jimbo01

Emma Gilmore is pretty damn good in a rally car...

This all makes perfgect sense - buy the "ultimate driving machine"; then make it virtually un-drivable and illegal.

The people who do this think other people will think more of them if they have a M car. Often this sort of behavior demonstates a need to compensate for something.... something small maybe?

Thats a keeper. I can understand the need to do it up. What a project - DAMN!

I got rid of the Nexen 3000 tyre off my 740. They are a good handing tyre BUT in my opinion they are a little suspect in the qualifty department. In my opinion they do handle better than the Dunlop SP01A which is what I replaced them with. The previous owner had to replace one because of a crack in a sidewall to get a WOF before I bought the car. After I had it a few weeks the left front developed a crack in the sidewall, and all the air hissed out! Given this had happened twice I wasn't going to risk it happending again and replaced the lot. The 2 tyres that had been on the car for 8000km had worn 3mm, so another 3mm wear would be down to the replace marks. Thats not partuclaurly impressive tyre life. The new tyre that had been on less than 1000km had worn 1mm! Possibly the 740 is a little heavy for them.

Michilen Pilot Primacys are what my SLK came with - 16 x 205R55 front and 16 x 225R50 at the rear. The rears would spin invoking traction control even with mild take off's on the dry, and in the wet, on the Rimutaka's - DAMN! I think these were on it in Japan and sometimes the rubber hardens which may explain the lack of grip. Anyway I changed to 2nd hand 19" wheels and Yokahama ECOS ES300 tyres which were much better (although these are actually a cheap lowly rated tyre) - and now I'm on Dunblop Sport Maxx at the front which are better again. Several people have a very different opinion of the Sport Maxx. What I find hard to reconcile the different opinions on tyres - peoples claimed expereinces on the same tyres are so different. How is that?

Hmmmmm - interesting. I have Dunlop SP10A*'s on my E38 740i and have absolutely no problems with traction in the dry or the wet, no mater how fast I take off, like in 1st gear, or sports mode, I'm not getting any wheel slip. I'm not getting any slip on wet or dry fast runs up the Rimutaka Hill either. What size tyres were you running? I'm running 245/40ZR20's; would that make a difference? My only observation is that from a turn in point of view they seem to resist a little compared to the Nexen 3000, which were directional. I've now put 225/35ZR19 Dunlop Sport Maxx on the front of my SLK and I'm very happy with them - they are a very different tyre than the SP01, certainly more sporting. They have a couple of thing is common, they are tyres, black and have "Dunlop" on the side. I'm not sure thats an objective reason to suggest Sport Maxx tyres are not any good.

They shouldn't freeze engine developement, they should start to limit the ammount of fuel the cars can use by say 5% per year over the next 10 years. This would get trhe F1 guys to focus on developing hi performance with a lower carbon footprint. I'm sure they would come up with innovations that would be applicable to the real world! BTW I went to the F1 in Monaco this year - OMG they are loud. The sound penetrates every fibre of your being, my back pack was visibly shaking from the sopund - wow. I can't wait to go to another - maybe Melbourne this time.

By 'soppy' do you mean, it connects emmotionally?. how terrible!

Perhaps you should write their adds; "slow down when conditions get worse", simple; accurate, works for even those not so sensible. So why didn't they say that. And sure it seems like a little thing - no one pulls up these well intentioned (but thick) public service employes , because we all know what we think they mean, they didn't say it, but hey , lets use common sense. Now we get poorly written laws; like Annette King and her "law of common sense", which needs to be used by "sensible people" to work out what Labors new law resticting freedom of speech means. Isn't the fact we have a Labour Govt proof enough that more that 50% of voting age NZers are not sensible?

Sweeeet if a bad add get pulled. The reason it should be pulled is it's crap though! A good add was the one where as boy was standing by the road wondering why his mother had died. Some wank going to fast, goes round a corner, crossed the centre line and good bye mum. That was realistic. As are many of the intersection adds. What about the adds that go "if the conditions change, reduce your speed" So I'm driving on a gravel road, and the road conditions change, it becomes tarmac - I reduce speed? I'm driving on a wetroad, it dries, I reduce my speed? F**KERS are dumb. How about "if the conditions change, CHANGE your speed" I've found that with the right tyres, and reasonable suspension, and skill + expereince most corners can be rounded pretty damn quickly. Back in the day I used to drive up to 1000k a week while servicing Telecom equipment - we had a range of vehicles - none what you would call drivers cars - and a wide range of roads. It was great fun developing the skill to make these things go quick through maximising cornering speed - god knows they were not fast in terms of accelleration. The real tip though was always, always drive as if your lane was all the road available, treat the othe lane like it was a bank, or a cliff. Too often I see guys (yes it's always the guys) driving on a road like the Rimutaka hill like it was closed for a hill climb - using both lanes. I'm sure they imagine they have skills. I promise them something, do that and take out someone I love and bugger the justice system - their head is going to meet with a peice of lead pipe. I'll give them consequences! The consequences for killing and maining people through deliverately dangerous driving is not enough. It's basically random murder. It's really easy to catch those having an accident, or most likely to have an accident. They are the ones: sitting by the side of the road with asmoking radiator, having rammed the back of someones car on a motorway. who are looking bemused and sitting in a paddock or in a ditch beside SHW1 because they fell asleep at the wheel, (or now entangled with some innocent person com ing the other way if they driffed right instead of left). they are the ones tail gating, and then passing in the face of oncoming traffic with cut springs, or shock only suitable for the track, adjustable yes but the dumb shits don't do they? they are stoned, or drunk they can't drive in their lane they drive 90km of the open road, they speed past a school at 90kph in a 50 zone, thinking they are safe - then BANG a kid is bug splatter on their windscreen Lets make the conseqwuences for this sh*t so tough peolple will take a hell of a lot more care, I'm sure the accidents would reduce, and you could allow people who want to travel a little faster to do so. Sorry for the rant!

On that BMW X5; The seller must have need to sell quickly, so he got what he wanted. A dealer stumped up his cash - bought the car - replaced the tyres (I imagine those 21" low profile tyre's were not cheap). The asking price was probably not the selling price - it hardly ever is unless you want to buy a damn Honda (they will not budge). So add $1500 for cleaning it up, new tyres. Knock $3000 off for a hard negotiater. Helen will then want her cut of the profit, lets assume 33% of so, another $3000 gone - so maybe all up he made $7000, not $14000. However my own recent expereince is this; My 740 was on a lot for $24,995 (with reduced from $26,995 on the window sticker). They were up front about it being a sale on behalf - but apparently as the seller needed a good price so much they couldn't drop the price any further - apprently they were making virtually nothing as it was. The hillarious thing was it was advertised on trademe by the dealer, and the owner, and I was looking at both adds thinking their were two similar cars for sale. Image my surprise to find it was the same car. I got it privately for $18,000. The dealer wanted to make $6995 - $8995 on a sale on behalf for parking it on their yard. My SLK - sold for $38,000 by WCD - bought by me privately 3000km later - $25,000.

My mate watched that add being filmed - they used remote control's and had to work really hard to delibrately make the car go off the road - it is TOTAL F**KING CRAP. They also had to re-arrange the car to make it look that bad - it's been digitrally enhanced. If I was Ford I'd be pissed. And what with those little mine things on the add popping up - jezz. These self rightious morons need to get their heads out of their arse, wipe the sh*t off their eyes, and get real about whats killing people! Some real education, some real information and maybe people will pay some attention. How about an add showing some dick with cut springs failing to take the corner, or some boy racer with rock hard suspension (suitable for Mansfield) hitting a famous NZ c road bump and loosing control - thats real. But the lastest Ford getting taken out on a corner by land mines - yeah right! One of the biggest cause of road deaths is cars crossing the centre line - on straight roads. Like the sh*t for brains tourist who killed 4 motocyclists last week, or the equally poo brained cop who did a bloody u-turn and took out 2 more motorcylists. My contempt for this prick knows no bounds. How many of us have seen cops do something illegal or dangerous on the roads? The high speed pursits that they always have broken off just before the speeding kids crashes into some innocents and mains or kill them - believe that do we? - I don't bloody think so!

I would be interested in more info - what does he want for them? Are they compatible with a 2000 SLK?

An update. I put 225/35ZR19 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx on today at the front - riding better, and plenty of clearance - all up including a wheel alignment $770 frokm Tony's Tyre Centre in Wellington. So now thats sorted went to Blair Wright for a quote to roll the guards properly and repainted. I checked out the crowd on railway avenue that someone recommended. Guy was helpful - agreed the tyre's were too big (by about an inch) - and gave me a print out of what should be on the car. I would have done a deal except he said 265/30/19's would be OK on the rear. My research indicated 255 is the maximum for an 8.5" rim so I decided to pass.

Too true - the 'low az' look serves no purpose but fashion.

Just get one of each - PS3 give you a Blue ray player, full 1080p upscaling. 360 has the messy but cheap add on HD-DVD player.

It's your opinion mate - thanks for sharing that another of your opinions with us that everyone who doesn't share your opinion on Forza is a fanboy.

GT rocks - the cars actually behave the way the real ones do. Am hanging out for GT 5 to play on the PS3.

No My 1st car was a 120Y sedan... the lexus looks nothing like it. 120y.bmp

It's a little harder to shake off the older you are.

Yeah - that could be a starter. Glandular bloody fever - had this some years ago - screwed me up for months. Doctor tested liver function, which was impaired, and then did some other tests to confirm it. If I get over stressed it comes back. It also sounds alittle similar to what I got 2 weeks ago in the Gold Coast. Mild sore throat, and some really bad coughing - and feeling dizzy after coughing to the point of almost blacking out, and feeling really really ill. I was working there not playing unfortunately. The bad news is i still have it, and it's developed into a really bad chest infection, but still without any running nose. My wife now has it too. The cough is so bad my work mates all pleaded with me to go home. So I'm working from home tomorrow and hoping it clear up. Lemsip max with 1000mg of Parcetamol, and other stuff helps. I't wots keeping me going at the moment.

BK customer service is so crap. Upper Hutt BK Tried to order one of the evening meal deals but without tomato om the whopper, was told they couldn't do it. Gave up talking to teenager behind the counter and walked out and put the kids in the car. Went back and asked for the manager. A guy almost old enough to grow facila hair turns up and I ask why I couldn't get a whopper without tomato, when I order a meal deal. He says "of course you can". I point out if thats the case he needs to educate his sh*t for brain staff a little better, in front of the stupid bitch. Then walked out, did a nice take off from their car park with traction control off on the 740. I felt better, a little. Then take the kids to MacD's - where the food is equally crap but at least they make it with what you want, I wounldn't say it's how I want it - thrown together and falling apart, with cold burger meat obviously pulled out of some storage unit. Made fresh - yeah right! And while I ate my big mac i was wishing it was a whopper - damn that flame grilled meat!

NZ New is important only if it comes with a full service record that confirms it's been services preoperly, and regularly. And there is more chance that you can get this with NZ new. It is unusal for imports to inlcude service records, or manuals that you can read. Japanses brand cars from Japan may have lots of features, - but who knows how to operate them. And when something breaks you discover it's a 4 week wait for parts from Japan, even though they look the same as a NZ model, under the hood there can be a lot of very different bits. My old NZ new 1991 Honda Legend at 230,000km (made in Japan) was showing very little wear on the steering wheel, or the leather drivers seat, yet so called low K import models of the same car had buggered drivers seat leather, and completely worn steering wheel leather - my conclusion was faked millage - of course they were certified millage OK.

Nice - i'll try that. They forget that at a real auction you do get the chance to view the good prior to auction. They have been claiming themselves that they are not really conducting auctions. All they are worroed about is peolpe bypassing there slaes fees - and given how high they are getting why wouldn't you!