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A bigger wheel is heavier. That inevitably has certain effects on ride and handling and performance. Yes, you can spend money on an especially light wheel, but you'd still be better off if you spent that same amount on an especially light smaller wheel. A bigger wheel means you're probably...

Well, that's at least 17 milliseconds off the 0-60 time.

With a 3 mm spacer its safe to use the standard wheel bolts. With a 10 mm spacer you should absolutely definitely be using a longer bolt. With a 5 mm spacer? Its up to you.

A carbon bonnet that isn't any lighter wouldn't do anything. As to whether one that is actually lighter lowers the centre of gravity? If it was a carbon fibre roof panel maybe. Have you considered the possibility that why it improves turn in is that it reduces weight at the front of the car...

So the dyno showed a drop in torque. But we're supposed to just believe that later on the ECU sorted itself out and fixed that. Yeah, right. Reduced torque is exactly what you're likely to get if you just open up ports to as big as they can go. We live in the age of precision casting and CNC...

It doesn't do anything. Its a foot rest.

Oddly enough petroleum industry engineers are looking at precisely this principle to reduce pumping costs in oil pipelines. They found that for a short time after complex hydrocarbons are exposed to an extreme magnetic field their physical properties are changed. But their chemical properties...

If they do in fact weigh only 930 kgs I'd think you're right that these are not production cars that have been stripped, they're cars built for the purpose. Its too hard to take 300+ kilos out. If you want to lose that much its easier to start with a shell and not put everything you don't want...

Isn't there an issue with how often a Sadev sequential would have to be rebuilt if it was used on the road, and how much that'd cost?

No, you're not allowed to do this. It breaks all the rules of the hotting up community. You're supposed to spend lots of money doing things that tell people you've spent lots of money, even if they don't actually do anything. Not spend money on hidden internal changes that actually work but that...

The question of whether an essentially standard-horsepower Clio Sport NEEDS any more than upgraded pads for track use is answered by the Clio Trophy rules. The people with expertise who wrote those made a decision. There's no evidence they got it wrong. The cars weren't running off the track and...

A scooby STI needs better brakes for ANY track use because it has only has a good a brakes as it needs for the amount of power you can actually use on the road without killing yourself or someone else or losing you licence. A Clio Sport isn't a scooby STI. Its only a sporty car, not a looney...

I've said this before. On the road the size of the brakes is determined by the weight of the vehicle. At every corner you're coming down from the speed limit to the speed you can negotiate the corner. Down a steep grade its a matter of gravity and mass. Power doesn't come into it. You'd...

The local garage isn't wrong. But he's overstating the case. If you lived in an area where there was a lot of blown sand or grit that was picked up and sucked into the engine a sports filter isn't going to do as good a job as a standard filter. A dry foam filter is good enough for a racing...

If that sound is what you like then induction kits are exactly what you want. That's what they do best. That's about all most of them do.

The point I'm trying to make is that there's two possible scenarios. The 1st is that the camshaft retarding 16 degrees at 6800 rpm makes no difference to power. If that's the case why did Renault bother doing it? The 2nd is that the camshaft retarding 16 degrees at 6800 rpm does make a...

And this is a speed you get up to regularly enough on the road to need bigger brakes?

If the phaser advances the inlet camshaft 16 degrees at 1450 rpm and retards it again at 6800 under control from the ECU, why haven't I heard anyone mentioning: (a) that upper limit being moved up by the same amount when ECUs are rechipped and the rev limit is increased? (b) that upper limit...

Well, that's sort of true. A 4-1 exhaust allows the manifold pipe length to be tuned to help the power at one point in the rev range. A 4-2-1 exhaust allows them to be tuned for to help the power at two different points in the rev range. Its like Honda's VTEC valve gear having two different...

They put it on the chassis dyno and they measure the power at the wheels, then estimate what it is at the flywheel. There are ways to get a good estimation, but it is only an estimation. The only way to know for sure exactly what it is is to measure the same engine on the same dyno at the...

Reading various peoples' experience of belt failures I'm reminded of the old story about the blind men who were asked what an elephant was like. The one at the elephant's trunk said an elephant was like a snake. The one at the ear said an elephant was like a fan. The one at the leg said an...

No. I'm sure many people think its plausible that if you can get more power by changing the ECU settings then you've made the engine more efficient. So by not using that power you must get better fuel economy. But it doesn't work that way. The setting used to produce more power achieve it by...

Mmmm. One person says he's seen lots of cam belts fail, and fail at relatively low mileages. Others say they last a good mileage, and the only ones they've seen fail are when the aux belt fails.

The TV showed shots of a convoy like that here. It was David Hicks. The guy spent 5 years in Guantanamo Bay. He pled guilty so he wouldn't be stuck there for the rest of his life. He gets 10 months jail, got to serve it here, and will be released in a month or so. And whenever they want to talk...

My 172 is coming up to 4 years old. The dealer is arguing that with the aux belt due for replacement at 4 years and the cam belt at 5 years its cheaper for me to get them both done at the same time. But I've only clocked up 28,000 miles. I't be another 4 years, and the time another aux belt...

... and the water pump and the power steering pump and the air conditioner compressor.

Racing karts (air-cooled, 2-stroke) seize when you take your foot off the throttle at the end of the straight. But that's because the oil is mixed in with the fuel, so you've got an engine that's temperature has gone up under full throttle down the straight, and when you close the throttle its...

This thread is based on a misconception. The sound you hear from the exhaust is only partly the sound of the petrol-air mix exploding. When that occurs the valves are closed. The pulses that the intake system and exhaust system are "tuned" for are the pressure pulses created when the valves open...

Kumho sells a 205/40x16. Never seen anyone else that does. But, yeah, they'd fit. They'd be slightly wider and slightly smaller in diameter. Which would lower the car a minuscule amount and also make the speedo read a little higher than real speed.

I've said it here before. I needed a car to tow with and saw the Renault web site didn't state a maximum towing weight for the 172, and only bought a new 172 with towbar fitted on the basis of the dealer's assurance that there wasn't a problem towing with the car. The dealer had checked with...