Loach

I think it looks good. It shows great attention to detail. I can only imagine how fastidious you are about the rest of your car when you go to the expense of colour coding your plastic engine cover! Just out of interest how much did it cost?

The Fabia vRS is a very good seller in Scotland! Perhaps this is because the Scots know a bargain when they see one ;-) I have to say I personally feel the vRS is a very strong candidate for a cult car. It will never be excepted by the masses because of the badge on the front and the fact that (at the moment) it burns the wrong fuel. Having said that a strong candidate for future classic status may well be the Audi R8 TDI. I cant see many of those ending up in the hands of the Barry boys. I read in autocar the other day that Audi has said that all future RS models will be Diesels. Whether this happens or not only time will tell. The fact at the moment is I think my vRS is ace and I dont really care what anybody else thinks. Its is a wolf in sheeps clothing and I'm quite happy for this situation to remain in place a little longer. Once a car has become a classic it will probably remain so. But one of things that sets classics aside from cult cars is that element of unobtainability. At the moment there are too many of them around. But who is to say that if you cherish and nurture your vRS and more importantly keep it standard that you wont see its value on the rise in 10 years time? Last bit for Mr. Wobblytickle thats Letham Angus.

Slightly off topic but having read with interest the conversation between Davey and Mr WobbleyTickle (and having had a couple of bottles of wine) I would like to add my own experiences into the mixer. I used to be in the RAF as a first line aircraft mechanic. Every morning we would check the tyre pressures of our Tornado's and if they were low we would re-gas them with pure nitrogen. This was because of the increased stability of nitrogen over air at high temperatures (generated during landing) and also because 100% nitrogen doesn't have a lot of the impurities that compressed air has. Bear in mind that a Tornado lands at a not so ludicarious 150 miles an hour. Great I hear you say but what does that have to do with the world of cars? One of reasons why the RAF pays to fill its tyres (of all aircraft not just the fast ones) with nitrogen is that it stops water from getting between the tyre and the inner wheel where it causes corrosion. Corrosion is bad enough on a plain steel wheel but on an alloy it is worse. I have also read with interest that the new Nissan GTR comes with tyres filled only with nitrogen as standard. Why do you think Nissan have done this? As the car industry learns from the aerospace industry (anti lock braking systems were invented for aircraft as were head up displays which have already appeared on production cars) Perhaps sooner or later all car tyres may be filled with nitrogen.

Your average ned has never and will never be able to afford an E Type Jag, unless its just a chassis in need of a rebuild (before someone points out a scrapper on ebay for £2000.) Unfortunately this is the way of the the car world, as cars get older they get cheaper and so become available to those who couldn't have afforded them when they were new. In the case of the E type, and most other high end sports cars, and later supercars, that price can still exclude most people. The Fabia vRS on the other hand was a bargain when it was new (one of the reasons why we who bought them new love them, its great watching your 13 grand car see off a 20 grand beemer) this very fact now means that younger drivers can afford to buy and more importantly run them. I do think the Fabia vRS was a trend setting car, but the advancement in Diesel technology made a car of its type inevitable. VAG just played safe by using its Skoda brand to test the waters (lets not forget the brains in the Czech republic wanted it to be petrol with the 1.8 20v turbo engine) and it was the boss of VW at the time who insisted it use the 1.9 TDI engine. I wish he would have followed this through to its natural conclusion and made it 175 BHP out of the box because then it really would have put the cat amongst the pigeons :-)

The points on my licence (not incured on a motorway) would disagree with the Feminine driving accusation ;-) The vRS recently had its first service and the dealers said they thought the wear was quite the norm and recomended swapping the fronts with the rears at the next service. Some of you guys must spin your fronts all the time! I know its quite easy in a vRS, and fun too, but if you want more than 10,000 miles from a set of tyres try keeping the traction light off!

Mines blue and there are a few of them around the Dundee/Forfar area of Scotland. The wifey wanted a yellow one and they are quite rare in both shades.

Standard Bridgestones? My special edition came shod in Continental Sport Contacts. I thought the Conti's were the OE for vRS SE? Is this not the case? Anyway the continentals seem to be wearing ok (just done 11 thousand miles and the still look fresh.

It is always good to have another one though. It is one less BMW driver!

There are loads of us Fabia vRS drivers in Scotland (particularly Tayside) they just dont seem to know about Brisky or they dont post.

Just a quick one, as with a remap no new components are added to the car (It is after all just a change to the code in the ECU) how would the insurance ever be able to tell whether you had remapped your car or not?

Really? Where is the cabin temp sensor located then? I have had a good look and I cant seem to find it. Also as someone who attempted to fit Climate control to a standard aircon car (a uk spec honda prelude) I can safely say that its not just a question of box out box in. To run proper Climate Control the system needs all sorts of different info like outside air temp, cabin temp and daylight sensing amongst others to work correctly. The fabia has none of these but our Octy, with climatronic does. I cant see how with the lack of info the system has it can be anything other than normal air con in the Fabia. Apart from a clever sales ploy by Skoda perhaps?

When I was trawling the net looking for info on the SE before mine was delivered I came across a few pictures of foreign plated race blue Fabia Vrs with different options/extras than the uk fit models. It was the opinion at the time that some or most European countries had a share of the last of the vrs models (usually a 1000) in race blue that were spec'd differently depending on which country there were destined for. I saw a pic of a race blue VRS (on this site) outside of the factory in the Czech republic with xenons fitted and a diferent interior (both front seats had height adjustment) that was for the Czech home market. I also saw a pic of a race blue VRS in a French show room with one wing mirror smaller than the other (a usuall thing on the continent apparently) and the window sticker said that it came fitted with ESP amongst other things. It also had sunset glass. Everyone knows that UK SE's didn't get fitted with ESP or xenons and that the leather interior was fitted by Skoda UK at the docks at Grimsby, the seats apparently having been reupholstered by an aftermarket company like seat surgeons.

Yeah it has in lovely black (thank God its not tan like in a L & K That would make the old man wee stink even worse!) The trim is on the centre console and around the heater vents and it has to go! It says rapier on the ash tray door as well, was this a special trim or something? Never heard of an Octavia Rapier before.

Cheers for the information chaps!

I was thinking about a remap but the car has done 76k and I thought this might be a bit high for uping the power. When you had yours done who did it and what did it cost If you dont mind me asking? What power was it making then? Did you uprate the clutch or anything else? New Turbo? Induction kit? Cheers in advance for the info Nick.