Hello everyone, after over two years of membership and after reading tens of brilliant build threads, I thought I would start my own. I’ll be honest; I won’t be offended if no one reads it as its main purpose is for my own enjoyment in tracking the progress of my car.

I’ve always driven Skoda’s I learnt to drive in one and all 3 of my cars since have been Skoda Fabia’s. My first car was my Mums 2002 Fabia Silver line which I shared with my sister at 17. A cracking little car that I took everywhere on little adventures and road trips. She spent over 10 years serving the family well and in 2011 I was able to trade her in for my first car, a 2007 Skoda Fabia VRS. I loved my time with the Mk1, being an IT Techy with no mechanical skills (I even have trouble servicing my mountain bikes) I wish I had the ability to modify it more. I had my MK1 remapped and fitted 312mm brakes.

One day I got invited to my local Skoda dealership for some ‘exciting deals’ I was happy my MK1 but curiosity got the better of me. I went down and instantly fell in love with a 2011 Fabia VRS Estate in racing blue with the dark chrome gigaros. Loved the test drive and was given a brilliant trade in price for my MK1 so the deal was set. Here she is the day I picked her up at the end of March 2013 (Hence the snow :-p)

I got the car with 9000 miles on it. Not bad for a 2 year old! Serviced twice by dealers and was in excellent condition all round. First important modifications were to add a personal touch. My little tribute to one of my hero's.

My first year of ownership has gone trouble free. I love the DSG and the cracking 1.4TSI donkey up front. Our very first Skoda left an impression on my Sister too. Here is my VRS next to my sister's very first car purchase; A lovely Monte Tech.

Now that I have more disposable income I am now starting to tweak the car. Starting with the small things my first purchases were front mud flaps and a stubby aerial. Exciting I know but it’s the little things that all add up to make a big difference.


Next up is a set of H&R springs for a subtle 35mm drop. The standard springs are just too high!! So going from this;


To this;




I have not done many miles since the springs have been put on, but the car feels different in a good way. Before in sharp cornering you would roll with the body roll from the car. Now the car corners much flatter so my body rolls into the corner but the car stays flatter. Hard to explain but it feels good. Will report more after I have done more miles.

Next up is a set of new front boots as the Conti’s that were on the car from new were well and truly done. A set of Maxxis ZR-1’s will do nicely thanks. Got them for a bargain price and have read many a good review on here. (Mainly from Sharkrider!!!)

Please excuse my girlfriend, after 12 hours of looking after airline passengers she goes a little stale in the head.... she wanted to look "like the Michelin Man"

Got a few plans for my car, in no particular order I want to;

- Fit wheels spacers to improve the stance, she looks even more narrow now that the springs are on

- Centre silencer delete to improve exhaust tone under hard acceleration

- Wind deflectors

- Induction kit or filter?!?!

- Rear ARB

- Change the light bulbs to LED where I can

- TMC Tuning box

The list will no doubt increase, but I am excited to get underway and really make this car even better than it already is!

Awesome start to a build. Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference

I agree... Great car, and the little touches go a LONG way! I think they make all the difference.

If I could afford a VRS estate, I'd have one in a heartbeat

Picked up some nifty little LED number plate lights. I think they look great! Mega happy with the £5 investment!

Picked up some nifty little LED number plate lights. I think they look great! Mega happy with the £5 investment!ImageUploadedByTapatalk1394478274.345164.jpg

look good! Get them off ebay? did you get any fault codes on the dash?

I did indeed get them off eBay! I got a lightbulb logo on the dash in the rev dial when I first tried them, but not seen it again since? Weird one.

What stubby aerial is that?

It was off eBay for the grand price of £7 delivered!

Item no: 261351506739

very nice vRS estate looks good in race blue 

Straight fit without messing about?

Straight fit. So much nicer than the original one.

Put 500 miles on the new H&R springs, having driven on many different types of roads I can now give my honest opinion on my first major MOD.

Bang for buck it has to be the best modification you can make to a MK2. The ride although hard is not as crashy as the original setup. The body roll is reduced and the whole car feels more planted on turn in.

I spend most of my time on the motorway, the ride is a lot smoother and the car feels settled at speed. I am really happy with the setup now and I am looking at bolting on a RARB to compliment the springs. :-)

Gave the car a good detail over the weekend,

Autoglym shampoo

Clay session (was filthy)

Polish

Extra gloss was applied

Took me 5 hours all together and I am really happy with the results. Not bad beading too :-)

Great little write up on the H&R's Al, I forget what a revelation they were when i got on the motorway the first time too, so much more composure at the national limit.  I promise you will find the RARB only builds on that.

 

Nice work on the beads too.

Cheers Sparkly :-) they are a revelation; having done 16000 miles on the standard setup I really noticed the difference. At 70mph on the motorway the car is so much more composed and comfortable (believe it or not!) She looks more like a hot estate now which is nice.

Plans coming up soon.....

- centre silencer delete

- ITG filter

- wheel spacers

- fitting of some accessories

A few more updates for my little/big Fabia today;

 

Met a nice chap called Richard today and his very lovely green VRS hatch. Had a good chat and then drove away with an ITG Maxogen in the boot.

 

 

I was feeling brave, so I cracked out the tools and got stuck in and 25 minutes later I ended up with this....

 

 

First impressions are very good indeed!

 

 

There is a nice whine from the supercharger now and a weird sounding whoooooooosssshhhhh noise on throttle above 2k revs. The whole car feels more eager to get up and go. Really impressed and mega happy with it. I really think I need to get the centre silencer removed from the exhaust now to compliment the induction kit. Will sound even more epic!!

Another little mod fitted today;

I like using the DSG paddles as in my childish brain I feel like an F1 driver! Only problem is they are a little small and most people don't even notice that I have them. I have been asked many a times "why are you tapping the back of the steering wheel??"

Picked these paddle extensions off eBay;

They seem good, they make the paddles easier to find and just add a little more to the rather bland interior! Happy happy! Will see how long they take to fall off......

They look great

Two very handy mods there Ally.

I know because I have them myself

The paddle shift extenders made me far more inclined to use the paddles by improving the reach for my fingers and the ITG or VWR intake is brilliant and the noise is just enough, but not too much.

Don't forget to clean and oil it every 10k. ITG do a cleaning kit for it.

Thanks! Going to order a cleaning kit, should take me around 9 months to put those miles on it, but may do it sooner for piece of mind.

My drive to work was noticeably different this morning. The ITG was giving off some lovely sounds and the engine is defiantly more responsive. The paddles look good and made the steering wheel feel chunkier and nicer to use.

Sorry just to sneak in on your thread... do you have a link for the paddle extensions. Ive got a courtesy vrs at the moment (2014) and the paddles are miles better than my 2010. Aswell as a few other bits but thats a different thread.

Sorry just to sneak in on your thread... do you have a link for the paddle extensions. Ive got a courtesy vrs at the moment (2014) and the paddles are miles better than my 2010. Aswell as a few other bits but thats a different thread.

No problem at all! Thanks for taking a look :-)

271405522615 is the eBay item number. There are plenty others too. For earlier cars like ours make sure you get Audi DSG extensions as VW have slightly different paddles.

Had a lovely drive to work this morning. :-) All these little changes had added up to make this car pretty different to the one I had been driving at the start of this year. Love it.

Not too much of an update; took the car on a trip to Wales for some mountain biking. Car was lovely to drive on the twisty B stuff. Decided to make use of the boot to swallow the bikes rather than my roof racks so I could drive 'Briskly' and not worry about £6,000 worth of bikes falling off!

I have noticed that my MPG has been pretty rubbish since fitting the ITG. I decided to take a look and whip it all off to make sure that I fitted it correctly first time round. I found that the air flow sensor looked like it was being restricted by the jubilee clip. I refitted it making sure not to over tighten the jubilee clip ensuring there is a nice flow of air to the sensor.

On my commute to work my MPG was up by 5 compared with last week. Fingers crossed the issue is resolved.