Hiro

Alright, shopping around for tyres for the new rims, seemed like my only options were to go cheap and nasty ($100-150 no-name brands), less cheap and less nasty ($150-200 Kumhos and Falkens), or heaps expensive and decent ($250-300 S-drives, Adrenalins etc)....until the guy at Bridgestone said he's got 6 RE050As left from when he bought out remaining stock before they stopped making them.....retail ~$450+, wants $220 each :D There are times when I really hate shopping for tyres, because 205/45/16 and 205/40/17 are such pricks of sizes to find good cheap tyres in. Not this time :D

Possum = Dim Sum perhaps?

To add my 2c to the "naming of the possum" discussion (afterall, I did have some interaction with it when I was up there for the national meet), I suggest following the convention that my sister-in-law set in place and name it after an Asian dish. Since we were fairly sure that the local all-you-can-eat was serving up something slightly dodgy, she named her cat Honey...short for Honey Chicken. Actually, come to think of it, said all-you-can-eat was also found to be storing possums in their chiller at one stage if I remember correctly...

7-8L/100km sounds normal for city driving for a car of that age. The black smoke on WOT will most likely be fuel though, A-series engines (well, most Toyota engines actually) will run quite rich at high revs and large throttle openings. Check that it isn't chewing through oil though, which is another trait of these engines as they get old. A full service to replace things like leads, plugs, filters etc will most likely do a world of good. When you say resonator, is it the one before or after the airbox? If it is drawing in extra air before the airbox it isn't that big of a deal (will be slightly warmer though), but if it is after the airbox then the air will be unfiltered and you have the possibility of drawing nasty things into your engine and doing damage.

Don't know where you're getting your info from, your factory service interval would be almost certainly be 10,000km - it only drops to 5,000km if you drive in extreme conditions (ie towing for long periods of time, short interval trips in very cold weather, extensive idling/low speed ie taxis, couriers etc, driving on rough or dusty roads) - that is direct from the Toyota website. A lot of members on here will service their car more regularly though - I tend to do oil changes every ~5000km, but that is because the 7A has a history of burning oil. Other regular services such as spark plugs etc will get done at their appropriate interval as specified by the service manual.

Price is like that obviously to give him the power to only accept offers and stop someone getting a steal if it goes for less than what he'd like at auction. Basically, it is a price so ridiculously high that it becomes irrelevant.

You haven't met many cops then....most will defect first and ask questions later (even if the mods are legal), especially if the driver's attitude isn't the best.

Because there aren't that many of us on here that live in Newy, especially compared to the numbers in Melb/Sydney/Brisbane...

Don't quote me, but the fact that you didn't receive a defect slip aka "canary" on the spot might mean that you've just got off with a warning (even though they said you'll need an inspection etc). Then again on the same token, don't be surprised if you get a letter in the mail (cops are lazy sometimes).

What made the front bumper impossible to remove?

No one ever spots anyone in Newcastle...

Formula SAE car. ~50kw, 300 kg including driver, lsd, slicks and a six speed sequential 'box geared to do 150k flat out meant acceleration was brisk too say the least...

Formula 1 cars also only run 13" wheels because the sidewall flex of the tyre is actually part of their suspension design. If the move the 17-18" wheels actually goes ahead (it has been on the cards for a few years now) they would need to completely re-design the suspension of the car to match the stiffer lower profile sidewalls. For sporty road cars though, sidewall flex is a bad thing, hence why larger diameter wheels and lower profile sidewalls can provide more cornering grip - as long as the wheel is light enough, the change in rotational inertia should be minimal as well (note, 18" chromies are _not_ "light enough"). You'd be surprised at how light some 16-17" wheels can be - the 16x6.5 205/45/16 wheel and tyre combo I have on the AE102 at the moment weighs roughly the same as the stock 14x5.5 175/65/14 factory steel wheel combo, yet I have an inch wider and 2" larger diameter wheel and 30mm wider tyre. The 17x8" wheels that we had on the Snoarer weighed only 9kg each (without tyre). I've yet to weigh the 17x7 Lite-5s that I'm putting on the AE102, but I'll do a comparison to the 16s when I swap them over and I wouldn't be surprised if the 17s are lighter again (the 16s aren't a particularly "lightweight" design). In short, there is no hard and fast rule about "smaller is better" etc. It comes down to the design of the wheel, design of the tyre, the purpose to which you wish to use them, and the car itself (obviously you can't replace factory 18s with 15s with the same overall rolling diameter and expect good handling).

Except factory service schedule would be more likely 10,000km, and most services wouldn't cost $200 (simple oil change and rotate tyres for instance), so you're off by at least 50%...

I've got a hard-copy (Gregorys). Got the wiring diagrams uploaded to my photobucket though.

Anything engine-wise you can get from an AE102 manual, which I have :P

There is no such thing as a GM-badged car though - General Motors is an umbrella company which trades under sub-division brands such as Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac, Holden, Opel and Vauxhall. And the LS series of engines have predominently featured in Chevrolets (since Chev is GM's bread-and-butter range) especially the Corvette, hence the perception that it is a "Chev" engine. It is also a throwback to the Chevrolet Small-Block V8 which was a very common swap into old Holdens....well, _any_ Holden actually. As for appearing on six-cylinder Commodores, the V6 ever since the VN has been every bit a GM (as opposed to Holden) engine. The 3.8L is a variant of the classic Buick V6 series which started back in the '60s (and has appeared across the GM North American range), and the current 3.6L engine is a global GM engine called the HFV6 which is used in everything from Holdens to Chevrolets to Cadillacs to Saabs to Alfas. They just happen to be made in Australia (amongst other places).

What is even worse is that it's an F50, which was N/A as standard, so they've gone to the effort of fitting a turbo to what was already a 500+ HP V12... If indeed it is real in the first place, and not a kit car.

Basically we were stuck behind Sunday drivers going 10-under for a good 15 minutes, get to the first decent overtaking lane and we all boot it to get past in a single go, only to find a copper with a LIDAR unit staring straight down the road at us....everyone slammed on the brakes but for the guys at the front it would have been too late. Didn't get pulled over (probably because there was such a big pack of us) but a straggler a couple of k back did get done.

Was a great day out as usual, weather turned out to be pretty good in the end despite the pea-soup thick fog on the freeway, and the dreary outlook at McGraths Hill. Run out through Bells Line was more sedate than usual due to the Sunday drivers, although I think we all shat enough bricks to build an entire house after the incident with the copper in the overtaking lane. Fortunately the Mountain was relatively uncongested so we could get some good laps in, managed to wrestle the keys from Cara so I could take the Snoarer for a blast too, soooo much more fun being able to actually accelerate up the hill and kick the rear sideways mid-corner as the LSD locked up, just wish we'd set the coilovers slightly firmer before the trip to curb some of the bodyroll. Didn't end up taking any photos from the day as I was concentrating on driving and Cara had the camera anyway.

1. BG_Pete 2. Seby123 3. Juvenile 4. master.Cuong 5. Ben Yip 6. Hiro Going to be solo-ing it, just means more blooming onion for me :D

Still a bit far for me to contemplate regular trips, but as long as it is a Friday or Saturday night I might make the odd exception, whichever location it is.

That is why they're more reliable :-P

Makes a bit of difference actually, the Aus-delivered LS400s are different spec and tend to be in better nick/more reliable (eapecially in relation to the suspension) than the grey import LS400s and Celsiors. Still, nice pickup, it shall be dubbed the "pimpmobile"

Ooh sounds tempting, will check the calendar/missus. Always wanted to try a blooming onion too...