RobinJI

Only place I can think of's Rally Design really. Although a phone-call to pro-tec might turn up some cheap springs. They usually add up to a fair bit though, Might be cheaper to get hold of a pair of 2nd hand coilovers from anything with about the right spring rate and butcher them.

Yeah that looks pretty ok really Paul, nothing I'd get overly worried about. I've never liked raised rear edges on bonnets, mostly just because it's a flawed concept, and they only tend to look good when surrounded by other aggressive modifications.

Haha, this is the trouble with a white car, not sure you'd be able to see anything, I might try it sometime though. I'll probably grab a photo of the beading next time I wash it/it's raining heavily. Forgot I also didn't get a chance to do the bonnet either. I was mostly bothered about the sides of the car where the grime gets thrown by the wheels. I'll be interested to see how the wax lasts over winter, from my experience of it on moulds, it's bloody tough. There's also the added bonus that if I ever accidentally cover the car in fibreglass resin somehow, it'll just come right off. Alan, I'll get some photos up sometime. I haven't taken any in months because nothing about it's changed. I'll take some just for the hell of it sometime soon though. As for your 'rocco, it's looking nice! wish mine was that straight. I'm not a fan of the lifted back edge of the bonnet, but the colour doesn't bother me.

Well the unthinkable's happened, for the first time since buying the thing over 5 years ago I just waxed my car. I figured it'd help keep it safe through all the salt over winter, and this is probably one of the last weekends without frost, so I've been dashing out whenever it's dry enough and chucking some more wax on. Now for the in depth detailing explanation: I used Meguires Mirror Glaze #8 mould release wax. The scientific reasoning behind this choice being: I already had some, it's £13 a tin, it's bloody tough and I'm familiar with using it from waxing up moulds. I applied it using an old white cloth I found in the shed, and buffed it off using an old brown towel I also found in the shed. Before applying it I cleaned the car, for this I used tap water, a bucket and a sponge. Job done*, it's shiny**. Total cost ~£3. * The jobs not that done, it started raining before I finished so I've not done the bumpers, valances or some of the glass yet, but it's mostly done. ** Well, not that shiny, it's white, 25 years old and has covered 190k+

For me the trouble with all this detailing stuff, is that it makes so little difference. How clean a car is makes a big difference, and yeah, a good polish and wax makes a big difference, but if you did that on 2 different cars, one with cheap products, and one with these super posh products, then parked the 2 cars side by side, but made a TINY change to one, like different colour badges or something, then all anyone would notice would be the badges. I don't really think there is such thing as a "show stopping finish". No one has ever stood at the entrance to a show and noticed which cars have been waxed with fancy products. If it makes you happy though, then all's good, I absolutely get how spending the time on your car can be enjoyable and theraputic, but the cost of a lot of the products is a perfect case of companies only charging so much because someone will pay it based on placebo/one upmanship. Must wax my car sometime.

Go on then, what (massively overheated beast) have you replaced the AX with then? For that matter, what the hell happened to the AX? I remember seeing a photo of it looking massively caved in but no explanation/discussion.

Yeah sorry, it had been a few days between posts, so that was purely in response to your last post, your earlier posts did seem good. I know what you mean, it does definitely help with fears in general to understand the mechanism behind the danger you're faced with, but when you re-read your last couple of posts, they're far from reassuring, I'm all for full disclosure, but it's the sort of topic that I'd expect to be worth putting across in a slightly more reassuring manner.

So a guys asked if anyone has any advice to help him with a fear of flying, and your response is to try and convince us all that you're hugely unlikely to survive a crash on water. Nice, great idea, I bet that'll really help him with his fear. The fact is, the lifejackets and evacuation procedures provided for crash landing on water have been used to save lives and have proved their usefulness and necessity. How likely the situation is to occur is a bit irrelevant, they're there for a reason. It's like saying what's the point in providing lifejackets on a ship sailing in the north atlantic, even if you can float you'll probably freeze to death, it's a completely nonproductive discussion that helps no-one. Personally I wouldn't have said that a fear of flying is rational. It's completely understandable, natural and expected, but not rational. The definition of rational is 'based on or in accordance with reason or logic'. Both reason and logic are emotionless ideas, and can only really go off statistics and proven data, which as we all know, suggests that flying is a much safer activity than a lot of actions we consider mundane and normal. The rational reaction to flying is to be completely calm, more so than on the drive to the air-port. But yeah, the natural and expected reaction is fear. I'm afraid I haven't actually got any advice to help with a fear of flying, as I grew up going on light air-craft fairly regularly, and still consider it exciting/fun rather than scary, but it sounds like there's already been some sound advice that I hope helps.

I'm quite liking these two Audi ads at the moment (this is in no way biased by friend being involved in the filming, honest.)

Probably worth putting a grommet in it (and the hole next to it with the taped up wire in it.) Keep the water out and save any issues with chaffing through the insulation.

Yeah, I know those bullet type fuses give a few issues in old Volvo's too. I think they just don't age very well, plus I'm pretty sure they were originally ceramic not plastic, it's just that modern reproduction ones are cheap plastic. My 240's fuel pump one gave out on one of the end caps too, along with the indicators and one or 2 others. They were all old/original looking though, and once replaced with fresh ones seemed absolutely fine. They're also prone to having hair-line cracks on the element part, so they don't look obviously blown, but will intermittently/permanently refuse to work, which is what my indicator one did.

I spy too many doors They really have given up on actually making it a small car haven't they? Just agreed to co-drive for a friend next year, looking forward to it! First event will be Brean stages in late January.

If you want to be nice then just set a fairly close ultimatum for the first guy. Basically say, "I've got other offers for the bike, need the money soon so unless you can give me 'x' by this Friday I'm afraid I'm going to have to sell it to someone else." Being any nicer than that's just wasting your own time.

Springs and shocks could be a good plan. It might be worth trying some softer springs on your current coilovers too. Because coilover springs are generic sizes, you can get them whatever spring rate and length you want for about £20 a corner. Could be worth a try, especially as coilovers tend to have shorter strut bodies, which means more travel, so with soft springs they're often actually really comfy. Cheap coilovers damping often suits slightly softer springs really well too. I've been with Brentacre for years. Their initial quote was higher than flux this year, but they were happy to match flux's price when I told them that. I've found their customer service better, as well as their method of charging for modifications. (You tell them what maximum power you want, and all modifications are free as long as you don't exceed that power.) Mine was £840 if I remember right, but that's probably not comparable as it's not really the same sort of car. My renewal's coming up in a month or so, I'm hoping I can stay with them, but I'm going to absolutely insist on being insured to drive other cars this time, so if they won't do that then I'll probably switch. (They wouldn't this year because I was 1 year off being old enough.)

Just removed the last 2 of my poly engine mounts, so now I'm back on OEM spec rubber ones on all 4. My god it's smooth and quiet now! Absolutely night and day, it's genuinely a really civilized and sensible car to drive around in now. Very happy.

Really wide wheels, and REALLY big arches? A bit of welding's surely less work than reshelling/stripping the car? (Then I would say that, I like fixing things, and don't like giving up on things, even if it is silly.)

Depending on where on the arch the rust is there's always another option: D, Buy wider wheels and bolt on arches, cut off the rusty arches and pretend you didn't want those bits of arch anyway.

Looks very much like a Scammell, saw a very similar looking body (well, minus 2 wheels) on a Unipower chassis last weekend in Bristol. Awesome all the same, the scale's just insane. Managed to get some welding done on the joint between my sill and floor pan on the Scirocco at the weekend. Repeatedly being jacked on the seam had lead to the floorpan side of the seem getting a bit crusty, then I tried using the factory jack and part of it bent causing the head to go through the floor pan. I was bloody pleased to find everything under the side-skirt to be in order and looking completely solid. I'll need to do the other side sooner or later though.

I think last time tyres came up a few of us agreed that Uniroyal Rainsport 2's were very good and decent value. You'll struggle to find 2's now, but I'm hoping the rainsport 3's are basically the same tyre. Alex, that sucks, and I do agree with Nick, that's a properly silly bit for them to put in the stage, but 2nd is still far from a kick in the balls, so well done on coming 2nd!

Hu? You can, it's the thing with the pipe welded to the plate bolted to it. Not sure what angle would have given a better view, there's an engine on one side of it and a filter on the other. Yeah, what Nick's saying's what I was getting at with the relationship between power and torque, I just couldn't be arsed to do the maths

Oh yeah, I meant to say, Paul, those impreza seats are really nice in my experience, reading your post where you mentioned the sport line evo, I looked them up and imediately thought 'he want's impreza seats' before even seeing your next sentence. Skoze, the nature of the relationship between power and torque means that either it runs out of puff and the torque curve takes a plummet around 2k, or those figures are wrong (I cant imagine 4x4s being easy to dyno accurately). Awesome landy though!

Just seen your A3's for sale on Facebook Jardo. Keeping both lasted a long time then! New cars looks nice mate, well, what I can see of it. (Ever thought of posting a photo without cranking the contrast?) Really loving the way the Scirocco drives now, the new rack's transformed it. Everything about the car just feels firm and solid now. Can't wait to do a few bits I've got planned to sort the front geometry and brakes a little.

MX-5 ones are alright, they're comfy, but not at all supportive in the bends. The other issue I had with them's that the headrests being fixed, were too low for even me at 5'9", which always made me worried about whiplash should I get in a minor shunt, and meant there was zero support for your shoulders. All the same, I could sit in them on the motorway for hours without complaint.

I'm in, Basingstoke would be acceptable for me too.

Nick and the yellow Ibiza (which belongs to Bill who runs Badger 5) did have a pretty good battle in the last session of the day, and they were pretty evenly matched. Funnily enough it's actually the opposite, because of the class Bill races the Ibiza in, he's not allowed aero mods or full-slicks, he has to run road legal tyres. He's got a huge power advantage over Nick, but the A3 was catching him in the corners because of the extra grip the aero and slicks were giving him. I get the impression that Nick's chassis set-up has a slight upper hand too, with the A3 being a little lower and longer.