bugster70

Thanks mate, it sure cost me a helluva lotta $$ at the time, which is one of the reasons I have been so reluctant to sell - I'll only get a fraction of what I paid for it back. For $5 I'll let you kiss my @rse.

Yeah, not so sure I'm keen to borrow a mate's bike, but hiring one occasionally appeals to me. As for owning one in the next couple of years, well, that (sadly) ain't happening. But I do like the idea of selling on eBay for retail prices!! For those that know their Dainese/Alpinestars gear, I'm a size Euro 50, or a Medium in most brands.

Hi guys, after selling my beloved Zed I have been very reluctant to sell all the gear I have as it represents the final nail in the coffin - a level of certainty that I wouldn't be riding a bike again for a while. Anyway, after much nagging from my wife and coming to the realisation that it is very unlikely that I'll be riding a bike anytime soon, I have decided to try and sell my stuff - it's too good and too expensive just to have sitting at home. I was going to just whack them up on eBay, but depending on the level of interest I get here, I may offer them to forum members first. Gear includes top-of-the-line Dainese leather jacket and pants, Alpinestars air-flo summer fabric jacket, Alpinestars top-of-the-line wet weather/winter jacket and pants, Alpinestars race boots, a variety of Alpinestars gloves, Shoei and OGK helmets, etc, etc. All the stuff is black (except for the summer jacket which is black and red) and all is in excellent to as new condition.

Cheers. That's not too bad actually, sounds like a pretty good price to me. Oh, and I don't blame you for being impatient!

Very nice indeed Savage, mind me asking how much the Bilstein package is?

Yeah mate, I agree with most of the above. Unless they're absolute tossers, they're certainly not going to think worse of you for asking - in fact, they are very likely to think much more highly of you if you do. I knew my father-in-law wouldn't have been offended if I hadn't asked first, but I did anyway and I know he appreciated the fact that I did. Just shows some respect and decent upbringing I think. Good luck!

I take my hat off to you matey, that looks very bloody good indeed. $2K is a bit rich for my purse, but if money were no object I'd have one on my T for sure. Good luck, it's great to see new members like you modding their cars in different ways. Mighty fine looking 'Phoon too BTW. But I agree with the comment that, on your F6 anyway, it makes the front look a little busy. On a regular T, with black grills, I think it would look even better. The brighter silver grill of the FPVs, IMHO, actually detract from your bonnet a little.

No probs here with stomping on the pedal when needed - I just want the bloody car to stop, and fast!!

Now that's the best idea I've heard all day.

Huh? Who, me?! First time I've been called that in my life!! Well, yeah, and another low cost but excellent option would be to go for the DBA 4000 series slotted rotors and better pads - this will give you most of what the premium brakes offer anyway and would be more than sufficient for most of us.

Not at all, just that either v was a very large number and/or you have some pretty special tyres.

In your scenario the tyres are likely to outperform the brakes. But seriously, for most people, buying better tyres will improve braking much more than better brakes. No point putting good brakes on Wanli-shod cars. For you to notice fade from one stop, I'd say you must have been something rather illegal! We have already said that speed IS a factor in better brakes, but you really do need to be going quite fast to reach a point where the stock brakes won't be able to activate the ABS. Do it ten times, however, and you can fully expect the bigger brakes to pull the car up quicker.

Well, yes and no. In most cases where tyres and traction are equal, the stock brakes are more than powerful enough to lock up the wheels, therefore the brakes aren't the issue, the tyres are. Most road going tyres don't have enough grip to be able to stop stock brakes locking them up. But what Zap was saying is if you get super sticky tyres with HEAPS of traction, then brakes become more of an issue. If you can find tyres that are sticky enough and offer enough traction to be able to prevent stock brakes locking them up, then bigger brakes WILL stop the car quicker. But you are most unlikely to find tyres that sticky that are suitable for use on the street.

I think that what Zap was saying is that in most cases, at normal speeds, the limiting factor is the tyres ie. different brakes won't matter 'cos it's the tyre's grip on the road that is what we're relying on. But if you take that factor out, say by putting on whopping great big slicks, then it's the brakes that become the limiting factor. Stock brakes simply would not have the power to lock up big slicks, whereas much bigger brakes might. Does that make sense?

Yes, this is implied in the Brembo quote and also in my previous posts. Speed and repetivity are the major factors. I think where a lot of people with bigger brakes might be getting confused is in the different pedal feel a better system will offer. The brakes will 'feel' a lot stronger, probably biting earlier and quicker and requiring much less pedal pressure for the same braking power. The pedal will also feel 'firmer', especially if braided lines have been fitted as part of the upgrade. I imagine that, for the SAME PEDAL PRESSURE APPLIED, a better brake package probably WILL stop the car quicker than the stock setup - but all the stocker has to do is apply more pressure. Factors like these may lead people to believe that their bigger brakes will pull their car up quicker?

For the info of those who are interested, and XRQTOR in particular, this is taken from the FAQ section of the Brembo website: "At the speeds that stopping distance is generally measured from (60 to 70mph), the test is primarily testing the tire's grip on the pavement. As delivered from the manufacturer, nearly all vehicles are able to engage the ABS or lock the wheels at these speeds. Therefore, an increase in braking power will do nothing to stop the vehicle in a shorter distance. For this reason, we do not record stopping distances at this time. The Brembo systems will show their greatest advantages when braking from higher speeds, or when tasked with repeated heavy braking. The increased braking torque provides for maximum deceleration at speed, and the ability to absorb and quickly dissipate the intense heat generated during repeated braking insures that the braking system will perform at the same high level each time."

Thanks Zap, I'm with you on this one (now, after much discussion on this forum and doing some of my own research!). I thought Mr XRQTOR was going in a little strongly, I was gonna say that he was pretty brave calling a few professional drivers and brake sellers 'twits'!! If there's one thing I've learned on this forum, it's not to go in with both guns blazing unless you are 110% sure of your facts! You may at least have looked up the Brembo site I pointed you to before launching in mate, I'm pretty sure that that's one of the sources I found that said outright that bigger brakes do not stop you quicker under normal circumstances. Faster speeds and repeated stops are, of course, a different matter.

This was something I had trouble comprehending a while ago and was corrected by those who knew better. I always thought that bigger/better brakes would stop a car quicker, but apparently this is not necessarily the case. If the stock brakes are able to activate the car's ABS system, then apparently bigger brakes won't actually make the car stop any quicker. And these days, most factory brakes are able to activate the ABS. The advantage of bigger brakes, I understand, is when a) you are travelling at faster speeds when your stock brakes may NOT be capable of activating the ABS and b) of, course, when repeated heavy stops are required. There is plenty of good info around and, from memory, both the Brembo and DBA websites have some useful stuff on this very issue. Hope that helps?

I'm not sure that anybody would be able to come up with an absolutely definitive number for you. IMHO, the way you drive is far more important than the amount of torque anyway, to a point of course. I mean, if your car is putting out 700Nm of torque but you thrash it regularly, lots of burnouts, kickdowns to 1st gear at 40km/h, etc, etc, I'd feel certain that your box would die a LOT quicker than the guy with 800Nm of torque who drives really conservatively and only puts the boot in occasionally. As jordak has also said, there are other factors such as whether you have a tranny cooler, what type of oil you're running, etc. From a power perspective, I think a lot of people reckon the 280rwkw mark to be about the limit of a stock 4 speed auto, but again this would be very dependant on the way you drive the car. And a tranny cooler is pretty much a 'must' at that power level anyway. Hope that helps a bit? EDIT - Firming up the shift via Edit is also supposed to help, although I have heard that the only 'proper' way to do this is by modding your valve body? And, no offecne to jordak, I think the Shiftkit results in a VERY firm shift, but if you can live with that, then why not?!

Amazing how many people responded so quickly to this! I did a (actually, a couple) very lengthy thread on how these boxes work, and basically the advice you've got is correct. The reason you can't use the same box on several different cars at the same time is to stop people effectively giving away their tuner's work (assuming they have a custom tune) to mates for free. It's CAPA's/SCT's way on ensuring they look after their tuners. And fair enough too I reckon.

I see some little b@st@rd has got hold of pics of Cro's car and is trying to flog it off on eBay for $8000. If only you could catch these little pr1cks. At least the link shouldn't last too long, expect it'll get removed from eBay sometime today... Cro's XR6T

Ouch, sorry to hear Marcus, but as tab said, I reckon you've been pretty lucky it lasted this long given the thrashing it's received!! Oh well, hopefully you can replace it with something stronger as part of your ongoing 'stealth' upgrades. From one stealth modder to another, good luck!

I'm pretty sure this is incorrect badxr6. The box only loses a life when it is sent back to CAPA for unlocking or is unlocked by a qualified tuner. Unlocking clears it of the VIN lock that ensured it only worked on the previous vehicle. The box only downloads the factory tune once for each vehicle ie. the first time it is used on that vehicle. From there on it only reflashes whatever program is currently in the ECU. So, if Ford reflash the car with a new factory map, the box will just upload the desired custom tune WITHOUT downloading the new factory map. If the car is then sent back for service and you upload the factory map, it will be the ORIGINAL factory map that was FIRST downloaded by the box when it was first used on the car ie. NOT the updated map recently flashed in by Ford. This is how they will be able to tell the car has been edited. The only way to get around this is to have the box unlocked (thereby losing a life) and it will then download the new factory map. Of course, you will then also need to have the custom tunes reloaded as they will be lost as part of the unlocking procedure. Hope that (finally!) clears it up for you.

YES ← And I'll say it one more time, YES, you will be able to use your custom tunes even if they reflash your ECU.