Got my car back
A few weeks ago my car travelled north to Milton Keynes, to the garage of a Mr Paul Nugent, who had agreed to change a few bits and pieces on my Avant. He suggested that this would take no longer than a week. Work to be carried out included changing the ARBs for RS2 versions, some work on the brakes, changing mounts and some other stuff (technical term that).
However like all the best plans, things didn't go quite as smoothly as anticipated.
However Paul is a man of immense patience, optimism and humour in the face of ridiculous circumstances. Almost every problem that could have happened with the car, did happen. Lesser men would have towed the car away and set it on fire, claiming theft or some other act. But no, not Paul.
I was provided with a daily diary of events and progress, which although I am no mechanic, gave me a very good idea of what was going on in that garage in Milton Keynes.
In the end Paul worked on the car for 18 days.
A summary of what he did is below
New BOMB
New PAS pump
Front Struts rebuilt with new tops mountings
New Wishbone bushes
New Pads F+R
New Tie Rod ends
New F+R ARB (inlc bushes, brackets bolts)
New Rear Wheel bearings
New ARB sensors (old ones having to be machined out)
New front main radiator
New CV joint boot thing (huh?)
New Oil pressure sender
On top of all the 'new' stuff, there was a heap of stuff which involved cleaning, draining, refilling, draining again, adjusting, refitting etc. Plus some other stuff suggesting that the engineers who designed the S2 were obviously 'having a laugh'. Paul even supplied me with a CD with photo's of what he did....
Oh, and the master fryer also fitted a wonderful new chip....
Most importantly he and I are still talking... ;-)
So what of the old car - well, driving back from MK last night on crowded M1 proved very little. However today on roads I know I gave it a bit. Good god, what a transformation. The handling is a complete revelation. It is like driving a new car.
As to the new chip and the performance.... I live in Sussex on the Ashdown Forest. There is a road there, known by the locals as the Mad Mile. Going up this road this afternoon, the car was at least 20% faster than it used to be. In the end I actually backed off, as I could not believe the speed the old girl had reached...
For any one who is still reading this thread (wakey wakey) and has a standard chip I suggest you get a hold of one of Mr Nugents finest. The rate at which the car now reaches silly speeds is amazing, however the pull and urgency throughout the whole range is staggering. I am also told that it might actually consume less Optimax than before....
All in all, tremendously pleased with car, both handling and performance...
Cheers Paul...!
However like all the best plans, things didn't go quite as smoothly as anticipated.
However Paul is a man of immense patience, optimism and humour in the face of ridiculous circumstances. Almost every problem that could have happened with the car, did happen. Lesser men would have towed the car away and set it on fire, claiming theft or some other act. But no, not Paul.
I was provided with a daily diary of events and progress, which although I am no mechanic, gave me a very good idea of what was going on in that garage in Milton Keynes.
In the end Paul worked on the car for 18 days.
A summary of what he did is below
New BOMB
New PAS pump
Front Struts rebuilt with new tops mountings
New Wishbone bushes
New Pads F+R
New Tie Rod ends
New F+R ARB (inlc bushes, brackets bolts)
New Rear Wheel bearings
New ARB sensors (old ones having to be machined out)
New front main radiator
New CV joint boot thing (huh?)
New Oil pressure sender
On top of all the 'new' stuff, there was a heap of stuff which involved cleaning, draining, refilling, draining again, adjusting, refitting etc. Plus some other stuff suggesting that the engineers who designed the S2 were obviously 'having a laugh'. Paul even supplied me with a CD with photo's of what he did....
Oh, and the master fryer also fitted a wonderful new chip....
Most importantly he and I are still talking... ;-)
So what of the old car - well, driving back from MK last night on crowded M1 proved very little. However today on roads I know I gave it a bit. Good god, what a transformation. The handling is a complete revelation. It is like driving a new car.
As to the new chip and the performance.... I live in Sussex on the Ashdown Forest. There is a road there, known by the locals as the Mad Mile. Going up this road this afternoon, the car was at least 20% faster than it used to be. In the end I actually backed off, as I could not believe the speed the old girl had reached...
For any one who is still reading this thread (wakey wakey) and has a standard chip I suggest you get a hold of one of Mr Nugents finest. The rate at which the car now reaches silly speeds is amazing, however the pull and urgency throughout the whole range is staggering. I am also told that it might actually consume less Optimax than before....
All in all, tremendously pleased with car, both handling and performance...
Cheers Paul...!
One of the finest Gentlemen!
When I used to work in Brighton, I used to ride along the A27, then up through all the country lanes (Perfect biking roads!) and along that road, its got the exotic car dealer next to the elephant!! a 40mph limit on that road 
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