New Motor

blueboy2001 said:
Nice motor. Has it got cruise?

I was tempted by the MPS before I bought my 2.0 Sport, but my GF has to drive it and she's only had a licence a year. I feared going from a 1.4 Fiesta to a 260BHP FWD car would only end badly!

I've driven a new shape 3 on a track and I have say I was rather underwhelmed. I just couldn't seem to drive it smooth and fast through the corners at Croft - it had chronic understeer and just didn't feel planted. I couldn't get any confidence up with it. Now it could be my poor technique but I had no such problems throwing an Astra VXR round there and that's not exactly renowned for its handling.
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Yeah, its got cruise. I know it's not the best handling hatch, but it is never seeing a track, so it doesn't matter too much.
 
kona786 said:
possibly, but more so have the lube ready come road tax renewal day :D

Any mod plans?
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I'm not sure yet. Need to get used to the car as is. I might do the simple intake/exhaust/remap as they react very well to that, but to be honest the power it has now will keep me happy for a while, and even though the engines are capable of big power, it's still only FWD. So surely it would just make it less and less usable. Apparently they're a handful in the wet already.
 
So over a year later and I've fitted a full intake system to the car, given it a full service and stuck it on the rollers. Proper chuffed :)

4xp1Mmi.jpg
 
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Do you think the banging over bumps is from the wheels? My 3 2.0 Sport bangs over certain bumps on 17" wheels and it really bugs me. It's usually worst on bumps that are quite wide, but not necessarily very deep.

I found one the big bush at the back of the front arms on the passenger side was split so I've had a new arms fitted, this improved the slightly wandery feeling I was getting through the steering at high speed, but it's done nothing for the noise.
 
I think the shock absorbers are very poor quality. They don't help. But they are renowned for chewing through anti roll bar bushes and drop links, so could be that also.
 
I've done the droplinks.

ARB bushes look OK, the noise seems to be higher up and I have heard they like to chew the bump stops up as well.

I'm in 2 minds at the moment as to whether to replace the top mounts, bearings, bump stops, shocks, springs and ARB bushes, put up with it, or chop it in for something else.
 
Nice looking motor.

I don't get all the tax hating on the car. The £200 per year difference is less than 55p per day. So if you can afford to fuel the beast, then tax should be the last thing on your mind.
 
Yeah the tax doesn't bother me too much, but obviously it's frustrating.

The ARB bushes can look completely fine, but when replaced knocking noises go away. Just advice that I've picked up from the MPS OC.

In other news, I drove a Clio 172 the other day and it was a riot. It has kind of made me want a 182 now. 5 'speed box puts me off a little though.
 
xs2man said:
Nice looking motor.

I don't get all the tax hating on the car. The £200 per year difference is less than 55p per day. So if you can afford to fuel the beast, then tax should be the last thing on your mind.
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But it's not paid per day, it's paid every 12 months at which point the sting is certainly there.
 
It's 2 tanks of premium fuel.

As I said before, if you can afford to fuel a low 20's mpg motor, with all the other running costs associated with such a car, its a bit tight to begrudge the tax on it. It really is nothing compared to the rest.

Anyway, such taxes are cheap here. My old colleagues in Holland used to pay that every 3 months or something for a diesel a4. Other European states can be just as bad.
 
Car Update!

So since my last update I've made a few modifications.

I've installed:

- Higher quality bypass valve
- Stronger engine mounts
- Short shifter
- Custom mid pipe
- Remap
- Bilstein B8 shock absorbers

I went back to the rollers after the remap and made 292bhp and 310ft/lbs (red: pre-map green: post-map):

kxPW1bL.jpg


I'm now currently at the limits of the stock HPFP. I'm deciding whether I want to upgrade it and chase more power or just leave it as is. The car is hilarious already and I'm not really sure if needs any more power, but I could see close to 305bhp and 330ft/lbs with it.
 
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Excellent work mate!

Yeah most guys recommend the HPFP around the level of mods you have. So close to 300BHP!

So tempting to mod mine but I made a promise to keep it stock for a year to myself :D
 
Been tempted to do the same mods to mine Eliot, would like to stick mine on some rollers probably and OcUK RR Day one time. Had mine nearly 2 years now and still makes me grin when pressing the loud pedal down.
 
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