RobinJI

I gave mine a quick wipe down with a sponge a minute ago too. I'm really pleased with how this wax has held up, the car still feels sort of slipery, and water wont stay on it at all, even after 3 weeks/over 1000 miles of daily driving and having not actually cleaned it since waxing it. It's made it SO much easier to clean too, literally just wiped a sponge over the thing with one swipe then splashed some clean water over it and it looked perfectly clean, nothing left behind at all. I'll probably chuck a second layer of it on sometime, as I know it layers well. This was only a few seconds after drenching that panel: Been playing around and I've come up with my next little project for the Scirocco:

I think it stopping you driving as fast as you can is largely our complaint. I'd rather have to restrain myself for fear of running out of skill/grip than because I can't see around the next corner. It actually involves skill/judgement rather than just being reckless enough to chuck it around the bend hoping there's a clear path at the other end of it. Oh and Mike, yeah, no complaint about walls/barriers on the edge of drops, I welcome them! They're better when you can see past them though.

My favorite British roads are on the moors. I really don't get on with high hedges and walls, everything feels fast and great, then there's a cyclist around the next corner and you're in jail for causing death by dangerous driving. (Extreme example I know, but you get the point, it's sketchy not being able to see around the bends.) This is my idea of nice British roads, although this is a bit faster/straighter than ideal: PS, looks like a lucky escape Adam, glad things didn't get too bashed up. As Nick said, it looked like you were really pushing on!

I think he's talking about accidental trips more so then intentional ones As for my Sciroccos handling, I've got no complaints when it comes to balance. The back end's what I'd call 'lively' but it's very predictable, and you can steer in on the throttle quite easily when it does start getting loose. You can very easily play with it by shifting the cars weight around. But, I do have a 25mm Eibach rear ARB mounted in poly-bushes out back, with the standard 17mm (I think) front one, mounted in ancient rubber bushes. Front wishbones are poly-bushed, but the rear beam isn't yet. As standard iirc there should be roughly -1deg of camber out back and a couple of mm of toe in if your beams all straight and good.

I hope that picture's implication is correct Nick, if it is, awesome! Also, Jardo, good plan, you know a 20vt in an 80's VW is the way forwards

The factory set-up's basically what I'd go with in terms of where it's taking the air from/to. I'd be tempted to either go with a cone filter with a heat shield and a cold air-feed, or just a larger pipe cut into the side of the standard air-box. Realistically it's unlikely to make much difference as long as you've got the area of intake to get the air you're after through, and you're not sucking it straight off the exhaust. Turbo engines are less fussy about cold air intakes, so spending too much time/effort over it's likely to be wasted; just avoid restrictions and make sure the air's not silly-hot.

Mines returning 35ish average, 40 on the motorway. Drops to around 20ish when thrashing it, I could probably get it a fair bit lower if I drove more aggressively though. Dan, any scoop will look crap on there IMO. Besides which, the bumper's a MUCH better place to take air from than the bonnet, and the area directly above where your air-box is probably the worst place.

Scirocco's got a fresh 12 months MOT on it now! Passed first time with the only prep being a change of thermostat so it didn't overheat and a pair of new tyres! Also, YAY I no longer have stretched tyres on my car. I've been too cheap to change them before they're warn out, but they finally died and have been replaced with a pair of properly sized Toyos. Just need the next pay-day to come so I can replace the other 2 with Toyos too. (At least properly sized at the moment though.) Also, my mileage history on the MOT cirtificate made me laugh, my car definitely looks clocked now!: (the new lower mileage is correct for the engine.)

Ditto. We dragged a friends dads old rally car out and threw a box on it (the original box and brakes had been sold in the early '90s), everything seemed to be working fine, except there was no drive from the engine to the friction plate. The old box had had a straight cut dog-gear set in it, with a larger than standard output shaft, so the clutch fitted had a larger spline than a standard Vauxhall box. My Scirocco's got it's MOT at 4pm tomorrow. I'm hoping it'll go through, but then it is a 25 year old car that's covered 190+ thousand miles, so I never like to assume it'll fly through! (Edit, car's looking smart and shiny Jardo. Is it your phone that throws an extra helping of contrast at your photos, or do you do it? It basically makes all your hard work invisible.)

Add RWD non-turbo Volvo's to Jolfa's list of K-jet cars, as well as early XR3i. Is it definitely M8? Demon Tweaks (and any other decent Goodridge stockist) stock M10x1 Banjo bolts. (Link) If it really is M8, I'd give hope, or a decent hope supplier a call. (Adam/Tarty or CRC maybe?). Ebay to the rescue: Bolt only, £2.09 Bolt + banjo fitting, £4.55

This is exactly why my car's not made me a complete 1.8t convert, it's a great engine, but I still think the car would be more fun at the moment (while it's still sub 200bhp) with an NA 2.0 16V in it, but being used daily the 1.8t's perfect, because it's still fun when I do find an empty country road, but when I'm commuting down a busy a-road I can drive around at low revs riding the torque and returning 40mpg reliably. The trouble now, is that I'm not going to want to take a step back power-wise, so I'm going to either have to grow deeper pockets or stick with the turbo route. I really fancy building a short stroke, rev-happy 1.8t sometime, something that goes against the normal 1.8t characteristics and actually needs ringing a bit, (but not in a big turbo-lag way.)

Hope brake? They use M8x1 bango's on some models, and a decent local dealer should stock them. (If it's just the bolt through the middle of the banjo that is.) GSF don't list their full stock online, worth giving them a call in the morning. It'd be worth trying your local TPS too, or Volkswagen them selves, maybe even Volvo.

My old work used to use transglobal for most international stuff, never had anything bad to say about them and they tended to be best for price. That was sending fiberglass panels/parts, so fairly similar in terms of being big/light/fragile.

So do we get to know what it actually is yet? All I've gathered so far was that it's a 2v per cylinder engine! What on earth happened to the poor old AX anyway?

Dude, the air definitely does not go in the struts....

Haha, I was thinking that. I'm not anti-diesel in the slightest, they're great for getting around the place, and for a lot of people they're a better choice than a petrol. My next daily driver will probably be a diesel, they're nice to drive when you're not trying to have fun, nice and effortless/relaxing. But... I do think having a diesel engine fitted does detract from how fun a car is. There getting quick by all means, but anything from the '80s with a GTI badge is quicker to 60 than something like your A3. Yeah the A3's more tunable, but that's because it's got a turbo, not because it's a diesel. There are some really quick diesels around, the BMW's being a good example, but if you're wanting a car with fun being the main priority, then it's not a good thing in my eyes. If you NEED economy and space, and you still want fun, then the right one can still be a good choice though. PS, diesel BMW with a personal plate starting 'M3' = fail, regardless of how nice it is.

Completely with you on that Jolfa. I'm perfectly happy to use a diesel as a very effective and decent method of getting from A to B, but the anti-climax that comes with every gear-change spoils the idea of having much fun in one for me. That said, with the right chassis they can be fun, but then that same chassis with a decent petrol engine would be better anyway. I also think diesels are getting to be a bit tricky unless you can afford something very new. Old simple diesels are all getting to be past their best, and hard to find good examples of, while newer diesels despite working better, are basically a pile of expensive parts awkwardly bolted together and waiting to kick your wallet square in the balls. It used to be that diesel was the simpler, more reliable choice for people who wanted to do inter-stella mileages, but the new generation seem to have lost that advantage. Azarathal, a low boost switch won't help your economy any more than just pushing the throttle less would. If you were to modify the car, you could fit a switch to go back to the standard boost pressure, but you couldn't really run less boost than that without making modifications that would hurt the performance when you do want boost. Most turbo cars will never be quite as economical as their naturally aspirated equivalent as the changes made to the engine to allow it to perform well with the turbo hurt its efficiency. (PS, it's a turbo, not a 'tubby'. It's never a 'tubby' )

Yeah, as you've gathered by now that's a completely believable rate for a non-powered single garage. I used to rent a council one around the back of the house for £7 a week. In over 10 years of living here, I've never seen one of the ones here get broken into, but then again in 6 years of driving and parking my car on the road here (the garage was for a 2nd car) the worst I've ever had's my wing mirror smashed once, and I've never heard of any neighbors cars getting broken into/damaged. If you're looking at one close to home I'm guessing you'll know what the area's like. The one I had was actually impressively dry, I left some unprotected mild steel in there for over a year and it looked the same as the day I chucked it in the corner. Ideal for keeping a bike/car that's on the road, so you can work on it else-ware, but you don't want to leave out in the open.

Jardo, the fact is, however you describe it, it's not cheaper to buy a car on finance, or the finance companies wouldn't exist, if you've got the cash to buy without finance, it will be cheaper. You left out the option of buying the car outright and selling after 3 years, then buying another. Same bonuses as the finance option, and no one takes a %age for the pleasure. Sucks that things have got bad, but I'm glad you're getting things a bit more under control, I need to come visit you and Nick sometime, it's been a while.

Why such big discs on the camper? Massive PCD? I guess you might be able to get the centers moved in the steels, to give more clearance, but make the offset after spacers the same as original? Just re-modeled mine with my current 280mm VW discs instead of the 294mm Mini ones, as I think the bigger discs will limit wheel choice too much, which has given more clearance to the wheels barrel, but less to the back of the spokes. (Also, it means less cost as my current discs are virtually new.) Mini's also have the option of a 280mm disc, with a 4mm deeper bell, so I'm thinking of making the uprights to take them, but spacing the calipers 4mm to work with my current discs for now. This is with an e30 BMW 15" BBS wheel, which has less clearance to the spokes than my current wheels:

Why is fitting big brakes in small wheels so hard? Stupid basic laws of physics. I've got some brembo calipers for cheap, and I want to modify some spare uprights to take them and correct some geometry issues (correct the bump steer and roll center for my ride height). Been seeing what I can get under my 15" wheels, and I think I can JUST get a 294mm disc from a new mini under there, but I'll need 15mm spacers whatever diameter discs I use.

Yes

Ah, I take it all back then. Sorry to disappoint. It made me laugh when I hit the brakes at the end of my road and all that water on the roof rushed forward onto the screen. I'm not used to water being that free to move on my car!

So I got bored and went to get some photos, I only really got one before an old friend saw me and swung by to say hello, completely distracting me from taking any more: Oh, and just to prove I did wax the car, beading! Oh yeah, also, earlier today a friend pointed out that a photo of it turned up on a random facebook page called 'qualityscene'. Pretty chuffed about that!

Assuming the strut mounts in the same place there's no difference in the spring rate whether it's a 'coilover' or a normal spring/shock combination. The only real difference tends to be the target market, coilovers tend to be bought/made by people who are either wanting to venture onto track, or want their car sat on the floor, both of which favor stiffer springs. 300lb isn't really all that stiff.