The Car Thread

[Haz]

Sounds so good.

[trials owns]

Anyone got a ko3 turbo for a 1.8t longitudinal engine? for a passat, failing that a bigger turbo that will be a direct bolt on?

[Muel]

No plans yet, as I don't have a car licence, but in about 6-12 months I may end up having to drive to work (if I get the job I'm hoping I do get).

I'll be averaging around 400-500 miles per week (including weekends), so I want something super reliable, economical, cheap to run and insure and comfortable. Speed and fun don't bother me at all, I have motorbikes for having fun. I think I'd prefer a diesel because I believe they tend to have more torque, but I could be wrong. I've played in my Mum's car and my ex girlfriend's, Mum's was a 1.8l diesel 306 that behaved like a tank, the ex's was a Citroen C3 with a 1.0l petrol engine that was utterly breathless and pointless.

I've looked at things like the Seat Ibiza 1.4 TDI and the Renault Clio 1.5 DCI. Both do a real world 55-65mpg (I.E: They return those numbers when driven normally, unlike my mate's Prius which does 30mpg), and I can insure either of them for less than a grand, which is nice.

Anything else I should consider? I've never considered what cars I actually want to buy, just ones I want to own so I've got no knowledge about this kid of stuff.

It needs to do about 80mph, always return 50mpg or above and never break down. If it could start easily in -20C conditions that'd be great as well, because I'll probably end up taking it on climbing trips when it can often get that cold at night.

Any other suggestions?

Edited April 14, 2013 by Muel

[Luke Rainbird]

Budget?

[Tom Booth]

Polo 6n2 tdi, do everything you listed and if you get a 2001> model there 30 tax a year.

[Muel]

Max about £2500 I'd guess. Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2005-SEAT-IBIZA-SX-TDI-BLUE-1-4-CLIMATE-CONTROL-Price-reduced-/330897863697?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4d0b0cb411

Mind you, if something 5 years younger with half the mileage and double the MPG came up for £3k, I'm sure I could borrow pennies.

This is all theoretical anyway, it hangs on me getting this job...

[Pashley26]

No point looking now, everything could change when it actually comes to it.

I love looking at cars as much as the next bloke, but your budget, the availability of vehicles and the models within that budget will change hugely in twelve months.

As a first car, personally I would suggest a diesel Mk3 Golf estate for you.

Cheap, reliable, spacious, easy to find and easy to fix. Perfect first car for somebody who wants to lug shit about in relative safety and comfort.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Pashley26

[Muel]

Aye it will be completely different then, but I just want to get an idea of what's out there. I've no idea which models are bigger than what, or whether it's best to buy german or french or japanese etc.

I think a mk3 would be too old for my liking really, I want something a bit more modern and refined. Plus I doubt there are many mk3s around that have done as few miles as I was hoping for.

The two biggest factors are reliability and cost I guess. I know that older cars are easier to work on, which is great, but I'd prefer that it just never broke down.

As for space and stuff, a little hatchback will be fine. I have a Dad with a pickup and a mate with 3 vans in varying sizes for the rare occasion I'd need to move something big.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Muel

[TROYston]

Am struggling for ideas on what wheels to get.
Any ideas chaps?
4x100 ideally. Not split rims if possible. I am going as wide as i can on the rear so max of 10j.
Throw some links in my direction.

Or if anyone is a handly hand on photoshop could you be a champ and play around with a pic of my car and some wheels.
Much love.

Edited April 14, 2013 by TROYston

[onzatrip]

Am struggling for ideas on what wheels to get.

Any ideas chaps?

4x100 ideally. Not split rims if possible. I am going as wide as i can on the rear so max of 10j.

Throw some links in my direction.

Or if anyone is a handly hand on photoshop could you be a champ and play around with a pic of my car and some wheels.

Much love.

Banded steels?

[greg1040]

Well looks like I may be selling car off next month.

Here's the advert if anyone knows anyone on the hunt for a golf r.

http://www.rforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2822.0

[Martin Reynolds]

Just to be 100% sure before i spend any money, am i right in saying cv joints knock when they're not under load?

I,e my car knocks around left hand corners, so its the passenger driveshaft gone?

[Skoze]

Well looks like I may be selling car off next month.

Here's the advert if anyone knows anyone on the hunt for a golf r.

http://www.rforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2822.0

Does that include the shopping in the footwell?

[greg1040]

Haha for that price not a chance

[TROYston]

Banded steels?

Not overly keen on bandeds, too many people have them, unless i get back to the banded smoothie idea.

It on normal banded steels if anyone is interested, 14" 8j fronts and 9.5j rears

But its been done before already on it so im not too sure still :/

[Greetings]

Race weekend over, was a lot of fun.

SLS = Eargasm

I initially wanted to take part in this, I even got a BC racing license last year but then thought that the initial 1 minute of each race is probably too much for me to cope mentally. And after seeing what goes on live, I stand by my statement, it's scary as f**k. I can only imagine that the 126p guys must be a lot more relaxed considering the cars are a lot slower. Probably going to get the M3 ready for these this year so I have some more options apart from rallysprint in 2014. It's mostly safety requirements, at least 3 grand needs to be invested to meet them :/

[AdamR28]

Looks like a decent event!

Alex, you'd be absolutely fine - you've got to the point where you can drive the car without thinking too much now, the next step is to add a few other cars in close proximity

[Greetings]

Well, you've been doing track days for ages now so driving in close proximity probably seems natural to you I don't understand how you can hold the same 6ft gap between a car in front of you while braking from 130 to 60mph and shortly after trying to negotiate a line with a few other cars literally a foot to your left or right. There is no margin for error.

My dentist took part this weekend, it was his first race ever and he managed to come 5th in class with a 370Z literally stuck to his bumper for 4 laps. I'd just give in at the pressure and let him pass...

[AdamR28]

It isn't at first, trust me, and I'm still a massive pussy when it comes to getting close to other cars. But I wanted to push myself and that was the next step. You could definitely do it, just takes a bit of getting used to Doing it in an old car where spares are cheap and easily available helps, haha.

[David]

I need a new Electronics project (or prodduct so I can quit the day job and work for myself...) and was thinking about designing something for use in a car and/or motorbike. Has anybody got any suggestions of things they'd like to have? OK, that is a very open-ended question but it would be interesting to hear if there is anything that hasn't been done or could be greatly improved that people would like.

Ideas so far have included various sensors (wideband O2 etc) with a display, some sort of ODB2 data logger, speedo corrector....

Dave

[AdamR28]

Anything to do with motorsport - you can instantly add motorsport tax and it becomes twice as expensive as it should be

OBD2 datalogger with GPS and accelerometers? It's been done before but I don't think the market is saturated personally... the cheapest decent ones don't have OBD2 connectivity and are still over £500.

[CurtisRider]

You can connect Arduinos up to OBD sockets and have them display information on an LCD screen. The works already done for you electronics wise (there are guides online), its just about making it look pretty...

An ipod cable that splits into 3 wires: charging, 3.5mm aux and skip track/play/pause/etc would be pretty cool, I would really like something like that

[David]

Anything to do with motorsport - you can instantly add motorsport tax and it becomes twice as expensive as it should be

OBD2 datalogger with GPS and accelerometers? It's been done before but I don't think the market is saturated personally... the cheapest decent ones don't have OBD2 connectivity and are still over £500.

Ah yes, well if paint two red stripes on the enclosure that's an extra 50%!

You can connect Arduinos up to OBD sockets and have them display information on an LCD screen. The works already done for you electronics wise (there are guides online), its just about making it look pretty...

An ipod cable that splits into 3 wires: charging, 3.5mm aux and skip track/play/pause/etc would be pretty cool, I would really like something like that

This is the problem nowadays...everyone is carrying a computer in their pocket which makes these kind of products easier to integrate. I've seen ODB2 bluetooth adaptors for £10...just need a fairly trivial app and you have GPS and accelerometers at your disposal. I could do it with dedicated hardware but it would never sell for this reason.

Edited April 15, 2013 by David

[MadManMike]

My photos are up now from GTI SpringFest...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152722711530587.1073741828.581400586&type=1

Here's a small selection:

[Tom Booth]

Vw Helios wheels give me the horn so bad.