bravo

There are plenty of public access tracks around the place, but your local club is a good bet. We go on some club runs, but ,ostly just a group of mates head out. Club runs are to obusy for me (like 30+ vehicles - everything takes too long). I'm a member of a club as they lobby gov't groups to keep tracks open, go on some fun runs, you meet other 4 wheelers to go on private runs with, etc, etc - like bimmersport in a way, but not online.

You can buy a truck for as litle as $2k or as much as you want. Road legal is best as otherwise you need a tow vehicle too. My vehicle is road legal 2.8L turbo diesel. Manual and auto both have their advantages, it is personal preference - not like in the car market where manual is king. You need selectable low ratio, not full time 4WD. Newer self-locking hubs are OK, older ones give trouble. MINIMUM gear: first aid kit, fire extinguisher(s), spade/shovel, axe, snatch strap, high tensile shackles, high tensile snatch hooks bolted or welded to the chassis, basic tools. Optional: winch, high-lift jack, roll cage, bull bars, air compressor, air pressure guage, tree protector, additional strops/straps, chainsaw, land anchor, etc. The only thing we don't carry out of everything listed above is land anchor. Also, BARE MINIMUM good mud tyres. NOT All Terrains, NOT 50/50, but proper Mud Terrains. My truck cost around $6k as it is with half cage, all the above equipment, plus around $1500 for tyres. It is what is called a "Club Truck" which is a term used to describe a tough truck with all the required safety and recovery gear, and set up so it meets the minimum requirement for competition, but no extras as seen on competition vehicles like diff locks and independent braking systems, etc. It means I can enter almost any event/run, and could compete if I added a helmet, but would not be competitive at national competition level. You can get out there running for around $3-4k though.

Short is better IMO as break-over angle is less, often approach and departure angles are less, and better turning radius, and often narrower too. Long wheelbase can someties mean you have more traction as you can get two wheels on hardstuff more often as they are further apart. I would never buy long wheelbase. The little suzukis are one of the best offroad vehicles straight off the shelf IMO. More pics and vids to come tonight. We go every couple of weeks, but usually only 1 or 2 vehicles and no passengers so no-one to take pics.

Ryan - remember they were like that when I did your timing belt and I just used vice grips gently to get them started - allen key did the rest. I think I mentioned to you that you would have to replace the dizzy cap at some point anyway due to wear and that you'd need to be careful undoing the crews then.

My sporadic offroad pics update: Photobucket Pics taken by the chick in the hilux. I have yet to d-load my camera, so more to come. Mines the one lying on its side. The old bugger driving it in some of the photos is my old man having a thrash. He's the one who put it on its side - I was in the navigaotrs seat at the time. Drove it home - all it needs is a new drivers door and window. Dad owes me a door.

Why did they change the tail lights for the sedan? It looks like its trying to sh*t out a brick.

That's a z9 which they dumped in favour of building the Z10.

I'm not sure what you are on about? MS uses MAP and is a fully sorted system.

There's your problem - the exhaust is supposed to go on the outside of the car. Looks good luke - awesome stuff.

I won't make it, but awesome. To all of you wanting to do drives, take note - this is how you do it. You don't muck around asking everyone what they want. You set a date, a time and a route and those that can show will. Good work, should be a good run.

Going by what you can see in the background has to be Birkenhead/Chatswood. So either one of the two parks over there. My guess is Hinemoa. P.S. where's the colling fan?

hah. I was counting in my head and was thinking -two??? no, more than that. must be four - that doesn't sound right??? oh well... So three was the number I was looking for. Thankyou David.

^^^^ he means motorsport clears, not altezza clears. Altezza clears look cheap on a bimmer. They look least offensive on white, black and dolphin grey, and worst on blue, green and unfortunately maroon. Nice ride height though, the front corner clears are alright and angel eyes are wicked. Good stuff - rims next?

Anyone going to be there to watch? I will be. We're going to get there nice and early, pick a good spot to watch and have a couple of beers while they blow up a frigate - cool. Bye Bye Info Estimated hundred or more boats in deep water cove to watch.

You take out the whole low beam lamp. Remove the wire connectors for both high and low beam, and park light. Remove grill (a couple of clips and 2 screws). Remove headlight assembly - (4 large phillips head screws.) and pull out headlight assembly. Pop broken lamp carefully off the adjuster stalks to avoid breaking the clips. Install new lamp in reverse order. 10-15 mins tops even if you've never done it before. Beware - lamps are different left and right so make sure you buy the correct lamp. Onlyother possible obstacle is the self-levelling headlamps some cars came with with the in-car control. Have to disconnect it aswell. Mine doesn't work so I just removed it.

dunno - ring up the $tealer - that should give you a nice heart attack when they tell you. Then go on trademe or ring someone like Ray at HellBM.

Happened to me once too - now I have clear headlight film on all my lights. Possible to change lens if you have the skills, but finding a lens is as hard as finding the whole light and then you have to fit it. Buy a new light and fit it in about 5 mins.

Its a good idea. We're overdue for a meet. I was talking with Andrew and Ollie the other day and from memory there were a couple of events in the wings, but no details as of yet. Work out the details and set a date.

I do my own accounts and tax on my residential. I let my accountant deal with the LAQC and commercial. So I'll have to ask. The commercial is a factory workshop with office space and owners accomodation on the second level, plus yard and carparks. I imagine my accountant has it under control though as he has always made us aware of every possibilt to save money where he can.

Sweet. You bring up an additional point too. Something I missed. As a rental, you can also depreciate the house and claim the depreciation as an expense against your income to reduce your tax too. I don't on my residential as I plan to make some capital gains, and don't want to have to pay tax on them lump sum later on, even though it means less of a gain in the meantime. I don't plan any major renovations soon either. However, on the comercial which is owned by my LAQC, I do. Horses for courses.

Score!

As always, though it pays to get professional advice. here's a snippet from an NZ property investment website. The respondent, Lisa Dudson is a long-time property investor and author of "The Complete Guide To Property Investment in NZ".

Not quite. Taken from some property investment info by Kenina Court (Accountant, property investor, Acorn Solutions Limited): When you are buying a new home and keeping the old home as a rental property, in order for the interest on the home to be tax deductible, it must be transferred to an entity. Whether or not interest on a loan is tax deductible depends on the purpose for which the money was borrowed. In a case such as this, the loan was to buy a family home and so the interest is not tax deductible. When transferring the house to an entity at market value, the entity is borrowing the money to buy an investment property and this makes the interest tax deductible. If you are primarily interested in the tax benefits of owning investment property, then a Loss Attributing Qualifying Company (LAQC) will be the most appropriate entity for you. An LAQC gives you the protection of a limited liability company while allowing the shareholders to offset the loss from the company against their own personal income. So basically you can do it, but only if you transfer the property to an LAGC, family trust or similar. It depends on what the money was BORROWED for, not what the asset is being used for. In regard to your tax comments - yes, which is why mostly I used the term "reduced tax liability". It is a free lunch in that a third of your costs or 39% (depending on your tax bracket) is saved over what you would normally be paying, (after correcting for rent income). Edit: Been thinking about it. If you were to move out of the family home and rent (not buy another family home) - maybe there's a loop hole there. Professional advice from a tax accountant would be wise in that case.

Another point. The IRD only lets you claim interest on money borrowed for an investment. This means if you borrow money to buy your own home to live in and a couple of years down the track you move out and rent it out, the interest on the mortgage does not become tax deductible all though all the other expenses still are. So the moral is, if its going to be a rental, borrow and buy it as a rental from the start.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to give AON a call. Jock kindly PM'd me the name of a guy there that races a 2002 - sounds like my kind of man. I'm pretty happy with my cover with FMG, they have great customer service, are always friendly and helpful, have always paid out promptly and in favourable circumstances, and are the cheapest I've found in a rural area. Thanks again.