Alexander

ooer

One of my irrational fears is one of my wheels falling off at speed!

Become old. When I was 30 my insurance, fully comp, on a 16v Mk2 Golf GTI was £400/year.

Ah yes, sorry you're right - these alloys also came on the 16v mk4 polos didn't they? Nice wheels.

Looking good dude! Don't think I've ever seen a C on Solitudes but it looks well!

Yeah I thought about that, but I work out of town, so every time I have to get the car into the garage I have to take time off work, it's a bit of a pain in the 'arris. I might get stuck in and remove it myself, send it to G-Werks and use the girlfriend's polo for a week or so. That would be the manly thing to do.

Yeah, I've read the matey matey guide and g-werk's own as well, and I've thought about giving it a go, but I just know at the first rounded or seized bolt I find, I'm going to be left with a dead car on my drive until I can get someone to give me a hand! I'm not totally clueless with a spanner, but it's definitely a much bigger job than I've attempted before. In a way I'd rather spend a bit more and save myself the stress, if you know what I mean, which is where getting another charger then swapping them over is a decent idea.

No that's great fella, thanks for the reply. I'm in a bit of a quandary that I think a lot of people face - the charger needs a rebuild, but I don't have the skills to remove it myself to post it down to G-Werks, and I can't really afford to have the car off the road as it's my daily driver. Going down to see Darren is a bit out of the question as well as it's too far away to make economic sense. So, I was thinking of either buying a refurbished charger then having it swapped out and selling the existing one, or buying a second hand charger and get that rebuilt before swapping it out and selling my old one, if that makes sense.

Hi all, I need to have my supercharger rebuilt shortly, and while I know G-Werks are the guys to go for, I was wondering the following: If I bought a Stage 4 rebuilt charger from Jabbasport, would this still be OK with the existing SNS chip (which I believe is a Stage 5 chip??) or would I need to get a different chip? At the moment the car has a charger rebuilt by PSD with "light porting". Is the "stage" thing just something internal to Jabbasport or does it relate to the chip stage quoted by SNS?

Replace boot catch (flipping rattling tailgate) Replace/rebuild supercharger :(

It's great stuff, really does what it says on the tin (or bottle). I keep forgetting I have some though! Thanks for reminding me...

Don't worry - it's not for me! My brother's planning on buying one, an 05 plate jobbie. What should he be looking out for problem-wise and what do you reckon to them as motors?

Superb! I'm always in awe of people who can "just" pull an engine out of a car and put it back in. That kind of stuff blows my mind!

I was looking for almost a year before I found the "right" C - and even then it wasn't in a colour I was even considering until I drove it!

Regarding the beemer, I fully appreciate the amount of skill and man-hours that have gone into creating it - but it looks f*cking sh*t. No getting around it. Imagine if you'd spent that amount under the bonnet, and given the original car a respray - it would have been an awesome machine.

Very kind! I like the silver with anthracite alloys combo, plus the LCR is more practical, what with it having 5 doors and a good-sized boot. That's got me in the mind to go and annoy some Seat dealerships over the weekend, purely speculatively of course :)

I can't work out if Chris Bangle is a genius or a lunatic. Either way, it's very entertaining! I bet he earns a lot!

To be honest I don't wear a lot of lycra! Then again, I don't put many cars in the washing machine either.

So you'd just wash and wax that as normal would you?

What about the fuel you waste driving to the petrol station more often? ;)

I agree with you about the soul thing - Corrados definitely have something special. But how much of this is due to their age do you think? I've driven my mum's brand new Golf GTI, which is an awesome car, but it still felt cold, plasticky and stiff - which I just put down to the fact it's brand new and hasn't had chance to loosen up/get some character. No doubt in 15 years time, the current new GTI may well hold our affections for the same reason.

Fair enough, but this was two friends of mine who happen to be mechanics, warning me before I actually bought a VR, so it's not like they had an ulterior motive. This is a very good point - I love my G60 to bits (literally sometimes) but I hate to think of the amount of mental energy, stress and time (as well as money) I've spent keeping it looking and running great. Obviously this is all part of the joys of owning a modern classic, but I do think my next car will be something new(ish) - no idea what, but it's fun to speculate!

How would you wash it? Nice to see the speed-activated spoiler making a welcome return :) It's just a concept and I'm glad BMW spend some of their cash on this kind of thing - if even a portion of it improves car design/building it'll have been worth it.

On balance probably not - but it depends if the chains have already been done when you bought it. Plus the engines are (apparently) harder to work on because there's so little space in the engine bay. I'm not a mechanic by any means but I've heard this from a few independent sources.

There's an emoticon to describe that receipt. I have it somewhere. Oh yes, here it is: :(