S18 RSG

Manifold is here Amazingly it fitted in the boot even along with my works bag and thermographic equipment from today's survey. And people say the twins aren't practical. Should be getting fitted at a slightly later date of Tuesday of next week.

A remap is completely unnecessary. Changing the final drive physically changes the mechanics of the drivetrain. A higher final drive is, after all, in effect just a bigger cog which turns a bit quicker with less effort, but has the downside of lower potential top speed. Think of it in terms of a bike and it makes more sense. The larger cog makes acceleration easier, but you can only go so fast before your legs can't keep up. The smaller cogs are harder to turn, but allow you to go much faster top end. The engine, in this analogy, is the person. Changing the cog doesn't make the person fitter, or faster, just means their effort produces different results. Tuning the engine (going to the gym) means the engine can go faster, but has no bearing on the drivetrain. In simple terms, the engine tune has basically no bearing on the performance of that part, and does no more to the car than it would do with a stock FD.

Also worth noting that they refused to insure me because of my secondary job as a freelance journalist. Despite the fact that I do no mileage towards that job. I've asked for it to be taken off my application, but will wait to see what they say tomorrow.

He can upgrade all he wants, it's still front wheel drive. I had a 250hp Ibiza Cupra before the GT86, sure, it was faster, but FWD will never be even close to the feeling of RWD. I test drove the ST, great car, but not even 25% of the feel of the GT86 from my experience. Even the 205 GTi my aunt had a few years ago wasn't close, and that made the ST feel like a fat pig. Just let the kids in their FWD hatches brag about their power numbers, and quietly smile knowing how superior your car is. That's my philosophy.

That gasket was changed when I had the exhaust fitted a few thousand miles ago. It should be fine, if not I'll pick one up. Just had confirmation that the manifold is coming tomorrow. Really impressed that it's been so quick to deliver. 6 days from order to my doorstep from California. Not bad at all.

Perfect. I bought the head to manifold gaskets already. I wasn't sure if I'd need to by new gaskets for everything else. Cheers Rich.

Rich/Paul or whoever else: what did you do about gaskets? I just remembered the 1320 doesnt come with any unless thats changed recently.

I may still make it, but had a tooth removed yesterday, so still in some pain. Will evaluate the situation in the morning and make a decision then.

Ill be there

Mine got shipped on the 3rd of May, so judging by your delivery time mine should be here next week Let me know how it goes

Has anyone decided they're going to this? I know we don't have a stand or whatever, but I'd be up for meeting people in the morning to drive up together. Could also take the opportunity (providing the weather is good) to go for a little drive afterwards and perhaps stop off for some food somewhere if there are a few of us. Tickets for general admission are still on sale until the 13th, so plenty of time to decide, but if a few more say yes, we could perhaps organise something.

Well I finally gave in. I'm sure most of you can make an educated guess on what I went for:

Hey. So I'm in a bit of a situation here, wondered if some of you could help point me in the right direction. I'm trying to decide on a manifold (and yes, I've read a million other topics discussing this very thing) but struggling to come to a decision. Currently, I have an overpipe-back system, with secondary decat. It's fairly loud already, but following the remap at Abbey, the car became so much better to drive, that all I can think about is how the torque dip is the only thing keeping this car from being truly great to drive, as most daily driving takes place right in the middle of that torque dip. I want to rectify that now. I originally wanted a catted UEL manifold from JDL in the states, but crunching the numbers yesterday, it ends up at around £900 after shipping and taxes (even after they knocked off around $300 of shipping costs), which is just a little excessive for a ~£500 manifold. The 1320performance UEL seems to get great feedback, and it's less than £500 landed in the UK, but it's decatted. My question is, to those of you with a similar setup, did you find it TOO loud? If so, and you fixed it, what did you do to quieten it? I was thinking I could replace the secondary decat pipe with a resonated one, which I could swap out with the CAT come MOT time. Or is it possible to run with the original CAT back in place to reduce the noise, or would that have too much of an impact on performance? Help please

Well, I've filled out the form and PM'd you Nick. As I said at the bottom of the PM, if I'm needed for further information, I'll need you to let me know and I'll call in when I get chance. I will not be able to receive calls. Cheers.

That's not the issue for me. I'm not allowed my phone where I work due to the electronics and confidentiality (not being allowed to take pictures of machinery etc.). I have access to a laptop, and an internal phone, but I can't call out to external numbers on it.

Nick, what are your options for quoting via email or similar? My job doesn't really allow for me to take personal calls, so other than getting a quote on a weekend, or after 6pm on a weekday, my hands are a little tied. My renewal is due at the end of May I believe, so I could do with checking my options.

I'm definitely up for this (date dependant). However, like Ztox mentioned, Friday night might be the better deal, as otherwise its a long way to drive to sit in a chair for 30 minutes. I'd much rather dedicate an evening to something like this. That being said, I'll struggle to free up a Friday for some time, as I'm running Friday training sessions for the next few weeks.

Unfortunately that early isnt gonna work for me either. Gonna be a 2 to 2.5 hour drive as it is. Could maybe join later on in the day, but would have to have a good idea of where and when.

Could you send me their email address? I've tried leaving a message on their enquiry board 3 times and never had a reply.

He copied my wheels

Who did you deal with at 1320? Or did you just order straight off the site? I could never get an answer from them.

Waking up at 6am and getting straight to work actually yields some great results apparently. Most of you will have seen the latest update in the other thread, but to keep everything together (and for those who missed it), I fell victim to my own tiredness, and kerbed my wheel on Thursday (only the second kerbed wheel in 8 years ). Luckily, I was able to book the car in at The Wheel Specialist the following day, who took my vague instructions of "dark metallic ish bronze with a matte lacquer", and smashed it. The wheels transform the car in my opinion. This morning I decided to have a go at fitting the new wheel. Turned out to be significantly easier than even I expected. Took around 20 minutes to swap them around. However, for me it took around 2 hours, as I had to wait for the plastidip to dry on the final bit of silver plastic remaining. Here is the result: Of course, fitting it and having it be perfect was never an option, because it's me, so I then had to go to my local garage to have the wheel straightened, as I really couldn't be bothered to disassemble it again to try and put it back in the right place. Was a useful journey however, as I finally got around to fixing the rear camber. New settings now: 2deg negative on front, 2.2deg negative on rear. I wanted to get closer to 1.5deg on the rear, but that was as much as I could get with the current setup, and is still a huge improvement on the previous settings, of 3.5deg negative on the rear... Now just to wash the car ready to join you all at Japfest, although unfortunately I will have to park in the visitor parking and walk in to find you all, so should see you at around 9:30am

Well, as an unfortunate addition to my list of modifications, my newly scratched wheels are now in need of a refurb. Unfortunately, because they're polished, it's £400 to refurb them back to normal, with a 4 day turnover, so I've decided against that and will be refurbishing all 4 in a new colour tomorrow. The question is, what colour? I'm currently leaning towards gunmetal grey, but with a slight tint of red metallic to give them a shine in the sun, but wondered if you guys had any other suggestions and/or examples. The floor is open, fire away

Cheers Will, and everyone for the kind words. The guys at Wheel Specialist did an amazing job given my very vague request.

Pictures are worth a thousand words: I am literally over the moon.