Beaker

If you do a search, on this site you'll find some stuff that was posted early July (from memory they were media releases from Ford detailing the changes to spec levels). I rang Ford in mid July about it and they simply were not interested. Good luck - let me know if you get anywhere.....

As has been pointed out above - you have the choice of either handing it back (which would be dumb in 90% of cases as its almost certainly going to be worth more then what the residual is) or pay out the residual and then you own it. From there you can either keep it, or sell it and keep any money you get, so if the residual is 15K and you sell it for 20K you keep the 5K difference (no tax too ). Some lease complanies have a third option - in that they have a deal with an auction house, you can simply hand the car over on the last day of the lease and walk away, they sell the car for you, take out the residual and hand over a cheque for the difference (you can also set a reserve to make sure you don't end up with a bill). If you are thinking about it - talk to a financial adviser, Its worth doing in most cases, but a word of warning if you find you can't keep up the payments and have to break the lease you are going to end up with a MASSIVE bill. And I mean that seriously, the lease company will bend you over the counter and root you up the tailpipe with an elephant.

Hmmm - 1 GTHO or A Ferrari 355 for Saturdays, a GT40 for Sundays, an EVO X rally car for fun and a different hot road car for every day of the week....... With enough left over to buy some other cool stuff to play with when you get bored of the cars .........

We are getting a little off the subject, but territory policing as the ACTs division is called, is still entirley AFP. Officers from the territory police can be sent to international policing duties, I know several forensic guys who work in the ACT, but went to Bali after the bombings.

I'm in the same boat I picked mine up on the 29th of June (2 days before the upgrade came into force)- I tried Ford customer service, no dice - I even pointed out that I get a new vehicle every two to three years and threatend that this will be my last Ford if they don't come to the party. They said 'sorry unfortunatly we are unable to help you out as our policy is not to backdate these upgrades' Its happened before when the XR8 was coming out with the SOHC donk and they went to the (previously FPV only) DOHC one. (or so I was told anyway) There were people who had payed big money for the FPV only to find that had they waited a month they could have had the same mill in a car $15 - 20K cheaper.

I think you'll find that there are plenty of cops around like that - problem is that the first thing cops do is general duties - including traffic - so a fair percentage of the cops doing the pulling over are young dumb and full of --- you get the idea. Once they've been on the job a while they tend to tone down and are pretty reasonable. And I agree that attitude is the key - a mate of mine is pretty high up in the AFP, once over a few beers he told me about the 'A' rule. If you ever find yourself with getting a defect notice - don't give atitude - if you do, the paperwork they send in to the RTA has a little 'A' in the corner to let the inspectors know that the owner gave the cops a hard time, which means the inspectors tend to tear your car apart looking for stuff wrong with it. If you get busted doing something silly - take it on the chin, have a chat to the cop - let them know you don't resent them doing their job - it IS worth your while to do so.

If theres something out there that will let visible light through to your eyes (so you can read it) but will block visible light that hits a camera lens I've never seen or heard of it. Snake oil. If you want to avoid getting caught speeding - don't speed, if you want to speed - roll the dice and pay the fine when you loose. Pretty simple really. Driving with false number plates is a criminal act, actively making them unreadable would probably be viewed by the justice system as similar IMHO. FWIW - I agree the 3km rule is a joke and 5 - 10 km over in a 80/100/110 zone isn't irresponsible depending on condtions IMHO (athough 10km over in a school zone IS as far as I'm concerned) If they (our boys in blue) concentrated on people doing genuinly dumb speeds, and people doing things that cause accidents (not indicating, not keeping left, driving tired etc etc) they'd be doing far more for the community then they are right now. I'll step off my soap box now......

I heard some whispers through some friends at toyota that it was pegged back from significantly more power then a T during development. I belive 260Kw was mentioned, but I don't know if that's before or after they reduced the output. all hearsay mind you. What I can't understand is that all the japanese manufacturers have AWD platforms - why are they not using them in their performance cars. My tag line says I like my RWDs but hell if there was a 260kw AWD Aurion on the market I'd buy one. Same with the Ralliart 380GT 250kw - but its front wheel drive - WHY - they could have lifted the AWD out of the Magna and dumped it in!!!

Why buy an expensive additive to remove bore glaze. A buddy of mine is an army recimech - their solution for deglazing bores was to chuck a handfull of Ajax down the intake. Don't know about the long term affects though - I'm guessing not so good. Under no circumstance should you chuck Ajax down your intake - the army has millions of dollars - my guess is you don't.

Good read guys. I've only had a T for a couple of weeks and I'm thinking of playing with it a little, (only a little though - it has to stay 100% drivable for others) I have to say, coming from a hot turbo AWD - the Falcon just isn't in the same league in terms of grip and handling - don't get me wrong, I love the thing - but its a shame that Ford can't build a chassis that will match the magic motor that's under the hood. Here's hoping the Orinon (is that the new one?) will be a bit better and will be able to comfortably handle 300+ Kw without wagging its tail evertime it comes on boost. After driving 4paw for a long time its refreshing to drive something that's a little chalanging in the rain again. Again - nice thread - one of the most informative I've read here yet.

Yeah it does mate - I just spent lunchtime finding and surfing teh CAPA site - so got the stuff I needed. cheers

Give me a little credit guys - I did search it and read the stuff I found, but it didn't answer the questions I asked (apart from leaving a trace - which was answered - but I asked it anyway) I'm not saying its not there, I just couldn't find it

After some info from those in the know. I picked up a BFII 'T' about 3 weeks ago and now I'm bored with it. Yeah its reasonably fast, but they don't handle and point to point the VR4 I just got rid of would have eaten it. So it needs to go REALY REALY fast between the corners to keep me happy - ie it needs to scare me every time I deck it. Problem is that its a lease - and the lease company needed defibrillation when I mentioned 'performance mods' That brings us to the EDIT - what exactly is it? is it a piggyback ECU, or a flash of the original maps? Can it be returned to stock? (and I mean leave no trace of it being there?) and is it worth doing on an otherwise stock car? (I'm not going to change exhausts etc - I have a toy car for that kinda thing) Help a brother out - can I get more power without breaking my lease conditions - or am I stuck with it?

BF II doesn't have separate TC and DSC - one button, one light. pushing it quickly doesn't turn off either. Holding it down for one second turns off both. ABS is completely separate and can't be turned off (I have it on good authority if you pull out the fuse the body computer has a cow!) The above is accurate for the BFs that came STD with the DSC (I have one) - not sure what the ones were like when it was a factory option.

My definition of 'too quickly' must differ to yours, if you have time to reach down and hold the DSC switch in for one second midway through a potential loose

Be carefull you don't void your insurance. I don't know if T/C would be viewed the same, but for example if you disable the ABS your vehicle becomes unroadworthy and your insurer would wave to you on their way to the bank. If you mess with the way stability and TC works from factory and someone got injured ......... Having said that if the warning light telling you it was off stayed on while it was off - you could argue it possibly. Personaly I've found that unless you are trying to light it up, or throw it around the TC and DSC don't get in the way, and if you are on a track and having a go its only a matter of a button press to turn the electronic fun police off.

Cool - thanks for that - just spent lunch reading a bunch of articles - apparently the advice is right on the money.

If you honestly feel hard done by take it to court - at worst you'll cop the fine and some court fees - (which aren't excessive most of the time). At best you walk out with a clear record and money in your wallet. There are ahole cops out there no argument, but the vast majority are just doing a really crappy thankless job for stuff all money (and yes they are activley taught to be authorative - so young cops are the worst). I've said it on here before (and got flammed mind you) that while they'll give you a hard time on the street - they won't risk their career over a speeding ticket in court. Take it to court - going by what you've said chances are it'll be thrown out. Zap are you sure about the points thing? If you plead Not Guilty and win - there can be NO punishment and points are a punishment, If you plead Guilty and argue diminished charges then its feasable for them to remain and the fine be reduced/removed. I don't know, but I have to say I'm surprsied if it were so.

This is the bit I don't get - why is a top end mineral oil any better? For the initial run in you pretty much want the cheapest Big W special, but after the first 1000km or so it shouldn't matter.

I've been reading a bunch of old threads on what oils to run etc. The common thread is use synthetics for better engine life - which I tend to agree with if you follow Fords service schedule. However there is a bunch of people that have said 'don't use synthetic oils for the first X kms as mineral oils help the engine bed in better. Most manufacters stick a light 'running in oil' into the engine at the factory which is then replaced with a decent oil at the first change. This makes sence as the engine needs to bed in rings etc. What doesn't make sence is the sentance above, once you drop the running in oil it shouldn't matter which type (synthetic or mineral) of oil you put in (as long as they are both similar quality). I'm no lubrication engineer, but I am a chemist and as far as I can tell the lubrication propertys of good quality mineral oils are pretty much on par with synthetics, the advantage of synthetics is that they can stand higher temperatures and pressures for longer periods of time before breaking down. So I'm wondering where this 'use mineral oils for first x km then switch to synthetic' theory came from and if anyone actualy has any basis for it (other then the usual 'my mates, sisters, mechanics, pool cleaners, terminaly ill gay lover said to') ?

I hope that was on a track and not on the road.

The Mazda 3 MPS is faster from 80 to 100 then a Austin Martin Vanquash - I test drove one before I bought my T and loved it - but Mazda wouldn't move on the price so I told them to stick it. If you take one on with a rolling start though you are going to have your ass handed to you. Off the line they are pretty slow though - the TC stops it from wheelspinning by lowering boost and if you turn it off you end up sitting in a mountain of melted rubber and tire smoke. Very nice car though - a mate of mine drove one as a course car at the Mt Buller hillclimb earlier in the year, he reackons over all it is a faster car then his MY07 STi.

750km in by the following afternoon? Its only just got 1100km now after a week though (bloody work got in the way of me driving it!)

Hands up those that are pissed about missing out on the free Premium Command Center and the 18s by 1 DAY

Bugger - if I'd waited a month I'd have got the colour screen and dual climate control for free