djr81

Well it sort of does because the computer system that runs the DSG works out how many revs the engine needs to match the next selected gear & modulates the throttle accordingly. Therefore the driver doesn't need to bother.

Try the GIO car one instead. Should be pretty straight forward.

I don't believe that the F1 programs (any of them) & the road car programs cross pollinate to any degree. Hell John Barnard used to design the F1 cars (The 640 was a particularly pretty example) in England - GTO meant Guilford Technical Office. Historically Ferrari road cars were never particularly high tech, but then again neither were the F1 cars. Take a random example as the F40 - the first road car to make use of carbon fibre - but they used it for meaningless purposes & still built the bloody thing with a bundle of steel tube in it. Could you imagine anyone else getting away with that? Gordon Murray did it properly a few years later. Maybe I am just bitter because I could never afford either a 288GTO nor a 365GTB.

Well my contention is simply this: as often as not manufacturers use motorsport to add some interest and glamour to an otherwise dull model range. The more prosaic their product the more likely it is they will pump big dollars into formula one. As for the BMW thing - well they should sack Chris Bangle, but anyway. My favourite BMW's were from the late eighties/early nineties. A time when BMW were involved in touring car racing & not F1. The Brabham BMW's from 1982 to 86 & then subsequent Megatron/BMW engines in the Benettons & Arrows were a marvellous thing for a time - although the laydown Brabham was an abject failure due in part to the engine. That it took the life of my favourite GP driver probably put me off BMW for a bit. Anyway I remember the god awful engines in the road cars when unleaded was introduced. These were some of the worst BMW's you could imagine. Gutless & all torque no hp. The original M5s we saw in Australia is (along with the M635csi & the M3's) probably the finest of all cars ever to come from Bavaria. The shame of it is their model range has just gotten fat and stupid - like me probably. The 2002 was derived from touring car participation, as was the M3. Touring cars have done much more for BMW than F1 & even the sublime skills of Nelson Piquet ever could.

The springs have the rate written on them. You will see 0800.250.0225 which is in order coil diameter, coil length & coil rate in lb/in. The fronts are 275lb/in. As for trapping oddly Eibach don't seem fussed by the last quarter inch or so. Check their website for install tips. Strangly they reckon you get less noise with a small gap. Personally I don't like that idea much, but that is just me. I ordered a couple spanners from Perth.

How stiff? Very. No amount of damper adjustment will make up for that.

There used to be a time when F1 was all about invention. Ahh, happy days. As for engines you could say the same for Ford, Peugeot, Honda, Subaru (!), Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Matra, Lamborghini and any number of others who have tried & succeeded/failed to build proper F1 motors. As for the MB versus Hyundai comparison, well not every Benz is an AMG. There is a C180 in the car park most mornings when I get to work. Whenever my mind strays to thinking about its rubbish 8V 4 cylinder motor, vinyl trim, (Mmmm, MB tech) acceleration you need an hour glass to measure, well it doesn't make the link to F1 cars. Mostly it just makes me feel nauseous. Curiously there is also a 300SE with purple embroided cushions on the parcel shelf - logo reads F1. I would contend that if any technology transfer is to be had from F1 it does not come from the constructors - it comes from the suppliers. Like Bridgestone (But who is to say their F1 program yields better results than its touring car program?), AP, Rays, Enkei - even down to the suppliers of stuff people don't take a blind bit of notice of - things like sensors & electrical connectors. There again no car was ever sold because it had fancy electrical connections - although people bought XM Citroens discovered they may have been a good idea. Recent trends in car design have included the more common use such things as diesel engines, DVD screens, run flat tyres, hybrid engines etc etc. None of which has any use in F1. For the marketing departments F1 is about glamour & competition. Show me someone who bought a Camry because Ralf Schumacher qualified 22nd & I will show you a certifiable fkwit. Same goes for any other road car and any other grid position. I usually find that for a car company F1 success coincides with their road cars being awful. Take BMW. F1 success in the early eighties & again now. Both times their range was crap. Same for MB. Same for Ferrari.

May also prove how irrelevent technology is to Ferrari road cars....

I did say the last 20 years, but anyway: CVT: are only used in small cars. Turbo's: Renault used them on their F1 cars in 1977. GM used them on their road cars in 1962 - the shitbox that was the Corvair. Mid engines: Well to be honest I dont think the Fiat X1-9 owes anything much to what Charlie Cooper once did. In any case the Fiat used a transverse engine, the Cooper didn't. Ground effects: Well designers have worried about aero approximately for ever. Ground effects implies a sealed side skirt which is something no road car has ever had. Note there is a difference between invented & made fashionable.

Very, very little of what is developed in F1 ever sees use in road cars. It is far too specialised & expensive. It is all about marketing & perception. Overwhelmingly any of the crumbs that do fall to the productions cars are from component suppliers, not the manufacturers direct. Can anyone name one bit of equipment in the last 20 years that has made the transfer. Semi auto gear changes? Wank factor that never works properly. 20,000rpm V8's? Not likely. Carbon fibre anything? Older than 20 years & most manufacturers just use it for trim anyway. Carbon brakes? Older than 20 years. Push rods/monoshock front ends/torsion bars/third dampers/aero profile wishbones? Nup. Do you think Frank Williams/Patrick Head give a flying fk about what the motor in next years Camry will be & whether it has variable fuel/ign maps to allow it to make it through to next weekend? Take Honda for example. Their most useful end product of being in F1 is the training that it provides their engineers. Nothing more. Hyandai is no more or less pedestrian than Renault or Toyota. Just another mainstream car maker. So why shouldn't they try & leverage F1's halo effect like the others do. The fact that they would be far better off going back to the WRC is perhaps something to note, however. Sorry if that sounds offensive. I just have never believed that F1 needs to justify itself. No other sport appears to need to. And yes it does take more than money. But I think Minardi proved that it does atleast take that.

Is the code you are referring to the one the compliance shop grinds off the key before you get the damn thing?

Stop it or you'll go blind. It isn't anything like that. The report is clearly wrong. Try 107 at its peak. Which is has fallen from.

Dunno occasionally an F5000 used to be put on the forecourt to drum up interest.... They could always re-badge someone elses work anyway. Wonder what John Judd is up to these days?

The paint scheme Freddo ran in 1990 was prettier htan the 1991 version. Maybe give that a go? Nice work too.

Well personally I hope that Jackie Stewart sues Oswald, sorry Max Mosley for approximately 11ty billion dollars. the gives atleast $100 million of it back to McLaren. As for parity & the FIA enforcing it on McLaren - people have apparently forgotten something. The whole issue of team orders only came into the spotlight because of a bullshit stunt that Ferrari pulled a number of years ago. Schumacher was streeting everyone at about the half way stage of the championship. But they still made his number two pull over on the last lap of the Austrian GP (I think, memory is a but dodgy) to ensure he got the extra 2 points. Before that it had never been a problem for anyone.

Maybe we need a group buy happening to bring in a shedload of hatted rotors. Looks like every man & his dog has problems.

Reckon you may be onto something there. Notice also how much wasted rotor face there is on the inside of your rotor.

You can get plenty of rotors, just not hatted ones. Check the usual imports mobs. Endless/Project Mu. With the way the dollar is going lately they will be practically giving them away.... The Biot stuff looks well bling if you can get your hands on them. Maybe AP or Brembo do one also. Big $'s, but.

No you are not. Sorry for the bum steer. I thought they did. Dodgy memory. I think the reason is that the handbrake works on the inner drum section (or hat if you like) So no one makes the hatted rotors for the rear. They dont make any 5000 series at all for the povvo pack 32 R's either. Except for a mob called Biot who appear to.

Photo of yours?

The DBA 5000 should be fine for the rears. Not sure about the hand brake though if you use that alot. It appears only the 4000's cause problems. The 5000 slot pattern is different, ie doesn't extend to the edges.

Well I will give the RDA's a try at the front of my thing early next month. I am getting well sick of continually chucking rotors at the thing when it won't stop well anyway. Maybe the trick is to keep the slots well away from the edge of the rotor. Looks to be how the grown up brake companies groove theirs. Maybe someone can get a hold of some DBA blanks. Actually there is a question. Other than the slots & the paint are the DBA 4000's any different to their poverty pack versions?

Sorry to harp, but what are they made from steel/aluminium? I am after some aluminium ones.

My stuff arrived yesterday. Looks very bling. The threaded sleeve looks long enough to make installing the groove relatively easy. Doesn't much matter if it is +/-10mm in either direction. Couple points/questions from the first set of photos: 1. Where is your lock ring? 2. If your spring isn't trapped you probably need a helper. Oh and does anyone know where to get the spanners from?

They look nice. What are they made from steel or aluminium?