[Jason]

This is what my renault megane will look like after some modding (providing I become a service technician at Renault):-



Well, at least that's the plan.

[Blackmirror]

Talking about modding
picture this

Light blue ford capri
Me and hub thought we would spend all one weekend sticking purple fur in it
On the roof and dashboard doors etc

Big mistake was too hot

Also added one of those sun visors that had our names on

[Daveskater]

@ Jase: Well it's certainly different

Tbh not really to my taste much but you do what you like mate, it doesn't matter what other people think.

BM: Haha, that's quite some insulation then What's wrong with leather

[Jason]

LOL, BM.

There are few other things I'd like to do it aswell.

[Blackmirror]

Yes we had furry dice as well
we were on a tight budget
leather lol

[Dano2k0]

Hello again everyone.

Well its been a while since i last nipped on here, came back to a message from Dave asking how the Astra was going, so thought i'd dig up this thread and give abit of an update.

Well since i last posted alot has changed and happened.

Firstly, i'm dissapointed in the fact i still haven't got the new engine fitted, but all is going well ive sourced and thought well through what the aims are, and what parts i may aswell get a 'better one' of before i start the conversion.

I have got a front mount intercooler and pipe work sorted, i think ive got pretty much all the sensors i was missing, i can't remember if i posted pics or not here, but ive got samco hoses for the water side of things. Ive got alot of stuff i can't even think of off hand, its cost a fair old ammount along the way though, i just need to make sure i'm going to be in soon so i can order my complete new exhaust system with sports cat, costing just shy of £800 but its a good deal, and thankfully i got a better discount cause i'm fitting it myself of course.

I can't remember the last pictures i posted, so to sum it up, i went on holiday with family and snapped a few pics of the 'beasts' together.

The Corsa is my brothers, ive got a snap of the bay aswell, bear in mind though at this stage we had only just really got the thing together properly and running in, at this stage the car had probably covered between 1000 to 1500miles. What can i say, its a hell of a fast car, its proven itself against many a car on the road so far. The sheer ammount of power it has for such a small, light car is amazing, and its a handfull to drive when you give it some. The engine is pretty much complete race spec, so you can guess not many estimate it being quite so fast when they try and burn you

Anyway heres the pics from when we went away (obviously my car, my brothers, and the blue Astra GSI is my dads.)







Those roads down north / south wales are amazingly fun, especially in convoy

Next up on my car, ive got some tinted rear lights, fitted some gauges in a carbon type pod in the car, swapped the front splitter, and am about to fit a HID kit. Sadly i don't currently have photos of any of this, so i'll show those another time.

In the mean time (at least i don't think ive posted any of this till now) I have fitted a new interior its half leather / half alcantara, its a lovely interior, very pleased with it.

Also got a carbon bonnet fitted, i ended up getting one with a vent, still don't know if that was the right choice, but i thought it may help deal with the excessive heat a little when the turbo lump goes in, all in all i'm happy with it.

Also got my other wheels on the car, finally got around to doing the refurb and getting 4 new toyo proxes T1R's on.

Anyway, heres the pictures: (please excuse pretty much all of them, they are somewhat rubbish, been dark and raining everytime ive decided to snap a couple off )

Test fit of wheels to check to see if they were going to rub bad. As you can see i'd already began work on the wheels.



Luckily i have the compressor and proper spraying equipment, so i did all the work myself, heres a couple in primer.



And a couple when finished and being left to dry.





Got the carbon bonnet fitted while the wheels were hardening for a couple of days in the garage.





And heres the wheels on the car.







And the new interior fitted, its terrible for trying to make it look 'even' it looks odd no matter how you brush it lol.







Lastly a few pics of the whole thing together, i should have taken some more by now really in daylight while its clean, but oh well you get the idea.







As you can see in the above pics, my brake disks now look tiny and lost in those wheels, looking forward to getting the GSI brakes on (easiest option for time being) being 308mm disks, they aren't exactlly small so should look much better in the wheels.

Over-all i'm very happy so far, just need to make abit more time and put abit more effort into getting myself into gear and cracking on with that engine conversion.

Infact as i'm on holiday a week today, i'll try and snap a few decent pics of her while i'm away (going down south wales again ) i'll also try and remember to snap some pics of the latest mods!

Feedback / comments welcome as always.

Cheers.

[Daveskater]

That looks like it's coming along well mate. Personally I'd get the black plastics colour coded though Except the front splitter, they looks lame painted I reckon.

I'm sure I recognise the Corsa from Corsa Sport, I've put a thread up but no replies yet.

It'll look tons better with the bigger brakes, really like that interior as well. What profile are those tyres though? They look tiny!

Anywho here's a couple of fairly recent ones of mine, can't remember how it was when I last posted haha.





Not really changed much in a while, but that's as it stands right now. A chap I've met before off of Corsa Sport is going to give me some GSi shocks and springs when he finds them, and they lower by about 30mm My insurance is coming round next month though, and I want to get some -60mm springs really.

Here's a side on shot of it now



And what I want it to be like when I'm finished.



It's not a perfect Photoshop and I forgot to put Irmscher sideskirts on, but that's a rough idea anyway.

You'll have a tough time competing with this, though





Phwoar, raw power there.



I scanned this out of Total Vauxhall for a laugh, it was their feature on Trax 2008 at Silverstone.

[Dano2k0]

Dave,

Cheers for the comments mate, yeah my cars come along way over recent times, still not far enough though lol.

I have considered colour coding bump strips, handles, mirror base plates, and side skirts or getting some different ones, although ive gone for a red and black theme, when its clean and polished, it actually works quite well in my opinion, but ive still been considering colour coding that stuff.

Ive fitted a different splitter now too (still black) but its off the coupe turbo with brake ducts fitted aswell.

My brother is on Corsa sport, its his car lol, if he nips online and sees your thread no doubt he'll leave you a reply.

The tyres ive got on are 35 series, but they are stretched onto the rim so are even smaller side wall lol.

Your cars looking alright mate, looks much much better with those alloys on, its just dieing for a good drop now. Might be worth while considering a set of coilovers? You'd be supprised how well it'll handle if you get it sat on the floor on coils.

Am i right in thinking they are speedlines? or are they just some wheels that look simillar? They suit the car well either way.

Once youve got abit more done, you want to drop a redtop in it, you'll have a world of fun mate.

I see you got yourself sat on the AOC stand i tend to hang around on that forum often, going to try and make abit more effort to turn up to more events when ive got the LET fitted.

Considering your engine is only the 1litre, it didn't do at all bad to put out 60bhp.

I love the raw power comment though

Cheers.

[Daveskater]

They're Irmscher Softstars mate, Speedline Alessio 2's are 5 spoke as well, though, a lot of people have them on Corsa's but I'm not a big fan really.

My mate has an Astra Coupe but it's not the turbo one, I do refer the splitter over the normal Astra though, don't really like the cut out bit.

I think that most people who lower by 60mm get Spax RSX coilies but they're like £250 and I just don't have that much money. I'm on the dole at the moment so £60 Gmax springs will have to do

I was thinking of getting an X18XE1 in there in a couple of years time, when the insurance will be a bit nicer, it's a good smallblock engine that pretty much goes straight in, apparently the only problem is the heater matrix pipes but that's easily fixed. I went to a CS meet last Sunday and currently the only guy on there with that conversion came, it was pretty cool

Looks like this, except that's the Z18XE cover, probably what yours has.

[samjohnson]

Your car is looking good Dano2k0! I like the rims. Though the tires are a bit to skinny for my taste. The hood looks awesome! Interior is pretty sweet also.

Dave - your car would look pretty sweet lowered! And I like how you made the handles and stuff blue instead of the black in photoshop. Looks much better that way.

I would love to get some new rims for my truck. Just don't have the money for that right now. I would also love to put a hard top on the bed with a spoiler on it. That would look pretty sweet I think.
It also needs a K&N air intake. Might make it sound a bit better.

[Dano2k0]

Originally Posted by Daveskater

They're Irmscher Softstars mate, Speedline Alessio 2's are 5 spoke as well, though, a lot of people have them on Corsa's but I'm not a big fan really.

My mate has an Astra Coupe but it's not the turbo one, I do refer the splitter over the normal Astra though, don't really like the cut out bit.

I think that most people who lower by 60mm get Spax RSX coilies but they're like £250 and I just don't have that much money. I'm on the dole at the moment so £60 Gmax springs will have to do

I was thinking of getting an X18XE1 in there in a couple of years time, when the insurance will be a bit nicer, it's a good smallblock engine that pretty much goes straight in, apparently the only problem is the heater matrix pipes but that's easily fixed. I went to a CS meet last Sunday and currently the only guy on there with that conversion came, it was pretty cool

Looks like this, except that's the Z18XE cover, probably what yours has.

Ah, now youve said it and ive took another look i should have known they weren't speedlines, from the smaller picture and a quick look, they looked abit that way at first. To be honest i love the speedlines on the corsa, classic corsa wheel i agree every other person has them lol, but still a cracking set of wheels, really suit the car.

Sorry to hear your out of the work, real shame you can't just dip for the coils instead. Still, for the time being some 60mm springs should have a nice difference for you. Even springs should have a nice difference on the handling aswell, i'm sure you'll be loving it when they are on.

X18XE, hmmm not a bad upgrade, though i do have to be totally honest, why not just go straight for the 2litre if your going to upgrade? It has more potential all way round.

You could even get redtop turbo, very simillar engine to the one i'm fitting in the astra soon.

I would highly recommend the C20XE though, they are such a strong engine, i know most have in the range of 100k miles, but to be honest its not alot for one of those engines within reason of course. The build quality is amazing, unlike the more modern engines such as the X18XE. Plus you can get all sorts of nice tunning bits and pieces for the redtop at a good price, fast road cams second hand won't run you a right lot either.

The picture looks abit different to the Z18XE i currently have, heres a pic of my bay from a while back.



I can't wait to get shut of the 1.8 though, but i guess my car is alot bigger and heavier than a Corsa. It still does go quite well though to be perfectly fair about it for the engine it is, but i can't live with it like that, i'm dieing for some boost.

Have you talked to adrian flux about insurance? might not be quite as much as you think to get a bigger engine in if you already get insurance with them (obviously for the future) they are a good company for modified cars.

Originally Posted by samjohnson

Your car is looking good Dano2k0! I like the rims. Though the tires are a bit to skinny for my taste. The hood looks awesome! Interior is pretty sweet also.

Dave - your car would look pretty sweet lowered! And I like how you made the handles and stuff blue instead of the black in photoshop. Looks much better that way.

I would love to get some new rims for my truck. Just don't have the money for that right now. I would also love to put a hard top on the bed with a spoiler on it. That would look pretty sweet I think.
It also needs a K&N air intake. Might make it sound a bit better.

Thanks mate, glad you like the changes in general

I think the tyres do look abit thinner in the pics than they do in person, i think it was partialy the poor light and weather conditions that made them look quite so small.

I'll snap some new pics when i'm away and get some up in daylight, should be looking abit better than.

Although ive never seen your truck, i'm always in favour of people doing modifications, when you get some cash you should splash abit on it, might look pretty good.

I assume when your talking about the K&N intake, you mean induction kit? Cause if you only replace the panel filter with a K&N panel, it won't really make that much difference to how it sounds, induction kits can make a nice roar when on the go.

[samjohnson]

Well I call it an air intake... really don't know what its supposed to be called lol. Not much of a mechanic.
But its basically what you added to your car there in your last pic. (at least I think it is haha)
Here it is right here though.

77-2552KP - K&N Intake Kits, Performance Intake Kit

Ill go look through my pics to see if I can find a picture of my truck. Its just a 2003 Ford Ranger. It was a commercial leased truck as far as I know. Its in pretty good condition though for one. Though it does have a vibration that we can't figure out.

*Edit

Here is my truck. Not the best of picture. Its been in the garage for a couple of days now since I have 4 days off in a row from work. And the weather has been really nasty out lately. At least it looks clean though. Got to wash it a few days ago when we had actually had a nice day. Oh and my dad piled some wood in the back so we could go out and grab it for the fireplace.
I told him to just leave it there cuse I am to lazy to help unload it. lol

[Dano2k0]

Ah, it could be in the US they refer to them as Intake kits rather than what we call 'induction kits'

I suppose it means pretty much the same thing to be fair, just worded abit differently.

The only thing i hold against induction / intake kits is the 'heat soak' you get especially on hot summer days, or when the engine is very hot, especially turbo engines that produce alot of heat.

I'm going to continue to use the same piper induction kit i have in the above photo when i fit the new engine, but i'm seriously considering building my own type of 'enclosure' although it won't be exactlly and trying to duct a nice ammount of cold air into it so the filter can use that and it hopefully won't suffer too much from 'heat soak' to the same extent.

In winter they are great when the engine isn't massively hot though, they give a nice bit of roar and allow alot of cold air quickly to be sucked up, the colder the air the better, hence the reason of using one on a turbo charged car.

I guess i if i get a cold air feed sorted something like when i get the new engine in, hopefully the intercooler will help deal with the air temp that bit more, its much better than the standard intercooler they run them on.

[samjohnson]

haha ya I guess we say some stuff differently.

[Daveskater]

The reason for going with the X18XE1 (the 1 is very important is that it's a smallblock so weighs less than a C20XE plus it revs that bit further Plus the power band is almost flat so you have peak power almost the whole way across the rev range.

Apparently Gmax springs aren't the best ride or anything, but they'll do for a bit. It'll be so much better not rolling so much round EVERY corner

I have heard about Adrian Flux but haven't called them yet. Apparently they're not so great when you go to claim as well. I'm going to give Brentacre a ring though, I've heard loads of good things about them, they know their stuff and they're nice to deal with when you claim. Plus with mods that don't give a power increase, they don't put any extra on top of your premium, and they don't charge an admin fee like a lot of companies. Lots of people say they got great quotes off them as well.

[Dano2k0]

Originally Posted by samjohnson

haha ya I guess we say some stuff differently.

Haha yeah its supprising, so much alike yet there are so many small differences with how we say various things.

Just seen the pic of your truck, doesn't look bad at all. I must admit, i'm not a particular fan of such things, but i do appreciate why people have them and like them so much, so from that point of view i do think some are alright.

I agree if you get some nice wheels on it, should be looking pretty smart, alot of people don't like white paint work, but i actually really like it when its cleaned, waxed and if theres some nice black polished trim in areas, it can look stunning.

Originally Posted by Daveskater

The reason for going with the X18XE1 (the 1 is very important is that it's a smallblock so weighs less than a C20XE plus it revs that bit further Plus the power band is almost flat so you have peak power almost the whole way across the rev range.

Apparently Gmax springs aren't the best ride or anything, but they'll do for a bit. It'll be so much better not rolling so much round EVERY corner

I have heard about Adrian Flux but haven't called them yet. Apparently they're not so great when you go to claim as well. I'm going to give Brentacre a ring though, I've heard loads of good things about them, they know their stuff and they're nice to deal with when you claim. Plus with mods that don't give a power increase, they don't put any extra on top of your premium, and they don't charge an admin fee like a lot of companies. Lots of people say they got great quotes off them as well.

Hmm i understand where your coming from, but the X18XE in my opinion isn't the strongest of engines and your more than likely going to throw a rod if you give it some very often. Don't get me wrong, you could do the same on a redtop, but everything about that engine is so much stronger as standard, if you get some ARP bolts at least on the conrods then you'll find you can quite safely raise the limiter some and it will stand that on standard internals quite well for some time.

Just my opinion again, but if your interested in tuning and getting the most from your engine, there are so many cheaper options for the redtop, you can go throttle boddies, high lift cams, oversized valves etc etc, you can get a nice set of used but in good order fast road cams from about £80 up.

I know the X18XE has the smaller lighter block, i can't remember off hand its standard BHP rating, but i'd estimate approx 110bhp. Not too bad for a 1.8 if i'm about right.

On the other hand a C20XE is a heavier, stronger block, conrods, pistons, crank, and the cylinder head if you get the cosworth head is much better. So obviously it weighs more, but you get 150BHP there abouts from standard.

I'm not saying fitting a X18XE is a bad idea, but i would recommend the redtop anyday over one. I know its something quite alot of people have done, but if you intend to keep the car for a long while, and spend some cash on it over time, the redtop is the better deal of the two if you want good performance.

I wish i had some videos to show you my brothers corsa run, i won't get into the costs of what it cost to build, we built it ourself, me my brother and my dad did it from scratch, its got forged crank, forged rods, forged pistons, over sized valves, high lift cams, over sized bores, arp bolts through out, a very highly flowed head, throttle boddies, so you can guess plus all the rest i haven't even mentioned cost a pretty penny. But the end result is truly stunning, i hope he does get to take it down santapod this year.

The only downside is, he is yet to uprate the gearbox, swapping the gearbox isn't a great deal of fun, and if you drive it shall we say enthusiastic very often, you'll soon find yourself having to replace the box

Also within the first couple of thousand miles he also snapped a hardened shaft, so hes now got some with a lifetime gurantee, if he breaks them, he gets replacements for free for life, can't grumble at that.

I think hes going to raise the limiter on it soon, its currently limiting at 7250k rpm, but i think hes talking about raising the limiter to 8500k rpm as the power band of the cams is just past the best at this, which will throw it right back into the power band when you change gear.

Ive drove the car and gave it some a couple of times, and honestly its just crazy, i'm really looking forward to it running at santapod, if i get the ZLET in, in enough time, i might run the astra aswell once its remapped, hoping to be at 260bhp later this year, with hopes of a bigger turbo and moving onto 300bhp then it'll be time for forged internals.

The list of cars weve seen off while ive been in it could go on for some time, hes had a Subaru NR1 limited edition, Audio RS4, alot of other Subarus of different specs, an Evo, though i can't remember the exact spec on that to be honest.

Although off the line most of these 4 wheel drives are obviously much quicker due to obvious reasons, once they get rolling the Corsa has enough power to pull back past them.

The only one he didn't have much over the was the limited edition NR1, but of course his isn't yet fine tuned or limiting at what it needs to be, so no doubt once finished it would have been a good bit faster than that too.

Just giving this for comparions of what you can do with a redtop vs the 1.8, i guess it all depends how far you want to take it. Don't get me wrong i know a Corsa with a 1.8 engine will be very fast, no doubt about that.

Oh and i think you'll be supprised about the springs, when you get them on it will be like a whole different car again. I bet the body roll will feel like next to nothing considering what it will feel like at the moment.

Let us know when you get the springs on and post some pics though, i'd like to see it when you get it done.

[samjohnson]

Originally Posted by Dano2k0

Haha yeah its supprising, so much alike yet there are so many small differences with how we say various things.

Just seen the pic of your truck, doesn't look bad at all. I must admit, i'm not a particular fan of such things, but i do appreciate why people have them and like them so much, so from that point of view i do think some are alright.

I agree if you get some nice wheels on it, should be looking pretty smart, alot of people don't like white paint work, but i actually really like it when its cleaned, waxed and if theres some nice black polished trim in areas, it can look stunning.

Ya Americans seem to like bigger vehicles. We looked at all sorts of cars and that was actually the cheapest for insurance. Just not the best on gas. Though the one car I really wanted was a v6 ford taurus, which got like 19mpg.
My truck gets about 23mpg. So not really all that bad considering.
But yup I would love to put some rims on it. I think some black ones would look really nice. Don't really want chrome. I bet a hood scoop would look cool.
haha if only I had the money.

[Daveskater]

Originally Posted by Dano2k0

Hmm i understand where your coming from, but the X18XE in my opinion isn't the strongest of engines and your more than likely going to throw a rod if you give it some very often. Don't get me wrong, you could do the same on a redtop, but everything about that engine is so much stronger as standard, if you get some ARP bolts at least on the conrods then you'll find you can quite safely raise the limiter some and it will stand that on standard internals quite well for some time.

I know the X18XE has the smaller lighter block, i can't remember off hand its standard BHP rating, but i'd estimate approx 110bhp. Not too bad for a 1.8 if i'm about right.

Just giving this for comparions of what you can do with a redtop vs the 1.8, i guess it all depends how far you want to take it. Don't get me wrong i know a Corsa with a 1.8 engine will be very fast, no doubt about that.

Oh and i think you'll be supprised about the springs, when you get them on it will be like a whole different car again. I bet the body roll will feel like next to nothing considering what it will feel like at the moment.

Let us know when you get the springs on and post some pics though, i'd like to see it when you get it done.

Apparently the X1XE1 is a much better design than the X18XE and it can be really fuel efficient. I think they're 113bhp and 135lb/ft standard, but some people reckon that because of the power band on the 1.8, it will easily keep up with a 2.0 even though it is smaller, because it weighs less etc. The Z18XE has 123 bhp and about the same torque so you could even use one of those and probably have even less mileage on it.

I really can't wait to get the springs on, hopefully the GSi ones will make a nice bit of difference in themselves, but I'll use the 60mm springs with the GSi shocks, because standard ones bottom out at about 70-80mm so any big bumps and you'll feel it Load of potholes have appeared round here the last week or so as well, dunno where they've suddenly come from.

I'll definitely get some pics It'll probably be plastered all over CS as well haha. The only other things I really want to do externally are sideskirts, GSi spoiler and fully colour coded, although I do need a new passenger door as this one's bent It looks like somebody's whacked a kerb or something at some point and it's bent the whole thing.

[Dano2k0]

Originally Posted by samjohnson

Ya Americans seem to like bigger vehicles. We looked at all sorts of cars and that was actually the cheapest for insurance. Just not the best on gas. Though the one car I really wanted was a v6 ford taurus, which got like 19mpg.
My truck gets about 23mpg. So not really all that bad considering.
But yup I would love to put some rims on it. I think some black ones would look really nice. Don't really want chrome. I bet a hood scoop would look cool.
haha if only I had the money.

Agreed, America seems to be all in to the bigger vehicles, not too sure why though but seems to be the trend over there.

Those MPG are crazy, most of us over here would cry if thats all our cars got, i can't remember off hand what i get out of mine, its not great because i usually thrash it everywhere..

I agree aswell if you get some alloys for your truck, get them in black, they'd look alright against the white paint work.

Originally Posted by Daveskater

Apparently the X1XE1 is a much better design than the X18XE and it can be really fuel efficient. I think they're 113bhp and 135lb/ft standard, but some people reckon that because of the power band on the 1.8, it will easily keep up with a 2.0 even though it is smaller, because it weighs less etc. The Z18XE has 123 bhp and about the same torque so you could even use one of those and probably have even less mileage on it.

I really can't wait to get the springs on, hopefully the GSi ones will make a nice bit of difference in themselves, but I'll use the 60mm springs with the GSi shocks, because standard ones bottom out at about 70-80mm so any big bumps and you'll feel it Load of potholes have appeared round here the last week or so as well, dunno where they've suddenly come from.

I'll definitely get some pics It'll probably be plastered all over CS as well haha. The only other things I really want to do externally are sideskirts, GSi spoiler and fully colour coded, although I do need a new passenger door as this one's bent It looks like somebody's whacked a kerb or something at some point and it's bent the whole thing.

Dave, just red top it mate, were not worried about fuel consumption haha

I agree though, the X18XE and Z18XE really aren't bad engines, for their size they perform quite well. Just in my opinion you can get much more for your money on the redtop engines, i know they are abit done to death in terms of engine conversions but the reasons why are obvious, put me in that position and thats exactlly what i'd do. Although some people would disagree i have kept with some 2.2 astras in my 1.8, probably above 60-70 they'd have the advantage and pull away, but for a quick run i tend to stick with them just fine, but then again the 2.2 doesn't perform so much better anyway.

Sounds quite odd with regards to your door, can't you just sort the existing one out? though i guess a new door would be cheap now days anyway. Should be looking smart though mate once you get it lowered and colour code what you got with a spoiler on the boot lid. Looking forward to seeing the lowered pics aswell.

----------------------------------------------------

Ok as Dave already knows, ive had a break away for a few days, went down my favourite place in the UK which is right down south wales, a good 7 hours drive from where i live, always alot of fun, the ride down is great, alot of fast bendy roads where you can give it some.

This time was a little different and at points was a much slower ride, due to snow and ice!

Still had a great time and managed to snap some pics of the car which is what i'm about to post so i'll get cracking with those.









And my favourite pic i took while i was there:



As always, boys will be boys, and a good time was had on the snow and ice down where i took those photos.



Heres a photo i snapped one day, i was staying in the place on the right after all the snow melted thought i'd snap one while she was parked there.



Oh and thought i'd post this, a rather amusing 'snow woman' i came accross in the middle of no where while i was away, just had to pull up and take a photo



Sorry the car is dirty in all the pics, not much i could do about it though with such poor road conditions, it was lovely and clean before i left however.

Also for those that pay enough attention to detail, you'll probably realise the rear lights are now dark smoked ones, they are a very professional shiny finish when clean, also you may just about make out the A pillar gauge pod through the screen, and the front splitter is one from a coupe turbo and i have fitted the brake ducts aswell

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cheers

[Daveskater]

Originally Posted by Dano2k0

Dave, just red top it mate, were not worried about fuel consumption haha

I agree though, the X18XE and Z18XE really aren't bad engines, for their size they perform quite well. Just in my opinion you can get much more for your money on the redtop engines, i know they are abit done to death in terms of engine conversions but the reasons why are obvious, put me in that position and thats exactlly what i'd do. Although some people would disagree i have kept with some 2.2 astras in my 1.8, probably above 60-70 they'd have the advantage and pull away, but for a quick run i tend to stick with them just fine, but then again the 2.2 doesn't perform so much better anyway.

Sounds quite odd with regards to your door, can't you just sort the existing one out? though i guess a new door would be cheap now days anyway. Should be looking smart though mate once you get it lowered and colour code what you got with a spoiler on the boot lid. Looking forward to seeing the lowered pics aswell.

Well we'll see when the time comes

Yeah the 2.2 isn't really an amazing engine considering how big it is, it just seems to eat fuel and not do much else They've been supercharged before though, and you can get nearly 300bhp out of it if you know what you're doing, which is a bit more to shout about

They always have loads of Corsa Doors down the scrappy so one day I'll get one, there's probably not much point fixing this one, it's started rusting on the B pillar lately as well, which is super common, but I'm not bothering with it seeing as it's not staying

I'm going to be ordering a lowering kit this month when I make up my mind what one to get, there's one for just over £100, which will do until I can afford some Spax coilies. I'll probably get that but I can't remember where it was Think it was eBay, I dunno.

Nice pics though mate, gonna have to get me to Wales some time Me and my cousin were going to go, but two weeks before we planned on going, I lost my job. Plus it rained there the whole time anyway