Murph

Also try the classifieds in your local paper.

Agreed. I'm 22 and do know a lot of drivers in the 18-30 bracket. Quite a few of them have done advanced and defensive driving courses, although I haven't as yet. However it's certainly right up there on my "when I have some money" to do list. Namely because I'd like to learn more about car control and also because I realise that I'm not the greatest behind the wheel.

Well it is quite true, the faster car will take longer to stop and the slower car may safe a life. However, there are MUCH more important factors that are going to save many more lives than lower speeds. I.e. driver training so the driver knows better how to avoid the situation and or control their vehicle in that situation. I know I'd feel a lot safer on a road at 80km/h with trained drivers rather than on a road at 60km/h with some of the *&%^ that drives on our roads now. You missed my point, which was that despite saying that speed cameras will only be put at black spots, where they might just slow people down and save lives, they instead get put in places where they generate maximum revinue. Eg. at the bottom of a dead straight road going down a hill, or on a 5km long dead straight section of highway, where in neither case there has ever been a death or is there a safety risk. Go figure. Keep in mind the race driver pushes much higher limits than you or I would on the road. It comes down to knowing ones limits and staying well within them. I suppose that's where a large part of the problem lies. You average Joe doesn't know his or her limits if they've never expereinced them, or come close to them. Of course something that should be learned off the road! Was driving my mates skyline this morning on the highway and it was raining that hard that I ended up having to slow to under 50km/h to see anything. Still had some wanker come flying up behind me and almost rear end me because he was going so fast and couldn't see $^!#. :eek: Bingo! We have a winner.

There are many many countries that quite successfully use the 80th percentile rule. I suppose the problem is that they have to set the speed limits keeping the lowest common denominator in mind. Judging my some of the mind blowing idiocy that I see on the roads, that's prett damn low. This is yet another reason why need better driver training. Bring that lowest common denominator up to a reasonable level so we don't have to drive at 50kmh on every bloody road for the rest of time.

Compulsory retesting at least every 10 years should be a must.

I agree with you 100%. As for the 120Y.....that's an achievement! But yeah, I'm sure most of us have done some pretty dumb $^!# when we were younger. I know I have. :stupid:

Just want to make my position clear. I don't generally speed. I don't speed in traffic. I don't speed around others. I don't speed in places I don't know inside out. About the only time I do speed is if I am having a bit of a play in the car and I will be the only person I'll ever put at risk by doing so. Don't get me wrong. There are a hell of a lot of people out there that do put peoples lives at risk by speeding at the wrong time in the wrong place and they should be stopped. Back on the issue of driver education, I agree with 260DET that sometimes the posted speed limit will be too high for the current conditions (eg rain). The problem is it gets pounded into our heads day in day out that if you drive at the speed limit you are a safe driver. That's a load of $^!#. People need to be taught to be able to think and judge the conditions for themselves. The McGrady governments speed kills/ever k over is a killer/lets put speed cameras at the bottom of every hill campaign sure as hell aint workin. These holidays we have the harshest punishments for speeding this country has ever seen, but have you seen the road toll? One of the highest ever. You know what, I'd go as far as saying the govenment should be accountable for those deaths. Year after year they lower speed limits, increase fines, increase the number of speed cameras, but do they work? No. The road toll goes up. All the while they feed us all this crap in their advertising campaigns about how they are making the roads safer and people blindly believe it. :mad: Sure speed kills. You know what's more dangerous? People that don't know how to control a car. People that drink and drive. People that tailgate. People that can't judge a situation for themselves. The government isn't going to change though. They make some serious revinue out of their current system (over 300 million in a year if I remember correctly). To save lives they'll need to implement some REAL driver education and that's going to cost money. Nothing will happen till the general pubic wakes up to what's going on and demands change.

Just to clear one point up. When I say it feels slow, I mean acceleration wise, not speed wise. As far as speed goes, it feels like your going faster than you are, but I'd attribute that to sitting quite low and having stiffer suspension than the other cars I am used to driving. Arrrhhh... No aircon + the 40deg days we've been having here lately = BAD. Boiling driver and boiling carbs. Nah they're well fixed. Don't you just love their ability to make quick direction changes! Never ceases to amaze me.

You got a pretty good point here, and I'd be quite tempted to say we all do it. On the other hand while my driving abilty pales in comparision to many out there, I'd say I'm (and most of us on here) would be a lot better than your average Joe Bloggs.

You do have a good point. But I suppose it's a calculated risk I'm willing to take on occasion. Selfish? Maybe. Mind you, I really do make a big point of keeping that risk as small as possible as I do value my own life and I have seen first hand what happens when people do f*ckup. I'll tell you it certainly calms you down a heck of a lot......and scares you when you see some of the idiocy that goes on on our roads. On the other hand we all take risks from time to time. I like to go downhill mountain biking and there is some pretty serious risk in that. I've done some good damage to myself and seen some serious damage other riders have done to themselves. But I still continue to ride as it's a risk I'm willing to take. I'd conservatively put the risks I take behind the wheel at a fraction of what I do on the bike, and as with the bike I only every put myself at risk, no one else.

Personally I don't have a problem with the speed limit being broken provided that it's done sensibly. My criteria for sensisible being that it's done in the right time and place and is well within the limits of the car and driver. For example, not in traffic, not in populated areas and not in old dungers driven by 17 year old P platers. Also not with other people in your car that don't consent to that sort of driving. What concerns me most is the wizz poor driver training, education and licencing in this country. What it means is that a lot of these new drivers don't know how to judge an appropriate speed for the situation themselves, nor do they understand how to control a car in anything but normal/perfect conditions. My ex gf of about 5 years ago was a classic example. She'd speed, tailgate, hook around corners, brake late, make snap lane changes etc, but she never had a bloody clue how to really control a car. The sad thing is she's still the same, even after her brother had a serious accident because he was driving beyond his somewhat meager ability.

Just some observations I've made about driving my zed, and looking for some discussion of others experiences. Two things I have noticed with my zed is that it not a car that you can just get in, and drive fast (comfortably) if you don't know it and that it doesn't feel anywhere near as quick as it is. On the first point, I'm only just getting to the point now after driving the zed daily for a few months, that I am really getting comfortable with it and how it behaves. Never the less I am still fairly cautious when pushing it. On the other hand I can hop in my mates R32 GTS-t and flog it till the cows come home, having had many less hours behind the wheel, but do it quite comfortably. What I am finding though is that the zed is very rewarding to drive now that I am getting the hang of it. Everyday driving it isn't the nicest thing for a few resons, but take it out for a blast and it'll put a BIG smile on my face. My other interesting observation is that it simply doesn't feel quick to me, or to others in it or driving it. However when I put it against some other cars, then it never fails to supprise me! Especially when you chuck some corners in. Example 1: Last night a mate took it for a drive and he found that it felt slower than his car, despite the two of them being of an identical pace in a straight line. Example 2: The other night we took the cars for a bit of a play on this nice little bitumen circuit in an abandoned area. Every one was totally amazed that I had no problems sticking with and almost passing the other cars. The other cars being the R32 skyline (13.5s 1/4), Z32 (will do a high 13), RB20 powered R31 (low 14's) and a VL (16.0, but he's a madman). I'd guess my zed coundn't better 16 flat down the 1/4. Anyone else have any thoughts they want to share?

I like it! I wonder if Mr Plod will accept that as a valid excuse?

By a big dumper, he means a dump tip on the exhaust, as in one that turns downwards.

260DET: Geez! I don't even want to think what it would be like with a turbo under there. Hmmm never thought of that, but it makes sense.....I'll try insulating those lines tomorrow. I did notice it gets rather hot. Being black and with a much larger surface area than the metal lines would make them significantly hotter. What material did you use to insulate them?

I made up a dodgy extension the other day that made it about 150mm longer. basically I got bugger all fumes upto around 80kmh. While I'm not a fan of dumpers (or extra long straight tips for that matter) I might give it a go. I'm willing to live with the look if it means I don't have to breathe that $^!# anymore.

An aditional heat shield to give some more protection around the top of the carbs would help for sure. The fuel bowl is pretty well protected as is though. You can see how high it comes a bit better in the attached pic. An additional layer of some sort of insulating material on the heat shield should also help. One thing I have noticed is that when I get this vapour lock problem, I get some overflow from the fuel bowls. Would that point to the fuel boiling in the fuel bowl? Pics are taken with a Kodak DX3900. Not the greatest digicam ever, but it does seem to produce quite sharp images with the flash on at night. That pic above was scaled to 33% then slightly sharpened.

Yep, fuel system recirculates. That only keeps fresh fuel in the main lines though, not the lines to the carbs, or in the carb bowls. After 5 minutes of turning it off the carbs are that hot you can't touch them. Go for a 10min drive and they are cold again, whereas without the heatshield they'd remain hot. I can get a small thermo fan for nothing, so I might gave that a whirl, see how it goes.

Do you think it would be the fuel boiling in the fuel lines though, considering I have a electric pump pushing a good volume of fuel? I was thinking it would be a case of the fuel boiling in the carbs/bowls, but now keeping in mind it will run for about a minute as I idle it around and then die, that sounds more like the carbs aren't getting any fuel and it dies after all the fuel in the bowls is used? Sound plausible? How long would the car be able to idle for with only the fuel in the bowls? I might give that a test tomorrow.

Here's a pic of the setup if it helps at all.

Sorry to hijack the thread. Just looking for some more ideas to help my vapour lock problems. As is I now have a high volume electric pump and I've also built a quick dodgy aluminium heat shield between the carbs and the exhaust manifold. However the carbs still get incredibly hot when I shut the car off on a hot day (been 40?C lately). It'll always start up fine, but will die after about a minute, usually when I'm pulling out onto the road. After that it wont start for a good 15-30min. *grrrrr* Does that sound more like the fuel boiling in the carbs, or still somewhere along the fuel lines? The heat shield helped a fair bit, but it still will get rather hot under there when you turn the car off. The only solutions I can see are either a vented bonnet which I don't like the look of and can't afford anyway and my other idea was to install a small therofan at the front of the engine bay to keep some cool air flowing over the carbs for say 10 minutes after you turn the car off. Sounds like a reasonable idea? Any other ideas? Thanks, Justin

Just wondering how much it cost? Thanks

I'm thinking of experimenting with longer tips, just to see how much of a difference it makes. I've noticed a number of zeds now that have longer than usual tips.

Nice setup there. When I have a little more money I'll have a crack at doing that. Might have a few more questions for you then. Thanks

Sweet. It'd be greatly appreciated.