TommyH

Bet that subwoofer sounds ace down the Maccies car park

He's been keeping it a secret but Alex has actually lowered his Corsa and stuck some Fox Racing alloys on it

I've PM'd you

I think the rear lights should stay as they are, adds a bit of character

Dashboard looks so good in the pictures, based on how much better the steering wheel is in real life I'm guessing the dashboard looks even better! Shame about the engine problems, any updates? Starting to worry about mine now you and Kev have broke an engine each with similar mods

Rumour has it Alex has been researching Corsa C bodykits for his new ride

I'm 24 and I own + drive a GTB turbo'd fabia (fairly predictable) but I'm also insured to use a family member's yeti, usually take the yeti when I can - far nicer to drive! And to keep on topic, to the OP, that L&K yeti looks lovely!

Got a spare centre console if you want one to practice on? It has the ciggy lighter thing fitted and I'm not arsed if it gets snapped

So after 4 days sat in the garage (that's a long time for me!!), I had a week of the car being back on the road with the new turbo before I got my act together and replaced the clutch and flywheel. Literally have no pictures of this but I bought a stage 1 Kevlar clutch from xman way back in Feb and it has been lying around ever since. I had this fitted, along with a brand new Sachs DMF and Sachs CSC plus new bolts and a change of gearbox oil. Clutch has long since been run in and the verdict is that it feels very much like the stock clutch. Occasionally needs a few extra revs to get off the line but that's the only difference. Oh and it doesn't slip on full boost. Even running 2.2bar of boost! Overall I'm really impressed. Total cost for the whole clutch including fitting and all the bits set me back about £750 which is reasonable IMO on one of these cars. The latest thing to be sorted out is the mapping. Originally mapped by John (Faboka) and when I told him about the turbo he said we could start over so sent me a base map and we started again mapping. Now on my 3rd version of the map and we're back up to 2.2bar with fairly low smoke. Little bit on full boost but I can cope with that!

Fast forward to September and MOT time. Probably worth adding at this point that my exhaust still chugged away like it wasn't fitting right even though it absolutely was! My biggest concern was that, like most modded fabs, the exhaust has a de-cat downpipe. Dropped it off for the MOT regardless. Guy phones me later to inform me there's a large crack in the manifold and I need a new number plate bulb and rear pads. I 100% didn't believe him until I saw it. All of a sudden it turned in to a turbo off job. The garage wanted to weld it up and stick it back on. I took a few pictures and sent them to xman, he told me to send it to him right away and we'd swap for a new one as there were some huge cracks in the manifold. So quite quickly MOT has turned into a new turbo! I also decided to replace my 102k mile old rear calipers for a brand new 256mm rear set-up to match the 312mm front brakes. Once the turbo was off I got a few pics: Issues started with the crack in the manifold. The soot all over the actuator shows how bad an issue it was. The leaking exhaust gases actually burned the actuator so it was no longer holding vacuum. Just a bit of a freak issue. Fair play to xman he was extremely helpful and sent out the new turbo immediately, very impressed with the service on that one! The rear brakes were fitted at the same time, binding on one side previously so some interesting wear on the pads, here's the gammy old calipers. I was told these calipers were knackered 15k ago by a mechanic and the helper springs plus a good clean now and then got me this far! These came out of the same caliper!! and now, shiny and new! I swapped the helper springs over straight away so no squeaking or mooing (yet) which the 256mm brakes are notorious for.

Next bit of fun, I ordered some of the new style badges off ebay. I didn't fancy being a sheep so decided I'd mod them a little bit. Got out the hairdryer and split the badges, then some Pantone 348 paint and a satin black rattle can. Decided to respray my front grill while I was at it. It had started to get a little bit stone-chipped. Decided to do the back a bit different. Left the chrome but just painted the back part in Pantone 348. I think it looks quite tidy. I did an absolutely mint job on the rear badge. Unfortunately the front grill is ****. It looks good in the picture (to me at least) but in the flesh the finish is really poor. Looks like I've used a paintbrush so I'll re-do it at some stage

I wanted a Longlife exhaust but on the day I decided to book something, no Longlife dealer wanted to answer the phone so I decided Powerflow instead. Took it to Demon Tweeks in Wrexham as they profess to be a Powerflow dealer. I went in and looked what the had and we settled on a twin 3" tip and a tiny little back box. I'm fairly sure it's meant to be a centre box but I got it welded in as a back box. The price wasn't too bad so I left it with them (at 8:30am), went back 4 hours later to pick it up and this is what I got: Some people might think this isn't so bad, but it was way too wonky for my liking. Took it back in and finally left at 5pm. Yeah 8 and a half hours to weld a box and tip on the end a pipe straight. After this, I had a little play with a mint Escort Cossie that was having some work done at Tweeks that same day, wasn't much in it but the Fab had the edge. Anyway, exhaust now looks like this:

After 7 months of build thread neglect it must be time for an update! When I last updated, the car was running a GTB1756vk turbo with a standard clutch, flywheel and (not counting the downpipe) exhaust. Progress went very slowly as I saved up to spend a month travelling around Europe. Once that was all paid for, the car has started to get a bit of love again. First thing was the exhaust. Ever since I fitted the turbo way back in January my car sounded like it had a bad exhaust blow. Naturally, I assumed it was the exhaust. I bought a straight through Piper for a decent price on the forum. Got that for about £120 delivered. It had the 6x4 oval tip and no boxes, it wasn't exactly subtle. Fitted it lying on the road, in the rain, outside my house and it 100% wasn't blowing but the irritating blowing noise was still there. In short, it was ****. It looked ****, it sounded ****, it fitted ****, and it prompted me to book in quite quick to get the exhaust done ASAP

Like Alex mentioned, I drove his with a (£1100!!!) hybrid fitted, then again a few months later with a GTB2260 fitted. I ordered my GTB the next day. As far as I understand a GTB will hold its boost better at the top end than most hybrids will. Only slightly hard part of fitting it is welding the flange on the downpipe, that's all really. A garage fitted my 2nd GTB and charged £250 labour, same as they would for a straight swap. A GTB1756 spools nice and quick and still copes fine at 2.2 bar, in fact it embarrasses a lot of way more expensive, and supposedly faster, cars. I do also agree on the point made about what your bhp target is, if it's 200 or so then get a hybrid. If it's 230+ then a GTB

Might be worth mentioning that John does all his maps remotely so you do it sat on your own driveway if you want to

Get someone who's running a GTB to take you for a spin, it's a no-brainer once you've done that. A GTB1756vk doesn't need to cost silly money, mine was only 500 from xman. Most hybrids cost at least that and need the same upgrade parts to go with it anyway (i.e fmic, clutch, decat and a new map).

I did go small GTB over a hybrid. I'd definitely recommend it, can even get a map that protects the standard clutch (a bit), but be prepared to upgrade. Certainly didn't cost 4K though.

I got a Powerflow box added to my Piper straight through (cause it was too loud) and it just takes the edge off the sound. It now is like civilised most of the time but still a bit of noise when you want it. Definitely the way forward. I'd recommend a Powerflow box as well, very pleased with mine!

^ This!! Hahaha

Still laughing at the comment about 8 or 9 pages ago digging at Alex for not maintaining a thread he started ahhahaha. At least he's now formally relinquished his duties... Hope this isn't too offensive to the accuser; but get real haha you're on an Internet forum! To keep it relevant, I don't particularly like the way VW chose to style the Golf R. It looks too much like some of the smaller engined versions but with 4 exhausts. I prefer the slightly more aggressive appearance of earlier R32s but that's just me.

I routinely turn up to every meet with a filthy car so it'll probably be gleaming tomorrow. I'll be there either at 1pm or I'll drive down with Alex

Good progress! Nice to see my old intercooler going to good use! Did you work out fitting that inter cooler surround yet?

Would you post the exhaust?

Know it very well! Do you ever see me around? And yes Alex could be a good plan! I take it you saw that new map that John has sent over, I've been slacking a bit with the data-logging

Not a lot to update at the moment except a nice little Carbon Collective order that I've placed earlier Had their Platinum Glass a while ago which is very impressive but has eventually faded off the windscreen now. I also was bought a bottle of Oracle for my birthday so I've ordered a load of other stuff to go with it. Planning to do a deep clean this week I'm using satsuma snowfoam, the lusso shampoo, clay the car, de-iron it and coat my wheels with Platinum wheels, re-do the glass sealant. I'm going to hone my skills with a DA polisherand then I've got a paint prep solution (basically just IPA) to use before we give the car a couple of coats of Oracle. Hopefully get some nice beading off it when I'm done Even bought myself a carbon fiber phone case cause I'm a bit sad like that