October 5th

 

Door card back on.

Apparently having to pull on the end of the door lock cable that normally links to the door handle will not be acceptable for Mrs Pasty for the weekend.

Put back on with the minimum of screws as it'll be coming off again soon.

 

Once it was back on the day was filled with less exciting running around.

Town for a bit of shopping, ASDA for t'big shop, then out to a friends for the evening.

All performed without a glitch

October 6th

 

Day out making the most of the rather uncharacteristic good weather.

Up into the rolling hills of the Cotswolds for a brisk walk in the sunshine around Broadway Tower.

Beautiful scenery and given the clarity of the weather you could literally see for miles!

 

Mix of B roads and minor A roads was pleasant on the car returning 56mpg

October 7th

 

Day off to prep for tomorrow's trackday at Oulton Park and to travel leisurely up to my overnighter in Crewe.

 

Given a weekday off and everywhere being open, I headed over to my local dealer and picked up some more rivets and have booked in this afternoon so that my door repair is finalised before tomorrow.

 

Have also arranged to meet a local member who will be lending me his in car camera set up just in case my external bullet cam arrangement is foiled by bad weather (not looking likely at the moment)

 

With regards to car prep for tomorrow I have....um....removed the rear seats, put my track wheels in, and....cleaned the windows and mirrors.

What else can i do

Actually i did hoover it and empty the crap from the door pockets.

Essential if you ask me! 

 

Door carrier riveted back in in about 30 seconds and door card left off so i could hit the road

 

Stopped for fuel in Birmingham to save myself the job tomorrow

 

Fuel - £48.80 - MPG - 50.9

 

continued north and arrived in Crewe safe and sound

October 8th

 

The Big Day!!

 

Extra - Oulton Park Trackday - £129

 

Up bright and early and to the circuit for half 7, first job was to put my door card back on (a job i'm not adept at), then sign in, have the briefing and head back to the garage to change my wheels over.

Choices choices.

My "track" wheels have a pair of mismatched part worns and a pair of Continental SportContact2s however they are 5 and 9 years old and don;t have too much tread on.

My road wheels have a pair of MOT advisory Pirelli P Zero Neros and a pair of Uniroyal Rain Sports.

What to do.

Well the only sensible option was to mix and match, uniroyals are too soft to keep on for track work but the part worns have more tread than the pirellis. So pirellis up front and swap the rear out to the old worn continentals.

result a rather silly looking car!!

 

 

 

still did the trick though day was brilliant.

Despite collecting a home made Fabia fit camera mount my pocket cam was awful, and either it draws too much juice or my rechargeable batteries were screwed so i was left with the bullet cam option.

Only issue is that Javelin don't allow suction cup mounted cameras, cue a pikey solution

 

 

Actually worked really well giving the following for the 2 sessions i actually remember to film

 

 

second session is better from around 6:30 when i catch a Fiesta ST on tasty track wheels and tyres.

I spent the next 10 minutes chasing him around, if it wasn't my tyres and fuel I literally could have done it all afternoon!!

 

 

Only black mark against the day came right at the end and was caused by my own stupidity.

When i when to change my wheels over for the drive home It quickly became apparent that i had no idea where my locking wheel nut key was. 

Second i had no memory of doing anything with it in the morning, as such i could only deduce that i left it in the wheel nut after torqueing the bolts up and then headed out on to track, flinging the nut into the scenery at corner 1 no doubt.

 

Left the pretty mullered track wheels on for a 65mph drive home, slow to avoid drawing attention from any traffic officers whilst on pretty borderline tyres, and for mpg reasons.

 

Arrived home at around 8pm and was absolutely knackered!

October 9th

 

Stopped for fuel on the way to work (after leaving Oulton with the trip computer saying a 40 mile range I did 125 miles )

 

This gets a little confusing as i put £15 of diesel in at lunchtime at Oulton Park which i forgot to take fuelly details for however

 

I filled up in Birmingham on the way up on Monday afternoon

From there to crewe on the motorway - 55 miles

a few miles around crewe looking for some food - 3 miles

Crewe to Oulton Tuesday morning - 19 miles

All day at Oulton - ?????

All the way home - 120 miles

 

so the only missing number is the track mileage

 

My odometer shows a 350 mile difference between filling up in birmingham and filling up again in Cheltenham

 

350 - 55 - 5 - 19 - 120 = 156miles....

 

Oulton Park International Circuit is 2.7 miles

 

I did 156 miles on track?! 57 odd laps?!

Wowzers they flew by and i was going a lot longer than i realised!!

 

Fuel - £69.69 - MPG - 31

 

and that includes a steady 70mph to Oulton and 65mph on the way home

The mpg figures really do take a nose dive when you spend a whole day hammering around flat out!!

 

Spoke to my tame mechanic who helpfully being a VW mastertech at a VW main dealer has a set of all locking keys so could help me identify which mine was so i knew what to buy as a replacement; or worst case could sell me another set of bolts after getting my lost ones off.

October 10th

 

Dull commutes again just waiting for a free slot at the mechanics to get my wheels sorted 

October 11th

 

Commute to work, then head to the garage after work.

Locking wheels nuts identified and the hunt for a new key begins.....£25 from eBay! ouch

while the wheels were off we swapped the dead rubber to my track wheels and the decent rubber on to my gold wheels so all legal and ready for another 10k or so i reckon. 99% of my driving on the road is spent sat in traffic so having mismatched part worns doesn't really worry me too much

October 12th

 

Contact made with a super helpful member her who has donated me a set of 4 locking bolts and the relevant key saving me having any further expenditure.

It's always good when people restore your faith in humanity

 

Actual car wise the car was garaged apart from being used for a trip out for an evening meal - the driving rain proving no match for my newly applied rain repellent. Fantastic stuff and will now be first pre-winter modification!

October 13th

 

Car borrowed by Mrs Pasty to go in to the gym (hers had no fuel) other than that all quiet on the Fabia front

I like these posts   Looks like you had fun on the track, hope to get to more myself next year.

October 14th

 

Normal service resumed following trackday excitement and the daily commute continues.

Car did develop some sort of boosty chirrup this morning but failed to replicate it again this afternoon so we'll forget it ever happened

October 15th

 

2 more commutes

no more action

October 16th

 

A rare mid week locked away day.

Dropped Mrs Pasty to the airport to go away on a business trip for 10 days and as her car was on the outside we took that.

I then took that on to work and home again so my car remaing unbothered

October 17th

 

I know it's early but already there has ben an incident.

 

Squeezing out of my road this morning I got it ever so slightly wrong and given the new build estate I live on with it's unfinished roads and incredibly large kerbs I am now down to just 1 wheels with no damage!!

 

 

Looks like i'll need to sort out a refurb at some point - new colour anyone?

IMO if you want a new colour, go black, but I think you should stay gold.

Did black, loved them off the car, wasn't impressed once they were on

 

Think they'll stay gold and tbh probably won't bother refuring them its not scene queen after all

In case you hadn't noticed it's been a quiet old time of it of late

 

so the story of October 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29, 30th, 31st, and November 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th goes like this

 

one fuel stop

 

Fuel - £51.21 - MPG - 40.8

 

and i've also started to encounter the winter classics now the weather has turned.

 

Windscreen so steamed i had to get paper towels to remove the moisture.

Blamed door seals but having taken the door carsd off it looks like Skoda have done a dealer fix on them way way back before i owned the car.

There were a few splits in the old sealant though so i've sealed over the top of them and hopeuflly it'll get better.

A couple of trays of cat litter in the back footwells should hopefully soak up the remaining damp in the air.

 

I did also apply some "anti-fog" stuff to the windscreen although results have been pretty poor.

New wiper blades and the rain repellent on the outside are working well.

 

Bulb warning last night and turns out i'm all out of bulbs.

Had a rear standard/fog light and a brake light go together so have fudged the the brake light by putting one of the reversing bulbs in there (i assume being seen to be braking is more important that seeing where you are reversing!)

Shall drop in to Halfords on my way home and pick up some new bulbs ready for the winter onslaught.

 

Other than that all quiet on the western front

Indeed i thought the very same thing over the weekend.

 

Almost a month has slipped by with next to no activity worth noting.

 

November 5th

called in to Halfords on the way home and picked up some new bulbs

 

Essential - new brake light bulbs and fixed rear light - £14

 

All sorted and back running with no warnings from the dash when i brake - which is nice.

 

After that it all went a bit quiet.

 

Key points from November 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, & 19th are

 

The cat litter in the rear footwell seemed to remove a certain amount of moisture from the interior meaning i haven't had another experience of sitting outside work for 20 minutes waiting for the blowers to do their thing so i could go home.

Or maybe it's not been that cold since? :S

I do keep an eye out in pound shops and supermarkets for the proper moisture absorbing packs but as yet have not laid my hands on any.

The car has performed its duties of ferrying me to and from work, and the odd extra carricular errand, admirably and without a single hiccup.

The car does still bring a serious smile to my face.

It is swift enough to bring about good progress, and has enough torque and power to make it fun.

I honestly don't think I'd have more fun with more power, as i'd most likely end up in/through a hedge and with very large regrets.

And all the while it'll do 60mpg when treated nice and drop to around 40 when absolutely thrashed.

love love love it

November 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, & 27th

 

Catching some much needed summer sun in Fuerteventura so the car remained untouched.

It did get ousted from the garage as my brother deemed his S3 more important so it got the locked away in safety spot - while my car was left in the (only very very very slightly) less safe position on the driveway.

Returned and found it completely unscathed (just as his S3 woudl have been) I mean yes we live in Gloucester, but in one of the nice bits, it's not like Beruit!

November 28th

 

Having the car left for a week did mean a trip to the fuel station before work on my return.

Not for fuel but for air.

It would appear that not only does the rear passenger side Montreal seep air out (due to the corrosion which it would seem my refurb did not fix, but the front driver's side part-worn also appears to be leaking as they returned a wholey unacceptable 12psi, and 14psi respectively. I thought they looked soft and that the car felt horrible (I just assumed that was post Rental-Fiat-Panda-itis)

 

Ah well rather pay 20p once a week than fork out for new wheels/tyres.

November 29th

 

Back to dull old commuting

no excitement (and don't hold your breath for any for a while :()

 

I did have a cross country blat down to Westernbirt Arberitum for their Enchanted Christmas - big trees, big lights, cold weather, hog roast, all at the knockdown price of zero pounds thanks to Mrs Pasty's work.

Again car always makes me smile.

Was "cracking on" on the way down on some decent back roads to try to avoid the afterwork traffic on the main routes and the car is brilliant.

I genuinely can't think of anythnig I'd replace it with - a newer one? An Ibiza FR/Cupra Diesel? RenaultSport Megane DCi175? Golf GT?

Who knows but the Fabia ploughs on towards 135,000 miles with little reduced enthusiasm!

 

Travelling in convoy back with Mrs Pasty taking lead in the standard balck car did also remind me quite how punchy my car is.

Anyone else find that when travelling in convoy you can't help but turn into a small competitive child!

every acceleration off a roundabout turned into a drag strip (at legal speeds of course officer)

all very good fun

November 30th

 

Nice crisp winters day ideal for (thinking about) washing my car.

It truly is dirty enough to need doing but it'll just get dirty agani so quickly i really can't be arsed.

dirty it is and dirty it shall say

December 1st

 

Sunday so car in the garage with nothing doing.

On  side note i did spot that a sidelight has gone on Mrs Pasty's car.

Time to say goodbye to the skin on my knuckles and get that sorted out!

December 2nd

 

commutes to and from work nothing exciting to note

December 3rd

 

Was late for work this morning cos of this...um...er...there was a.... um... ok ok i was playing xbox so had to get a shift on to get to work on time.

 

I really do love the way this car will pottle along at sensible speeds but then a short prod of the pedal unleashes a sooty hell and the wave of torques surges you on to a decent speed with little effort.

It's not gunna tear up trees but when required to go briskly it certainly will - and the rest of the journey at built up area speed limts means the fuel economy returns north of 45 from it's 25 low point