Lauren

Wahey!
 
At 1726 this evening Ruth Elizabeth Louise (Special K) was born at Basildon Hospital.
 
My first grandaughter and sister to 3 year old Marcus.
 
Me is a happy bunny...!!     Except for the extra mouth to feed, more Crissy and birthday prezzies and go-kart lessons... hrrmph..
 
 
GrinSpec K

Few photos from the meet, great venue and food was pretty good too.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
As my car is no longer a "daily" I've made an effort to use "shortest route" with the satnav instead of quickest to try out some quieter roads. I'm 30mins late everywhere I go but the roads are a lot more fun! Found this village on the way back which had a nice muddy hole to take some photos in:
 

 

Well as of today I appear to own number 61.

So, I went to Grandprix race wear today and bought a bell open face helmet as recommended by Lauren.
Really glad I went as size was smaller than my normal lid.
Great guys to deal with and I was like a kid in a sweet shop, found it hard to resist.

Nearly ready now for round one TSS

I had a go in Richard's RRG Demo car (well a quick blast really) and the Blitz setup he has sounds amazing. Way better than my old Injen induction kit (not much else was available at the time). A monkey is pretty expensive though for that lot. 

Noticed your thread about lowering on the other site. If you want the same ride height as Pitman, Spec K and myself it's only a 25/20mm drop IIRC. Which is good because anymore and you can compromise the handling as it messes with the geo. We all run Tein Streetflex with EDFC Active Pro. Spec K and Pitman run 6/6kg whilst I run 5/6kg. I should add Rob has the exact same setup as me. 
 
At that height it doesn't seem to be an issue in regard to clearance unless you have high square speedhumps in which case you'll need to run a wheel over them as it will scrape your exhaust if you put a wheel either side of the hump! I manage okay. 

As you know, comfort is key, I've found this helmet great in that regard. 

No problems Gremlin, I completely forgot to mention this to them so ended up with some cheesy garlic bread which I enjoyed eating and luckily I told them in time before they started on your pie

Thanks Dave and Nigel for popping in breifly, it was great to see you again Dave, it had been too long.

I don't know about you guys but I had an awesome time, it was a good laugh, good food (Kristov, your burger looked EPIC!) and all in a pretty cool place if you ask me! So thanks to you all who turned up, we had a pretty good turn out!

I might look into organising another meet here in the summer sometime, the manager was keen for us to organise an event or a big meet there (the museum next to the plane), weather it's just our club or something bigger involving other clubs, he said he would get the jets out, have pay and rides in planes and what not, but at the same time, they are open to suggestions. I'll post something up in a different thread shortly to see who's interested.

Okay just got a chance to try it with that snowfoam bottle that AJ recommended. How much foam? Well as you can see absolutely tons of it. Very impressive. It did help loosen the dirt too and after I'd rinsed it, going round with a mitt was an easy job indeed.
 
IMG
_3656 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
 
IMG_3658 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
 
And the uber snow foam bottle and fitting:
 
IMG_3661 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr

I think trying to sell it to you, Toni, what I'd say is, that I can happily live with this car day to day as I've proven notching up a bit over 55K miles and counting in just over two years. So I know this car, I know it foibles and I know what I like. 
 
So it's a cheap car to run, tyres last forever and you're unlikely to have any reliability issues. This is all good of course, the key thing for me, is that yes, I can sit on the motorway with the cruise control on, heated seats warming my bum and back whilst listening to my favourite tunes. This car is good enough at that and economy is good too. 
 
But, really any clear stretch of road in front of you can be fun. Whether it's that roundabout or hairpin where you disable the stability control in anticipation or whether it's that fast flowing A road, this car is a riot when you get into it. People will go, 'oh but it's only got 200bhp'. This is actually a blessing in disguise. Your licence is less likely to end up full of points and you have to work it to extract those 200 odd thundering horses. This is good. You can't just SLJ the straights and when you approach a corner you want to carry your momentum, well as much as possible. You'll have had a similar experience with your MK3 race car, though the 86 is easily quicker in a straighline than a MK3 MR2. 
 
The jewel in the crown with this car is it's totally malleable chassis balance which is a lovely thing. And coming from MR2's this car will seem like putty in your hands when you're going sideways. 
 
And then, well there's the aftermarket. So many options, so many choices. 
 
Thank me later. 

Now I've had the winter tyres on for nearly a month, I've actually grown to like them. It's a lot more fun than the sticky Advans and I can steer the car on the throttle far more. For the most part I just edge the car a bit on the rear with sport mode on, but it's far more playful which you just can't do with wider and stickier tyres on.
 
So, with this in mind, I've found the car to be a whole load more fun to drive again. I think I'm going to go back to a new set of Primacy's on my TE37's when spring comes round and ditch my part used Advans. I had an absolute ball with it last year, then I put the Advans on and well really the fun just stopped.
 
Sometimes less is more.

Must admit I don't really get the whole 'torque dip' issue. I have noticed it when accelerating in 6th gear on the motorway. Otherwise I don't notice it that much. When pushing on I'll generally be well north of the 3500-4000rpm area (where you notice it), so it's never been an issue. I don't have a remap either. 

Ah I see. I'll go back to my gin, then.

1. Lauren N2
2. SpecK F1-S
3. KevinA N2
4. Jamie_GT86 N2
5. SkallyB N3
6.Riceburner DS
7.Polishingpedlar N2
8. Mike-P F2
9. Stan Hawrylak N1 
10.Alec Keeler N3 (Slippy Slidey   )

From distance...

Yep, hachi roku suki des here alright!  
 
Hope you find it useful.

Last couple of pics...use of Google Maps to find out where we were! (52°04'52"N 3°25'45"W)
 
It was a bit parky up there!
 

 

 

Driftworks sell Work Wheels: 
 
http://www.driftworks.com/work-wheels/
 
I'm quite tempted for a set of Equip 03's for my AE86. Okay these aren't forged wheels of the Rays type, but at least they are original JDM wheels and not copies of something else.
 
I stayed 17's with my wheels, though I went an inch wider to 8", it works pretty well. I would add, though the moment you put on a nice set of wheels you will have to lower the car! 

Thanks, AJ went ahead and ordered that snowfoam bottle/lance.

Great trip around some fantastic roads today, and the scenery was amazing! Some interesting "traffic" to negotiate at certain times...some might say there was a "Welsh Harem" in the road!!!     The starting point Aust. Services around 8am     A pause somewhere at the end of a great road!       Then another break to take in some more scenery...             And some from the lunch stop - a pub with pukka chips!     And then the long drive home...not a bad day - left home at 6:30am, back again around 5:30ish

From distance...

It's arrived, It's arrived !
 

 

Think you might need an LSD!
 
In your position I would have gone with a MK3 MR2, put a cage in it, then you could put on a turbo, much cheaper, much faster and way better handling.
 
Good luck with it though.

Think you might need an LSD!
 
In your position I would have gone with a MK3 MR2, put a cage in it, then you could put on a turbo, much cheaper, much faster and way better handling.
 
Good luck with it though.