Experience Exchange Extravaganza!

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

Permabanned
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
11,924
Location
London, McLaren or Radical
Hey hey,

I think this is OK, if not mods, please accept my apologies and delete with avengeance! Telling me off in the process and I will respect any comment/restriction/removal/descision/etc.

I've been thinking that there are still a bunch of cars I'd love to experience that I may never buy or at least, not for a while.

I thought it could be cool to offer some funky experience swaps... we get to do this kind of things on the OcUK meets and other car meets which is cool... but we can't always make those and some cars get so much attention or maybe can't even come along because their not road legal (I'm thinking of my Radical SR3, for example)... so if we feel right, the odd 2 or 3 might be able to arrange add-hoc meets when we have spare time or are in the right area just for a quick giggle.

Just passenger rides offered from the respective owners... unless your feeling unusually generous and the right insurance is in place to make it viable along with combined respect... although I know with experience, trust for that is a difficult thing to build... it was hard enough allowing my closest friends a drive in the McLaren even though they were fully insured and knew the risks and the only person I've allowed to drive the Radical so far has been Oli Webb... a very highly regarded, well-skilled LMP1 endurance driver. So don't allow any room for expectations in that regard.

A couple of cars I've always wanted to experience are:

- Vauxhall VXR8 (might be happy with a Monaro)
- Nissan GTR (especially one with power mods) @kindai ... I know you'll make this one come true when we get the chance haha
- Evo (highly modified only)
- Lotus Exige S
- Jaguar F-Type SVR (had a V6S for a while and played with a V8, but not the SVR and that seems special - although I'm sure @Gibbo will sort me out with this one when we get the chance)
- Jaguar E-Type
- Ultima GTR
- Any Noble
- Dodge Viper (any, although latest gen preferred)
- AC Cobra
- Corvette (latest generation versions)
- LaFerrari (yeah, I know, big lol, that's never going to happen
- FXXK (as above x1,000,000)
- N/A F1 car - hahahaha - it's OK, there's a company that'll let me play with one of these on Catalunya, a track I've wanted to drive since I first got interested in F1 and it brakes the expectation rule big time ;)
- Ferrari F50 (can dream)

I'm sure I could drive the first few with dealers if I really wanted to, just have too much respect to waist their time or add extra miles to the car unless I have intent to buy.

As compensation, at present, I have for offer, and know how to drive well (if not pro):

- McLaren 720S
- BMW M4 (if we can get somewhere to play legally, I can slide this... it was designed to be a daily with the capability to be a hooligan and it does that really well)
- Radical SR3 (track only, not road legal - so has to sync up with whatever track days I can book)
- BMW M2 Competition (coming October)
- Aston Martin Vantage (coming October)
- Lamborghini Huracan Performante (coming April)
- BAC Mono (coming April - with this being a single seater, it breaks the expectation rule - but who knows, if you're the right kind of enthusiast, we can build the right relationship and we go out for a few spins in your thing so I trust your driving or you are able to take on the insurance risk then maybe... big maybe, no promises... otherwise I have a good relationship with the dealer and will be able to help to arrange a test, even if it's just for interest/fun without intent to buy, no promises again)
- McLaren 570S (owned by my friend, but will be able to negotiate)
- Ferrari Portofino (coming April-June, owned by my friend, but will be able to negotiate)

There will be other cars added to the list or swapped out for current things over the coming months years and I'll try to update this.

I'm a bit of a weirdo... I get an extra level of enjoyment by sharing what I have had the privilege to play with and just putting a smile on someone's face... I'd guess I've had in excess of 30 kids sitting in the driver seat of the 720S to take a photo along with a few adults and it's makes their day, great to put a smile on their face... did The Supercar Event for The Children's Trust earlier in the year and the 720S was the most requested car of the day... I was going for lap after lap with people who made donations to a worthy charity for the experience and loved it.

Otherwise, if you just want a spin and I find space in my calendar, I'd be happy to just take you for a spin... no requirement, but a donation to charity (volume of donation entirely of your choice without even telling or crediting me for the experience) would be a fantastic and exchange worthy of the effort to make it happen.

I'll probably be very selective of this and only move forward with forum members who have a high post volume or have been around for a while, so please don't be offended if I say no or can't make it wok due to various commitments... I'm lucky enough to be enjoying myself lately, so I'm filling my calendar up often.

Let me know your thoughts or interest... maybe I'm being a numpty... but I like the idea.
 
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Mate, next meet I was just going to give you the keys to have a go anyway given we ran outta time last time :) My only rule is no launching as the gearbox isn't build for my power/torque so it will break something lol.
 
kindai said:
Mate, next meet I was just going to give you the keys to have a go anyway given we ran outta time last time :) My only rule is no launching as the gearbox isn't build for my power/torque so it will break something lol.
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Haha, thank you very very much! That would be absolutely amazing!

No problem at all, you know I'll be respectful & I've heard about the issues with launching even a stock GTR... dunno if that was just the early cars or if it's still going... might have been Clarkson on Top Gear who said they can only manage something like 3 launches before they need a new clutch or something... might be mis-remembering.

Porsche you can do it all day... dunno how they can build things so well unlike every other manufacturer... was one of the american YouTube channels that tested it a couple of years ago in a 911 and they did launch after launch after launch with no faults, no warnings, no issues and it repeated the same or at least very similar 0-60 times over and over again. Very impressive.

Haven't heard of any McLaren launch issues yet... but I'm still careful with mine just in case... have probably done 10-15 since I've had it... now it's only when I'm showing it off to someone new hehe. Think it's the only car that can rival the GTR for its brutal launch speed... impressive for a RWD to do so well against a 4WD car off the line.

Miss the brakes on the GT3... those ceramics were something special... did 3 full track days in it plus about 3,500 miles and they still looked and felt like new with no noticeable wear. Do 1 full track day in the 720S and it's a set of new front pads... already on my 3rd set of fronts!

Ah well... met the Head of European Aftersales the other week and was chatting with him about it. He's not promising anything, but there is another owner in Germany he's been hearing the same things from & they recognise the wear rate isn't great. But they picked them to have as good bite from cold as possible and that came at a compromise of high wear rate on track. So he's trying to get McLaren to approve a different compound for track-only use that will need some heat in them to work properly but once up to temp will work just as well... hopefully that comes to fruition before I need my 4th set of pads, haha.

If that's the compromise they had to consider, then for the majority of owners... they selected the right pads for the car... just a couple of us nutters enjoy pushing what it can do too often haha.
 
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crinkleshoes said:
No problem at all, you know I'll be respectful & I've heard about the issues with launching even a stock GTR... dunno if that was just the early cars or if it's still going... might have been Clarkson on Top Gear who said they can only manage something like 3 launches before they need a new clutch or something... might be mis-remembering.
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Yea early on you got a limited number of goes before having to take it back to Nissan to have the counter re-set.

The main issue is the gearbox was built for ~420ish ft-lbs of torque in early models, later on they threw in some upgrades and upped that to 450, but im running just shy of 620. When the guys road tested the car when the ceramics went on, I saw a few of them go out, thinking something was wrong asked what was up and it was the mid range torque had them baffled as it didnt feel like a stage 4 car. They genuinely were taken aback by how my car puts that power down now.

As a minimum id want the dodson first gear and extreme duty input shaft with the transaxle brace upgrade, but thats a lot of money just for using a gimmick feature at this point and just shifts the failure point to the baskets and slipping the clutch plates. To get it totally sorted is probably 7-8k.

crinkleshoes said:
If that's the compromise they had to consider, then for the majority of owners... they selected the right pads for the car... just a couple of us nutters enjoy pushing what it can do too often haha.
Click to expand...

Exactly that, too many rich people with not enough skill or knowledge to understand ceramics need heat, especially race-oriented pads. Guessing they went for the "safe" option rather than the "best" option.
 
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Sounds good... Silverstone is about £25k for a weekday.

So £500 each for 50 people... around what you'd pay at Gold Track or RMA. Spa is about the same, but imagine people would have issues with transport over there haha.

Brands Hatch GP is the most expensive one.
 
could have offered a Noble M400 a while ago (and to think what I sold if for back then!) and a mate has gone through a few vipers - I wouldn't saying you are missing much there. Before everything had turbos attached at least the torque was impressive, but thats not really a big deal now.

currently I can offer M4 with extra doors, or a very fast way of getting stuff back from IKEA! ;)
 
Definitely sounds interesting! I'd be happy to throw my Noble into the mix, only a GTO3 but last mapping it was 408bhp and hoping for somewhere around 450-480 this time round (in for mapping Sept 10th)

Edit: Friend has a Cobra, will see if this would be of interest to him too :)
 
I'd be up for this - if anyone's got access to a W12 Phaeton I could play with, I'd be willing to give them a try of my two hundred and FORTY BHP Galaxy.

...midgets only, mind. Getting the sprogs' Isofix carseats back in is a real ballache.
 
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