paul2070

Saxo VTS .

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions in my other thread about this,and as the VTS was what everyone said the most about,thats what i went for .

The car is a 1998 VTS in Poseidon Blue,that has had 1 elderly owner since it was 6 months old,has a Full Citroen History,and while it has done 100k,it is pretty mint(certainly a lot better than most by the time they reach this age).

My plans are to strip the interior out as soon as i pick it up,along with anything else i can find or think of to make it as light as possible,then get a decent suspension kit on it,and some decent brakes,then go and (hopefully)have some fun .

LG John

Sweet, pics when you get it. 100,000's quite a bit for a saxo - I'd give the engine a thorough going over to make sure there is nothing needing done and give it a good service, etc. I'd be interested to see how much weight you can get out of it - most interior materials are paper thin

AudiLover

how much you pay for it? I might do something like this, but am thinkin of a 200sx

paul2070

The thing is 100k is still less than average for an 8 year old car,and as i say,it has a Full Citroen History and it is highly unlikely to of ever been thrashed by it's mainly 1 elderly owner.The miles it has done has been done on the motorway aswell,so 5th gear all the way .

The car has not even got so much as a scuff on the bumper!!!

It also still feels tight with no rattles etc etc(another sign of a relatively easy life).

I am very happy with it.......................especially for the price i paid.

LG John

Good stuff, that's what's important. I'm a great believer that you can get a feel for a car and your seems to be saying its got lots of life left

paul2070

I think so mate,and i have always preferred to have any car that has done a 100k carefully than one that has done 50k and been thrashed for every one of them.

I think i was lucky with it aswell,because he has owned it since it was 6 months old with only 1 previous owner,whereas most have been through loads of owners,and at some point,the more owners it has had you can guarantee at least one has driven it like a ****.

I know these sort of cars,and anything performance orientated is built to be driven fast,but that does not mean that you cannot look after it aswell.................i never use more than 2500 revs for a good 5-10 miles until all fluids have chance to get round an engine and up to full temperature,never rev any car to the redline(thats why i dont like the Type R's etc),religious oil and filter changes every 3k etc etc.

In fact i bet that even if i do end up using it on track as i intend to do,it will still get treated better than a lot of cars do by some people!!

LG John

LOL, you probably don't want to buy my S2000 then. Once she's warmed up its a bawhair from the limiter in every gear nearly every time I hold more revs than your VTS goes to for up to 3 minutes at a time waiting to overtake

paul2070

exactly,had a Civic VTI, but only for a month

AudiLover

I take every car near the limiter, diesel, petrol regardless.

rb5_336

you do know the dangers of buying a car that the only previous owner probably never did more than 4k revs ? Engine wise I mean...

If you start to rev the nuts off it, chan ces are the engine wont last long.

LG John

I would agree with Rb5 actually - I'd almost run it in building up the abuse. I personally like to know my performance cars have been driven buy someone that has respect for them rather than driving like an a-b car. My S2000 was bought from a female enthusiast who used it only for meets, sunday drives and the odd trackday. At 10,000 miles I prefered that to someone that drove it slowly everywhere and used it for show and shine!

JamesVTS

my saxo vtts

paul2070

Has that been lowered mate ??

JamesVTS

a tiny bit
handles mint tho

Dream Weaver

How much did you pay for it Paul, sounds like a decent buy

I wouldn't worry about the engine, if it lets go they are cheap enough to buy and/or rebuild and very easy to swap in/out if you have all the bits ready up front.

paul2070

Put it this way mate,i was looking at changing the exhaust again on my Impreza for a Full system with both decats,and the Saxo didn't cost me a substantial amount more than that,so IF it blows up,i will scrap it and start again with another project.

Also,when you consider i have lost about 15k on cars in the last 6 months,i don't think i stand much chance of loosing money on this one

Neil_H

Congrats on your new track toy mate. I've had my VTS now for around 4 and a bit years and it's been great fun. I'm slowly building it up to be pretty much a track orientated car as it isn't my daily driver anymore, but I have done a fair few track days in it from when it was pretty much standard, to the spec it is at now. It's one of the first VTS' (97) and has done around 108k now but its still going strong. It has had a pretty hard life, mainly due to Performance Car magazine owning it for about a year as part of their fast fleet lol.

The common problems you seem to suffer with these cars are:

Headgasket - (mainly the first type of VTS' suffer with blown headgaskets due to them being paper type. Newer versions use MLS type)

Engine sensors - (e.g. map sensor, coolant temp. sensor, TPS, lambda sensor etc usually cause poor running problems)

Coilpack - (usually fails at some point, can normally tell when it starts running on 3 cylinders)

Suspension droplinks - (Normally hear knocking noises with going over bumps)

Leaking sunroof - (A very common problem it seems, silicone sealant seems to do the trick!)

ABS sensors - (Seem prone to failure, sometimes only need a quick clean though)

Gearboxes - (Some people seem to suffer with blowing there gearboxes, others don't, depends how you treat it I suppose, they don't last long on boosted VTS')

That's most of the common problems I can think of off the top of my head.

The good thing about these cars is parts are pretty cheap and you can steal things like brake setups off, say, a 306 GTI-6 (288mm) that pretty much bolt straight on and offer a vast improvement over std brakes (247mm) , or you can use brakes (266mm) off lower model 306's, xsara's, berlingo's (currently on my VTS) which are easily found in most scrappies for a few quid.

Regardless of what other people might say, these cars don't really like being lowered more than -30mm as it just spoils the handling imo. Bilstein dampers + Faulkner springs (custom made for your requirements) and uprated rear torsion/anti-roll bars are a common choice for the track saxo's.

These little 1.6's respond well to breathing mods it seems. A good enclosed induction kit, exhaust, decat will unleash a few ponies. Next step people seem to take are a set of mildish cams (Catcams 708's being the choice at the mo) , 4-1 or 4-2-1 manifold and then an ECU remap + 7800rpm limit. You'll normally see between 150-160 bhp. Others may go for the same sort of cams, but with some sort of standalone management and then fit T/B's. They usually make around 160-170 bhp which isn't much more than the VTS' on single T/B, but the T/B'd cars are more driveable lower in the rev range and sound the nuts! Then you get the nutters going for S/C or T/C 'd conversions running anything between 180-300 bhp.

A little vid of mine at Kames sprint circuit just to give you a bit of an idea what they go like.

YouTube - Kames 06

GC8

Why wont you tell us what the chuffing car cost for f*cks sake?

ScoobyDoo555

Poster doesn't have to divulge how much it cost, their perogative.

GC8 - by the time you'd posted/read the thread, you could have gone to autotrader and had a look!!
For those how haven't quite mastered this innovative phenomenon, I've taken the liberty of doing so, and it probably around £1000

Dan