Pashley26

APP is the better engine to have. The VVT is only a cold emissions system, a lot of people actually map it out when doing engine swaps etc. Ask if the water pump was done at the time of the cambelt, and was a metal one used. Has the oil pickup pipe been cleaned, and what oil has it been run on. That's about it Where is it, want me to come and have a look?

I had a pretty cool cay in the end, I got up this morning and the sun was beautiful. So I took the car up on to the moors for a good thrash which was nice. It was cooooooolld though. Got one or two pictures but nothing great. I wet sanded the boot back down, the bumper will need repainting but for now the boot is perfect so I am happy. What with winter well and truly upon us I took potentially the last opportunity before the frost comes and waxed the shit out of the car, like 4 layers. Should last a couple of weeks. Still parking a foot away from the nasty stones. I really need to find a new boot plinth that isn't bubbly And because I'm a f**k tarded mental person with serious issues I waxed my wheels with Dodo Supernatural...Looking back it is really really retarded, but at the time it felt quite decadent.

Did you really just say that? I've met some of the best people I know through VAG forums and car meets, real friends that I have known for years. Last week the clutch went on my A3, I had a new clutch in the post within 50 minutes of it going for absolutely free off a bloke I've met once and another bloke who I've never met offered to take a day off work and fitted it for me. Mini enthusiasts are better than other car enthusiast, more of a community atmosphere?...With an attitude like that you'll go real far!

Boom, and there it is in a nutshell for me. I've had more cars than anybody on here (I think?) and always chop and change; but the only cars that have stayed, or I've not wanted to sell but had to are ones I have worked on myself. Recently it has been the BMW, if the clutch wasn't slipping and Lou didn't want a new car I would have kept that. I felt so proud and had such a sense of achievement for saving it and turning it round to being quite awesome. Wind back to my last A3, I felt no real emotion for that car. I always said I was going to buy it (for years previously) and loved Prawns one which was exactly the same and thought it would be perfect. But then the more I scratched the surface the more I realised it was shit, it was all there but I could have done everything so much better if I was given the opportunity. So I sold that and bought the Clio, which I loved much more than the A3 because I did a load of little bits to it and understood how it worked. Now with the new A3 we've owned that thing forever, Prawn and I have done every single bit of work to it and I have effectively built it from a standard car to what it is today. I get the same sort of feeling I did driving the new A3 as I used to get driving Prawns one; because I KNOW everything under it and I have done it I am not worried about taking it anywhere or doing anything with it. It's a good feeling and it makes you proud. Modifying cars is for winners

It's a different mindset; new car drivers just think modified car owners are silly and most people with modified cars wouldn't want a standard new car if it was given to them. And as such it never enters your mind to be honest. Removing the extremes from it, a lot of what I have posted there has a large element of visual. I like "race stance" which seems to be pretty popular at the moment, for instance this car - Which is decked on a set of coilovers worth more than my car, on super stick race tires and everything. There is an element of a touring car to the style. And for this one - The camber on the front is totally practical and for performance purposes, the rivet on arches are to make the huge wheels legal, and the huge wheels are to facilitate bigger tires for better grip. With this one, it's lowered but would still out handle a standard car ten fold due to the stiffer ride, lower body roll etc. It's got super wide wheels and much more contact area with the tarmac for better grip - Something like this is totally for asthetics, but personally I can't see what you couldn't like. It looks very classy and is totally timeless. Not to mention it's probably had the best part of 15/20K spent on it. - Everything I posted was pretty sensible, nothing really stupid like this - Which is so low it would be very difficult to drive, and doesn't go round corners.

It is difficult to explain because it is fairly obvious why people do this to their cars, because they like it and they want to. How do you mean "squashed"? Lowered? It's awesome, that's why. There isn't a car on the planet that wouldn't look better lowered. Lowering does a lot for a cars performance as well (to a certain limit), lowering the car lowers the roll center as well as the polar moment, the weight transfer becomes less aggressive and usually it is combined with uprated/stiffer suspension to reduce pitch and roll along the cars axis. The wheels stick out to make them look more visable, and that has evolved into having massive "poke" and being at the extreme you see today. That said I don't think I posted anything extreme in that post, unless it was an unconnected rant and I'm getting all post hov ergo propter hoc on you? Poking the wheels out fills up the arches more, and makes the car look much more balanced. No point having nice shiny wheels if they're tucked in behind a set of arches. Yup, because it is a bit obvious. But we'll try and explain it to you. Ugly is subjective; most people ask you why your bike has no seat. Same logic. I personally see a lot more sense and reason in stanced cars than I do bikes without seats and hopping up and down. Have you ever seen something done properly like that, in person? It is impressive to say the least, for the true petrol head their car has to stand out Where's the fun in that? People modify their cars for exactly that reason, fun. Owning a totally standard vehicle means nothing to me, I would rather my 12 year old Audi than a brand spanking new A3...Because they're dull and lifeless. "Better" is such an undefinable word, it should be banned within a personal opinion context. If you have a look at Prawns A3 for instance, it can lap the ring in 8:20 with him at the wheel. Which is quicker than M3's, Porsche Boxsters, Lotus Exige S's, Jaguar XKR's, Audi RS4's etc all driven by pro drivers on closed laps without traffic. His car owes him much less than all of those vehicles would new, and he's got years of enjoyment and knowledge out of doing the work himself. I think you've missed the huge point here, the fact that you don't think a car looks good should bare no relevance to anybody else. People choose to modify these cars visually as an expression of themselves; I know that sounds super gay but people put a lot of time, effort and money into these cars and for you to say they look shit is just outright disrespectful. If you went to a car meet with that sort of attitude you'd get decked. Performance cars take many forms; a lot of people accept that they cannot drive fast on the road so have a track or race car reserved for the weekend and a tidy daily driver to knock about it. But the daily driver then gets lowered, and a set of wheels and then a set of big brakes, then an exhaust and the odd badge removing and it's a down hill slope. But all the time you justify that it's cheaper than driving your toy car every day haha. Jay-Z, explains it all... A lot of people are used to seing the Halfords carpark special shit. As apposed to well thought out and properly done modifications that serve a purpose. If you go down the visual or the performance route it doesn't matter, I appreciate all of it. But there is a right and a wrong way, and with the greatest respect most younger people do it the wrong way and as such miss out on doing it the right way when they've got the money, time and talent to do it the right way.

Let me just take a second to dissect that post, hang fire.

What happened to you in the years that I was off the forum? You've turned into a right sanctimonious little moaner. x

In your opinion. If you don't get it then you don't get it. It can't be explained.

Awesome post.

Bodywork isn't hard at all, as long as you don't cut corners and take time in the prep. Give it a go, if you were going to have to pay somebody to do it anyway what have you got to lose?

I'll give it a go JD, I'm basically a pro now. I did this at the side of the road, with rattle cans, one piece of 1200grit wet and dry and a bottle of t cut. Apart from cutting through a little bit I am dead chuffed; I'll just touch up the rub through and then wet sand it and re-polish.

Badgers rule Simps.

You're literally all wrong and I am right. And it actually annoys me that you cannot see it. Google "debagering" and you'll find that more than half of the cars in the first two pages of images have everything other than the make of the vehicle removed. Seeing as you know f**k all about it I'll educate you; debadging started off with Vauxhall in the early 70's offering their vehicles with or without model badges so that people wouldn't look down on a lower model or see a higher model as a nickable car. Vauxhall were one of the first companies to use stuck on badges as apposed to traditional press fit pins. Debading traditionally (as used by monkey) would be removing all trim level or model badges from a vehicle. So back in your boxes; go do some research and come back and tell me I'm right.

My original posting of the picture now applies. If I took 1 of 5 badgers off the boot, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, 4 of 5, or all of the badgers off the boot I have still badgered my boot because I have removed badgers from it. I have removed the badgers I wanted to, and resprayed the damaged areas where it was improperly done in the past. Meaning I have debadgered my boot to the proper standard that I am happy with. That is as in keeping with a traditional sense of the term "debadgering" as I can see.

Taking the Audi badge off is a much larger fail than leaving it on. Previously it had an A3 badge on the left and 1.8t on the right of the number plate surround. But they were sprayed satin black by Lou and looked shit...Then she super glued them back on...Doh!

Been waiting to use that all afternoon.

I agree. But it needs it to break up the otherwise horrendous way the back of the car looks.

Did a couple of little bits this afternoon which I have been meaning to do for a while. I've needed to properly debadge the boot for almost 3 years... I want to find a new boot plinth that isn't bubbly too, I CBA to fill this one. And I sprayed the IC pipes again to touch up the stone chips. I'm not 100% happy with the boot, in fact I'm not really that happy with it at all. It looks fine until you inspect it and then it looks a little hazy and there is a small run, so I am going to flat it down tomorrow and re-lacquer it. To be fair I did to it on the road outside my house, with no masking at all and only a can of Halfords gloss black and a cheap can of lacquer haha.

Oh awesome Robin! If it is MOT'd I will come up Friday

I really really disagree. If there was a better driver...Redbull would have got them. You're talking about a company that will spend a £1,000,000 to knock 0.2 seconds off a lap time; do you not think they'd make sure their drivers and the operators of their machinery were the best they could be before throwing money at the cars?

His domination goes far outside the visible and current F1 era; he ruined junior karting, and in 2004 he destroyed the BMW Championship with 18/20 victories. First year in F3 he finished 5th over all, second year in F3 Euro behind Paul Di Resta, he won the first series he entered in Renault Series too. For Sauber he set purple for all practice sessions in his first ever F1 race, and don't forget he won his first ever personal F1 and the teams first race under Toro Rosso. I think he's a f**king hero.

And what about the year before that, and the year before that?

I think his point might be that his stepmum drives an MX5?

Seb Vet is the business; I've supported him from his first race in F1. It's awesome to see him get another page in the history book.