"Phantom" fabia II vRS estate

[sharkrider]

ok, due to other peoples ideas, I have decided to do a project thread for my car seeing as it might be a keeper!

 

I bought him new in April 2013, here he is next to minty, in the rain, in the dealer carpark..... (before the "factory order" eibachs were put on!)

 

bit of a wheelarch gap with the blocks in! sorry to see minty go , she was a fantastic car, and we did 50,000 trouble free miles together, including a trip "home" to mlada boleslav !

 

 

 

these were ordered when I ordered the car, and fitted before I picked him up!

 

 

much better wheel arch gap! not sure I like the look of those tyres though!

 

 

the day I picked him up! shiny black magic paint, black alloys, eibachs, climate control, and phone prep

 

 

one of the most important first mods!

 

opinion is divided on these, but I like 'em :P

 

with the other member of the family

 

you know you have polished it right, if you can see yourself

 

The only bright thing on the car was the rear lights....

 

again, not to everyones taste, but I like it....

 

Thats all for now! got to go to work, but will put up more stuff tomorow

 

Shark.
 

 

 

[@Lee]

nice one, Dave

[Dark_Hero]

Good start Dave, look forward to updates

[Sparkly]

I knew the peer pressure would get to you

[O.C.D.]

Yo dude your new wagon is the mutts nuts are you keeping all four badges on the rear or are you going to go for the more stealth look..    

[sharkrider]

Yo dude your new wagon is the mutts nuts are you keeping all four badges on the rear or are you going to go for the more stealth look..

When I first got it I was dead set on debadging it apart from the vRS .... But kinda got used to it now , still might do it

[mattvrestate]

Looks tidy that m8 !

[sharkrider]

Had its first track day at 1,000 miles old, bedford autodrome, how fast, and it was very slow on its chocolate tyres

 

 

winter wheels are ready for it! mark I octy elegance wheels wearing 205/45/16 goodyear winters, nicely refurbished by myself!

 

 

 

burly men and a crow bar... hmmmm whats going on here then ?

 

 

[sharkrider]

my latest track weapon by H&R (RARB)  the thickest one available for the mark II...

 

 

 

had to be crow barred into place!!!!

 

 

 

MUCH flatter at the track this time, (castle combe) and much more grip thanks to a combination of tyres/RARB and springs...

 

 

I know its been said before, but the RARB is one of the best mods you can do for this car! the car is MUCH more stable, much less prone to roll, and the understeer is all but GONE! the grip it can generate now is awsome, its way exceeded my old car, the car is now a JOY to drive... SO pointy and flat
 

[sharkrider]

oh, I almost forgot this! bought from a nice chap on here!

 

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well, whats in the pipeline? well there are some Weitec Coilovers going for a reasonable price (more than cheap coilovers, but these are apparently good!) and if they are still available after winter, this will probably be my next mod (insurance allowing) to pre-empt any degradation in the standard dampers dealing with the suspension setup it now has, although they seem to be coping fine, no jumping over bumps mid-corner ect , all very solid!.. eibachs can then be sold to some nice person on here

 

if they have gone, I will probably go for a polybush set up first.....

 

followed on by bilstien dampers to go alongside the exsisting eibach springs

 

after that I have no definate plans for the "near" future... maybe some 312 mm brakes (but oddly i find the brakes fine, they struggle a little on track, but are still ok!) and an exhast (not too loud, dont like too loud, that switchable one maybe?!)

 

if I keep the car (rumours of no new vRS) then at 3 years old and the end of the warrenty, it will get a "refresh" to make it feel "new" ... long term plans are:

 

1) clutch pack and oil change for gearbox (keep on top of it)

2) loba turbo, and remap to suit , circa 250 bhp?

 

as far as it goes

[JerryT]

I know its been said before, but the RARB is one of the best mods you can do for this car! the car is MUCH more stable, much less prone to roll, and the understeer is all but GONE! the grip it can generate now is awsome, its way exceeded my old car, the car is now a JOY to drive... SO pointy and flat

Never got to the RARB but just changing the springs made a hell of a difference over the standard set up. Putting the two together is only ever going to make this better.

All the best with it Dave

[sharkrider]

thanks Jerry, got to be the best car I've owned in this state so far, leaving the engine alone will propably garuntee me reliability during the warrenty! lol....

[Sparkly]

Sharky, is that Pipercross a full induction kit,

Can we get a pic?

[sharkrider]

Sharky, is that Pipercross a full induction kit,

Can we get a pic?

nope, just a replacement element no insurance issues and still gains to be had

[vRSy]

 

2) loba turbo, and remap to suit , circa 250 bhp?

 

 

 

Its not worth the cost!!!  Yes its rapid, but its alot of money for only 250hp if the car was capable of the full 270-280hp without issues then it might be a worthwhile step!!  A full stage 2 setup will give you 230Hp.  So your looking at paying around an extra £1500-£2000 ontop of a full stage 2 setup for the LOBA, labour and custom software (as APR arent doing software for the LOBA anymore).

 

Reference the brakes if your car struggles on track with stock brakes it will hang out when mapped.  My vRS with Shark software was about 13.8-14 seconds to 0-100mph stock is about 18sseconds iirc!!  So you can imagine the speed will be grossly increased before each braking point!!

 

With the exhaust, it sounds like youhave the same opinion as me.  I dont like loud cars, or cars which shout about their performance.  Stealth all the way, which means the downpipe is the setup for you.  Not to much louder, but gives a deeper burble instead.

[sharkrider]

Its not worth the cost!!!  Yes its rapid, but its alot of money for only 250hp if the car was capable of the full 270-280hp without issues then it might be a worthwhile step!!  A full stage 2 setup will give you 230Hp.  So your looking at paying around an extra £1500-£2000 ontop of a full stage 2 setup for the LOBA, labour and custom software (as APR arent doing software for the LOBA anymore).

 

Reference the brakes if your car struggles on track with stock brakes it will hang out when mapped.  My vRS with Shark software was about 13.8-14 seconds to 0-100mph stock is about 18sseconds iirc!!  So you can imagine the speed will be grossly increased before each braking point!!

 

With the exhaust, it sounds like youhave the same opinion as me.  I dont like loud cars, or cars which shout about their performance.  Stealth all the way, which means the downpipe is the setup for you.  Not to much louder, but gives a deeper burble instead.

cool.... I did have the brakes upgrade listed before the power upgrade (I am thinking long term, which means when replacing things I may as well upgrade) sooooo, when front brake pads wear out, I may as well replace with 312mm, as the costs really arn't too different...

 

as with the turbo, If I keep the car long term, i will be replacing before failure, which means I will want to replace the turbo before 100k, so again, my thoughts are "why not upgrade at the time?" there may well be more options (cheaper options) available by then.. maybe just commision a hybrid, instead of loba? but if I totally agree that its not worth it if the miles are low and the stock turbo is good

 

its all a while off for now! appreciate your input, especially with the figures ect as you have been through the process

[MartynVRS]

230bhp with the handling mods does sound the sweet spot for one of these. 

[sharkrider]

done the track day at oulton park, great circuit , great day ,

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car did very well, over 100 miles on track, not a drop of oil put in since before tha last track session at castle coombe! still on 3/4 :P did a scan in the afternoon, no faults..

HOWEVER the whole day (and instructor sessions making me faster!) showed up the next mods that will be done trail braking methods of cornering mean I may have to invest in some high temp front pads, better brake fliud (high temp again) and 4 track day tyres, my tyers were fine, but I wore out my fronts, so when relacing anything... upgrade! watch this space

(thats jamie from brisky chasing me in the golf 4 motion in the pic!)

[sharkrider]

edit: funnily enough as far as the power discussions above go, they are on the back burner, my car was pretty much as quick if not quicker on the straights than most things out there that day!

[vRSy]

trail braking is for winners.  Best way to get rid of understeer on track.  I found the Fabia didnt like it though and could feel the ESP trying to cancel it out    This ST on the other hand is quite the opposite!!!  Very loose back end 

[sharkrider]

seemed to work well on mine! I find this new car very different to the old one the ESP was quite unnoticable ( to the point of going off track a few times! lol..) the trail braking worked very well! shifting all the weight onto the front tyre, increasing the turn in grip.. awsome! i learnt loads on how to drive on the track, very happy to have got the instruction

the ESP on jamies V6 4mostion golf was about 100 times MORE apparent than on the vRS, it was SO nannying it was appaling, ruined the drive on the track (I drove with the ESP on) so much so, he later removed the fuse to disabloe the system, and went massively faster!

[sharkrider]

a few more pics.. couldnt keep the atom behind me, no matter how fast I "think" I am! pmsl...

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[sharkrider]

some greenstuff pads will be finding their way to me soon

[rover220]

some greenstuff pads will be finding their way to me soon

 

you will regret that

[vRSy]

some greenstuff pads will be finding their way to me soon

 

 

Why greenstuff.  That doesnt make sense to me.  Thats basically a stock pad equivalent!!

 

They even say "Premium street sport pad for cars up to 200bhp. General spirited street driving."

 

Red stuff would have made more sense, although id have still gone yellowstuff for trackwork!!  That said, im not an EBC fan either.  They crumble and glaze when hot!!