91 replies to this topic

[cressey]

Been meaning to do this for some time but as I'm now planning some performance related mods, I thought I'd share some progress.

 

I've had the car since July 2011 so I have some catching up to do. This will take multiple posts so please refrain from commenting until I get up to date.

 

The car is a 2003 (53 plate) VX220 Turbo in Europa blue. I'm told this is a rare colour on a Turbo and was usually reserved for NA's. Coral blue seems to be the more common Tubby colour.

 

It belonged to my father and was his daily drive for a few years. A collision with a Deer caused a front clam replacement which took Vauxhall 3 months to repair. Shortly after getting the car back, a lorry knocked the rear of it in traffic which resulted in a new rear clam, backbox and lights. This time it took Vauxhall over 6 months to fix by which point he'd moved onto motorbikes.

 

The car then sat in a shed for over 2 years until I offered him some money and dragged it out (literally). Brakes had seized, wheel bearings were fubared, it needed a cam belt, battery, some paintwork attention and a bloody good service. A few corroded bits were tidied up and I began to see what all the fuss was about.

 

 

 

Don't post yet. There's a lot more to the story.

[cressey]

Over the last few years, I've been gradually tidying bits up as I've learned more about the car through you wonderful people. I was using the car as my daily drive until my work changed and I was travelling over 500 miles per week. I also had a few instances after working night shifts where I'd return to the car to discover it was an inaccessible ice cube. One day I'd had enough so bought a Diesel Golf to do the leg work and this is now a weekend play thing/summertime commuter.

 

I work at a fairly reputable Aerospace company in Derby and am a qualified Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineer. I'm a reasonable machinist and welder but most of my experience is of more a mechanical nature. Two years ago, I stopped building jet engines and picked up a laptop before embarking on a Leadership scheme. I used to fulfill my need to get my hands dirty by working on my mountain bike which has been a hobby for 20 years. Here's a pic of my downhill bike that I built from scratch.

 

 

Unfortunately, I shattered my wrist last year after a crash in Wales which has resulted in metal plating and restricted movement and limited strength. My bikes have now been sold and I've turned my full attention to cars. I've also started working as a race team mechanic on a Noble M400 that competes in the GT Cup. It's a hell of a car and I'm thoroughly enjoying being team 'underdog' that kicks ass.

 

 

 

 

 

Wait. There's more.....

[cressey]

So having had the car for 4 years and through spending countless hours reading threads on here, I think I know the car pretty well. Ovr the last 4 years, I've done the following mods.

 

- TAT Diffuser (Short rounded)

- ATS DTC wheels wrapped in Toyo T1R's

- Braided brake lines (What a PITA)

- EBC grooved and dimpled discs with Mintex pads

- Fazzasus heater (Still can't get cold. Will fix as part of this thread)

- Carbon sills

- Kenwood head unit with iPod connectivity

- Pipercross air filter with Alloy intake pipe and some silicon hosing

- Colour coded engine bay caps and tank cover

- Powerflex engine mount poly inserts

- Hardtop with custom struts

 

All of the above work has been done by myself and I usually do my own servicing. Liam at MMG Performance is 15 miles up the road and he recently did the cam belt. He's also my back up for when I make a complete mess of things.

 

Anyway, at present the car looks something like this. I've just had to do a lot of work tidying up the paintwork as Vauxhall did such a bad job paintingh it after the repairs. The paint starting blistering and bursting on the front clam and the rear clam has a case of osmosis. All things that will be sorted when time/funds allow. Many of you will have seen it on Peaks meets in your rear view mirror, desperately trying to keep up with you all.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting there now. Just a little longer.

 

 

[cressey]

The eagle eyed viewers will have spotted the stainless steel struts securing the hardtop in the last pic. I designed and machined this a couple of years ago as I found the original ones a bit flimsy. The purpose was to get something cosmetically pleasing and more secure than the original. Jonnyboy has now gone on to redesign these fixings and I believe they're much better now. These were made on a Lathe and Milling machine at work on a day off. Took about 6 hours to manually machine them. You'll see I had to mill a huge chunk out of them to clear a rib in the hardtop.

 

 

 

 

This is the only custom thing on the car at the moment but I've a few more things in the pipeline. I'm nearing the end of my Leadership scheme which will give me a bit more time to play at stuff like this.

 

Just 1 more, I promise.

[cressey]

By this point you're probably wondering, "What the hell is the project title about?" Well, I've just purchased another VX220 Turbo which will be arriving on a trailer tomorrow. Some of you will have seen it in the 'For Sale' section. Here she is! Can't wait to take delivery in the morning.

 

 

 

The best thing about the whole purchase was the celebration by means of the seller scaring the sh*t out of me in his race car. This is by far the fastest thing I've been in. It was all fun until the 380bhp engine shredded the F23 gearbox.

 

 

 

The silver car is a Cat C write off but only has 12,000 miles on the clock. I've got a bit of work to do to get it as I want it. Plan of action is as follows.

 

- Replace all discs and pads

- Bleed brakes

- Refurb wheels

- Fit Turbo splitters (they're missing)

- Replace rusty engine bay bolts (on order)

- VIC check

- MOT

- Cam belt and water pump (MMG Performance job there)

- Full service (MMG again)

- Full inspection and report (MMG)

 

When I reach this point, I'll have a difficult choice to make. I'm currently collecting all the parts to go to stage 2. These will be the first irreversible mods I'll carry out and I need to decide which is going to be my forever car. My heart is obviously with the blue one as it's been in the family nearly 10 years but the silver one has less than a quarter of the mileage and the paintwork is immaculate. Hope you'll enjoy my head vs heart battle on here over the next few weeks.

 

Current wheels in motion are that I've ordered

 

- Custom 63mm plenum from Dave Hardwick

- Oil catch tank

- 80mm intake pipe

- Larini backbox and Sports cat

- Lots of silicone, clamps, etc.

 

Whichever car these end up being fitted to, the car will be mapped at CC Tuning in Burton. Check the Group Buy section if you want to grab a bargain.

 

Longer term mods to be covered in this thread will be

 

- Full suspension refresh and poly bushing

- 1" ARB

- Respray

- Suspension upgrade (Probably Quantum's)

- Few more carbon bits

- Some interior work

- Whatever else you manage to persuade me to do

 

Thanks for reading. Post away if you're still awake.

 

Edited by cressey, 12 June 2015 - 07:57 PM.

[Samwise]

Your first VX looks awesome Europa is the best colour, especially on a turbo if i do say so myself.

 

The noble Gt cup car and working on it looks like alot of fun. What job were you doing before hand to jump from that in to a motorsport team?

[Duncan VXR]

When chatting with Dave this week and was mentioning your good self 😏 Intake kit is actually 83mm its 80mm i/d Race car looks very nice Look forward to updates DG

[Zoobeef]

Grahams car is very nice. Looks like I'll be coming to you if I ever get a problem I can't sort

 

 

Hard top brackets are nice! Wish I still had one

[Nev]

What are your final objectives with the car?

[Zoobeef]

Also, any trackdays planned?

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

are you going to use this as a track car of some discribtion Or do you have other plans

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

I'm glad I have less than 380 hp At least my gearbox should stay up n ones piece

Edited by CHILL Gone DUTCH, 12 June 2015 - 08:23 PM.

[Sticky]

Which race series does the yellow monster do?

[Nev]

BTW I deal with MEs every day, we have about 8 factories on site and dozens of them are about to start using our new discrete manufacturing software that we are releasing round the whole of Europe. I always have a lot of respect for them. Good luck with the project.

[hairy]

great thread Cressey, can you keep them both or only one?

[Rudy]

Not wishing to sound negative, but the mods on your current car aren't really taxing. Fitting a diffuser or sticking in a new stereo doesn't really count as a project or a propensity for spannerwork. However.....on the 2nd car that seems a bit more like it

[cressey]

Thanks all. Surprised at the number of comments I've had already. Sounds like your Friday nights are as exciting as mine. I'm meant to be doing a University assignment but this was a suitable distraction. I usually use my phone for the forum which means I'm sans Multiquote. It also means I end up with countless typos or autocorrect. Just setting expectation here. I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability though. Samwise - I love the Europa. Looks great under petrol station lights at night. Just don't park it next to a Coral blue one or it'll look inadequate. The Noble driver is actually a childhood friend of mine. I hadn't seen him for 15 years but went to watch him race at Donington last year and couldn't help myself. Unfortunately I'm missing his race at Silverstone this weekend as my cousin is getting married. Im changing one of the many driveshafts he's broken after a night out and 3 hours sleep at 6am in the picture above, hence the bleeding eyes. Duncan - Dave is such a gent. Can't big him up too much as he might be reading but I've never seen welding like it. A truly talented guy with enthusiasm to match. I may have just ordered the wrong size silicon then. Pretty sure it'll stretch to 83mm? Zoobeef - Sure you must have learned how to fix the thing by now. Only potential track day could be Spa next year. I've taken it to Curborough once and don't think I'll be risking it there again. Nev - Just planning what's mentioned above really. Dave was kind enough to give me a drive of his 410hp car and impressive as it was, I don't think its really necessary for a road car. 280bhp setting was really exciting though so may try to get there. Might lose my mind and go Stage 4 but would want to drive one first. Will be very few cosmetic mods. No big wings or splitters. Wildest I might go would be some louvres. Chill - I actually don't know yet. Would love a VX track car but not sure either of these would make good candidates. I actually bought the silver one on a bit of an impulse. I knew how reputable the seller was and it was just too good to miss. Still need a pax in yours btw. Sticky - not sure exactly what race series it is but its a GT series in Lithuania. Here's a vid from a few years ago though. It's had some power upgrades since. Hairy - At the moment I can just about afford to keep them both. Only problem is, I'm hoping to move house next year so I have a garage to work in. The silver car was really bought with my house deposit. My gf will murder me if we can't move because I own 2 x VX's. Just hoping my numbers come in soon so I can continue modding.

[cressey]

Not wishing to sound negative, but the mods on your current car aren't really taxing. Fitting a diffuser or sticking in a new stereo doesn't really count as a project or a propensity for spannerwork. However.....on the 2nd car that seems a bit more like it

Fair call. That's actually the reason I hadn't started a project thread as there's already a few like that out there. Figured my method of getting to stage 2 was worth writing about though and there should be a few more custom bits to come. All mods will be on one of the cars, just not sure which yet.

[coople]

Surely you could have resprayed your blue one and got nearly all the way to stage 4 for the cost of buying the silver one as well?

[Zoobeef]

Does he now run the new driveshaft that ive seen floating around? I remember seeing someone try and use a standard Mondeo shaft on his and it lasted until he got to the first traffic light

 

I'm sure I could do anything on the car but as (touch wood) the reliability of the main components is pretty good it just been niggles.

 

Still space on the September national at Snett.