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Otis the Lupo - My Journey


Adam Meader
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It's certainly 'spring'-time now ;)

Otis now has AP Lowering Springs on him, making him 35mm lower than standard.

My aftermarket exhaust was also meant to be done today, but it seems I had a lapse of judgment in measuring, because I need a 5mm adapter to get it to fit! Hopefully I can get that sorted soon.

Anywho, see below for a before and after! :)

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Hat trick!!

Exhaust is now on after getting that 5mm adapter :D

It's only the backbox as the full system will be very annoying to daily drive with its near-enough straight piped design, so the stock centre pipe w/ resonator and the hornet backbox are now one :)

He's still pretty bumbly though ('scuse the pun..) hope everyone's having a nice, melting hot week! ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Heya all!

Been absolutely loving this new Hornet backbox. It's the perfect volume, loud enough to hear/feel but not silly loud and complaint-inducing.

Before and after sound demo's attached below for anyone interested. Sounds MUCH better. Not at all tinny like how the stock exhaust could be at higher revs!

Remember, this is just the backbox, no adjustment to the centre pipe; still has a silencer on it!

Cheers guys, hope everyone's having a good week! :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone!

First off, I apologise for not being as active as I have been previously. Truth is.. there's just less to do with Otis now! Got the wheels, got the springs, got the exhaust, and life with this setup has just been a dream, so haven't felt the need to do anything since!

Until today.. well.. June 3rd actually. I hunted down a pair of genuine Vortex Lupo roof bars, extremely rare to find nowadays!!

Here we are, just arrived and fitted today. I'm gonna drive up to Cornwall next week for holiday, and I'm gonna put some bodyboards on top to put these to good use B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all!

Writing to you from our holiday destination, lovely Bude, North Cornwall on this fine morning :)

Otis made it all the way from Kent to Bude yesterday, a staggering 277 miles! No issues whatsoever. My longest drive by far (I had previously only done 70 miles as my longest in one hit!) and honestly? Very comfortable! I ♡ my Lupo :D

As you may've seen, I'm making good use of these roof bars by strapping some bodyboards onto them! B)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey all! Long time no see.

Got a bit of a unique one for you today, my Lupo mingled with genuine rock history!

Anyone here a fan of Pink Floyd? They're one of my favourite bands ever, so yesterday, I set it amongst myself and booked just one day off work to visit all around Cambridge, the hometown of original frontman Syd Barrett, bassist Roger Waters and Guitarist David Gilmour.

There's a lot to unpack here, and being a day encapsulated in music, I've tried to tie this in with my car in some way.

I left at a cheeky 4am to avoid the traffic on the M25/Dartford Crossing. As Cambridge is just 80 miles from me, I got to Grantchester Meadows at a measly 5:20am. It's genuinely a beautiful place, 50 acres of greenery and quietude. The relevance here being Pink Floyd recorded a song of the same name, talking of such in 1969 for their 'Ummagumma' album.

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I then visited David's, Syd's and Roger's childhood homes, but I won't include pictures here/talk further as I don't have pictures of my car there, and therefore is a bit off subject for an automotive forum.

Well, all but one.. here's Otis in St. Margaret's Square, the road in which Syd's last house before he passed, is situated.

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I then visited a Syd Barrett plaque at the AR University, where he studied painting for a brief tenure, and visited the botanical gardens at Cambridge University (yes, THE Cambridge University!) where a memorial bench for Syd can be found.

Afterwards, I visited (well, got to the closest I can without disturbing) the gates leading to Trinity House, a £3.5 million private mansion, the inside of which being where the 'Ummagumma' album cover was taken. The gates leading to the house are just slightly to the left in this picture.

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I visited lots more, and enough to keep me journeying around until I left at 7pm (meaning I spent 14 hours travelling around!)

Cambridge has some lovely roads, namely the section of the M11 which goes into Cambridge, Newmarket Road going towards Stow-cum-quy, and little wilbraham road towards the M11 Southbound. All wonderful little roads as I say, and my loop took the whole thing like a champ. I must've stopped in between 15 and 20 locations, putting on around 40 miles in the process (not including the journey there and back, being 160 miles!) all using up half a tank, which when you consider the frequent stopping and city centre traffic, is quite good! I love my little car so much. Without it, I never could've done this memorable trip, and certainly not being able to do everything I wanted to do in just one day with free time to spare.

Until next time folks, I hope you found this a pleasant read, documenting one man's travels in his Lupo! :)

 

 

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Just now, mk2 said:

Are there any emissions regulations in Cambridge? I know Oxford near me now has restrictions...

Older car? We must pay.

nope, not yet luckily! hope i dont jinx it..

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hey everyone!

Been a hot minute since I've trodden over here, so thought I'd give a quick update :)

So, nothing's happened yet.. YET, but recently I acquired a used iPhone 13 Pro Max (a big upgrade from my then-current phone, a Samsung S8) and so took Otis out for a cheeky photoshoot:

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I also celebrated my 21st birthday on Sunday! :)

I treated myself to a tasty Epiphone Les Paul Standard Goldtop guitar, and the rest of my mortal earnings went on some little repairs/upgrades for Otis! They're coming soon, so watch this space..

Nothing over the top, just subtle little touches to clean him up :D

Cheers everyone! See ya soon ;)

 

Edited by Adam Meader
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  • 2 weeks later...

Eop :) 

So, progress has been slow to say the least, so thought I'd water this plant to stop it from drying out. See below for the couple of little things I've done! :D

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Firstly, did this around late August, I installed some reg plate holders which came free with the car! I find that it adds a stronger, more beefy look to the plates and makes them more structurally sound :)

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Did this on my birthday, a lovely little present to myself, a polo 6n fusebox lid. Fits perfect though :)

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Then some Lupo SE parts! Gearknob, gaiter and the handbrake cover. Love the feel of both parts, feels way more solid B)

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I also had a matching SE steering wheel but it suffered from a broken clockspring, causing airbag trouble. I've since put the stock one back on and left it at that! XD

Still to come are another set of headlights (stock ones that I'm going to polish!), and reason for which is because mine have some streaks inside, as well as a new third brake light, as mine has chips of plastic taken out of it, and in one instance almost fell out if its place! :o

Anywho, will see ya around.

Turrah!

Edited by Adam Meader
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  • 1 month later...

Now admittedly this happened a while back, but hey life happens.

I finally replaced the third brake light, as mine was chipped around the edges and it was previously held in by this sticky filler/paste stuff (the orange rubber to keep it watertight had disintegrated).

Got a mint condition one for £8 from a lovely private braker up in Scotland, always check yer brakers yards folks! I see these parts brand new for 50 odd quid..

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Also found out why only half of my original third brake light lit up.. it only had 3 bulbs in it!! Luckily the new one had 6 ready to go so that was a relief.

Not sure what I'll do with these spare headlights I have.. think I'll just keep them around for now in case I feel up to it one of these days :)

Apart from that, Otis is, for now, complete!

Edited by Adam Meader
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It's the one year anniversary of Otis today!

One whole year.. I've certainly done a few things to get him up to scratch haha, take a look through the thread to see :)

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After a nice drive around my local towns today. I've truly found *MY* car this year. Forever love to the Lupo, may it live on for as long as it can!

-Adam.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hey all!

Hope you're all doing ok out there!

Quick update time! Have just a couple of things to tell :D

First off, I got some toytown floormats.. I think they bring some more character to what is a rather monotonous interior :)

If you're interested in acquiring these for your Loop or Arosa, you can get them at CarMats.co.uk!

Next up, one of the coils went on Wednesday! Poor Otis sounded awful (or fantastic depending on how you hear it XD!)

 

We had to get towed home.. it popped a lung right as we left work, so pro: right next to a car park, con: happened right after a full day's work! sigh. Took 3 hours for the guy to get here, but being low priority thats not too bad :)

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Big thanks to Paul at Westbourne Motors for just being such a lovely guy and keeping us all at ease! Maybe it could've gotten home on 3 cylinders but didn't want to risk it, especially as we didn't know for sure it WAS that :o

But, all was verified yesterday when we discovered a coil had indeed taken its last spark, just as we had thought. So, bought some classic ol' Bosch coils as per recommendations on CL and set to replacing the whole set right away, just for peace of mind!

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It got scary straight away though.. the first coil's plastic covering got stuck on the wiring connectors, and took a whole lot of swearing and mindless strength XD

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The rest were better.. more or less haha! Before you knew it, new coils installed! Now its time to see if that fixed the problem..

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Now you might've expected me to say 'nope!' but.. nope! Started and straight away the engine ran smoother than a baby's buttocks! no more acid reflux exhaust.. and certainly no more rocking your engine goodnight! (see my little celebratory yesss XD)

 

Was surprisingly simple! Anyways, thats all for now, signing off!

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