WW_VRS

Sad to read about this - RIP Andrew and condolences to family and friends.

I wouldn't bother dropping a PD150 turbo on the PD130, yeah it is stronger but not much point 'straight swap' wise. A hybrid is a different matter, I've had a stage 1 and stage 2 on my PD130 at the time and they were both rock solid with great usable range. With regards the straight swap, it is as close as it will get on that - the housing needs rotating 90 degrees (from memory). This is dead-easy, there are screws that you undo a tad to allow the rotation, then just tighten them again afterward. The easiest way to do this - take off the old turbo. Put new one side by side with it, then figure it out. It is very obvious how to do it (hell I worked it out :p) Get new gaskets for the swap if you do it yourself, they tend to have them in stock I am now running a Kia 1.4 petrol which is a VERY different (slow/boring) experience compared to the Fab vRS estate which Ross (at that time at Unit 18) built - that was quite a lot more fun to drive hehe. Even without the additional hardware, the benefit of the hybrid (when mapped) would be that it has to work way less hard to get you the same airflow/pressure your map requires, which keeps the temperatures lower as compared to a stock PD130 turbo being pushed to the limit (for similar power). A FMIC or at least venting the SMIC does make a difference in summer, but hey, we are getting weather reports from the UK on TV here so I doubt you're too worried on that front right now :p

Looks nice

The Fabia vRS (Mk1) I had took about that long to get the good numbers. Also winter diesel is WAY lower on MPG in my experience (for me up to 10mpg difference was not an exception, but when I lived in the UK I didnt hang about too much;))

Turn off wireless. Connect a single PC to the router and disconnect everything else. Run a speed test after the machine has completely finished starting up. Note if your anti virus or windows update kicks in then clearly that will create a ton of traffic for a bit. Either way. Once you have the results, disconnect that PC, connect next one, repeat etc. If one of them shows a massively different speed compared to the others, that one is likely to have some upload type program active, most likely P2P related of course. There is tons of this junk out there, all it can take is a nasty toolbar coming along.. If you have any switches involved due to cable length & need to distribute traffic, it is worth having the test where you connect your switch and then only connect a single PC at a time to it, same process. I don't know if any machines are running IPV6 and whether Virgin supports that now, but if nothing is using it you may as well disable that protocol IMHO - just in case - until such time as it becomes ISP supported. Fingers crossed you'll find it, if not, at least you know your machines and network are sound. A lot of routers also have DHCP client tables, you could compare that list against your machine's MAC addresses. Any that are clients but are not known to you, are suspicious. Good luck!

If you cannot go Win7 (quite possible, there are a ton of older programs out there that just won't work, but there may be newer stuff about you can use instead etc.), then at the very least you should be on XPSP3 with whatever other patches are out. Not doing that means you'll be vulnerable even more. I have a similar situation, running Windows 2003 Server on a laptop. Very much cr*ppy situation, and I cannot wait to get the RAM doubled from 4-8GB plus I'll be running W7 64-bit at long last. The speed of the machine will be WAY better, plus even though I'll still have to jump through some hoops to get W2008R2 hosted as a virtual image, it will do it. More security built-in from the ground up. Less drivers available perhaps, but as I do not have that much hardware to connect to it anyway, should be just fine

Based on how smooth it is running I'd avoid Propane - impressive stuff, hopefully the turbo tweaking will get rid of that cloud of black, should be blistering fast but I'd imagine you have to be pretty careful in the wet even with great tires & the Peloquin?

The old intel wifi drivers were full of memory leaks, handle leaks, and would slow down the whole laptop to a crawl after running for a few days. More recent drivers have fixed those issues as well as security issues - some pretty nasty - will be fixed. Wifi routers, including some branded ones, have usually given up the ghost because of problems with overheating. If they don't fail, they just reduce power output which could have an impact on throughput if the signal strength & signal/noise drops where you are using your laptop for example. Another thing I've found to really make a difference on laptops is the power management. Some manufacturers (Sony for one) seem to think I want to turn off my full-power setting on the laptop's wifi to save power. I personally prefer to have a working connection, so I tend to disable these kinds of power savings unless I'm really not going to have any means of powering from the mains, nor spare batteries. If I plug into a cabled network, I turn off the wifi though. Unfortunately I no longer live in an area where broadband at UK levels is affordable, I'm paying about 75GBP/month for 3.5Mbit/s down, 800kbit/s up. Still, streaming over the gbit network works just perfectly hehe

I found sorting the handling out was a very good step, I used to have FMIC, hybrid stage 1 then later 2, full exhaust (not so much for the power that one), 312 mm brakes, rear ARB, rear strut, front strut. Eibachs and Koni FSDs. It was a good combination, although you can go more extreme, or lower, or both lol. I ran with an uprated Sachs clutch, and didnt have any trouble with the power which was at about 200 bhp, very low for what it could have done and it was tuned up later in 'the fabia vrs estate' by Ross - also, I had a quaffe ATB diff which really helped put the power down whilst cornering. There are many cars out there that are faster, or slower. It was one of the most enjoyable cars I've owned, easy to drive for long drives, fast or slow. I disagree that the stock brakes don't need to be upgraded though (fronts) - the 312mm gives incomparably better feedback - although suspension upgrades reduced the dive a LOT, which was part of the problem with the standard setup for me. I found the 312s didn't fade for me but I guess if you really go for it, maybe you could, who knows. I have not driven on the track and I would imagine that would push them a lot harder again. Definitely looks like you're able to spend a nice chunk of cash making it run smooth and safe - it will put a smile on your face

In Uni we built a clone of one of the Quad amplifiers, seem to recall it was a 60W stereo power amp only, amazingly heavy heat sinks etc, but it sounded awesome (official diagrams and circuit boards etc)

The main streets in Bogota are usually fairly good (government covers those), side roads are shockingly bad (as they are meant to be fixed up by the residents pulling together the funding). But the situation in the UK is insane, as a LOT of money is being taxed out of motorists and then used elsewhere. There are good roads too, but definitely it is extremely variable in quality even on motorways. Add to this that fixing the road happens too late in GB, meaning you can claim back the damage it DOES do to your car if you rip your car to **** when hitting one of those barsteward sharp-edged holes.. How about the concept they have in Holland - road tax is for road repairs, maintenance, investment in motoring-related infrastructure.

Yeah the shape is very different, won't fit without a fair chunk of hard work. Ross did the one on my old car, hit up the Unit 18 forum section as well, Alistair might well know where to source it as well. Depends a bit on how far away you are etc though I guess

should be pretty nippy Love the bit where it is faster than the super car Lambo lol

Great stuff, should be 'fairly' rapid once she's ready

Stay positive, even though it sucks, but it usually ends up as an opportunity to learn new stuff or use your existing skills in a new way at the very least. I've been made redundant various times. Sometimes with a bit of luck I had a new job before even stopping the work, other times I was out of a job for a month. I have been lucky there. Good luck with the job hunt, show you're willingness to take on challenges and you increase your chances.

Regarding the warm up etc - the car won't warm up a lot unless you use the turbo. This was particularly fun during the winter times, you had to rev the engine to get it to heat up enough to defrost the windscreen etc. I would wait till the temp gauge has settled before trashing it too hard, but you still have to drive the car a bit. Letting it cool down idling - that one really only applies if you trashed the nuts of it and then just turn it off, perhaps like a fast motorway stretch in Germany and just turning off the ignition to fill her up. In that case perhaps I'd just drive it to the pumps gently for the last few hundred meters and you'll be fine. Things get hotter when the car is mapped to what the turbo can (just about) take and you don't improve cooling and it is a hot day. But if you drive it hard and then just ease off a little, it will be fine. A petrol car with a big turbo gets WAY hotter, and with those, you do want to give it a bit more time to cool down for sure. As this car had a stock mapping, I don't think heat would be a big enough worry to do anything out of the ordinary, and the OP does not sound like he is someone trashing the engine to near-death anyway

Another angle on it - both assy and C are useful, but really I would find out what support forums etc exist for the PIC board you have. If there is a big community for both ways of developing with that board, then it does not matter. If there is a distinct group of users who stick with assembly code versus C, then go for that. Basic PICs are easy to learn how to program as TKW also states, you do get more control that way Good fun regardless

Stu will be safe - I won't be on that continent plus the reason for the 'fun' that time is out of my life thankfully

Definitely different, and the vRS lump is very heavy, also the 6 speed box adds a bit more weight IIRC - the suspension from the PD100 and vRS are different already, and they have a similar weight engine, so

In the end, on the Fabia, I ended up going for the Basil mod - i.e. cutting down the shaft. Works well, some effort but not much, and doesn't cost a great deal either Worth a shot

Had a stage 1 and later a stage 2 from TD, no problems - don't know the other company, but hey, if they're good as well, then no problem

I have driven in Holland, Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Austria and Switserland, plus Ecuador in various areas, US in various areas, and the UK. The utterly sh*te driving in the UK, lack of lane discipline in particular, driving on PARKING lights (so what if they are called side lights, they suck) when it is ****ING down with rain, or is semi-dark, or totally dark, is another. I have seen driving in the Domican Republic, and have experienced a few interesting moments in Quito with bus drivers that just fek all the others on the road. Lorries here are relatively well behaved. Motorway driving in the UK generally sucks as education is lacking or has been lacking. Add to this the perception that everyone is an excellent driver without being realistic about things in that most drivers are not, most likely myself included :p In the DR you expect driving to be challenging. In a country where there are traffic laws, and have been for considerable time, you would hope for better standards. Every time I used to return to the UK after a stint on the continent for my job I would be f-ing and blinding for the first half an hour till I got myself snapped out of it again and managed to get into the ignorance is bliss for the annoyance bit of the driving mode. In Ecuador driving is more like in the centre of an Italian city. You move when you can, and if a bus pushes in you kinda have no choice but to move. US based driving is more chilled on motorways but in the cities it is the same as everywhere else. Overall, you can push for improvements by raising the issue, but you kinda just have to put up with it and try not to loose your rag too badly when yet another one of those irritating things happens I guess

urm 1.07 euro for a liter vs 1.09 POUNDs per liter.. Hmm that sounds to me like the UK is rather a spectacularly large sum more expensive.. Prices are high, but in the Euro zone, Derv is generally between 20-30% cheaper than in the UK, and that is based on having driven about in UK, Holland, Belgium and France extensively over the past few years for work

I was with 1&1 and the only way to move a domain from one hosting package to another (I had a few at some stage) was to register the domain against the hosting package you wanted it to be under. They would charge a normal domain renewal fee to do so. However, they *would* add time to the domain equivalent to the purchase. The reason they did this was to not charge for the admin directly, but to still make the money up front I guess. I havent used 123 for a while but I vaguely recall they have a similar concept. (or had at least).

Considering how much I paid in the UK for connectivity as compared to Holland, the inefficiency of anything government related in the UK, and the constant messing about with the industry, I hope things get taken out of control of the government asap. I've not had too much trouble with the individual companies, Virgin, Zen, BT and Pipex amongst them.