stevie_b

It's a very broad question. How much risk are you willing to take, and what sort of return would you be looking for?

2 risks: car itself is stolen, or someone steals parts from it (ICE, wheels, etc). It's not too hard to disable the whole car from being stolen (good suggestions in this thread which will deter all but the most determined thief). It's harder to protect against ICE/wheel theft. Use locking wheel nuts, more than one on each wheel if you're super-cautious. Remove the face plate from the head unit if possible. Some people leave glove boxes open to show shifty people that there's nothing in there. What to do about the battery is a tricky one. It all depends on if you can get power to the car for a few hours every fortnight. If you can, consider leaving the battery where it is and occasionally use a trickle charger to keep it topped up. Get laid-up insurance as Ollie says.

It could be the p*ssy magnet

I would say £9k if you're not after a quick sale. You clearly know how to prep and advertise a car for sale, and the documented service history speaks for itself.

Is this a 2nd supra you've bought? If you can bring them back to former glory, fair play to you.

Stock amp I think. The ECU is in the passenger footwell so it's not that (unless some very weird aftermarketry has been applied).

It would be worth even more if it didn't have that ugly front bumper.

I don't have a photo, but yes the mast should have a toothed plastic belt running up the middle of it. I clicked on the link, but the photo on ebay is as clear as mud.

I'd recommend a stock rad cap. Keep it stock unless you've got a good reason to do otherwise.

I think you should be able to see water in the radiator: it should be brimmed to the rad's neck (be really careful if removing the rad cap when the engine's hot, serious risk of scalding yourself). Possible causes are: - airlock in the cooling system. This can stop the coolant circulating, meaning the stuff in the engine gets hot whilst the rest of the system stays cold (hence the cold air from the heater). But airlocks don't usually just appear spontaneously, they usually appear when you've drained and refilled the cooling system. - system very low on coolant. You said it was "a little low", so this seems unlikely. - blockage in the coolant pipework. - thermostat stuck closed (not sure if this will prevent the heater from getting warm) I would go for a little drive, stay within a mile of your house so you can head straight home and turn off when the temperature gauge climbs too high. Feel the coolant hoses carefully to see which ones are hot, warm or cold. That'll tell you where the coolant's been circulating.

I think they want to know the peak power, otherwise asking for power figures would be pointless. Any car can put out, say, 70bhp if you drive it gently enough.

From my several years on here, I've never heard of a single fault being traced to a broken stock ECU, so yes pretty bullet proof. Sounds like the capacitor plague got to the JZA70 ones.

I don't know much about these but I assume they have an Idle Control Valve, if so try removing and cleaning it with carb cleaner. Also try disabling the power steering (e.g. by removing a fuse): broken power steering electrical wires can cause excessive revving, particularly noticeable when the engine's idle.

In that case, why are you going for 1200hp? Why not 2000hp? Or 700hp? If I bought or built a 1200hp car, I'm not sure I'd have the driving skill to be able to drive it properly. I'd probably have a car that's too powerful for me, with a super-heavy clutch that feels like I'm trying to push a concrete block along a road with my foot, and with servicing bills that would make me cry into my beer. All for being able to say I've got a 1200hp car. Now, buying/building a car for bragging rights (telling people you've got an x hp car) is a valid reason to do it, and I won't dismiss it completely (others on here probably build/buy cars for similar reasons), we don't all want to be Captain Sensible. But, if bragging rights is the only reason for that number, you'll tend to get bored of it quickly, and you're susceptible to people telling you what you want to hear when they're selling you stuff. If I sold you a really quick car (not 1200hp quick), could you tell if it had half of the horsepower I claimed it had? As you should know by now, you can't just lift the bonnet and read a sticker on the turbo which says, "this turbo generates enough pressure for 1200hp". I'm not having a go, I'm just trying to help you make informed decisions.

Healthcare isn't.

Lots of good points made in the last few posts. This is all friendly advice, not trying to pee on your chips: Have you been in a 1200bhp car, or even something in the same order of magnitude as 1200bhp? If you have, have you spoken to the owner about the downsides of driving such a car? I don't know the downsides myself. People on here talk about them being hard to drive, but I don't really know what they mean. I'm not bothered about knowing because I'm not after a big-powered car, but you should know. You ask about specific turbocharger models, but what's the chances they'll still be available when you come to build your car in 5-10 years ' time? Again, I genuinely don't know across what time period new turbos are sold (years? Decades?), but you should find out, otherwise you risk spending a lot of time drilling down into the detail, only to have to re-write it every x years because the parts you specified are out of production.

Looks quite nice. Fairly rare colour, not many people liked that colour a few years ago but it seems to be getting more popular now.

Mankini please, XL

I was thinking of your car Westy when I saw this thread! Vicky, you basically want his car!

Tricky one, each car for sale presents its own set of pros and cons. If you can, I'd go for one that needs less work doing to it (especially bodywork I'd say).

Yes please, just delete them. Using useless thread titles is lazy, hard to use in searching and introduces linguistic entropy whose natural conclusion is having a forum filled with random characters, a few of which might spell words if we're lucky. Save us from this fate!

Here's a contrarian view: I think chasing more performance or power (and especially chasing bhp figures) can lead to disillusionment with these cars. If you enjoy modding and spending significant time tinkering with the car, then great, but if the modding is just a means to an end to get more power then beware. You'll always fancy more power, so you'll never be satisfied. One thing I like about my NA is that it's pretty robust, easy to look after, I can tinker with it if I want, or I can leave it a year between services if I want. It's easy to live with, and still puts a smile on my face, a smile that isn't dependent on my top speed. It's a hard phenomenon to describe. In the same way, I reckon I'd have more fun around a track in an MX5 or an 2nd gen MR2 than something exotic like a Ferrari or a Veyron. Maybe it's because I don't have the skills to use the Veyron to anywhere near it's maximum, whereas put me in an MX5 and I'd go slower, but I'd have a hoot.

No consolation to you, but I much prefer the look of the stock TT. It's a much nicer colour too IMO.

Your valve stem seals are worn. Common problem which is fixed by replacing the seals.

The buyer's guide PDFs which you've read should list all the differences. "Much difference" is subjective, but I'd say no. No specific flaws/benefits. One topic that comes up is that UK cars will have been on salted UK roads for more years than Japanese cars (I don't think they salt the roads in Japan), so UK cars *might* be more corroded underneath. This is a huge generalisation, and the older these cars get, the less reliable it becomes (many JSpec cars have been on UK roads longer than late-model UK cars). I wouldn't let this put me off a UK car: look underneath before buying, to check you're happy with the condition. 6 speed box is much stronger, but considered more clunky ("agricultural" is the term often used). If you're thinking about a single turbo, I wouldn't consider a 5 speed.