Full Monty

ohh... but its more than just a phone dags...much more. lol

ohh f@$%kn ha ha saleen. you take your bravia with you eh? ive been using one, and can guarantee they're fantastic units

How is it at watching movies? The iphones screen is gorgeous and IMO unrivaled for smooth detailed 30fps video playback. I currently have talladega nights on my phone, looks brilliant. plus 3 dvd's of family guy, about 8 gigs of lossless audio (all my favourite albums plus more). As for headphones / audio quality.., go read up on headfi.org and come back in a few days. Im sorry but audio is one of my hobbies (high end home system and headphones, and compressed mp3's is one of my bugbears, cant stand them. Dont have any compressed mp3's in my ipod / iphone. As I stated previously the standard buds supplied with ipods etc leave allot to be desired as far as frequency response, fidelity etc probably masking the inadequacies of these formats. you can get decent buds or phones for as little as $80 which make any portable player 5x better Headphones drain on battery life and the sources ability to get the most from the phones depends mainly on ohm rating of the phones. Some of the best sounding headphones available (grado, etymotic research etc, offer very low 32 / 16ohm rating and load on the ipod / iphone, for zero battery drain compared to std buds and 10x audio quaility improvement. high end sennheiser, AKG , some beyerdynamics etc are often higher ohm rating and require amplification to get the most from them. I use etymotic research hf-2 on my phone (inner ear monitors, very accurate and isolate from outside noise (literally cant hear cars and buses going by) meaning you dont need as high volume setting, saving more battery life, and your hearing.

Guess its the difference between being an innovator, or a follower. ipod was the first to revolutionize mass portable music with a simple to use click wheel. and now the iphone "changes the way you use your phone" / mobile web. just look at all the other companies copying the design / multi touch interface...New blackberry, samsung etc. all look like clones. I was amazed when I saw the first ipod (an early adopter at work bought one in the states well before they went crazy). And I was blown away when I saw the iphone (again same guy bought one from the states and had it jail broken within weeks of its release). your obviously not concerned with aesthetics tab...lol that's fine, you dont like apple products, we get it...now get out of this thread then.

its not so much what it can do, but the way it does it. great user interface and great software. competitors costing allot less? I bought my sister a 2gb nano for $100 bucks last birthday my iphone does mms, its called 3rd party, also does video. the iphone is an open platform and people world wide are able to develop great software for it, so its ever changing. that's its beauty. btw I dont condone the mass hysteria surrounding its release here, like sheep lining up for what they think is the latest and greatest. Those who really wanted one, probably got one from the states already.

I suggest winton or sandown. The former requiring a drive to get there, but its the safest facility (least risk of sudden deceleration trauma - I.e hitting a wall).

for christ sake "sucker product" ipod? they created a product which can store all of your music at lossless quality, which you can dial up any track in your collection within a couple of seconds, and millions apon millions of people want that. that's right every music lover who likes convenience is a sucker. Now with the iphone you can ditch your ipod, and have all your music on your phone, its called convergance. I no longer use my ipod (well I do at home as my bedside rig, with a dedicated headphone amplifier and Grado HF-1). I use my iphone all weekend on standby, make calls, listen to music and surf the net, then it gets topped up when I get back to work. I take it you havent looked at an iphone yourself, and your a dedicated p.c zealot? or you just sunk a sh*tload of money into your HTC and you want to feel good about that? so which mp3 player is leagues ahead of the ipod? the zune? there are some other brands on par, with features etc but leagues ahead...pfft. I have been a long time member of head-fi.org a site dedicated to all things audio and headphones in particular. The ipod ranks amongst the best portable sources for audio quality and distortion levels. Its the crap ear buds provided with the ipod that contribute to its bad wrap for sound quality out of the box. Its simple economics, you cant ship a $100 dollar pair of earphones with a product at this pricepoint. add even a $80 pair of senheiser px100's to the ipod and you'd be amazed at the difference.

ive had my 16gb for around 4 months, love it. Haven't had a single problem with it. Interface is brilliant, add to that the hundreds of free applications available and its a great time killer when you are stuck waiting somewhere. Got it jailbroken on day 1, and use in on vodafone prepay. I have free Wifi at work and have wifi at home and with the hundreds of free wifi hotspots in the city I have been able to browse the net and do emails any time I have wanted to. That being said, I will be getting a new 16gb 3g this week (outright no contract), so I can give my current phone to the missus. watch all the other phone manufacturers play catch up and simply copy its features.

lad to hear it all worked out in the end. It can be very frustrating trying to locate a problem such as this. Kudos to the workshop for looking after you.

I wouldn't suggest p.I for first timers, extremely high speed and hard on cars, I know advanced driving instructors that don't like teaching first timers there due to the risks involved. My vote would be for sandown or preferably winton. Forget Calder, they have recently quadrupled their daily facility rates.

I have dozens of friends in the design industry - heck im married to one also, and none of the studio's I have ever been in or worked in use PC's for Graphic Design. I also have friends in Music and Film, again they use mac. Admittedly these are all high end design studio's. I'd imagine a first year Grad, on a tight budget setting up a home / freelance studio may now opt for a P.C due to a slightly lower upfront cost. But you will also find that allot of studio's are using Imac's due to their reasonable power, and simple one box setup and lower price. By interface, I was referring to user interface. Sorry for the confusion. my home setup (when new) since replaced the crappy mouse with a Logitech G7 wireless

Zap, explain why Mac's are the tools of the trade for all graphics / 3d / motion graphics etc bit ignorant there with such generalised comments mate. Mac's are popular due to having well thought out interfaces, simple operation, you dont have to fight with your computer to get it to do what you want, or have a degree in programming... lol

I would say 42psi minimum. I did an advanced/performance drive day at sandown last year, with John Bowe Driving. Its a blast you will have an awesome day, and come away a better driver, with a better understanding of your car and your combined limits. as the car is almost new ( I assume) you wont need to do Brakes etc. just make sure you have a nice firm brake pedal, fluids are all checked and top up the tires. Do a search for my previous posts on the topic, where I shared some of my experiences from the day. The course you will be doing is a combination of defensive driving, with a few advanced concepts introduced later in the day. • Braking from various speeds, possibly wet and dry. • braking and avoidance • understanding ABS and its impact on stopping distances (how to maximise its potential). • some slalom work, between witches hats, learning throttle control, getting the car to flow. • after lunch you will get to do a few sections of the track - a few corners at a time. • at the end of the day you will get to put it all together, doing some controlled laps (no full length straights (witches hats chicaine midway to control top speeds). If you are with John Bowe driving, say g'day to my mate Dean Sammut, who will likely be one of your instructors. Gav Gav

I had the oil overtemp on a track day, 3-4 fast laps, flat out on a stock tune and it went into limp mode. Interestingly on my last track day, with a 250rwkw Nizpro track tune - reduced boost, more timing) I had no such issues. (4 laps per run) Fit an auxillery engine oil cooler if you plan on doing track days.

As a graphic Designer in the industry for over 10 years, I have always used mac's, Have seen them grow up, from my first 6600 to my latest Intel Mac Pro. The only non Mac Hardware I use, is my Benq 24" monitior, as it is more flexible with inputs than the mac equivalent. I use an Intel Mac Pro at work, same at home, Iphone, 2x ipods, shuffle etc etc. Ive used p.c's and Im not a p.c hater, but since the release of the Intel Mac pro's you can have the best of both worlds, my mac makes an awesome gaming rig, with 4gb ram , ATI radeon graphics card, running in bootcamp to play all my racing sims...with a g25 logitech wheel / shifter couldnt be happier. for both work and play. Ohh btw I love my microsoft xbox! I wonder if apple will get into the gaming console industry???

interesting, thanks for sharing. how much did the tabs cost you? and how long now since you did this? Gav

sorry guys, all intentions of going, got out the door and on the way to the glen, but it was absolutely pissing down, and I didn't want to get my hair wet, lolso turned the rig around and went home. I know I'm a piker.

sounds to me like loose manifold or turbo studs, these require re tourquing every service. Best description is a fluttering sound like a leaking exhaust (farting)...it becomes worst over time and starts to sound like a tractor. You will also notice power loss as a result. Unfortunately the turbo studs (4 of) can become heat affected and stretched, causing constant loosening. I suggest replacing them with inconnel studs, locknuts and a metal gasket from nizpro.. This will prevent the problem from reoccuring. Mine has been over 6 months without coming loose, since having them replaced. The 12 exhaust manifold bolts will require re-tourqing to 27 - 30 nm every service (use a torque wrench) and dont overtighten as you risk damaging the alloy head - threads. You need to remove the heat shields to get to the lower ones, tighten them, then replace shields and torque the top ones.

im afraid they will wear like this in a number of areas over time...the synthetic coating on the leather is prone to wear. (known fault by ford, may have been rectified recently?) Mine has marks like this from wear and tear, but yours may be a manufacturing fault. try a leather polish as suggested.

absolutely get braided lines - make sure you use good fluid such as Motul 600 or equivalent. as for rears, just upgrade friction material, brake lines and rotors if they are worn. dont spend a fortune on rears, as the BA-BF braking system porportions nearly all of the braking force to the front calipers in a hard stop (speak to Howard at race brakes in melbourne, he will also supply you with braided lines and fluid). replace rear rotors only if they are needing replacement, or you have money burning a hole in your wallet. then get some DBA 4000's. BF rear caliper and rotor assembly is of a larger size.

whilst the turbo is off, might as well do the bottom end, forged pistons, blueprint etc etc.. lol

Yep seconded Ratters advise, I had these Inconnel studs and nuts fitted by Nizpro, along with a steel gasket, havent had a problem since.

yeah it depends on year model, if its after apr - may 06 you'll be fine above 320rwkw, if its build date is before this, you are at the limit now.

Wrong way around cobra mate, the lower end of the car has more static weight over its tires, giving more grip to that end of the car, hence lowered front end will tend to give more "oversteer" that is the car tends to steer more than you intend it to. Lowering the rear springs only would tend to give more "understeer" and traction. more static weight located on the rear tires. this assumes all spring rates and dampers are unchanged. Not to mention you are changing static roll centre height slightly by lowering your car, and lowering your C.O.G

The dragging brakes is the Handbrake issue, handbrake needs correct adjustment. please do a search on the issue, I have made a few posts about it in the past (on going saga, involving 6 visits to ford. im afraid its an inherrent problem on the BA - BF, and most commodores from the same time period, due to the handbrake design, not self adjusting correctly. will require adjustment every service.