And finally, my RS2.

[jubjub]

Was this Angus's rs2? He had one with a k26/27 on

^^^ Now with Ross

[fourringsrus]

Even with poorer photos she looks gorgeous.
Is it the camera angle or do the nearside doors need re-aligning to each other, or the trims possibly

[K Simmonds]

The passenger side rear door is missing it's central trim, I do have one and the paint for it ready just not had a chance to get it sorted. Been too busy making sure all the mechanicals are happy before tacking the aesthetics, though this afternoon I fitted the as new set of RS2 badges Eric kindly supplied with car.

To be honest whilst the car is very straight the paint work needs attention, to do the car justice it needs a full glass out respray, I've found someone to do the job locally for a realistic price.

But that's not happening until next year at the earliest, just going to tidy up whats there as much as I can in the mean time.

I've got a good second hand indicator arriving tomorrow and I'm ordering a brand new set of genuine ones which I may save until I get her painted.

Will go to the trouble of getting some better photo's once I've got the indicator fitted, similar location, MUCH better camera and someone who can operate it.

Did a good few 100 miles over the weekend getting used to the car and enjoying the weather, all well, no codes, even okay on fuel if not driven hard. The MTM conversion can stay put, there's a good bit more torque above 4K compared to stock and it's still pulling hard at 7K whereas the stock unit would have tailed off. So in summery a bit of extra grunt particularly at the top end and no more, if not less lag than stock.

[fourwh33ldriv3]

Looks a great example very nice. My favourite RS2 colour changes all the time, now its Ragusa

That's not fair Michael, as you said your favourite colour was Volcano Black when you seen mine....

[fourwh33ldriv3]

Finally got a chance to take some passable photo's of my RS2 this evening, been to busy cleaning or driving it, I know a few of you are keen to see it so here you go.

These aren't great so will get a mate with a better camera to take some good quality images.

These are great looking pics buddy, cracking looking motor too

[K Simmonds]

Cheers

I think the back ground helps make up for my lack of skill with a camera.

The Couple AndyP edited do look pretty good though.

I still need to write up the mission involved with collecting the car, was one long weekend, just pushed for time ATM.

[macspring]

I still need to write up the mission involved with collecting the car, was one long weekend, just pushed for time ATM.

Keen to read this when it's written, with photos?

[K Simmonds]

Unfortunately Dave the only shot's your side of the Irish sea are the ones on this thread.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75998

And I do have some of me unloading it my end somewhere.

[K Simmonds]

Hopefully these have come out a little better.

[K Simmonds]

Well, as I'm sat here off work for the day with a stinking cold and no inclination to work on my cars let's give this thread a little more substance.

Earlier in the year my good friend Charlie (Cardcrash) decided his first RS2 was far too tidy and original to modify so he picked up another example that was priced very keenly with the intention of having some basic performance upgrades done to the cheaper car. I'll leave that there as it's his business, however I'm sure he'll be presenting something really quite special to the forum later in the year.

I went along to check the car out and drive his first example back which afforded me the luxury of a 200 mile test drive in an excellent example of the breed. Though I nearly had a panic attack whilst getting outside of the M25, piloting an unfamiliar (very powerful & expensive) car with other vehicles coming at me from every angle and no idea where I was going really stressed me out. However by the time we got on to the M4 I was getting the feel of the car, once we got to Reading I was loving every moment of the drive and when we got home I didn't really want to give it back.

I was already kinda humming and haring about emptying my ISA's and taking the RS2 plunge. After all the money does sod all in the bank and good RS2's are rapidly getting beyond my price range and most certainly appreciating in value. I'd already decided that if I were to purchase another S/RS2 that it would have to be an Avant and if I left it too much longer then an RS2 would be out of my reach.

Compared to my S2 Coupe the handling was a revelation, so much more sure footed at high speed and just generally better in most regards. I love my S2 and can chuck it around more than the RS on really tight stuff but for day to day driving and in particular long journeys the Avant wins hands down. Then there's the seating position, I know it's only down to the Recaro's but given that a good set of them is a grand I figured that's a grand in the pot so to speak. Man maths at work there.

So that was that, I was pretty much sold on the idea of getting my own example and what with all the turmoil that's going on in the world (ISIS, Ebola, Russia, etc) I figured you only live once so lets make the most of it.

As my budget was fairly limited I placed a wanted thread up on the forum with the intention of finding a tidy example with serious mechanical issues as that's my area of expertise, I'm not fazed by the idea of a snapped cam-belt, blown head-gasket, knackered gearbox ect. Here's the wanted thread.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75343

I got offered a couple of really poor examples before Eric (IrishS2) dropped me a PM to say he had a car that perhaps I'd be interested in. In most respects the car fitted the bill perfectly being low mileage, HPI clear, dead straight and with only the first keeper showing on the V5. However whilst the car was in excellent mechanical condition with a near mint interior it does have a few minor body work issues that need to be rectified. Eric was totally straight up about this and sent me plenty of photo's of the problem areas. It was a London car so in short it's had paint down both sides and on both bumpers which hasn't been done to a standard that befits the car. Also the rear bumper has a couple of repairable cracks and at some point someone has burnt the paint on the nearside rear quarter and taken the lacquer off in a 6" X 1/2" strip with what I'm guessing was over zealous use of an electric polisher of some sort. And of course the bottom trims are all in a tatty state being the originals, I'm on the list for a set of Arons new carbon fibre items that can be painted.

Despite the fact the it's had paint the car is exceptionally straight and has never been involved in a heavy impact, I had the chance to inspect it on a lift at Eric's and have since been over it with fine tooth comb and there's no sign of accident damage anywhere. The nearside rear door has some small dents and I'll probably replace this as opposed to have them filled prior to a full respray.

Kinda the opposite of what I original set out to find, however the overall condition of the of the car, mileage, number of owners, interior and fully stamped up service book was enough for me to decide that it was the example for me. After all I have mates in the motor trade and can get paint work done for approaching sane sums of money but it's one thing I can't do myself yet.

Here's a couple of the photo's Eric sent me,





So it was 'just' a matter of picking the car up from Southern Ireland and I'd be an RS2 owner. Originally I was going to take a holiday over there in my S2 as I'd never been before, take a look at the RS2, do a deal then all being well go back and get it with a car transporter. I don't trust other people to get things right so there was no way I was going to get some random guy from Shipply to collect the car for me.

However when I started looking into ferry, fuel and accommodation costs I decided it would make more sense to do it in one hit so to speak as just the ferry alone is quite expensive especially with a car transporter. I would never normally take such a risk but I'd had a good chat with Eric on the phone and seen all the pic's I needed to make a decision. Plus everyone I've dealt with from this forum is as straight up as they come and one only needs to look at Eric's Coupe and Avant build threads to tell he's a true enthusiast so I had no reason to doubt his description.

So I decided to collect the car over the course of the first weekend in March being a bank holiday I had the Monday off work anyway, in fact I'd arranged at the start of the year to have the rest of that week off.

The first thing I had to do was get the best deal I could find on the ferry crossing as the prices vary a good deal and as I've mentioned aren't exactly cheap. After much shopping around and checking my options at various ports I found the best deal would be a Fishguard/Rosslare crossing booked via freight link. This sailed at 02.30 on the Sunday the first of March, arriving in Rosslare 06.30, I then had all day in Ireland to collect the car as the return sailing was 21.30 that evening from Rosslare. Eric lives roughly two and half hours drive from the port so I figured that would give me plenty of time to get there, inspect the car, sort the paperwork, load up and drive back to Rosslare.

On Alex's (Error404) recommendation I hired a transporter from a company based in the Midlands, he's used one of their vehicles to retrieve his ABY Coupe from Scotland. Initially I booked the transporter from 8am on Saturday the 28th of February until 8am on Monday the second of March, then after thinking about it I added an extra day to allow for any complications, so I had to get it back before 8am on Tuesday the 3rd.

I was supposed to be collecting the transporter from Evesham but the knob head who'd had it before me refuelled with petrol then drove the vehicle until it conked out on his way back to drop it off. So that transporter was out of the question, from what the guy told me it sounds like it had killed the fuel pump, I know he wasn't very happy at all. They offered me a replacement but that had to be picked up from Devises in Wiltshire, as it was a last minute alteration and little further for me to travel they knocked £100 of my fee so it was kind of a bonus.

Charlie and I set off at 6am on the Saturday morning and collected the transporter at 8.30am after a brief but sufficient explanation of how to use the various controls, ramps and tie downs etc. We returned to Mid Wales by around midday and I had the intention of spending the afternoon asleep as we didn't need to set off for Fishguard until 10pm. Charlie went home and I think managed to get a bit of sleep but for the life of me I couldn't drop off or even really get any rest as my mind was occupied with the mission ahead of me. I spent the day working on one of my cars, took the dog for a walk and did sit and chill out for a while before we set off at 10pm as planned.

The drive down to Fishguard was uneventful, the A40 is dead at that time of night and the transporter was surprisingly easy to pilot so we made it there in good time and got parked up at the front of the freight cue. We had some time to kill so took a wander about the port and found a vending machine that offered some basic refreshments. Boarding was bang on time and very straight forward, we were one of the first vehicles onto the ferry which is great as it means being first off the other end.

I'd expected to have to spend four hours sitting in an uncomfortable chair trying to sleep but to our pleasant surprise upon getting to the reception area we were presented with a ticket for a meal from the truckers dinner and the key to tiny cabin each. Being a budget booking I wasn't expecting this but we took advantage of the food immediately having a cracking full English breakfast at 2am in the morning. We then retired to our cabins, Charlie maintains he crashed out pretty much straight away and slept all the whole crossing. Despite being very tired I couldn't sleep, the sea was very rough and the cabin squeaked and rattled, after lying down for an hour or so I gave up and went drank bowl's of Coffee. I say bowls because one couldn't use a cup the swell being so heavy, it was really hard to walk about and the wind out on deck was fierce making cigarette's a hazardous experience.

We got into Rosslare on time and were away from the port by 7am, the roads in Ireland are great apart from in some towns where there's pot holes everywhere and got to Eric's by about 10am. We had a bit of general chat about S/RS2's had a quick look at his stunning Avant that's he's put so much time and effort into, it's going to be a truly exceptional car once complete. Then we spent an hour or so looking over the RS2 before doing a deal and sorting out the paperwork, all very straight forward and I couldn't have dealt with a nicer guy than Eric. I got quite a good selection of spares along with the car including some exhaust/fuel tank shields that are now NLA, a new brake bomb, new badges, the missing door strip and some other useful odds and ends.

Loaded up photo's here.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=843821&postcount=13

We got the car loaded and secured in no time and were on our way back sometime in the early afternoon, I can't really remember as by this time I was running on Redbull and feeling a bit odd. The first few miles with the car on board were a little hairy, the transporter went from feeling like a van to a lorry and the roads around Eric's place are quite narrow and bumpy. But by the time we'd made it to Cork I was getting to grips with it and we made good progress stopping occasionally to check the tie downs etc. We had to kill a couple of hours in Rosslare before we could board, but again this at least meant we were first in the cue, we had a look about the port, found a cup of coffee etc and before long we were on the boat.

It was the same deal on the return sailing, free meal and cabin, this time it was a choice of pie or curry both of which were excellent as I had a bit of each. By this time I was shattered and really needed to sleep so I went to my cabin had a quick shower in the tiny adjoining wet room to get the bit's of RS2 underside out of my hair. Then I dashed to the bar and downed three shots of Vodka had a quick fag out on deck and went straight back to my cabin, lay down and the next thing I know someone's knocking on the door to say get up we're about to land. Those four hours sleep were a God send!

We were first off again and straight through customs without event, the drive back was great, it was dry and the roads were dead so we got back across South Wales in two and half hours arriving home at about 3am. I parked the transporter up and Charlie drove home the couple miles to his house, first thing I did was open a bottle of good red wine, sit down and try and unwind. I had a browse on here and a couple of glass's before finally getting my head down at 5am. I got up in the early afternoon and took my time unloading my precious cargo before heading back down to Devises to drop the transporter off. I'm bloody glad I gave myself the extra day, whilst it would have been possible to have dropped it off at 8am on Monday I wouldn't have been safe to drive.

In fact it took until Wednesday that week before I felt normal again, I have no idea how much Redbull I drank over the course of the weekend but I'm quite sure it was an unhealthy quantity.

Safely on the drive at home.

]





I did a few job's on the car then got her MOT'd on Wednesday the 4th of march, I then changed the coolant and the oil/filter after a few miles even though they'd only done 300 miles the car had been stood for a couple of years so I thought I'd use them as a flush. When I took the air box off to do a boost leak check I got surprise, check out this thread for details.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75998

I've done nearly 1K miles since taking ownership and she's in great health, got new VAG gearbox and rear diff oil sat waiting to go in, the box and diff are both very quiet but 20 odd years is a long time so it can only do good to get some fresh stuff in there.

[irishs2]

Looks like the RS2 is in good hands, and its great to see it getting some miles on it.



PS the pics in post 39 above dont show. just fyi.

[K Simmonds]

Cheers Eric, yeah she's getting driven regularly now

Thanks for the heads up on the pic's, I can see them fine, will have a look and see if I can workout what's wrong, they are quite large files being much better photo's.

[AndyP]

I can't see pics either

[K Simmonds]

That's odd, maybe their too big, however I can see them fine, let's see if this one works.



If that's failed I'm going to have to resize them all, which is a complete ball ache.

[K Simmonds]

Right, I can see that.