Branners

I have a Whifbitz twin box on mine, works great, breathes well but a little quiet. Single box may be better, or obviously the usual Blitz NurSpec R would be a good choice.

Folks, if we are going to do this then I need to know if anybody on that list will not be going. I can run this for a group of 20 rather than 40, but I need to know who is interested. Happy to even just run it for a smaller group but I need to know who would defo do it.

Any more names for the list? I have the Eurotunnel on hold, and two possible hotels lined up (one is £60 per night, the other is £80 per night but much nicer). But I want to see who is really up for this as it takes a lot of organising.

7m is not like any other engine really, there is a known issue with the head gaskets, and generally once they blow once the crud they leave in the cooling system causes it to go again, and again, and again, and again. Be interesting to see what you make of it, having been with supras since 1996 my advice was to give it a miss especially at that price.

£1,400 for any mkiii is fairly crazy unless in show condition. For £1,500 you can get a tatty mkiv NA 5sp if you shop around. Your choice at the end of the day, my opinion is to avoid them now as they are very old technology and when you go to sell it you wont find a buyer anywhere.

I think quite a few of us had the mkiii turbos and moved on to mkivs for a reason. They are a big and heavy car, using fairly old suspension technology and brakes that are just up to the job. They have a head gasket issue which was only really solved by fitting an uprated or replacement Toyota HG and then flushing the cooling system or replacing the rad (otherwise it just blows out again). The turbo has 240bhp as standard, the mkiv NA has 235bhp or so, and so performance should be similar. The mkiii cars are dirt cheap now though, but they will have rust and may have issues disguised so you could be buying a money pit. I loved my 2 mkiii's that I had, but would never go back to one now.

That price would be per car if you are sharing a twin room with the friend.

is that a porsche brake caliper I spy in your avatar? To be honest any member is welcome to come along, we had a BMW 5 series and a Ford Focus in May so feel free to pop your name down.

Can I get an idea of numbers on this so I can see if I can make it work? Dates would be 19th, 20th and 21st Sept, leaving on the 7.50am Eurotunnel on the Friday, driving down to just south of Rouen to book in to a different hotel to last time (got 2 lined up already, one is more expensive than the other), Saturday drive out to Honfleur and back, Sunday drive back to Calais via Bologne Sur Mer for the 4.20pm Eurotunnel. 2 nights in the hotel plus eurotunnel. Costs should be about £350, not sure if I can organise the buffet but will try. So, who is interested? I will look to limit this to 30 cars on the Eurotunnel. If we get far fewer we can still do this but not sure what happens to the costs at that point. 1. Branners 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Any update on whether the 21st is a go or not?

If it is spiking then fit a smaller restrictor ring to bring the boost down, and then use the boost controller to raise it and have more control. I'm still a huge fan of the SBCID and Powermeter combo. Boost mapping based on speed, adjustable enough to give you what you need without the need for a degree in maths, and theres even a thread on here with recommended settings. I will buy that combo for my car one day, just waiting to hoover up a good value one. They do a more recent version as well (sbc colour or something) which should do the same stuff...

Burna said he was bored so I suggested a meet at Dean Tracey's place The Falcon http://thefalconathatton.com/ Birmingham Rd, Hatton, Warwickshire CV35 7HA So theres a few people going now. Anybody else fancy it? Let me know on here or Facebook as Dean can reserve a table for us all. He even has a special on burgers for us which should be delicious. So its 12.30pm at The Falcon.

Depending on the date I may be up for this.

lol, its a zombie theme!! Obviously I mean Dean's place called the Falcon http://thefalconathatton.com/ Birmingham Rd, Hatton, Warwickshire CV35 7HA So far it's 4 people going, shout if you want in as Dean is reserving a table for us for 12.30pm tomorrow (Saturday)

I know, I'm actually talking to Dean at the Falcon about heading up there for Lunch tomorrow just to get a run out in the car as I'm missing the drive. Anybody else care to join me? Burna will be there too... anybody changed their mind?

yep. Hotel and Eurotunnel is about £230, the rest is your fuel, food and beer.

Have contacted the chap at the NH in Rotterdam to ask about next year so looks like we are going that way. Rotterdam would be more time on the motorway before pulling off for the 4 mile tunnel (those on 2012 will remember what a mistake the coast road from Nieuwpoort was). Zandevoort is right next to Amsterdam so the Saturday could be fun, not sure how yet. Sunday would be more motorway and going across the big bridge in Rotterdam this time (thats the only reason I'm going back, I dont like making mistakes!!) and then getting down to Bruges as quick as we can for the lunch stop. There is also a question about running a longer 5 or 7 day event in addition to the normal Dragonball. To do that I would be charging it as a proper event to cover my time, currently Dragonball runs purely at cost or a loss, for a 5 day event that may need to change.

Hi folks, been back just over a week now so I'm already planning 2015 in my mind. Does anybody have any feedback from 2014 that I can take in to account for 2015? Anything we could improve on, anything that worked really well? I'm seeing quite a few people say they dont mind the motorway miles as it keeps us together as a group. That changes the routes I can choose as we can rattle off some serious mileage in 4 hours on a motorway. So anybody got any thoughts on that? I'm hearing a lot of yeses for Rotterdam in 2015, so it looks like it will be there again, same hotel, same sort of dates. Using a similar route out to Rotterdam as we did in 2012, different Saturday and different Sunday back. Any thoughts on that? So I'm really looking for feedback and thoughts on if I can make this any more awesome than it seemed to be this year!!

CHaps, we have popped this gentleman on a years membership as a thank you for the work he did in keeping the small bit of the convoy together. Hope to see them on Db15 next year.

We would like to get down towards Luxembourg but the distance is just too far. It means sitting on motorways most of the trip which isnt much fun, so we keep it on the back roads. I only built in the motorway to Spa to get the mileage out the way so we could get there before lunch time. We could extend the length of the event but I think 3 days is about right as people are knackered by the end of it. Costs go up after that as well. Perhaps I do a short and a long Dragonball each year!!

Well folks, I had an amazing time on this Dragonball. Everything worked out pretty much as planned, even the road closures added to the fun of the event (although I had a few choice words when I found that road closed on Friday). Our inability to read the signs in Nieuwpoort really paid dividends, the seafront would have been packed otherwise, we just rolled up, parked up and the crowds appeared. I was standing near the cars (not in club uniform I should state) and 2 policemen walked up and said 'Toyota?', I shook my head and said no...so they may have tried to move us on. The 4 policemen Bob approached didnt seem to mind though. The roads from Spa were the best I have been on, apart from the pushbikes they were mostly clear, the little villages all came out to see the cars and the crowds in the town with the bridge were amazing. This has been the best Dragonball for me so far, it was a little jaded after last year but this event has restored all of our faith in the DB franchise!! I would like to thank Wile e Coyote for covering the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning legs at the front. I would also liek to thank the Brussels town for putting on a Gay Pride evening especially for Burna, and putting on the Brussels Marathon on the Sunday so we had to go direct to teh beach. It all worked out perfectly. Planning for next year already. Got a few ideas saved up, but Rotterdam got the most surprising response I could imagine so the decision may have been made for me.

I have 2 ideas for 2015, we either go to Reims north east of Paris, there is an old race circuit there that is now a public road and we can park in the pits for photos, or we go back to Rotterdam using most of the Friday route (avoiding the first part of the coast road in Belgium this time), change of Saturday route to Zendevoort and near Amsterdam, and then different route back on the Sunday making sure we have time for food and drink in Bruges. So thats my plan. I do sort of have a plan to run a second Dragonball in Sept this year but thats still up in teh air and has to avoid JAE if we are doing that....

Arent they quite different in shape? There are non widebody TRD skirts around, Whifbitz do them, but I choose the blitz as they dont hang as low on the sides and just look a bit better.

Just leaving now, at Ashford for 5.30pm or so.

And I just noticed my brand new tyres are rubbing on the front arch liner at half lock!! Bloody dunlop tyres, thought they looked a little big on the side wall. Need to keep a close eye on that over the weekend.