mystery machine

Coilies mate

Great that you found one that has already been converted – sounds like a fantastic upgrade, but no' cheap by anyone's standards! I had a look at Autotrader today and there are very few Elises on the market right now. I've heard that part of the reason is that a significant number are exported to Europe? Anyway, great car, very envious

Love it!

Welcome

Neil, the purple, dinnae do it mate - your car will look like an ASBO's training shoe

And there's me trying ma best to give a thoroughly inappropriate response

And the good news is it's a great workout for your biceps too.

Cheers Ryan, good to hear it's holding up too!

Cheers Ryan. Sounds like the parts have been reliable then? Just asking because some of the guys on NASIOC reported problems with bits breaking and/or working loose... although sometimes you do wonder what those guys are subjecting their cars to! (Autocross, etc). Also, by how much is your car lowered? Mine has been dropped 4cm front and 3cm rear.

Anyone have experience of this product? http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_detail.php?part_number=KCA313 "Designed to raise the front roll-centre geometry by using specially engineered ball-joints & tie rod ends while still maintaining original steering geometry. Front roll geometry actually encourages roll the lower you go. Testing proves that raising the front roll-centre resulted in a substantial increase to front roll resistance & a significant reduction in suspension compression of the outside front wheel during cornering (less roll). This improves weight distribution & maintains a better camber angle which ultimately improves front grip. The overall outcome is significantly reduced understeer through reduced front wheel compression as well as improved steering precision & vehicle stability."

The "Spec-C suspension" and slight power increase sound like nice additions to the standard STI, but even if I did have £36K to spend on a car, I wouldn't be spending it on one of those! Not even if I liked the look of it

It's all that practise dodging the potholes, Dave! (and the pensioners too, you bein' fae Crieff an at ).

Dougie, this is a very common problem - I've had three sets of rear struts replaced on two Hawkeyes, by Subaru, under warranty. As your car is warranted, you could push to have the rear struts replaced, but be aware that they will fail again - I've had as little as 10K miles out of a set, other Hawkeye owners have seen them fail much sooner! Furthermore, there is no cheaper or better third-party alternative strut (KYB only did replacements for models up to the Blobeye last time I checked*). In practical terms, the only longer-term solution (assuming you plan on keeping the car) is a good set of coilovers. The good news is that your car will handle all the better for fitting them. Choose carefully and it shouldn't ride too much harder either * Might be worth double-checking that KYB still don't make replacements for Hawkeyes.

As you don't use the car in snow or ice, it might be worth considering Bridgestone RE070s. I've been running these for a month or so now, including a few spirited runs down the back roads and the sheer level of dry grip they offer is pretty astounding. The stiff sidewall contributes to nice precise steering too. Compared to the Avon ZZ3s I was running before, the Bridgestones have less grip when they're cold and the road is damp/greasy. I haven't used them in the wet yet, but you only have to look at the tread pattern (or lack of one) to know they aren't going to be great! I only tend to really push the car in the dry once the tyres have had a chance to warm up, so the RE070s are great for me as a 'summer' tyre. Plan on fitting something different to my spare wheels for the colder/greasier winter months.

It's the thin end of the wedge, Alastair:

I believe you are correct and, rather depressingly, that was the only argument given in the BBC report against the proposals! You should get yourself down there for a drive, it's a belter. From what I saw, it's probably best to avoid the section west of the loch as the road surface takes a turn for the worse as you head west into Dumfries and Galloway. The stretch between Selkirk and the western edge of the loch and is really good though. Mostly well-surfaced and a fair few "see around" bends

Indeed, and I guess that's the point – a 10mph reduction is going to make sod-all difference to someone who's hell-bent on tearing along the straights at 90mph, 100mph and beyond – they'll continue hoofing along at that speed regardless (and I don't necessarily have a problem with that, if it's done safely). However, those of us who're out enjoying the bends, travelling a bit closer to the (current) speed limit will end up being criminalised I have the same objection to the proposal for reducing the drink-drive limit from "80mg per 100ml" to "50mg per 100ml". All that will achieve is to criminalise those in the 50mg to 80mg range... and is that really the group we need to be targeting? Shouldn't we be going after those who drive two, three, four times over the current limit? Seems to me like more of the usual pish about "sending out a message" and "seen to be doing the right thing", which is apparently political speak for "can't be bothered dealing with the real issues so doing f-all of practical value instead" You know, the only thing that almost spoilt my run along St Mary's Loch was coming around a bend to find some dickhead in a Land Rover Discovery halfway onto the wrong side of the road. Gladly he managed to swerve back to the correct side before sending me to the great scrapyard in the sky, but I'd like to know what the Borders' Councillors plan to do about that type of blatantly dangerous driving? Eh?

This is the thin end of a wedge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-12880589 I drove the A708 Selkirk to Moffat (St Mary's Loch) road recently – fantastic driving road. Now, I could see why there might be an argument for reducing the speed limit to 40mph, maybe even 30mph, in a couple of spots where the road runs close to houses, hotels, etc – but to talk of a 50mph running the length of the road just serves no practical purpose other than to cause frustration (and maybe earn the treasury a few quid from speeding tickets). Oh man How many more of these 50mph limits can we expect to see appear on our rural roads over the coming years?

That's going to take one whore of a cake to accommodate all those candles

Cheers Mark I reckon it's going to be a tough call between a "more winter friendly than a RE070" summer tyre and a full winter tyre. It seems that a lot of folks have had similar experiences to yourself, that winter tyres outperform summer tyres in any type of cold weather. On the other hand, I've read at least one internet magazine winter tyre test which found that, although the winter tyres' performance way surpassed that of the summer tyres in snow, the summer tyres still offered more mechanical grip in cold dry conditions than the winter tyres. Hmmmmm... ...and those sipes may be handy for driving on snow and ice, but surely all that extra movement in the tread isn't going to benefit handling much on a dry road? Dang – if only someone made a tyre with RE070 tread and a high silica content! Still not convinced that winter tyres are for me, TBH – but am willing to be! Thanks also for the tip about load ratings, and the mytyres link!

Interesting – I can see the sense in that

Mind you, in real life we might still see some of your brake discs and calipers through the spokes, which IMO is making the gunmetal wheels in the mock-up pic look a bit dreary. JMO.

Prefer the silver

Just to say that the wheels you have on your Scoob look FANTASTIC with the black paintwork

Today approx 6pm.