CrankyBen

Never understood the whole fuel price whinge... I put around 70L a week into the car (out of my own pocket), and assuming fuel went up 20c/L that still only equates to $14/week... a 0.25% home loan increase would impact me far more, yet people whine far less about something like that. When I see people on TV saying how higher fuel prices mean they can't drive their kids to school any more (god I must've overhead an ad for "A Current Affair" or something) I just laugh at the tabloid journalism and typical "battling aussie" who needs something to whine about.

Gave up on getting mine serviced at Ford - they are honestly too useless. I now take mine to my regular mechanic - Neal Bates Automotive in Hume. They apparently have a few XR6T they do now. Give Mark a call. Recommended.

This has been done before, it's the CAPA edit. And yes, I got my edit custom tune done there.

"(Street trim would mean street tyres, pump fuel and exhaust)." Stop reading between the lines, and read the lines

Ya beat me to it ya bum!

ABS is standard fitment (even on standard brakes).

This is one of those burning questions... other ones include "What does GLi/SS/XT/MR/etc etc etc stand for...?" They're letters I'm sure Ford marketing has come up with some drivel about what they stand for, and I would hazard a bet that the letters came before the meaning.

That's awesome! ;-) How about a link now?

Depends what you want to spend. I've had heaps of tyres, and done track days on most of them, in cars ranging from M5's to a 1.6NA MR2. In the middle price range, I'd toss-up between Pirelli PZero-Nero, Michelin Pilot Preceda, and Yokohama ES100. Toyo T1-S were good on the smaller cars, but no idea what they're like on big fat cars like ours. Up the spending a bit, and look at Bridgestone S-03's, Yokohama AVS V102 (AWESOME tyre currently on my xr), Pirelli PZero System Assimetrico (Giallo)... Michelin Pilot Sports. Tyres NOT to get: The goodyear Eagle F1's sucked on the track. Every Hankook/Falken/Nankang etc tyre "as good as X brand!" always suck. The people who say they are good also say the stock Dunlop 3000A's aren't bad. Which of course, once you've driven on a real tyre, you'll realise the stock ones are bloody awful. Cheap though. You won't be unhappy with any of the tyres I recommended above.

Zuh? Negative camber means the top of the wheel is angled towards the car. This means that when you corner hard, the wheel get's pushed towards vertical - making more of the tyre contact the road. Hence, when driving in a straight line, negative camber wears the INSIDE of the tyre. From factory, most XRs have somewhere between 0.25 - 1.0 degrees negative camber. Camber kits are usually purchased to achieve MORE not LESS camber. This would only exacerbate the wear on the inside of the tyres that you are seeing. You must drive hella slow around corners

... *shakes head in disbelief*

Interesting. Just "google" the name of them ("michelin tweel" is written in half the photos). I found heaps of info in 5 minutes!

Hand-timing (not the most accurate science) in my total stocker, 2-up (someone to drive the watch!), best time was 6.1 with a sweet launch and perfect 1-2 change (manual!). So I reckon the car mags with 5.9-6.0ish are about on par with what I could get.

VCR $150.0000 DVD Player $200.0000 Woo, excitement plus! I think I'll stick to the alcohol

Scotty, stop trying to apply reason to the *statistics*!

Wives never get it! Mine did finally after this experience... Noticed a very low, wide, and red convertible a few hundred metres up the road on the way home from a shopping expedition recently. Obviously a Ferrari of some description, so I speed up a bit to check it out. I caught it near a set of lights that turned red, and wound down the windows so we could hear it: It was a 355 F1 Spyder (the "F1" means silly paddle shift! :o ), and it sounded fantastic as it blipped down through the gears. So we're up alongside each other at the red light, both have our wives on board and the lights go green... we both take off fairly slowly, then both gun it at the same time (maybe 10-20km/h). The T got the jump! pulled maybe a car length on him initially, but by the time we gave up (due to traffic in front - I almost hit the limiter in 2nd so maybe 105km/h) he had pulled half car length in front. The whole time all I could hear was his screaming V8! Couple hundred yards later we coast alongside each other, big exchange of grins and thumbs-up, and off we go our separate ways. Wife finally understood what these occasional encounters are all about - helping each other enjoy our cars Was a nice feeling to "hang with" an expensive, purpose built sports car in my family taxi , even if it was just in a straight line for 5 seconds!

Dunno DW! But I do know that I don't wanna be near it when it throws a rod!

I laughed out loud as I read that, but then it made me think - what would I have done? I suspect I probably would have grabbed the wife and kid and joined the throng... Amazing how a family changes the way you think, I like to think I definitely would have been the hero previously.

http://www.herrod-motorsport.com/ "Australia's No.1 Ford Enhancement Specialists" And you've got the de-badging thing all wrong! I know quite a few people that debadge their M5 (a work colleague has 520i badges on his!) / XR6T / etc. Plenty of reasons why! a) It's fun to blow away an SS when they thought you were a NA XR6 b) You don't need to have Turbo/M5/V8/"my car goes fast" badges to make you feel good... as opposed to the people who plaster GReddy/HKS/etc etc on their cars. c) It looks nice! I think it looks kinda menacing and sinister, especially on black/dark cars. I still have stock everything, including badges, but if I go for an edit etc I'd seriously consider removing badges. Make 'em wonder

Fantastic colour - wish it was around when I got mine I'd leave the cover black I think, too.

From my simplisitc understanding of it, 0.82 lambda means 18% richer than stoichiometric (stoichiometric being the "ideal" combustion where all the fuel is burned completely).

Top info! Keep us posted as you go!? And I'd have to agree 100% with your last statement... but I am all for open discussion/questions... even dumb questions like mine

Wouldn't launch control help with the wheelspin issue? Or simply not accelerating as hard It's easier to apply less power when you have too much, than it is to make more power when you don't have enough! The diff/gearbox would have to be an issue though...

Yup - I actually saw this car getting serviced (?) at the dealership late last week - it *is* a looker, and I did go to get a closer look at it... Only thing I didn't like was the Herrod badge across the boot. Get rid of that one blemish and you'll have a wicked looking machine!