sphession

This would bring me upto recently and the most recent photowhoring of the car, have a few more plans in mind so will be on here a bit more for some advice.

Hey guys, thought I'd add my Lupo into these journals, this will be taken from another site so the timeline may get skewed This basically started when I left a deposit with a Japanese importer a couple of years ago with the idea of bringing something over, however things kept popping up and I'd kind of forgotten about it. I've been in the mind of getting second car for awhile, basically just something to toy around with and drive on the weekends. I was initially on the search for an e46 M3 which brought me back to my deposit. I was just about to ask for it back when i saw this car pop up, threw a bid on it not really thinking much of it, assumed I'd lose and then ask for my deposit. to my shock I received a message the next morning to say I'd won the car and that they'll get it ready for shipping It's a fairly new process to me, usually being quiet picky when buying a car I can confidently say I'm bricking it to see what actually arrives haha. Saying that, these are just another one of those cars that I've wanted to tick of my list for awhile so their is definitely a level of excitement there too. Anyway, just a few pics from the port. So the car finally arrived into Ireland, this is possibly the most impatient I got during the whole process knowing it was so close but so far away haha it took a couple of days to get through customs and then had to be transported down to me. It was only by chance I looked at snap chat and saw the photos of the car posted in Dublin port.And a photo of the car then being delivered, I think this shows how small it is, was kinda taken back by its size so far so good, few bits to be done so the list is being drawn up at the moment on top of things I've been stockpiling since buying it, first purchase was a new battery as the one in it was completely dead, and the next step will be the VRT, really looking forward to get ths step out of the way and start digging into it. Now have the car few months and it's been brilliant! With all the boring stuff out of the way at the start getting the car VRT'd etc I turned my attention to getting the car up to my standards. was nice to start from a clean base.I left the car into Tom Fahys Garage, these guys have owned Lupo GTi's and worked on quiet a few so I knew it was in good hands (as the picture shows). I asked them to give it a full one over which came back with the car getting a good bill of health which was a relief.Just had the following work done which consisted of a full service, timing belt, water pump, auxiliary belt, a re-furbed alternator due to a bearing noise, some brake hoses and also got some new tow eye covers and had them painted by them.Tidied up a few small bits, new mats, a good condition gear knob bought from ebay Germany, replaced wipers, did a headlight restoration (needs a bit more work) and replaced a cracked ariel base. Got a new bluetooth head unit fitted by Jeremy at auto electrical concepts. Then set about removing stickers etc on the car and gave it a full thorough wash and a quick hit of the polisher to find some extra gloss.So now I've got a bit of a feel for the car and have it up to a decent standard the modifications can start, I've already received some bigger caliper carriers so will be upgrading the front brakes from 256mm to 280mm.I've also now got a few things coming in the post so hopefully should be able to keep this more updated. So after a couple months reading through threads and hours on ClubLupo I finally decided on a suspension set up. For the longest time I was going between coilovers or up-rated dampers, ended up with dampers as I wanted the car more setup for road, so below shows the collection I put together over the last couple weeks. This consist of: Bilstein B8 dampers Eibach lowering springs making up a Bilstein B12 kit Whiteline rear anti roll bar H&R 15mm spacers On top of this I've bought every bushing, so new tie rods, wishbone bushes, ball joints, drop links, front stabilizing bar bushes, new top mounts and rear axle bushes.. Probably more in there but everything is getting swapped out. Above shows the new calliper carriers, these will be fitted with new 280mm front brakes and larger pads. I'm hoping the combination of these parts should dial the car in a little more, looking forward to getting it all fitted now. So got the car back with everything fitted, All I can say is WOW!! Being completely honest I haven't felt happy with how it drove from the time I got it, I think I was trying to convince myself that it drove well but their was a lot of slop, and the pitch and roll was unnerving. Possibly a characteristic of the car but I may have been spoilt by better handling cars in the past, it got to the point where I drove to a ford garage to look at a new Fiesta ST they'd for sale but walking back to the Lupo I knew I wanted to get it driving the way it looked!The car drives amazingly, I always use my old Clio 182 as a benchmark for how fun a hot hatch should be, but this is now the new bench mark! I had the work carried out in Fahys and they were amazing, walking through it and giving advise along the way, I'd originally bought the spacers for the rear to give it a squared look but the convinced me to stick them upfront to increase turn in, actually gives the car a more purposeful appearance.. Tom the owner took it upon himself to do the full geometry on the car spending nearly over a day between aligning it and road-testing it until he was happy. the turn in and general feeling of the car is amazing.The B8s are firm but the ride is actually more comfortable then how the old shocks were before and matched up with the springs the car feels planted. the rear antiroll bar adds much more adjustability on the rear that just wasn't there before, matching up with all new bushes and the car feels so fresh. the new bigger brakes have it stop on a dime.I'm now officially in love with this car and can't believe the difference these works have made to it, I can now officially see what people are raving about with these cars. So the suspension has had enough time to settle now and i'm very happy with the height, removed the tonka toy look but isn't so low that I can't get over speed bumps. front wheels are fairly stuck on the arches, I'm still wondering if I should go for rear spacers but kinda like how it looks at the moment, just a little mental hah. Finding it hard to keep a car clean in this weather I'd been humming and hawing about Cambridge lights for awhile, wasn't sure if I liked them or not. One evening I saw these come up for fairly reasonable money so though them worth a punt. With them on I'm kinda liking them. I'll see how they grow on me.