Well this Sunday (05/02/06) it finally got round to 'fitting some of the mods' day

Down to Fareham, didnt go too badly wrong on the way, asked for directions at the local Shell once and drove it straight there beyond that

Blasted speedbumps, really, really high and the straddler type, I was virtually stood still over them as standard.

Got there nice and early, several coffees and a lot of work later we had Eibachs, Jabbasport rear ARB, Forge FMIC and 312 mm brakes fitted.

Minor mishap with a clip meant a little run without the turbo, had to take the bumper off again to tighten it but it's been great since

The rear mudflaps were not refitted as the car was absolutely filthy - Stu said he hadn't seen a car this dirty for a while underneath (the springs/dampers were absolutely covered in road crud). Shockingly I actually washed it with pressure washer the day before :eek: - tells ya how dirty the roads were (or how bad I am at cleaning it :P )

I need to clean the rear mudflaps at the office tomorrow and see if I can remember to bring the appropriate tools to refit them, may end up doing that some other day though.

First time I braked I felt like the first time I used the standard brakes - scared sh*tless as they didnt do all that much. Cleaned off the first layer on the motorway, speeding up and then braking back to lower speed etc, cycling it.

Had to make a fair bit of progress on the way back due to leaving a lot later than anticipated and me having to pick up SWMBO.

I had brought along my USB/VAGCOM key lead + my laptop so we were able to clear faults and rescan. Did another scan today, still clear

The car is totally transformed, a bend coming of the M4 -> A329M can be a little tricky (lots of roll) but with the new setup it just went round at speeds that usually aren't possible

Still getting used to the big change it's given + taking it a little easy on the brakes. Brake feedback is definitely better, car now sticks to the road a LOT better on the several big 'bumps' in the fast lane of the M4 near Reading, whereas before it would kinda 'jump' and loose grip, it now stays firmly planted which feels much safer. This is at NSL, not much above it, as I didnt want more points I have a feeling though at higher speeds it will make an even bigger impact.

Backroad testing hasn't happened much as yet due to roadworks making it unlikely to allow for hitting the 60 mph limits there safely.

I really need to take the old brakes, suspension & other bits out of the car to find out whether it's more noisy or roughly the same, the 1 inch drop looks right to me, much more I reckon isn't worth it for myself due to the roads I drive daily.

As for the FMIC - I felt a slight lag but if you keep the turbo on the boil it's not a big deal, and the kick is more smoothed off at the moment. Hoping the hybrid will make the response quicker again though

Loving the new sound it makes, and you can really hear the turbo spin up faster & for a bit longer as it brings things up to the right pressures/boost.

The biggest difference at the moment seems to be that when you go through the gears from a standstill it never appears to back off, whereas in 4th it would normally start to ease off a little, even at 8 deg C outside temps. It annoyed a BMW ch@v a little but he waved so I waved back (they were friendly, so why not me ).

As I got all this done at the same time it's very hard to know where the biggest roadholding difference came from, but the package seems very good

Many thanks to Stu for all the hard work, hope I was able to help out a little, and to Chrissi (sp?) for the hospitality (mainly loads of coffee ) much appreciated

It was a little scary to bring the 4th (!!) Fabia vRS in Black Magic to the same corner of the world but I really enjoyed working on the car and the end result makes it worth it for sure

Apart from increasing the chances of getting a proper cold and doing my back in a little, it was a nice dry day, even with some good sunshine. The darkness kicked in a tad too early for comfort so we ended up working with torches but it all worked out very nicely

Ouch that was one helluva post :eek:

That is a bit of an epic post mate. :P

I'm glad you are starting to notice the benefits already. The roads seem to be a bit slippy at the moment so perhaps it's not a bad thing that you can't do your back road 'power runs'

The quality and fit of the Forge FMIC was fantastic, considering the amount of extra pipework it all fitted in perfectly.

Four BM Fabia vRS's in one little cul-de-sac - is that a new record?? :eek: