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After a few text messages to Darcy, we arranged to meet and was immediately impressed by how good it looked in the flash as opposed to forum pictures. A quick spin later and a deposit was paid.
After a few loooong days of waiting until the paperwork arrived for the exchanged number plates, she was mine ready to be picked up. Darcy picked me up from Thurrock and we spent a couple of hours chatting, swapping the plates over and the all-important money bit. Loved every second of my drive home!
Here she is, a few days after picking her up:
Isn't she pretty...
Went and showed my brother the new car who immediately said 'we've gotta GoPro it', so we did...
And parked up next to my other car. Crazy to think they are the same make and model:
So then, after spending the next week giving me jawache from smiling too much, it was time to remove the stickers for two reasons: Firstly, they belonged to the old owner and secondly, I like stickers to be together and the same colour. So one warm day last week I got to removing them with the help of a 20 foot extension cable, a hairdryer and several cans of Stella:
Only took about 4 hours... ProTip: Grab a bottle of grease and bug spray from Halfords, you'll find it with the carwash stuff. Spray a bit of that on the glue left behind, leave for 5 minutes, wipe away. Perfect...
So then it was time to grab my new stickers and find a dark yet dry underground carpark and begin...
And carrying on the whole 'my name on my car' trend...
And of course, the scoobynet sticker remains...
So that's really all I've done so far. Car does get a lot of attention from passers-by and some want to stop and chat if I'm parked up and having a quick ciggie (so far, resisting the temptation to smoke in it). I do get some funny looks from people when I walk into work carrying the steering wheel, boss finds it hilarious for some reason...
Car is booked in at RCM for a full service, rolling road session, underbonnet clean, geometry set-up and a few other things in the beginning of October so that'll be the next update I suppose, a nice few days at RCM...
Well, the car is now at RCM having a full service and added extra's. It's an incredible place to be for Scooby and TimeAttack fans. I've grabbed some pictures and will add them once I get the car back, maybe late friday but probably saturday.
Few little problems have surfaced once Olly had a good look round the car, mainly cracked radiator hoses, split turbo pipe, cracked front disks and a little squeal from the power steering pump so they are all being replaced too. Money isn't an issue, but reliability and not dying once something fails is!
Overall, Olly was fairly impressed with the maintenance of the car (other than the previously mentioned problems) and was very complimentary on the engine and how it pulls, especially after taking it for a quick blast with me in the passenger seat. That was... surreal.
You don't want to know how much everything is coming to, especially as we are going to sit down and talk about a forged stroker kit to be done sometime next year. But I'm happy and that's what matters.
So the first order of business was for Olly to have a good look over the car and see if there is anything that needs attention, especially as I haven't had the car up on the ramp yet.
So the radiator was pretty much finished, which would probably explain why I was getting through quite a bit of coolant, so that's one thing to do.
Next we talked about new brakes on the front, as they were badly cracked and not at all safe:
And a general shot from underneath, pink bits an all...
The front RH indicator was misting up quite badly so decided to take a new set for both sides, handbrake was a little loose so had that adjusted. Olly then took the car out for a quick blast to see and hear for anything else. That was a little strange for me, the bloke who set the fastest time at Goodwood this year was driving me car with me smiling away like an idiot next to him!
On the drive he noticed a knocking noise from the front right which turned out to be a perished bottom balljoint, so that was added to the list. At the end of the day, I said to him that if anything needs replacing now or in the near future, then just do it. Reliability is everything to me.
So we got the car back to the workshop (or should I say pristine factory!), stuck it on the ramps and the work began.
With all the major servicing done, including a leakage test (0%, 2%, 4% and 6%) and a compression test, it was time for the alignment to be done and the toe was out a fair bit. This took quite a while to do to make it prefect. But we got there in the end:
(top-bottom) Previous toe and camber, new toe and camber.
By this time it was close to 3pm, so it was just me, Olly and Matt in the workshop so was nice to be able to chat to them about TimeAttack and the Gobstopper cars. In case you hadn't already realized, I'm a pretty big TimeAttack fans so had been like a little kid in a sweetshop these past few days!
Now it was time for the all important rolling road session! Never had a car on a rolling road so was a little anxious it wouldn't end in smoke...
Olly reckoned 310 whilst Matt guessed at 280:
Car has been mapped to 1.4 but I run it at a 'safe' 1.3 due to the injectors needing an upgrade. Still, they reached 100% well before the end of the first run giving a dud reading. But we got there in the end with no further problems. Sounded very nice and even got treated to a few flicks of flame out the back when coming off-throttle.
Like I said, never had a car on a rolling road before and didn't realize just how brutal they are. We did 4 run's in total:
So with everything done, it was time for Olly to give the car a clean:
Still feels surreal...
And the finished under-bonnet clean. Look at the shiny shiny...
And finally, all the bits taken off ready for scrap...
So there we have it, the first major service in my ownership. Car has now been fully sorted out for whatever I want to do for the future. Will probably be looking at a forged stroker once car hits the 140k mark (130k atm).
Can't thank RCM enough, they really do care about what you want, customer service is second to none!
Going to be leaving the bodywork for now. Although I'm getting ideas about having the bonnet, wheels and roof done in black. But nothing will be done for a while.
As for stickers, I know it's not to everyone's taste, especially as a few RCM stickers might be going on in a few months, but I like them...
A few pics of what the car looks like now. The plan remains to turn this into a track day car this year. Next on the list is lightness so I'm hunting for carbon fibre goodies and will begin on shedding weight from the interior once Spring is upon us.
Almost. I'll be starting with removing everything from behind the front seats apart from roof lining (rear seats, parcel shelf, door cards, carpet). Dash will be trimmed to just have the essentials (no heater matrix, cd player, glovebox). Front seats and carpets will be taken out and the inside floor will be resprayed before the roll cage goes in.
suspension department will be getting a change soon. As for the back of the car, the boodlid is a carbon fibre wrap whilst the spoiler is genuine carbon fibre. Whiteline or RCM arb's is next on the agenda, including droplinks and track ends.
Car still going strong and flew through MOT last month. Just an advisory on droplinks as they're on the way out. Roof and bonnet now also done with a carbon fibre wrap. Car currently just over 158k miles and still pulls well.
