200,182 Trophy, Cup
The car is fairly standard apart from a BTM cat back, Eibach springs (standard ride height) Brembo discs and Goodridge hoses. Bodywork wise it is lovely with the only shortcoming being a patch of rust in the usual place on the front bonnet edge. There are a few marks on a couple of the wheels and the headlights need the usual attention with the polisher.
I collected the car last night and was immediately impressed with the drive, everything felt nice and tight with no knocks or rattles. Lovely smooth gear change, good throttle response and nice clutch feel.
Today, as I do with all my cars, I set to cleaning the inside, I hate seeing cars with biscuit crumbs in the little crevices at the sides of the seat runners. Some attention with a small brush and the hoover sorted the problem .The car came with the nice Renaultsport mats but in need of a bit of tlc. I gave them a good coating of carpet cleaner then hung them on the fence and gave them a thorough blasting with the pressure washer. Amazing how much muck came out of the drivers mat. I did the same with the boot mat, the previous owner had spilled a bottle of tyre shine. Again some instant valay and the pressure washer sorted it, making sure I didn't soak the sound deadening underneath.
I took out the back seat and the fixing bar behind it and got rid of 10 years of crumbs, sweet wrappers and profited by £.1.68 in loose change !
A good wash of the plastics around the sills and door pillars and can of auto smart silicone trim sheen and all the interior looks great now. The bit of milder weather dried the mats out nicely too.
I gave the car a good snow foam and wash then microfibre dry - always a good way to find any little faults not spotted when you buy the car.
I noticed the little rubber buffers in the fuel cap were missing - as usual ! Also one of the courtesy light switch rubber caps was missing (if anyone can help me out with a replacement it would be appreciated appreciated) . Under the bonnet the stay clip was broken so I've ordered one of those. I've also got rid of the wipers that were of it, some flat bladed things which looked awful and took up half your vision, I've put some nice Bosch aerotwin blades on,
I'm going to run the car for a couple of weeks then get it in for the bonnet sorting and get the wheels done then set to with clay bar, rotary polisher etc and give it a proper detail.
It's amazing how no two of these cars feel the same to drive. I've done about 40 miles in it tonight, lovely to drive, feels slightly different to the Trophy on the front end and lighter on the steering than my 200. The clutch is slightly heavy but nothing too much. The eibachs feel nice, not choppy or uncomfortable. The BTM exhaust is not too intrusive either.
I've got a few jobs to do on it to keep me busy, but up to now I'm pleased with my purchase.
