Steven

Bloody heck I didn't see any skid - I must not have been watching. Strange cloud band that appeared after ash left :)

To put it simply, I used cardboard to get the shape for the steel base plates on the struts towers, then ground them out of plate steel and welded the pieces together. The bar is simply solid aluminum which I've done a half ****d job polishing up. The bar is attached to the end pieces by a high tensile bolt through the bar.

A couple of changes.. Had to give up getting alloy wheels this time around due to a poor return (as above), but it's still in the near future. Tyres however wouldn't wait, so I had 4x 215/55/zr17s thrown on this morning, of a cheap and I'm sure nasty brand (the name eludes me, but you get what you pay for with tyres). Not at all for performance but I refuse to put expensive rubber on wheels I plan to upgrade in a few months. Also played around with the intake a bit further. I previously did the vacuum hose mod and noticed bugger all difference in intake noise. Today I removed the lower air intake piping, and made a PVC spacer to hold the flap in the upper intake path open - I'm not sure whether the vacuum hose mod does it anyway, but considering it's rest position is closed I'd rather hold it open. The difference in intake noise now is HUGE. With any throttle under load it's got a really nice deep intake rumble.

whether is a bit off; what do you guys reckon, loop or train?

Seriously? I just got back from Kingscliff as well. Was doing some work there at Mantra on Salt Beach. Fancy that. quit stalking me :P I spent all day there on the beach opposite the cop shop doing a spot of fishing :D

Whilst the dam was do-able for me, mt tamborine and the spit aren't. I just got home kingscliffe and I'm not keen on doing another such drive so shortly

Just found out mr tax is being a mean ***** this year, so no fun :(

words escape me.

what's wrong with thursday night? We're all there anyway (except, ironically, our resident photographer)

we'll see what the tax man has to say

Top choice mate! Be sure to keep coming to the meets, someone needs to keep the trd boys humble

Awesome, you've finally got half an engine!... Anything special being done to the other half?

here's hoping you get some good power down

I've set my lower grill up in a similar way, but it's a different type of mesh so it's not very obvious. Also need to get off my **** and take some shots of my new "sports" grill as well

I would be very interested to know how far you can get on the Aurion v6, whilst staying N/A and without cracking it open.

to anyone coming along this thursday night, if you have an IPod (any type except the Iphone or Ipod touch) could you please bring it along too? I just need to do a quick test with my car stereo to make sure my current Ipod isn't rooted.

My car feels less unique with every passing day... :P No really it has come out tops mate! Can be a bit tricky to get right but it looks like you've taken the time to do it right the first time. excellent!

I think the F6 are overpriced for what you get, but I do believe the XRT6 are fantastic value for money. It all depends what you want in the long run though. Whilst they may go like a shower of ****, they're fairly commonplace and don't hold value well either. Plus I'm not as fond of their interior quality but it's not that bad really.

**** that is one sexy Rolla. I almost feel a sudden need to fly to Sydney in a few months time...

how sure are you about taking it to the beach? If it is definitely only ever around town then rust is very unlikely. But hit the beach even once and I would be getting everything up to and including a Buddist Priest to pray over it to prevent rust. I doubt the warranty is a life time protection against rust - more likely a life time warranty on the product itself lasting. Be sure to ask about that specifically. If it's the black spray or paint on goop, you can do it yourself for much, MUCH cheaper. However the majority of the road noise comes from the tyres, so there is more benefit in coating the inner guards then the underbody if sound proofing is your goal.

99% of these units are plug and play, however I haven't heard of a model that is compatible with a CD stacker - they often don't need it as 1 DVD is about the same as 7 CDs.

Very neat and classy. Top work !

Could you guesstimate how much of that is freeway driving? My ZR6 hauling my heavy **** around seems to manage around 7.5-8L/100km on the freeway, yet jumps to around 13L/100 around town. The end result for me (95% driving at 60km/h) seems to end up around 12L/100km.

Alternator whine can be caused by a whole lot of issues in a car. An earth is a good earth as long as it has a good contact (which by the sounds yours does). First of all ensure your gains are set correctly. It is a common mistake to simply turn the gains up. The sad fact is that a small degree of alternator whine will normally always end up in the system, but by setting the gains properly it can be made inaudible. I find the best way to set amplifier gains is: 1) Turn gains down completely 2) Set volume on source unit to 3/4 Max 3) Turn the gains up until you reach what you consider to be an ideal listening volume for driving The resultant level of gain will depend on a few factors: for example the voltage of the RCA outputs from the headunit (most are between 1-2v, however some Eclipse units present up to 5v), as well as the RMS value of your amplifier (obviously a 75wrms amplifier will be louder at 3/4 gain then a 50wrms amplifier at 3/4 gain). You can make some easy shorting plugs for testing where the engine noise is entering the system. A shorting plug is simply an RCA connector with both wires connected together. First of all try plugging it into the inputs of your amplifier - if the engine noise disappears, then in all likely-hood it's being introduced through your RCAs. No matter how good the RCAs, certain things will still induce alternator noise into the signal (ie proximity to power cabling or other devices in the car which may induce alot of interference like the body control module inside modern Commodores). Hope this helps

Compared to some recalls you hear about, i would hardly consider this one to be critical- tis not like any lives are at stake.