Inquisitor

Theyre really small like this

.

LMAO

Not this size?

.

I've read the Roadcraft book and got the Roadcraft DVD (which is a DVD-transfer of the Roadcraft video done few years back). It's very interesting and informative to watch the DVD and listen to the "commentary" and pick up new tips and skills.

Anyway noticed in a friend's IAM Advanced Driving magazine adverts for more "Advanced Driving" DVDs such as:

Ultimate Roadcraft - featuring Chris Gilbert the Police Driver in the original Roadcraft DVD/video

http://www.driving4tomorrow.com

and

http://www.bespokedrivertraining.co.uk

http://www.bespokedrivertraining.co.uk/DVD_index.htm

Programme 1 - COMMENTARY DRIVING

Programme 2 - ADVANCED ROADCRAFT

Programme 3 - HIGH PERFORMANCE ROADCRAFT

3 DVDs...

Have you watched any of these or know of other "How to improve your driving" DVDs/films please?

Thanks.

I have 2 and 3, its very good if you have the patience to hear him yap for a good 1hr lol. very informative. Also IAM is also very good bar 1 little comment one of the helpers said to me...

"why are you signalling right to come out from a parked layby if you know there are no cars there..?"

I said "because even tho i am 99.999999% confident signalling theres no harm in signalling right..?"

"well, yes there is, it shows that your not 100% confident that there are no cars behind you, if you are confident then therefore there is no need to signal.."

"hmm..." :shutit:

it just seems wrong imo.. i can never be 100% certain, i can be 100% certain to my knowledge but not 100% certain.. lol if you get my drift?

I think many of these posts are very helpful and gives very good advice to not cause accidents/roadrage on motorway (no-one wants that).

I think the best advice to give after reading some of these is that, everyone on the road is getting from a-b safely. Some may want to do it quick some may want to do it at their own pace. regardless of what speed your doing its best to be curtious and aware of other cars. It does not matter whos right or whos wrong, he cut me up blah blah blah.. at the end of the day, if anyone has an accident its bad for everyone, your family, yourself, other people on the road.

Keep left if not overtaking(or at least keep left if someone is overtaking you),

Be aware of your blind spots,

Give people and yourself space to overtake/react to what you or other people are doing,

Swift movements are generally unwanted,

LOOK ahead and pre-plan your exit stratagy if needed.

Just use common sense on the road as always, like Jeremy Clarkson said on Top Gear, i really dont understand how people use their brakes so frequenly on the motorway?? why??? Unless theres traffic you keep your distance you know when they're slowing down etc..!

Your on a road which has 3+ lanes.. your travelling in a relitively straight line as is everyone else.. its not hard to be curtious, its not hard to look ahead...

I remember a great saying that my instructor told me once i passed my test (1st time :P), before you pass your test you obay the laws to the nth degree, once you pass your test you avoid people idiot drivers on the road to the nth degree (and keep safe obviously). :)

HTH

i dont know the circuit diagram but generally you should have one resistor per LED, reason for this is that if one LED is not manufatured exactly the same as the other it will pull a more/less power against the other LED, thus leading to inconsistant power to LEDs, underpowering is ok (might just look little more dim but overpowering will decrease or blow the LED). Btw i've never seen flashing brake lights, could you put a post up when you've finished? :)

HTH

When it came out in 2003 (I think), the LE was an SE with special grey paint, full leather interior, HID lights, a different grille, 17" 11 spoke alloys and a box on the top of the dash (instead of the felt tray).

In 2004, they then updated the SE (and Sport) to have full leather, the dash box and the 11 spoke alloys which can be the cause of confusion.

The LE and the Sport are not the same, the LE was based on the SE.

Ahh thanks, strange how its group 13 same as the sport. Although on a website it said it has LSD like the sport..?

Hiya, Whats the difference with the LE and Sport? Sorry, its just that I keep reading inconsistancies..

Lol @ 4th link, near the end they stuck it under the car and found it has better potentionals for less drag [FAIL]

But as for looks, im undecided.. but it fits snug though, it looks as if its standard, job well done imo. how much did you pick yours up for? from what I remember they were region of ~£30.

I really wouldnt bother using the amp.

just chuck it out.

Stav

Why would you say that? I've never heard what the sound quality is like so I cant comment.

Thanks for the links. Although one cant work out the specs from them none the less, its useful! [bookmarked]

Thats correct,

so the wires at the back of the stereo dont contain the usual speaker left right/front rear etc.

them wires go into the amp so in theory your just extending them to the back of the stereo.

Stav

Ahh, thanks. Thought it was quite standard to have amp built into the stereo, then again, i suppose the car does have 8 speakers to power. Is there a spec's for the amp? perhaps it could be used with the new HU (with modification)? much like connecting a 4 channel amp to an after market HU.

Im going to ask a dumb question.. why would you need to by-pass the amp when installing new HU? only guess is that the standard HU has no built in amp?

Lol, yep that particular one, or any IS200 Sport on an '04' plate.........I would pay more for one from a dealer as you get the warranty and you know the aftercare will be great (depending on the dealer)

There are tons of black ISs on autotrader though so there's many to choose from - personally I'd try and push up to an '05' SE as you get satnav thrown in (and there's one on autotrader for the same £8k )

Hmm, I would've thought the sports package '04 (lowered springs, and LSD) would be better than a SE '05 package even with sat nav. I mean, sat nav is nice but not a really an essential because i have a garmin already :) I have JVC AVX-33 (3" LCD screen) also, unless i can connect that to the satnav screen its not really a big bonus for moi :shutit:

Side-note: AVX-33 (or similar models) one of the best stereo's for functionality imo! :D its got everything you'd want in a car stereo, highly recommended.

I don't think I'd pay more than £7k for a car like that to be honest (and it would have to be mint for that), but 29k is low mileage (which seems odd for a company car). Unfortunately Lexus paint chips easily and black makes it really obvious so it's not necessarily motorway miles.........

'a car like that' meaning an IS200 in general or this particular one? thanks for your help, I was a blink away from buying it yday, but decided against because it seemed alot of money. still looking for black

That's a bit expensive if you ask me unless it's at a Lexus dealer...........it's a company car though but only 29k on the clock?

Nah its not a lexus dealer, but he did have nice cars.. Im just weary of it being an ex company car it must've been razzed.... 1st owner was owned by a company in Glasgow. lots of stone chips for a 29k car, assuming most of its miles were motorway.. supposed thats better than town driving only i suppose. Kinda would like an IS200 soon tho, what would you pay for the car?

After a long and hard search, I have found one near me which is to spec!

'04, 2 owners, 29k miles, black, good cond. but lots of stone chips! SPORT - face lifted model (lights, alloys, full leather). But heafty price of £8k :(. Dont know if its worth the punt, I've got the available cash but my aim originally was £6k for SE and £7k for Sport ('01-'03 models). What do you guys think? ah, forgot to mention, 1st owner was a company car.. which is worrying...

Enjoy your IS for what it is. If you want a fast car sell it and buy something else.

I like the fact that most people on here see's it as that, it makes a change from alot of the other forums.. :)

hijacking thread a little, how often does one need to WIM their IS? is it a one off thing or does it need regular geometry alignment? I suppose to refine that is to ask, does the geometry misalign fairly easily if say you dont overly push the car into big fat potholes?

Hope you enjoy your compensation, but the rest of you....don't even think of slagging off lady drivers !!

:shutit:

maybe he meant 20 horses legs - 5bhp? :P ;)

Only thing that would make me pause is the thought that that dark cloud of a possibly nasty TAX grouping..............They are (I believe) in Band K but this may go up and then you would be hammered for TAX to the tune of over £400 a year. If they leave it as it is then you will be paying around 210ish.

Very true, but seeing as the world is in an money crisis its a bit hard to tell whats the next step if for car tax. I hope it stays as K-band..!

P.S. bobski, do u have rear LED clusters on ur car..? or perhaps a black lexus with multispoke rims..?

Perhaps the most stupid question is - LSD is just a mechanical version of traction control (electronicly conrolled) right?

I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But as I understand it, an LSD will help you put the power down when cornering hard. With an "open" (conventional) diff, the power could mostly be spun away through a lightly-loaded wheel due to the cornering forces, meaning you won't get the power down properly. A limited-slip diff will, as the name suggests, limit the slip that the diff produces which means that you can get more power down.

Traction control can work in different ways. On the IS200 it seems to work by detecting when the wheels are slipping and then limiting/cutting the power.

So the LSD helps you put more power down in some situations, whereas the IS200's electronic traction control will actual cut the power in other situations. So they'll be doing different things.

But yes, in a way the LSD is a sort of traction control.

Thanks for clarification :) So LSD retains its power by shifting the inside wheel to correct speed (slower speed) whereas the outer one to be faster. If the above is true then wouldnt traction control come on less frequenly (less sensitive) on a Sport than a SE because it has LSD to keep the wheels spinning @ correct speed while cornering thus less slipping more grip..?

what is the difference between the se and the sport lsd as im buying a sport one some time soon

thanks

The Sport has LSD the SE doesn't.

thats what i thought....

Also thanks for the info guys, very helpful :)

If you're budget can stretch to £7.5-8k then I wouldn't bother with that car - at that price you could easily get an '04' and possibly even an '05' SE (with the added bonus that '04's had full leather and '05's added satnav to this)

Ah, you are quite correct sir, Thanks! found an IS Sport 2004 (facelift model?), full leather. same price, but two owners @ 29k miles.. hmm...

I found that the SMD (1st picture 1st post) are more powerful. You can get multi SMD led's on fleabay, but essentially for better light output you could always smooth out the cover with wet & dry or dremel. I used to have a link somewhere which sells SMD's for like.. £2-3 posted on eBay, i'll try dig that up later.

Could you put the cruise control on an auto into a manual? I've looked into the VW's, they are possible with not alot of effort involved. perhaps being japanese it might do too

I just bought a 52 plate SE on 35.5K FLSH, in red, reasonable wheels with a couple of marks for 6k with no p/x.

I'm prettysure you could get that a bit cheaper.

Thanks buddy, yeah ~£6k seems to be the going rate for SE's, may i ask whats the reason for an IS200 for u? and how are you finding it? :)

Hiya, I was going to hijack the other thread but i'd thought i'd start one here..

LSD, really worth its weight in gold? Atm im contemplating on either sports or SE, its £1k difference or there abouts. I'd just like to know more about them in this particular car.. will it ever get used if not pushed very hard? will it need any extra maintence? Is it better than traction control?

Perhaps the most stupid question is - LSD is just a mechanical version of traction control (electronicly conrolled) right?