hamstrung

@BenB sorry you had a bad pick-up experience. It's a shame the seller didn't work with you on the RWC items. Agree with @lachlan8, RE003s are shit, you'll be glad to get new boots. PS5, PS4S, CSC7, Potenza Sport, Eagle F1 - so many great tyres these days. I'm sure many here can relay their experiences and maybe see if there's a Meg 3 tyre test somewhere? When I picked up my 225 Cup many years ago, it had cheap crappy tyres too. After a month, I figured life was too short and just binned them for some Michelins. Plus, cheap tyres will never wear out as they don't produce any grip!

Depends what you’re willing to pay. For your use case, best tyres are probably PS4S or CSC7. Both very pricey though. Maybe next level down is Potenza Sport. PS5 will be a good all rounder and that is a good price, probably a third of what you would pay for PS4S!

Yes that’s what insurance is for. Otherwise the Mercedes driving t—t as you say will sue you personally for the cost, which is waaaaaay worse

Let’s give OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t know that before. @Ezra, highly recommend at least getting a third party property damage policy, maybe also with fire and theft. Would be a few hundred bucks, and covers you from the unthinkable.

Yeah I wouldn’t take what you see around as being within the rules. I’ve seen plenty of P platers driving V8 Holdens and Fords, doesn’t make it legal (or insured).

All good points above. My 2c: buy a Clio instead. P-plate friendly. Plus: Lower speeds while inexperienced are a good idea. We all think we're better than we are when we're young (unless you have been carting and racing your whole life, in which case ignore this!) You'll learn better car control. It's easier to get away with poor driving technique in a turbo (e.g. balancing clutch, wrong gear for speed). Having a high-revving N/A engine will make your skills sharper, IMO High-revving N/As are dead. They're not making them anymore. We will all miss them soon enough - especially the sound

We just put Potenza Sports on the i30N, it was 1297 fitted at Bob Jane on the 4 for 3 deal. It was this month so deal should still be active. Potenza Sport is supposed to be a top performer with the only potential concern being wear. For less than $200 over Adrenalines, go for the Sport…

Agree with this - every time I see one, I'm convinced they have high beams on (whether behind or in front of me, and from 100m+ where the vehicle height shouldn't matter)

Not sure if it differs between states, but it’s generally not worth your while to try and compliance additional seats. However many seats are complied is it, and it would be a very expensive exercise getting re-complianced. As @Matt205 says, it’d be easier to fit Ohlins to a 5 seater.

Deleting both the res and muffler would make it obnoxiously loud, IMO. I had a muffler delete and the volume was pretty good, and also then swapped out for a res-delete K-tec hot dog and that was louder still (but sounded great). An exhaust shop could chop the muffler and weld in a bit of pipe for pretty cheap (and you keep the stock tips). Bonus if you keep the res, you also keep the whistle.

Just for a bit of balance, my Lotus has Recaros and they are bloody great, IMO. Very comfortable for long journeys, good back support, and they look good. In terms of lateral support, they've been fine for me but I won't pretend I have ever approached the cornering limits of my car. What I will add, though, is I watched a Henry Catchpole video where he was getting advice from a professional race driver (Le Mans winner?), and one little nugget I took from that is the 'push' instead of 'pull' steering technique, which pushes your shoulders into the seat side supports. That might make the Recaros supportive enough even in track applications... but I'm sure someone else can chime in who has pushed their car much harder than I have.

Reckon if the car's not already built, it won't end up getting the matrix LEDs... manufacturers are un-specifying them due to lack of chips

Then you’ll probably be glad the “end of ICE” thread isn’t about audio too?

Sorry, I missed that - saw the Laguna bit and missed the Megane! I always felt the little one was safe in the back of the 225, with the added bonus my loud K-tec exhaust put her to sleep within 5 minutes every time

If it was me, I’d keep the Clio for fun driving and get a nice-ish “beater” for carting kids and stuff, like a 2010-12 Suzuki Kizashi in manual, which is a bit bigger, heavier and more modern. Then I wouldn’t be scared to park said beater on the street. (Also, a Megane 225 feels like it’s hewn from solid stuff, which is probably an impression more than reality)