You're gonna be blowing up more CV joints soon :eek:

Thats bloody impressive though

Why not buy a caterham and put in the 1.8Ltr big turbo 225hp engine now then youd have a really fast car and totally unique.

Because i don't like caterham's that much, you'd have a hard job driving one up a rally stage, and there's definately nowhere to keep marshalling equipment......

A Subaru WRC fan can go out and buy an Sti, WRX etc etc, and feel like they've bought into the rally experience. A lot of rally Marshalls have them too.

As a Skoda WRC fan i can't.

So i'm PLANNING on building the car they never did/were never allowed to by VW-Audi. As i've read in many posts on here, there are people that would love to see a Fabia WRC version along the lines of the mk1 Octavia WRC edition. If the job's done right people will think that it WAS built by Skoda!! Now there's a LTD edition that will be unique!!!!!!

I never thought i'd get so much flack for even talking about it let alone actually doing it....... sheesh!!!!!

I never thought i'd get so much flack for even talking about it let alone actually doing it....... sheesh!!!!!

'tis ok. I got the same when planning out my pd130 conversion. No WAY was it going to stop me, and I achieved what I wanted - totally unique pd130 converted car.

At least i have one person that understand what i'm talking about and what i'm hoping to achieve .

(if i can afford to start the project in the first place......)

All I say is this if you have enough spare cash left over each month after paying your mortgage, paying off any debt, saving up for your kids Uni fees, saving up for the wedding costs paying into a pension saving up for holidays and saving up for a new car for the future when the current one is beyond economic repair & you have saved up to pay for the wife/mrs birthday gifts etc then I say go for it if not & if youve not even started to pay into any of the above do you really think its the best use of your hard earned £?

If you have not got a mortgage (please take this advice) find out what you could borrow and what the monthly repayment would be. If you still live with your parents put this cash straight into a savings account and do not touch it - use it as your deposit when the times comes. Or if your renting the difference between the rent & mortgage should be put to a savings account.

If you dont do this when the time comes that you can afford a house the shock of suddenly living on so much less per month will really hit home hard start to learn now it makes it so much easier & your deposit will be so much higher.

Note please ignore if you wish - I couldnt care less I dont know you and couldnt care less if you were rich or in poverty you do as you wish with your £

Sorry if Im teaching someone here to suck eggs but IMHO & based upon the countless number in the UK who have vast debt & little to show for it I feel this is extremely usefull advice.

Would a 2.3 V5 lump fit? or the 3.2 V6 from the TT?

yes, i've recently been considering a 2.8-24v golf 4motion engine swap, it will fit but it requires quite a lot of fiddling about, to do this you'd need to use a mk3 golf subframe/front engine carrier/track control arms/gearbox/driveshafts from a golf vr6. also the electric power steering pump would have to be moved..... so it's a bit of a non-starter really unless you have bundles of money to throw at it:)

lol @ 2.3 V5 whats the point when the more economical 1.8T exists & also why do you think VW dropped the V5.... ah yes as it was a pointless engine in the line up once the 1.8T was tuned to the same power.

More economical less CO2

All I say is this if you have enough spare cash left over each month after paying your mortgage, paying off any debt, saving up for your kids Uni fees, saving up for the wedding costs paying into a pension saving up for holidays and saving up for a new car for the future when the current one is beyond economic repair & you have saved up to pay for the wife/mrs birthday gifts etc then I say go for it if not & if youve not even started to pay into any of the above do you really think its the best use of your hard earned £?...........

I understand what you're saying, thankyou for your concern It too makes me cringe when you hear about how much debt people get themselves into, but......

I'm a technician in the RAF. I'm single and I live in service accomodation, which is very cheap compared to renting these days (did that with my ex and feel i've wasted £8k, but did learn an important lesson in life). I don't have a mortgage and i've got the pension thing covered. Just over half of my disposable income goes into savings. One account will, if i don't get promoted in the next 5 years, leave me with a tidy deposit for a house when i'm due to leave the RAF.

I've had an ISA since i got my first proper pay rise in the RAF which, after a year, bought my old car outright (it felt good to pay cash, but i was worried about wandering around with £3000 in my pocket!!!!).

I don't have any credit cards (i did once but never used it, so i chopped it up and binned it). The only Loan i have is for the vRS.

So, provided I can manage the project and funds correctly, it will give me something to do of an evening instead of going to the pub and buying a hangover!!!

Mate, do it if its your thing. most would ask why people bother modding a TDi, when they could be taking a petrol to much higher figures ultimately - so maybe your more normal than most of us? Its nice to have somthing a bit different, and your plan would give you a completely one off car. what power would you be going for?

a 1.8t fabia would be kick ***, if you got the time & the knowledge give it go!

lol @ 2.3 V5 whats the point when the more economical 1.8T exists & also why do you think VW dropped the V5.... ah yes as it was a pointless engine in the line up once the 1.8T was tuned to the same power.

to a certain extend i agree with this, but the v5 lump is a good strong motor, so is the vr6... only trouble is they are very heavy engines:)

I'd say go for it Tommy, it sounds like you have a very interesting project planned.

Welshy - to be honest I think you're being a bit harsh. There is nothing wrong with what you say about managing money, it's good advice. However you're making the assumption that Tommy is throwing his money away. This is not at all the case, he's planning to spend it on a project that interests him. It might not be cheap, but I can assure you there's many much more expensive hobbies that people choose to follow.

I'd say go for it Tommy, it sounds like you have a very interesting project planned.

Welshy - to be honest I think you're being a bit harsh. There is nothing wrong with what you say about managing money, it's good advice. However you're making the assumption that Tommy is throwing his money away. This is not at all the case, he's planning to spend it on a project that interests him. It might not be cheap, but I can assure you there's many much more expensive hobbies that people choose to follow.

I agree there are many other worse money pits, however as hobbies people will say buy a boat/snooker table/ go-kart etc etc i.e. designed for the job and when they have finished with them they will be able to sell it to the whole market place (who is into said sport). However if your modifying a car firstly your never going to get back what you put into it - IIRC on one of the J Clarkson DVD's he drives a 1200bhp Nissan Skyline which cost

welshy what do you do for a living? do you work for labour?

Accountant & IFA (Independant Financial Advisor).

So I add financial info to discussions to really make sure you think hard about any expenditure.

Note - my father is a mechanic and as such has taught me to do nearly every aspect of car repair.

Welshy, you have completely missed the point. Where did Tommy say anything about selling the car in a couple of years? He (like others on here) is spending the money on a project, the intention is not to make money (or even get the money back), it's to have fun. Not everything in life is about saving/investing money, it's also about having some fun. Life is to short...

As well as the engine, are you looking at keeping it FWD, or going the whole hog for a Rally-type model and transplanting 4WD too?

Chris

Well unless this guy is never going to have a family/change of circumstances then at some point or another it will be sold (for a more suitable car)/taken to the scrap heap.

Also he may be eligable for a company car around the corner and as such spending cash on this would result in him running it for business over having a new car. In addition using your own car for business use over using a comp car it has to satisfy the comp requirements and a ****'d up/modified car may not represent the image the company wishes to advertise.

Ive no idea where the "emotion" come along with regard to a small city car? It is a run of the mill A-B car, it is cheap and is reliable and looks a little quirky. By no measure of the imagination is it anything above this.

If currently you think you will never buy another car again and its a small city car then firstly when & if you have kids prams & luggage will mean you will have to hire a car to get everyone in. Or when you go camping then unless you want to carry nothing but equipment then your going to have to hire a car.

If your going to do some DIY inside the house or garden then your going to have to have it delivered.

Also this means that once youve done the modification you will be satisfied with the performance forever more.... well Im sorry but its human nature to want better all the time (only a small niche would be satisfied with one car for a lifetime).

Your view on life is short - well exactly why waste £k's modifying a car over having incredible holidays seeing the world? Or put it another way with congestion as it is whats the point in having a really fast car on the road as you cannot overtake due to constant oncoming traffic & when you do pass you have caught up with another car in another que in no time.

What this guy does seem to be doing is saving up then spending all his cash on depreciating assets (much better than getting loans on depreciating assets I'd like to add) when the point comes to be buying all this cash he has (by then) wasted/thrown down the money pit drain will mean either a much more stretched lifestyle i.e. hardly any spare cash for anything after mortgage payment or rather than a 3 bed semi youd only be able to afford say a 2 bed terrace where your special project car get knocked/scratched on the side of the road.

Your view on life is short - well exactly why waste

As well as the engine, are you looking at keeping it FWD, or going the whole hog for a Rally-type model and transplanting 4WD too?

Chris

Well, the original plan was a full on 300+bhp 4WD monster, using S3 quattro running gear etc etc. Not beyond my capabilities (have a few qualifications OND Mech Eng, NVQ Fab Weld etc) but deffo beyond my budget. Future mods could include a 4WD conversion though.....

Just wanna keep it sensible and achieveable (if it ever happens). I reckon 180-200bhp wouldn't upset the chassis too much (taking into account torque steer, traction, grip etc). But those aren't my main concerns right now. I'm thinking more about ECU compatibility, immobilisers and VAG-COM at the moment. Most of which i know very little about.

First on the shopping list is a laptop, VAG-COM and a cable methinks!!!!!! (if anything it will be useful for the vRS).

Your view on life is short - well exactly why waste

Why not buy an x rallycross car this will be well under £10ik for a nic used example and huge power.

If you've had the chance to look at the effort needed to transplant rwd into a fabia, it will be a NIGHTMARE. I ruled it out right away when investigating the possibilities. It would involve a serious amount of chassis hacking away, and thats not something I wished to do.

Cos a rally cross car won't have interior furinshings to retain heat when you're stuck in the welsh hills, on a rally stage, with nothing but a thermos of tea to warm you up between stages.

Otherwise i'd be posting about my new rally cross car and how fast it is!!

You're missing the point......