RATechnology

Seen a couple of these little things floating about of late... Maybe it's to do with the astronomical prices VW campers are pulling.. people can't afford them so they buy one of these! It's probably as quick as an original camper to!!

I'd bail out of this sale if possible. As posted above even with the correct offset these wheels will not fit. They have a stud fittment of 5 x 114. your car will be 5 x 100. Putting it simply they won't fit around the studs.

I'd have thought that your car would have had 5 x 100PCD with an offset of somethong like ET48? Hawkeye's have 5 x 114 PCD with a similar offset, which means thaey won't fit? Someone else may like to comment on that but i'm sure i'm correct in that. I only hope i'm wrong and they will fit.... Tyres should be ok. May have a slighty different rolling radius which could put your speedo out a fraction.. Have you taken delivery of these new wheels as yet?

Having worked in the main dealer (Mercedes, SAAB and Porsche) for over 6 years I have seen manufacturers not replace warrantty items that they know will just fail again. You could find with these rear shocks that Subaru are waiting on a replacement to fix the issue altogether. Car companies update parts all the time, usually it's down to change of suppliers but in other cases of repeated failures they update parts, go testing themselves and rectify the problem once and for all. I'd seen a particular problem with SAAB 9-5's with Timing covers (They used to leak quite badly) must have replaced 50 Timing covers and all other related parts in a small dealer over a period of 12 months under warranty. Quite a few part and part number changes later and the problem stopped. Ask your dealer for goodwill on a replacement set of shocks (Even though the car is out of warranty) they should still come to the party as it's a known problem and also ask if there sorting the problem?

Let us know what you drive bloke and we'll see what we can do?? I can sort Bilsteins to suit RB320's for around £1200 (Shocks and Springs) I'd say then if you don't want it rock hard then stay clear of TEIN's! Not very well suited to UK roads IMHO! AST's are much more suited to the UK conditions as their valved and sprung to suit by the lads at Powerstation.

If I'm not working the Autosport show on Sunday I'll pop down for this!

Should be a few jobs around over there at the minute! My Sister works over in Perth and there screaming for people to work rigs etc for the mines.. Not sure if that's your field or not? Another suggestion for you is Karl @ PowerSupply. I know he's got a load of Fidanza flywheels going for a song! Also i'd try and stay away from a paddle clutch if you plan on using the car for anything other than track work! IMHO they can be fairly harsh to use!

Your luck you didn't get caught up in his accident! Then it would have been harder to explain!! My old boss has a similar incident years ago. He was driving home from work a lad in a WRX passed him then proceded to go off a few corners later. Police we're involved and tried to get him on racing, etc.. But they couldn't prove it! So I would say you'll be ok! If the police come back to you, just don't give 'em any ammo to try and stitch you up! Although if there decent coppers they should be thanking you for stopping!! You did the right thing by helping the guy, even if it was his fault and he was being an idiot!! For all you knew he could have been in a bad way! and it could have been far more serious!

Couldn't agree more.. It's all down to the exchange rates! Look out for price hikes on most things that come in from O/S next year especially from Japan, Europe, US The Pound isn't as strong as it used to be

To many nice (expensive) things to chose from on that website!! Ha the photos of the Scoob.. Even looks like Kenny McKinstry driving it!!

Lads I can source these seats new if anyones interested? Prodrive (Made by SPARCO) new ones are around the £350 + VAT each new! I can get LICO Seats Same as these just without the Prodrive Logo for £285 including VAT Seat Rails are available in Steel for £31.85 + or Ali for £62.10 + Let me know if your interested? Gav

You'd be looking for something like a 225/40R18, Hankook have a fantastic all round tyre in the Z212. Quite reasonably priced, also I've used many sets of Bridgestone's over the years and find them a fantastic tyre although a little more pricey than the Hankooks. Z212 are apporox £115 including VAT each. Cheers Gav

To clear (hopefully) some of the budget issues up Citroen spend more than anyone, in fact they did even when Loeb won the championship for Kronos as a privateer. Ford, then Subaru in the budget stakes. Subaru have been cutting there budget year on year for quite a while Bare in mind Subaru don't have a title sponsor as Citroen and Ford do. So that again increases the budget and gives them a saftey net if it all goes Pete Tong! Dynamics manage it in the BTCC for a coupe of reasons, the big reason is they don't need to build 8 cars for a season, they can do it with 2 or 3? Seat have used only 2 shells for the last 2 years! Also Dynamics have some clever people and are helped by not being subjected to manufacturer politics! They've had the right amount of assistance from the rule makers and Honda to make the car a good package!! Take the Turbo off a Subaru Flat 4 and it may as well be a boat anchor! Sorry! It's heavy and let's face it not that good! Rubbish S2000 car but very good potential for S2000 + (New WRC regs) It all comes down to who's paying. Malcom Wilson, Like DR are very shrewd men! Not silly and definately don't like spending their own money. Both are very good at spending other peoples money in large quantaties. The Plus sides of S2000 are there are loads of manufacturers and small companies involved. Yes to win at the moment you need a Fiat & Peugeot (again the 2 biggest budgets) however it hasn't stopped small operations from having a go! MSD (MG & Opel), BriTek (Fiesta), MEM (Proton), R.E.D (Toyota)! plus a few others i'm sure. It's a time when inovation and skill and a bit of money and balls can get you results on not a lot.. It's a sad day for the WRC and could still be made worse if Ford & Citroen leave... Think that's my latest rant over with!

David the other one was Jack Daniels! They again wanted the cars in Black! I've seen some impressions of the design and it look S*** Hot! Imy, Do yourself and Grant a favor and go to Ireland! Even if it's just for the Craic! It'll still be an event to remember! Even club rallies in Ireland are great fun to go to, even if the driving can sometimes be questionable! 150 car entries still even though times are bad! S2000 cars for rallying are 4wd. 2L naturally aspirated. they use a common gearbox from either SADEV or X-Trac, it was used to give companies without a turbo engine and 4wd cars a chance to compete in Group N. More expensive than a Subrau or Evo Group N car, same sort of power less weight and less torque. They still sound fantastic

During the years after the 555 deal Prodrive and Subaru were offered many deals to fund the program... Some very notable high profile offers of blank cheques and as many 0's as they needed. Only to be turned down because said sponsors only requirement was the car had to be painted a colour other than blue... Of course FHI didn't like the idea of a non blue subaru so the deals never came off! There will be customer programs next year for sure, Adapta with Mads already has a car on the way and needless to say the cars still being used in Holland, Ireland, etc that are under contract will still need engineering and parts support. Having said that Ireland has hit the brakes big time and I don't see too many WR cars being out on a regular basis next year! Kris Meeke must be counting his lucky stars this week having confirmed his deal in the IRC with Peugeot UK.... A supremely talanted and really nice bloke has finally got a chance to shine again with a full program!

With a major budget cut i'm sure there will be job losses... The Aston Martin Race team already have a full workforce and they only do one race a year. Some of the lads will move over to the customer side. Which will greatly assist the likes of Adapta and any other team / Drivers looking at M2 options or running in Ireland or Holland with WRC's. Also i'm sure they'll put some more effort over in the group N side as they have been struggling somewhat with the latest N14. There a great bunch of lads and i hope most of them are able to stay. I know what it was like when i left the place and being in an unknown situation such as thiers must be awful! Especially at this time of year

You never know what will happen. although as i mentioned in the other thread on this matter I feel sorry for the lads who will lose their jobs over this, especially those with children and mortgages... Petter and Chris are both wealthy men... It won't do them any great harm to be out of work... May actually make them stronger by having to fight for a drive and then get the results to keep it!!

Here's a way to start a good argument! I don't think (bare in mind this is my opinion) that Chris and Petter aren't up to the job! I think they should put Marcus in the car and someone young like Patrick Flodin or even Wilks / Meeke? Open to suggestions really Yes Petter may have been world champion but i don't think either Petter or Chris show that true leadership or spark that a McRae / Makkinen / Loeb / Sainz showed? The only rally outside the WRC that an S14 competed on was the Burns Memorial with Markko and Robert Reid? Could be wrong but i'm pretty sure that was the only event? The cars not as bad as it seems, it's only let down in a couple of areas and drivers seem to be one part of the issue (IMHO)? Petter and Chris need to have a rocket up them! No good moaning about things when there not on it. It's clear to be seen that the likes of a customer car being on the same pace or quicker. Whilst your not going to make massive leaps in terms of speed with the rules the way they are, a new car by the end of the year however should clearly be in front of a year old customer example. Or is that the difference in dampers and drivers? On another note (bobble hat on again) WR cars haven't been active for the last 3 years. Well they run an active centre diff such as what's in the road car but having active front and rear diffs was banned after 2005. I hope they get the thing sorted and give the WR Cars a good send off before S2000 + comes in! I think we'd all like to see them winning again!

It'll be interesting to see what Prodrive do in regards to this? They have 2 products in between all of this?? A WRC and Group N! I'm sure they'll get around it somehow. Citroen will be ok as will Ford! Both of whom have access to S2000 cars already

I've found over the last few years that TEIN seems to be on the hard / rough side.. Made for nice smooth Jap roads and great on Race Tracks! Just not particulalry comfortable on the UK roads... Then again from some of your comments maybe i'm just getting old and can't take the rough ride!! I'd look into various other options AST's are very good and as they can be supplied through PowerStation you can have them valved and sprung for rough UK. Prices on those start from just over £1K.

Well I know for a fact that they need to pull their fingers out for next year... New rules should make it very interesting for all involved!! Hopefully there's still a few anufacturers involved in 2010?? It's such a shame that Suzuki has pulled out! The car was starting to get there! PG Drove well in wales to finish where he did in an underpowered overweight car! Guess it all comes down to lack of money global demise of the automotive industry!!