Take 2!
Sarah and I were away in Dublin between saturday and wednesday - no good cars around Ireland - just a few chavved up civics and the like - much better to just enjoy the guinness rather than try to car spot.
Today I went back to mercedes-benz world. On my birthday I went there for a driving experience and drove the AMG CLK 63 and had a hoot (baby!) unfortunately I paid to get a DVD of me driving but in the car I was going in, the camera didn't work so I never got the DVD. They told me to come back for a free experience so I could have a DVD. Last week I sent them a letter asking when I could go back and they phoned me on saturday and arranged for me to go back today! Anyway on with the fun...
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Today I went back to mercedes-benz world. On my birthday I went there for a driving experience and drove the AMG CLK 63 and had a hoot (baby!) unfortunately I paid to get a DVD of me driving but in the car I was going in, the camera didn't work so I never got the DVD. They told me to come back for a free experience so I could have a DVD. Last week I sent them a letter asking when I could go back and they phoned me on saturday and arranged for me to go back today! Anyway on with the fun...
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Japfest NSX crash
(no subject)
Been enjoying the RX-7 (rex?) so much this week haven't got round to updating! Two major things this week tho, on tuesday we rushed home so that the air-con man could do his thing with the car and top up the refrigerant gas - I spent an hour talking to him while he got on with his thing and he did a thorough job, draining out the old and filling up with the new - although he managed to overfill the system to begin with when he put in about 800g of gas and the compressor went mental, when he reduced it to about 600g it was much happier and very very cool inside. I learnt lots about air-con too. The second thing was my first oil-change on the rex which went smooth as clockwork thanks to the two things I was worried about, not being a problem - I wasn't sure if my trolley jack was going to fit underneath (it did - just!) and then there's always the filter lottery - will it come off easily or will it put up a fight? - this one (thank goodness) is so easily accessible and also was only hand tightened! ace! so it took less than an hour overall and now I can be confident that there's very fresh oil in there - i've heard bad things about what can happen if a rotary misses an oil-change so my mind is much more at ease - although i'm going to stick to 3k oil-service intervals as they recommend on the forum. The oil-change did seem to make a difference to the car too with the second turbo now pulling really hard in the second half of the rev range (4500-8000) when I got sarah to give it the full beans up to to red-line last night
boxhill last week
Driving is so different from anything else i've had before - the ride over surrey's disgustingly pot-holed roads is awful but on smooth roads it's so stable you'd think that 130mph would be a comfy cruising speed! Sarah and I starting to get a bit more confident too - I had the tail-wagging today as I pulled away from a garage onto a dual- carriageway!
At work I think i've started something - I sent an e-mail round to everyone who might be interested about going up to santa-pod drag strip for a run what you brung day - I'm nervous now that I won't live-up to expectations on the track so i've been really thinking about my gear-changes in order to get them as slick as possible as it's an easy place to lose time on the strip - the day isn't until the middle of august so there's a little time left. I've asked my boss to come along on his bike too - apparently it can do the quarter in 10.7s!
RX-7 ownership - day 2
On Tuesday evening I was at work waiting for Sarah to pick me up as she does everyday. It went passed 17:30 and I hadn't got my usual call to let me know that she was waiting or that she was on her way. I gave her a call and to my surprise she was rather abrubt and informed me that she'd been bumped from behind while in a queue of traffic and was currently exchanging details and that I should phone again in 10-15 minutes. She finally arrived to pick me up from work at around 18:15. There seemed to be very little damage to the peugeot - maybe just a cracked bumper and a missing foglight so I wasn't too bothered. She proceeded to tell me that she'd been the front car in a six car shunt caused by the third driver in line who had not seen the two stationary cars in front of him! To cut a long story short, on further inspection it seems that there is more than just superficial damage to the car as the chassis and the boot floor are rather bent!
superficial damage?
Now, any other week this would probably upset me, but this week is a little different (more later). The insurance company were helpful - it seems if you're not responsible for an accident then they are happy to help you out, they arranged for a garage to inspect the car (and most likely declare it a write-off) and also for a hire car...
Sarah and I were expecting something similar in stature to the 205 (maybe a clio or something) when this arrived - A toyota avensis! We couldn't help but see the comedy, this is the most 'grandad' car i've been in since riding with my grandad. When driving it there is no connection with (or visibility of) the road! Sarah said: "It almost makes me motion-sick driving it, what I see going on outside has no bearing on the feeling you experience inside... It's the complete opposite of the peugeot - that was so raw.". I couldn't have put it any better myself so i'll leave it at that (except to say it does have ice-cold air-con brrr!)
Now the only real reason we needed a hire-car was in order to take us to Hazeley Heath (Hampshire) yesterday morning where this (see above!) was waiting for us! Finally we could collect the RX-7. I have been worrying about it since we went to view it two-and-a-bit weeks ago. Playing everything down in my head and trying not to get over-excited, second-guessing my judgement during the test-drive and expecting the worst. Surely it won't be as good as I hoped? Surely I will never get to drive a car like this? I'd read all the horror stories on the 'net and i'd been almost expecting that when I saw it again it would explode as soon as I was handed the keys (who knows why I was doing this to myself!) So I got in to drive it, and eased it off it's now previous owner's land (incidentally a very nice and honest chap). I drove it home slowly, avoiding too much boost with Sarah following in the (slow and heavy) avensis. It felt so good! I got home and poured over the paperwork to check all the history and re-affirm my faith in my own judgement. The car is a '93 Mazda RX-7, imported from Japan (hence the 'Efini' branding)in '03 with one UK owner before me. The engine was rebuilt when it was fresh off the boat at 72k miles (it's now on 89k) and the speedo was converted at the same time. The car is completely standard apart from a (useful) boost gauge in a pod on the driver's side 'A' pillar. The 1308cc (2 x 654cc) twin-rotor engine and twin-sequential turbos are good for 255bhp (versus 237bhp for the standard UK, extra-catted model) and peformance figures stand at 5.5secs to 60mph, V-max of 160mph and a standing quarter-mile of 13.9secs (all of which I intend to test at some point). It's been proactively maintained by a rotary specialist and all the bits that can go, have gone and then been replaced - there's even a £500 receipt for a turbo overhaul a little while back (credit!) so I guess my worries are pretty much quelled. So since my first few careful miles yesterday morning Sarah and I have now covered just over 200 using just under £45 worth of super (about 20mpg - not as bad as I'd feared) and we've exercised just a little bit of the performance potential with highlights including blitzing a new 6-series accelerating up a slip-road onto the A3 (he'd pulled over to overtake far too early and looked a bit silly) while we were giving dr. dykes a ride and sarah accidentally hitting 110mph a few rimes on the M3 because it's far too easy. Can't wait to do some more driving!
all too easy!
superficial damage?
Now, any other week this would probably upset me, but this week is a little different (more later). The insurance company were helpful - it seems if you're not responsible for an accident then they are happy to help you out, they arranged for a garage to inspect the car (and most likely declare it a write-off) and also for a hire car...
Sarah and I were expecting something similar in stature to the 205 (maybe a clio or something) when this arrived - A toyota avensis! We couldn't help but see the comedy, this is the most 'grandad' car i've been in since riding with my grandad. When driving it there is no connection with (or visibility of) the road! Sarah said: "It almost makes me motion-sick driving it, what I see going on outside has no bearing on the feeling you experience inside... It's the complete opposite of the peugeot - that was so raw.". I couldn't have put it any better myself so i'll leave it at that (except to say it does have ice-cold air-con brrr!)
Now the only real reason we needed a hire-car was in order to take us to Hazeley Heath (Hampshire) yesterday morning where this (see above!) was waiting for us! Finally we could collect the RX-7. I have been worrying about it since we went to view it two-and-a-bit weeks ago. Playing everything down in my head and trying not to get over-excited, second-guessing my judgement during the test-drive and expecting the worst. Surely it won't be as good as I hoped? Surely I will never get to drive a car like this? I'd read all the horror stories on the 'net and i'd been almost expecting that when I saw it again it would explode as soon as I was handed the keys (who knows why I was doing this to myself!) So I got in to drive it, and eased it off it's now previous owner's land (incidentally a very nice and honest chap). I drove it home slowly, avoiding too much boost with Sarah following in the (slow and heavy) avensis. It felt so good! I got home and poured over the paperwork to check all the history and re-affirm my faith in my own judgement. The car is a '93 Mazda RX-7, imported from Japan (hence the 'Efini' branding)in '03 with one UK owner before me. The engine was rebuilt when it was fresh off the boat at 72k miles (it's now on 89k) and the speedo was converted at the same time. The car is completely standard apart from a (useful) boost gauge in a pod on the driver's side 'A' pillar. The 1308cc (2 x 654cc) twin-rotor engine and twin-sequential turbos are good for 255bhp (versus 237bhp for the standard UK, extra-catted model) and peformance figures stand at 5.5secs to 60mph, V-max of 160mph and a standing quarter-mile of 13.9secs (all of which I intend to test at some point). It's been proactively maintained by a rotary specialist and all the bits that can go, have gone and then been replaced - there's even a £500 receipt for a turbo overhaul a little while back (credit!) so I guess my worries are pretty much quelled. So since my first few careful miles yesterday morning Sarah and I have now covered just over 200 using just under £45 worth of super (about 20mpg - not as bad as I'd feared) and we've exercised just a little bit of the performance potential with highlights including blitzing a new 6-series accelerating up a slip-road onto the A3 (he'd pulled over to overtake far too early and looked a bit silly) while we were giving dr. dykes a ride and sarah accidentally hitting 110mph a few rimes on the M3 because it's far too easy. Can't wait to do some more driving!
all too easy!
so excited!
not too much car news this week - well ok, there is but not the news I wanted this week anyway!
After japfest last saturday Sarah and I have caught RX-7 fever! I have now been to every far and dark corner of the uk internet car classifieds and have found this, it's an imported standard japanese twin turbo rx-7. and it's fantastic! There are many rx-7s on the web but this one had all the things I was looking for:
japanese import (255 bhp as standard - fewer cats)
engine rebuit 15k ago (now covered 87k) ~ should go another 45k before needing another rebuild
enthusiast owner - he was the first uk owner after the car was imported into the uk 3.5 years ago
no mods - I think these things look great as standard and I haven't seen a modded one that I prefer also engine / turbo mods decrease the engine life so this one should last. (5.5secs to 60 is good enough!)
taxed, mot'd.
So after finding out all the info from the guy over the phone we went to see it last tuesday. I couldn't find a fault with it - it drove beautifully and everything worked, I made an offer and left a deposit so with any luck the next update will be all about the new machine!
The one thing that meant we couldn't pick up the car this saturday was that the chap selling had taken the car off the road and declared it sorn, this meant that he had no tax. the problem with re-taxing a car is that you need an insurance certificate and the owner didn't have one (I drove it third party on my fully-comp policy for the test drive) so in order to complete the sale on saturday, the seller will buy a tax disc for me but that meant getting my insurance sorted and the certificate ready in time to show at the post office. I hadn't factored into my planning the fact that insuring an import is that much more complicated than insuring a uk car. I was getting some ridiculous quotes for me and sarah fully comp (~£2500!!!) and the specialists were no use mostly the problem was sarah's age as the difference between being 22 and 25 is quite a lot in the eyes of the insurers. One company put me on to tesco insurance who were surprisingly good for insuring imports but still they wouldn't include Sarah. In the end I went to the comparison site moneysupermarket.com and they managed to find me a fantastic deal with bell.co.uk. and I set it up over the phone on saturday. I had a niggling feeling however that the details weren't quite right - the engine size was specified as a 2.3 and i'd read that I should be insuring as a 2.6 (the engine is only a 1.3 being a rotary so it's a bit confusing) so I phoned again this morning and changed it but all in all I've got a really good deal and will be paying £791 for cover with everything I need.
can't wait to get that car now!
After japfest last saturday Sarah and I have caught RX-7 fever! I have now been to every far and dark corner of the uk internet car classifieds and have found this, it's an imported standard japanese twin turbo rx-7. and it's fantastic! There are many rx-7s on the web but this one had all the things I was looking for:
japanese import (255 bhp as standard - fewer cats)
engine rebuit 15k ago (now covered 87k) ~ should go another 45k before needing another rebuild
enthusiast owner - he was the first uk owner after the car was imported into the uk 3.5 years ago
no mods - I think these things look great as standard and I haven't seen a modded one that I prefer also engine / turbo mods decrease the engine life so this one should last. (5.5secs to 60 is good enough!)
taxed, mot'd.
So after finding out all the info from the guy over the phone we went to see it last tuesday. I couldn't find a fault with it - it drove beautifully and everything worked, I made an offer and left a deposit so with any luck the next update will be all about the new machine!
The one thing that meant we couldn't pick up the car this saturday was that the chap selling had taken the car off the road and declared it sorn, this meant that he had no tax. the problem with re-taxing a car is that you need an insurance certificate and the owner didn't have one (I drove it third party on my fully-comp policy for the test drive) so in order to complete the sale on saturday, the seller will buy a tax disc for me but that meant getting my insurance sorted and the certificate ready in time to show at the post office. I hadn't factored into my planning the fact that insuring an import is that much more complicated than insuring a uk car. I was getting some ridiculous quotes for me and sarah fully comp (~£2500!!!) and the specialists were no use mostly the problem was sarah's age as the difference between being 22 and 25 is quite a lot in the eyes of the insurers. One company put me on to tesco insurance who were surprisingly good for insuring imports but still they wouldn't include Sarah. In the end I went to the comparison site moneysupermarket.com and they managed to find me a fantastic deal with bell.co.uk. and I set it up over the phone on saturday. I had a niggling feeling however that the details weren't quite right - the engine size was specified as a 2.3 and i'd read that I should be insuring as a 2.6 (the engine is only a 1.3 being a rotary so it's a bit confusing) so I phoned again this morning and changed it but all in all I've got a really good deal and will be paying £791 for cover with everything I need.
can't wait to get that car now!
-
-
excited
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uber-massive japfest picture post
Went to japfest at castle combe yesterday and took lots of pictures
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some youtube videos of the drifting demos too
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some youtube videos of the drifting demos too
oh my god I think I'm actually going to buy one of these!
rwyb @ptm show
Yesterday Sarah, Richard and I dragged ourselves up to Santa pod for the Performance Tuning and Modified show. The show was quite disappointing and tacky and the weather was a bit dull but we managed to put up with that long enough to get to the good bit - the run-what-you-brung drag racing on the quarter-mile strip - obviously this was a job for ricard's supra rather than the 205 so we all went in that. In the end Richard had four runs and put in a couple of respectable 15.4s passes, seeing the results tho I think more boost is definitely required for next time - when hopefully I'll be lining up against richard in something just as japanese and turbocharged!
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it works!
Haven't updated for a while - but plenty to report now.
The peugeot
Quite a bit done of late - as mentioned a couple of posts ago I changed the oil, replaced the passenger side suspension drop link and pulled out the dent in the sill. This weekend I got around to tackling one of the peugeot's most obvious issues - it's so difficult to start! Usually starting the car means keeping the throttle to floor and cranking for about 30 seconds while all of the cylinders catch. This isn't ideal and points to a couple of possible problems: The worst case scenario is that the head-gasket is starting to go - allowing a little water into one of the cylinders which needs to be cleared before it starts; another possibility is a leaky injector meaning that all fuel pressure is gone from the system when the car is left for a while and therefore needs a boot-full of gas to build up the pressure again before starting and one of the cylinders will be full of fuel meaning it doesn't spring into life too easily hence the rough 10secs of running once started. From all the evidence (including the constant smell of petrol around the car haha um) I was pretty certain it was the injectors so I grabbed a set off ebay and got around to having a play with them this weekend. first thing to do was relieve the pressure in the fuel system - this was achieved by starting the car (not too easy) and then pull-out the fuel pump fuse (number 14) so that all pressurised fuel gets used up. this was pretty easy. I nearly chickened out at the next task - I took out four bolts retaining the fuel rail aginst the inlet manifold and started pulling at the fuel rail to get it off the injectors - it was in there pretty well but after a bit of wiggling and wd40 it came off and then a load petrol (thankfully not under pressure) dribbled out over my hands and the inlet manifold (oops) that evaporated quickly enough (i felt slightly fuzzy for a while) and I had a look at the injectors individually. unfortunately two of my ebay injectors had slighly cracked nozzles - i wasn't sure if this would effect the spray but i decided not to use them. I picked the two best looking ones and set about replacing the two worst looking originals - one of which looked to have been burned slightly? is this even possible? but seemed to be a good likely culprit.
i made sure to clean each injector with a good dose of carb-cleaner and put the lot back together and kept my fingers crossed! I got in the driver's seat and went to start the car - no gas, just turning the key, then with no drama it started perfectly, just as you expect a fuel injected car to start! yes! - As a bonus the petrol smell seems to have diminished too but that might just be because I got such a lung-full that I can't tell anymore!
Another ongoing problem with the peugeot has been the lousy idle - revs dropping off to nothing when the engine isn't quite up to temp but the SAD (supplementary air device) has closed. I've played with the idle control valve a bit and sprayed carb cleaner all around to try to improve things but it just goes back to it's surgy, stalling self after a while. I went onto the forum (http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/) and found that the surging and stalling my well be down to my air flow meter being worn, so I read up this article - http://frwilk.com/944dme/afm.htm and reconditioned mine, re-tracking the variable resistor and so far so good - a nice stable 900 rpm idle today and no stall so fingers crossed that it stays like this.
Despite some still un-explained and intermittant motorway noises and the rumblings round tight, fast corners, The peugeot is in my good books at the moment, i'm hoping that it continues to respond and behave and maybe an mi16 conversion will be on the cards once it's retired as daily driver and replaced by the mr2 turbo. I have visions of 16v power and reliability, on top of koni-adjustables and full rollcage with a big disc conversion and stripped interior just crying out to be track-dayed.
I still haven't written about my birthday and drive at mercedes-benz world. I went there with the intention of getting some good auto-motive thrills and i wasn't disappointed. Initially, on looking through their experience menu, I had intended to take out an sl55 amg and get a dvd of myself doing it, unfortunately minutes before I was due to drive it, it was taken away to the garage as someone had obviously broken it. They were very apologetic and offered me a drive in the cl63 amg instead which i was happy to take but it meant that i couldn't get the dvd, although the staff were happy to offer me a free drive and dvd of me in the sl55 at a later date (i must get back to them about that!) driving the 63 meant that now richard could tag along as this thing had 5 seats and 4 doors which was a bonus. It also had a 6.3litre v8, 480bhp and every possibly electronic thing imaginable! The instructor, kieron, was great and as we found out he was also driving instructor to the stars having taught simon pegg and nick frost to drive for hot fuzz. The 63 did some frankly unbelivable things with it's traction control and stability control that would easily save your life many times over - cars shouldn't be able to brake and turn like that - it's impossible. having been very skeptical I really was surprised. doing several laps of the track kieron was able to show me racing lines and it was really worthwhile, the most fun however came when I got to have a go on the wet-circle where I spent half an hour learning to drift. it was fantastic! Richard was dying to take the supra round after!
I've had a few car spots recently - although today was Maserati day as I saw two quattroportes and a v8 coupe! also today in guildford I saw a lambo diablo - I can't remember ever seeing one on the rolad before. I have also seen a corvette around guildford i took a pic but can't find it now :P
one last thing - I bought the game RACE the other day, it's the fully licensed BTCC game and possibly the most realistic driving game i've ever played especially the force-feedback - you can really feel when the tyres are letting go - something that is soo hard for games to simulate. The best feature of the game however is the ability to drive e30 m3 and alfa romeo turbo from the 1987 touring car season - ace! At some point i intend to get back into 3d modelling and make myself a 205 gti for the free racing sim RACER (not to be confused with RACE)I have the blueprints - now all i need is about 40 hours spare to make the model!
The peugeot
Quite a bit done of late - as mentioned a couple of posts ago I changed the oil, replaced the passenger side suspension drop link and pulled out the dent in the sill. This weekend I got around to tackling one of the peugeot's most obvious issues - it's so difficult to start! Usually starting the car means keeping the throttle to floor and cranking for about 30 seconds while all of the cylinders catch. This isn't ideal and points to a couple of possible problems: The worst case scenario is that the head-gasket is starting to go - allowing a little water into one of the cylinders which needs to be cleared before it starts; another possibility is a leaky injector meaning that all fuel pressure is gone from the system when the car is left for a while and therefore needs a boot-full of gas to build up the pressure again before starting and one of the cylinders will be full of fuel meaning it doesn't spring into life too easily hence the rough 10secs of running once started. From all the evidence (including the constant smell of petrol around the car haha um) I was pretty certain it was the injectors so I grabbed a set off ebay and got around to having a play with them this weekend. first thing to do was relieve the pressure in the fuel system - this was achieved by starting the car (not too easy) and then pull-out the fuel pump fuse (number 14) so that all pressurised fuel gets used up. this was pretty easy. I nearly chickened out at the next task - I took out four bolts retaining the fuel rail aginst the inlet manifold and started pulling at the fuel rail to get it off the injectors - it was in there pretty well but after a bit of wiggling and wd40 it came off and then a load petrol (thankfully not under pressure) dribbled out over my hands and the inlet manifold (oops) that evaporated quickly enough (i felt slightly fuzzy for a while) and I had a look at the injectors individually. unfortunately two of my ebay injectors had slighly cracked nozzles - i wasn't sure if this would effect the spray but i decided not to use them. I picked the two best looking ones and set about replacing the two worst looking originals - one of which looked to have been burned slightly? is this even possible? but seemed to be a good likely culprit.
i made sure to clean each injector with a good dose of carb-cleaner and put the lot back together and kept my fingers crossed! I got in the driver's seat and went to start the car - no gas, just turning the key, then with no drama it started perfectly, just as you expect a fuel injected car to start! yes! - As a bonus the petrol smell seems to have diminished too but that might just be because I got such a lung-full that I can't tell anymore!
Another ongoing problem with the peugeot has been the lousy idle - revs dropping off to nothing when the engine isn't quite up to temp but the SAD (supplementary air device) has closed. I've played with the idle control valve a bit and sprayed carb cleaner all around to try to improve things but it just goes back to it's surgy, stalling self after a while. I went onto the forum (http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/) and found that the surging and stalling my well be down to my air flow meter being worn, so I read up this article - http://frwilk.com/944dme/afm.htm and reconditioned mine, re-tracking the variable resistor and so far so good - a nice stable 900 rpm idle today and no stall so fingers crossed that it stays like this.
Despite some still un-explained and intermittant motorway noises and the rumblings round tight, fast corners, The peugeot is in my good books at the moment, i'm hoping that it continues to respond and behave and maybe an mi16 conversion will be on the cards once it's retired as daily driver and replaced by the mr2 turbo. I have visions of 16v power and reliability, on top of koni-adjustables and full rollcage with a big disc conversion and stripped interior just crying out to be track-dayed.
I still haven't written about my birthday and drive at mercedes-benz world. I went there with the intention of getting some good auto-motive thrills and i wasn't disappointed. Initially, on looking through their experience menu, I had intended to take out an sl55 amg and get a dvd of myself doing it, unfortunately minutes before I was due to drive it, it was taken away to the garage as someone had obviously broken it. They were very apologetic and offered me a drive in the cl63 amg instead which i was happy to take but it meant that i couldn't get the dvd, although the staff were happy to offer me a free drive and dvd of me in the sl55 at a later date (i must get back to them about that!) driving the 63 meant that now richard could tag along as this thing had 5 seats and 4 doors which was a bonus. It also had a 6.3litre v8, 480bhp and every possibly electronic thing imaginable! The instructor, kieron, was great and as we found out he was also driving instructor to the stars having taught simon pegg and nick frost to drive for hot fuzz. The 63 did some frankly unbelivable things with it's traction control and stability control that would easily save your life many times over - cars shouldn't be able to brake and turn like that - it's impossible. having been very skeptical I really was surprised. doing several laps of the track kieron was able to show me racing lines and it was really worthwhile, the most fun however came when I got to have a go on the wet-circle where I spent half an hour learning to drift. it was fantastic! Richard was dying to take the supra round after!
I've had a few car spots recently - although today was Maserati day as I saw two quattroportes and a v8 coupe! also today in guildford I saw a lambo diablo - I can't remember ever seeing one on the rolad before. I have also seen a corvette around guildford i took a pic but can't find it now :P
one last thing - I bought the game RACE the other day, it's the fully licensed BTCC game and possibly the most realistic driving game i've ever played especially the force-feedback - you can really feel when the tyres are letting go - something that is soo hard for games to simulate. The best feature of the game however is the ability to drive e30 m3 and alfa romeo turbo from the 1987 touring car season - ace! At some point i intend to get back into 3d modelling and make myself a 205 gti for the free racing sim RACER (not to be confused with RACE)I have the blueprints - now all i need is about 40 hours spare to make the model!