Dogconker

Not sure if this helps but the XV I have uses Yokohama All year tyres, that is they are summer and winter, so you have the dry/wet road tyre but in winter it also has heavy tread for winter. Not suggesting you use the same as they're £170 a boot. but there might be something similar for non-off road cars such as yours. As for whether you need winter tyres in this country, I'd say no, they wear very quickly compared to ordinary tyres, provide you with much less grip in on tarmac especially wet tarmac and you'll only really need them for a few days a year in reality. If you lived in Sweden then I'd say yes (in fact its mandatory) but if you from the midlands or similar probably not, plus you need somewhere to store them.

I'm not sure I could beat a Le Mans in transit, be fun trying though

Dammit, am I that transparent :D not that good in a crowd so I have to do hot laps ;) I merely set a target for you all to achieve i'm good with only having clean laps, perhaps try something other than the 22b, have a change?

Might be worth allowing some driving aids to imp price chances, plus I'd accept dirty laps too

sorry but I felt I had an extra second left in my lap so I've had another bash this morning, managed to turn out a 1:22.081 clean lap, still can't quite break that 1:22 barrier but I know its possible because I did a 1:21.4 with a dirty lap and only put a wheel out on the last corner. I just felt you were a bit close behind at only .2 out.

Good luck, be nice if you could best me as I like a challenge

I used to do the odd flat sprint circuits, had a very modded Opel Manta GTE Coupe. Would pull 0-60 in 6 secs which for the mid 80's was going some. I'll have a look at a full car design for the logo, any preference on what car it is to go on

sounds like the battle has commenced ;)

If you send me some images I'm sure I could work something out next week. Also do you know where you can buy official Paul Walker graphics, I assume the official ones support his charity. I don't race any more but used to be in the race Pro-mod race scene way back when.

As for a car like your Sig, I could probably do that for you if you could send me some pics of what the car looks like front, side, rear and top?

Sorry, but at least you have a target to aim for now :P

might get Forza 5 at some point but at present I'm recovering financially from buying the real Subaru so might leave it a couple of months until there are some decent games, only Forza 5 is of interest just now and its a bit much to get a new console for one game. Still playing GTA 5 at the minute too which isn't on XBOX One could probably do some SOC design I'm sure

Merry Christmas everyone, hoping for some snow now so I can go and have a play ;-)

For anyone who wants to know my GT is "Dogconker" I'm primarily a painter in Forza 4 and 3 for that matter, and also did some stuff in Horizons, I tend to do mainly real world race or tuner replicas as you will see.

if you search on Forza 4 for gamer tag Dogconker in the storefronts, you'll find loads of painted cars I did when I was into playing it, can't remember if I did any scoobs

I know it was an opinion, i'm cool with that. not sure why Subaru want to keep it so quiet, its a class beater, or at least it would be if only people new it was even in the class. do you not like the new imprezza concept? I quite like it actually, but I can see its going to divide the Subaru community. thanks for the complement on the car, I think its just that bonnet trim, apparently no one buys them, so its one of the first ones they've fitted, yet it makes a massive difference to the attitude of the car, all for £80. I do agree with you that the front is definitely better looking than the back though

This topic seems to have taken a very dark turn?? Using a proper upholstery cleaner might work, once cleaned with some elbow grease. put a stack of towels on it and sit down on them for a few minutes, use plenty of towels because you won't feel your !Removed! getting wet until its too late. Problem with steam on its own is if you can't dry the seats out quickly enough you can get mildew forming in the foam and it'll stink forever, proper cleaners have mold suppressant. Foam cleaners tend to be the best as they don't make things as wet this might help too - http://www.carcleaningguru.com/videos/

arses were never meant to be pretty, purely functional. The back end on the XV is mainly functional, I don't mind the back myself but its a matter of taste. and of course the XV is basically a hot hatch that's been jacked up, i.e. an impreza with a bit of a steroid shot, in that end I guess the extra bulge in the bumpers seems to work, as a sleek street racer . . . er no. I think its the jacked suspension and the oversized wheel arch clearance allowing for the near 9" of ground clearance. anything bigger than 17" rims though would make this difficult to handle off the road. Knobbly tires might be great off road but they're particularly unpleasant on motorways, the summer/winter tires fitted to these seem a fair compromise, i guess I'll confirm that or not the next time it snows and I've got to drive over the Welsh hills. I've also just done a price check against some of this cars main rivals and it doesn't stack up why they don't sell, what I've done is build a car to the same spc as the XV i have, inc engine size, transmission and extras such as cruise control, bluetooth, xenon lights etc, the results are surprising Nissan Qashqai - 1.5D manual 4x4 - £28900 (this only comes with a 3 yr warranty not 5) the 2.0D only comes in auto and starts at 27k so thought I'd give it a fair crack and drop to the 1.5 D Audi Q3 - 2.0 D - £29800 Skoda Yeti 2.0 D 140PS - £25100 At £23995 with a 5 yr 100k warranty the Subaru looks a no brainer. Problem is, Subaru just don't advertise this car or any of their other cars for that matter, we only found it by accident at a game fair when the dealer was doing a display.

I know the wheels styling is a bit Marmite but I think on this car, particularly the lighter colours they work well, wouldn't put them on an STi though. I'll get some picks of the back end later and stick them up. I agree with you Gambit, when researching this car I noticed the bonnet trim and thought it definitely improved the look of the car, and it'll save me some stone chips as I do quite a bit of motorway driving.

I think its deceptive, its actually already got 17" rims, they're pretty big wheels as standard. I think they just look small because of the wheel arch clearance? I've seen about 3 since I bought my wife one in September, not sure why they are so rare, not complaining I like having something no one else knows what it is. its a good looking car too, would love to have an STI or a BRZ but sadly I go to a lot of construction sites in the deepest darkest bits of the country, all secret squirrel stuff so need the ground clearance which I wouldn't get with anything else, the forrester isn't my style of car, so it was this or the outback and I thought this looked the smarter of the two. obviously I had the extra bonnet trim which I think really smartens up the front end on the light coloured cars and gives a bit of a purposeful look to it. Looks like everyone is buying the XV's competitors and mainly the Nissan Quashqaui or however the hell you spell it, because its a 4x4 (cough cough) and is only £19k unless you want an extended warranty, and by extended I mean like all other manufacturers give you, a 100,000 mile 4 yr warranty for a Nissan last I looked was £2800, that makes the XV only £2k dearer and its a hell of a lot better looking than the Nissan jelly mould. anyway I've wittered on enough now

Picked up my new Pearl White Subaru XV D SE today from Carstins in Coventry. Very pleased with it so far although still bedding it all in, returned 60mpg on way back home so looking pretty efficient too. As promised the other week here's a couple of photos from when I took the dog for a walk If anyone wants to know anything about the XV let me know, I couldn't necessarily say i'll do a review but I'll give you my opinions. Thanks Dog

I know this is probably a little out of date but we had same question with ours as we leave a dog in it. apparently the easy answer is to lock the drivers door with the key rather than the remote, this engages the dead locks but not the alarm, you can then unlock with the remote without the alarm activating. this works on the 2013 XV so imagine other will be the same. Just thought I'd throw this up in case anyone else needed this answer in the future Cheers Dog

I'm more than happy to answer any questions, I'll give some feedback when I've had my car and had a run around in it. I do know my wife loves hers, I've driven it a few times and it felt great which is why I'm getting one instead of another honda.