Hiro

CVT - Continuously Variable Transmission - basically no set ratios, the transmission varies the ratio infinitely (to a point) to keep the car in maximum power band (when flooring it) or maximum economy zone (when cruising). Kinda the reverse of a normal engine/gearbox which keeps the ratio fixed but varies the engine speed, this varies the ratio but essentially fixes the engine speed

Hiro Protagonist/Ian

You've obviously never been to a Toymods event then....the cops are always informed beforehand of the event, most of the "illegal" cars at Toyfest arrive on trailers, and nobody acts like a *******, and the cops treat us with a lot of respect.

Only Italians and Greeks leave protective plastic on longer, and that's just on their sofas.....

Should be entering both cars this year, nowhere near trophy winners but still wanting to support my club.

Autospeed article on exactly how much those electric supercharger things suck (or in terms of air, don't suck).

Hmmm unless its not the alignment thats the issue? -Azza yeah RIGHT MATE.. You can do all the wheel alignments in the world but if it's a steering-related problem (ie rack or the like) then it won't change it one bit.

Moved it out onto the street so the g/f could drive the Celica to work.... I don't drive that much anymore.....

Probably same way that Briatore can be Webber's manager and still not offer him a Renault seat... I see no problem with what he did - his position as a manager is lower than his position as a team boss, if he kept Picquet there whilst everyone is calling for his head, then there would be a clear case of favouritism and he could possibly lose the team boss position - this way he can "sack" Picquet but have a quiet word to him on the side like "We know you're not going well, now is a good time to get out and maybe find a team that you gel better with and has a better car for you" (in other words, a lesser team where his performance will fit in better as the team/car is crapper)

Yesterday I got the rattle in the exhaust fixed (cat heat shield), plus the leaking flex pipe replaced Today I got the roof-lining redone, and am about to put in a new battery because the old one struggles to hold a charge overnight

Anyone who deliberately tints their windows darker than legal and then drives on the road is an idiot, plain and simple. And I see nothing wrong with the police trying to get idiots off the road. For once this is an announcement to NSW drivers that doesn't effect anyone who isn't an idiot (unlike say the suspension laws that were recently knocked back), so I don't see the concern I disagree with you hiro. I got my tints at 20% and I don't believe that I'm an idiot driver or is proud of having darker than legal tints. And I know many people who have gotten darker tints to help with the heat especially in black cars. But yes just my opinion i also disagree with u hiro about it not affecting everyone. just like the suspension laws. if a cop sees a P-plater car at night with dark tints they will still pull them over even if it is legal. Its like saying that all P-platers are street racers.. I dont know if ur on ur full licence but police treat u differently when ur on ur P's even if ur not doing anything wrong. the other week i was tailed by a police car for 40minutes, i had one passanger and was doing under the speed limit. little things that the police try to do to stop the people who are idiots affect EVERYONE. Yes, I am on my full license, have been so for about 6 months now. And the talk of getting targetted just because you're a P-plater is rubbish - I was on my Ps for at least 4 years, drove a car with aftermarket halo headlights that are most likely illegal, have an aftermarket exhaust that is most likely too loud, a pod filter that may well be illegal, yet I have never been pulled over except for one speeding ticket (before most of the mods were done, and I was speeding too) and 2, maybe 3 roadside RBTs (as in the bays, not the random cop patrol car pulling you over), and not once did the cops even bother to look at the car - they saw my license, gave me the breath test, I passed, I drove off. I put this down to not driving like a ******* and attracting attention. If there are people getting darker than 20% tints because it gets too hot inside their car, have they never heard of air-con or opening windows? Both of those are perfectly legal ways to cool a car down. Why the hell you would get darker than legal tints is beyond me, do you like the look of driving inside a black coffin with next to no visibilty?

I see no problem with this - the 35% law has been in effect for _ages_, just now they've come up with a way of hopefully accurately measuing and enforcing it. Tints which are too dark ARE dangerous, especially at night. Even though the windscreen can't be tinted, it means that you can have a lot of difficulty seeing your side mirrors and out the rear window, which makes changing lanes etc much more dangerous. Anyone who deliberately tints their windows darker than legal and then drives on the road is an idiot, plain and simple. And I see nothing wrong with the police trying to get idiots off the road. For once this is an announcement to NSW drivers that doesn't effect anyone who isn't an idiot (unlike say the suspension laws that were recently knocked back), so I don't see the concern

Generally the rules pertain to them having to be in an enclosure separate from the engine-bay, so people who just have them floating around in the engine-bay (like on the end of an SRI) are tempting fate with the EPA as well as sucking in useless hot air. I'm not exactly sure on the legality of mine since technically it is separate from the engine-bay (lives under the front guard behind the bumper, where the intake resonator used to be), but I've never been defected or even pulled over by the cops apart for an RBT so it's hard to judge.

There is nothing illegal about a CAI. Pod filters, on the other hand, are illegal if not installed properly (the exact definition of this varies from state to state, and can be quite hard to obtain solid evidence of what it actually is in NSW). There is nothing illegal about running the standard airbox with a panel filter, with a pipe feeding cold air from say under the front guard

Yeah I remember it, was just called the Sportivo I think, had the LED L/P-plates front and rear like you get for bus numbers, it automatically displayed them depending on what license the driver had, it was designed to appeal to the youth market but like most Toyota concepts, it never saw the light of day apart from motor shows.

Any sort of buzzing noise from the steering would be an immediate warning siren for power steering pump issues, worth staying clear of. If other people's cars don't do it, then that one shouldn't.

The current Commodore is waay out (mainly because the VE is a cruise ship with wheels), but the VZ/BA based cars were pretty close

An Aurion in the sense that the lights and grille bear a passing resemblence, and the badge says Toyota :P All the Aussie Racing cars are the same underneath justabout, and also a heck of a lot different than the real cars (like NASCAR), moreso than the V8 Supercars (at least they're the right sort of size, and the shell is relatively accurate)

Toyotas of that era all tend to have single-button fobs, however most of them you can program them so that the horn chirps as well as the indicators flashing, that way you don't have to be looking at the car to know whether or not it's locked or unlocked. Personally, having grown up with a 96 Camry and 97 Corolla both with single-button remote fobs, I automatically look at the car when I'm trying to lock or unlock it, that way I _know_ that it's locked and not just trusting the button to have worked.

It's hard enough buying a digitial radio/hi-fi these days, let alone one for your car. We're talking very early infant stages here, in my opinion your current head unit will cark it well before digital radio is widespread and integrated into society. It'll be like the people who bought DVD players when they first came out at over $1000, took several years before people finally started abandoning VHS and adopted DVD, at which point price plummeted and availability skyrocketed.

I don't think it's "aimed" anywhere, there just happens to be a crossmember underneath. I've seen sillier things, take a look at the engine block coolant drain tap on a 7AFE, it's right next to the alternator and air-con compressor, so who knows what damage hot coolant could do when you drain it without being careful.

Ripped the audio system out of the AE82 and got 80% of the way through putting it into the ST162. Job for tomorrow is running the RCAs and power lines for the sub/amp, and putting the dash back together.

Definitely looks like the vent for the air-con evaporator, those coils get quite cold and moisture in the air condenses on them easily, and that water has to be drained away somehow otherwise it will pool inside the unit.

Did Brawn design the diffuser or was it Honda (since the BGP-001 is essentially Honda's stillborn '09 car). Plus Williams and Toyota also had double diffusers from the very beginning of the season, so it's not clear who really had it first anyway

If you note, Toyota specifically said in a recent press release about the Camry remaining at 4 stars because "they don't have respect for ANCAP as a real world guide", they don't see the need for spending heaps of money to get a result on paper that might not really apply to the real world - and since ANCAP ratings are flawed due to cars still being able to get 4 and 5 star results despite significant deficiencies in some areas (say rear-vision for any Commodore in the last 10 years), they prefer to say "We have a solid all-round 4 star car".