running 6/6kg. The stock spring rate is approximately 3/4kg. I opted for these spring rates as I wanted to maintain the difference between front and rear. I also chose a 5kg spring up front as I like to get some good weight transfer under braking as I like to trail brake into corners. It works very well on track Depends what you want in regard to spring rates. I wanted to keep a decent enough ride. I find that the springs are obviously stiffer than standard, but that overall mostly the ride is improved over stock. I've also lowered it 25mm. As for handling, well it's way better than stock I reckon. I also run more negative camber front and rear than standard which also helps.

Give it time. They tend to squeal more when you drive it harder on the road.