Welshname's Deep Black 197

[welshname]

So as some of you know I've been looking for a 197 for a while. As much as I loved the monaco the time had come where I had to draw the line with spending any more money on it.

So...The replacement is a deep black 197.

Spec:
Xenons
Cornering Lights
Climate Control
Cup Spoiler
19mm Spacers
Scorpion Non Res Catback Exhaust
H&R Springs
6 CD Changer
61K Miles
2006 Model
FSH
Belts due in June/July
£4000

Don't have any of my own pictures yet as it's been dark, raining and the car is now dirty so the ones from the advert:


197 Advert by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr


197 Advert by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

So I've already started to buy some things for the car. One of them being Recaros from an R27 which myself, @Rob and @TheEvilGiraffe fitted whilst @Cookie brought us food. I'd had the car for less than 24 hours before this was completed. Then I used clip to remove the airbag light caused by the missing extra airbag that you get in the 197 seats.

My brand new wheel has just arrived along with my RS Mats which will be fitted tomorrow


Brand New 197 Wheel by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

Still waiting on:
RenaultSport metal gearknob
LED Kit for the interior
Sunglasses Holder

Really happy with the car so far. It's VERY clean for it's age and for the price I can't complain. I'd spend ages looking at cars up for £5-6K that were higher mileage, no options, very sheddy with no service history so to find this was brilliant.

If the weather is nicer tomorrow and I'm not still feeling like I might die at any second I'll get some pictures of the recaros fitted. Also going to try and get it aligned properly tomorrow. The only thing really letting the car down is that the passenger front alloy is badly kerbed and a bit of a chunk missing from the tyre which the previous owner did when avoiding some moron in a nissan micra and it's knocked the tracking out a tiny bit.

Massive thanks to @Rob for coming with me to view/buy the car and driving the Monaco back to @TheEvilGiraffe who kindly put me up for the night, @Cookie for bringing food and @Scrooge for taking the Monaco off my hands. It all worked out pretty well.

Cheers.

 

[Gally]

Love it mate! The 197 is a really nice looking model, always liked them in Black, Albi blue R27 is where it's at of course.

Being the first of them did it ever get gearbox work? Shame he never went for the GT spoiler, rounds the car off better imo.

Look forward to proper clean pictures.

Black wheels also suit black 197s even now.

 

[welshname]

GT wasn't an option on the 197. Only on the 200s. As for the 'box he didn't mention it but at 70mph its at 3.5k. The earlier boxes (that this should have) should be 4k iirc. I'm going to do a proper look through the history tomorrow.

And black on black...c'mon murdered out was so 90's.

 

[Knuckles]

Such deep.

Leave the spoiler! At least you're right regarding 'black on black'.

Love it, must see some time, what's the paint like?

This is going to be fairly heroic by the time you're done :smiley:

 

[welshname]

Such deep.

Leave the spoiler! At least you're right regarding 'black on black'.

Love it, must see some time, what's the paint like?

This is going to be fairly heroic by the time you're done :smiley:

Paintwork is good for the age. All original.

You've got this expected stone chips on the front bumper, two small scuffs on either side of the rear bumper that I'm not convinced are through to primer and a tiny parking dent.

It's a really good example barring that and the kerbed wheel. Would benefit from a proper da session but it's not bad at all.

And the spoiler isn't that offensive in person, I'm still undecided.

 

[Bluebeard]

That's lovely, really really nice.

I'm fancying one of these next. Really good looking cars.

 

[Cookie]

The Recaros are much nicer than the things that came out of it, and I was surprised by how nice they look (the 197) in black, in the flesh. I think the spoiler thing helps it.

 

[welshname]

The Recaros are much nicer than the things that came out of it, and I was surprised by how nice they look (the 197) in black, in the flesh. I think the spoiler thing helps it.

I have always hated the spoiler. But in the flesh I think I might actually like it... Not 100% sold on it yet though.

 

[Knuckles]

Paintwork is good for the age. All original.

You've got this expected stone chips on the front bumper, two small scuffs on either side of the rear bumper that I'm not convinced are through to primer and a tiny parking dent.

It's a really good example barring that and the kerbed wheel. Would benefit from a proper da session but it's not bad at all.

And the spoiler isn't that offensive in person, I'm still undecided.

My offer is still there, we'll make a weekend of it with beer.

It'll be nice.

Look at it until you agree it's epic.

I think the spoiler thing helps it.

Terry is right.

Listen to him, he drives an ///M3

 

[Jekyll]

Excellent stuff Rhys!

19mm spacers look so much better than the 25mm that the majority put on. It looks more like it should.

 

[Bluebeard]

I can't stop looking at the opening post. It's such a good looking car!

 

[welshname]

I can't stop looking at the opening post. It's such a good looking car!

You have no idea how much time I spent looking at the advert before I got it. I was getting proper anxious as I rang him on the Monday and he had someone coming to view it that night. He messaged me the next day saying the guy coming to view's dad went into hospital so he's coming tonight instead. So I'm getting proper nervous that this car is going to sell and not found any others I liked and then he rang the day after saying he will keep it for me until Friday because the other bloke was a messer.

So glad I ended up with this one.

 

[imprezaworks]

Looks lovely. Was keen on one of these and decided against it, not sure why now lol

Looking again, it's bloody stunning.

 

[Knuckles]

Looks lovely. Was keen on one of these and decided against it, not sure why now lol

Looking again, it's bloody stunning.

Mpg

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

If anyone wants the original seats... Come say hi.

 

[imprezaworks]

Just me being tight

 

[welshname]

Mpg

It's not even that bad. From picking it up and going to @TheEvilGiraffe it averaged 36.9mpg. Then with the cruise at 80 for the 4 hour drive home it did 30.1mpg

Will see how this next full tank does me doing my regular driving, work and back etc Monaco used to get 25mpg average.

 

[Cub.]

Looks great. Sorry I missed you guys.

 

[welshname]

Looks great. Sorry I missed you guys.

You didn't miss much tbh. I've been an absolute wreck all weekend. Was dying.

 

[Hixle]

I'm with @Daniel on this, it's such a good looking car! Sorry I wasn't around either mate, would've been good to have a proper catch up.

 

[welshname]

So still feeling rough but decided to give fitting the steering wheel a go.

Pretty simple job to be honest and it's made a huge difference to the inside of the car.

Some pictures:


Old Steering Wheel by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr


Old Steering Wheel by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

As you can see the wheel was pretty shiny, melted and the stitching at the top was coming off.

So the new one fitted:


New Steering Wheel by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

And against the old one:


New vs Old by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

And as promised a very quick picture of the Recaros. Love them:


Recaros by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

Booked in on a hunter alignment system at 3pm today so looking forward to having that all sorted too!

 

[Gavin.]

Nice upgrade from the 182 this mate, I do like the Mk3

 

[Poopensharten]

My god thats a good looking motor! Looks so wide!?!

Speedlines in a very high silver would absolutely finish that off to perfection!

 

[welshname]

I'm quite liking the standard wheels at the minute.

And they are ridiculously wide when sat next to a 172. Makes the 172 look like a toy car

 

[Rubicon_]

*Away looking at black 197's

Looks brilliant mate!

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

That does look bloody good!

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Shame the clutch melted on the way to the unit.

 

[welshname]

Flol! Smoke bomb under the car was NOT cool when I had the engine running doing the airbags in CLiP and therefore the blowers on.

Bunch of dicks.

 

[welshname]

So after fitting the new wheel I took the car for it's alignment. I always use a place local to me called Drury Lane Services. They know what they are doing, the place is nice and clean and everyone is really friendly.

So on the ramps it goes (this angle is one of the worst for the spoiler):


197 On The Ramps by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

And all done:


197 Tracking by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

Much better. Had the wheels balanced whilst I was there to cure the vibrations at speed caused by the kerbed wheel. Bloke there told me there is a small amount of play in both inner tie rods so that's something I'll look to do next month.

Got home to find my sunglasses holder had arrived. Saw someone post about these a few weeks ago and thought it was a great idea to get rid of the handle blanks that you have on the drivers side:


197 Handle Blanks by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

And replaced:


Sunglasses Holder by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

Much better use of the space although it's a tight fit for the Ray Bans!

Gearknob is due to arrive on the 11th of Feb and my LED kit should be here in the next couple of days.

 

[The Russian.]

Looks great this Rhys.

Looks fat and lovely. [emoji846]

How much where the seats and steering wheel bud.

 

[welshname]

Looks great this Rhys.

Looks fat and lovely. [emoji846]

How much where the seats and steering wheel bud.

I paid £800 for the seats and £190 for the wheel. The wheel was brand new but had been bought by someone who planned to fit it to his V6 then decided against it so sold it on. Believe you can get them for £200 normally.

The seats were collection only but luckily I was staying at Robs the night I picked my car up and the bloke only lived 20 mins away.

Only issue I'm having is that my airbag seems to sit proud compared to how it was on the old wheel. Going to give it another go tomorrow to see if I can make it fit better because it should fit the same.

 

[The Russian.]

It looks great bud, the spoiler makes them I think, looks lost without.

Seen another on here that was lowered and had spacers with turinis and loved it.

 

[welshname]

It looks great bud, the spoiler makes them I think, looks lost without.

Seen another on here that was lowered and had spacers with turinis and loved it.

Yeah spaced and lowered a bit and they just look so chubby and mean.

As for the spoiler, in starting to like it. I thought my parents would hate it but everyone who has seen the car so far loves it. I'll give it a bit before I make my final decision, unless someone with a deep black GT or Sprint spoiler comes along and wants to do a straight swap that might twist my arm *cough cough hint hint* anyone who fancies it.

 

[Knuckles]

It looked epic on the ramps!

And f**king lol at the smoke bomb

 

[welshname]

It looked epic on the ramps!

And f**king lol at the smoke bomb

That's health and safety Steve for you.

 

[Euan94]

Looks awesome, I think one of these is the front runner for me next.

Is it difficult to find one with Recaros?

 

[welshname]

Looks awesome, I think one of these is the front runner for me next.

Is it difficult to find one with Recaros?

Yes. It was either get an R27 with recaros standard but absolutely no options or get something with projectors and or climate and retrofit.

Luckily this had xenons with the cornering lights AND climate so it was a massive bonus. Seats were easy enough to fit apart from the fact I've got the 6 CD changer which means the stereo is under the seat so you've got all that wiring and the bracket for it under the seat base. What a pig that was. With a normal stereo its dead easy.

You can fit resistors on the plugs to get rid of the airbag light caused by fitting recaros or you can turn the missing airbags off in clip like I did.

 

[Stefan.]

Looks lovely!

Do like how chunly these look

 

[Knuckles]

Yes. It was either get an R27 with recaros standard but absolutely no options or get something with projectors and or climate and retrofit.

Luckily this had xenons with the cornering lights AND climate so it was a massive bonus. Seats were easy enough to fit apart from the fact I've got the 6 CD changer which means the stereo is under the seat so you've got all that wiring and the bracket for it under the seat base. What a pig that was. With a normal stereo its dead easy.

You can fit resistors on the plugs to get rid of the airbag light caused by fitting recaros or you can turn the missing airbags off in clip like I did.

I wonder if the xcarlink will keep the cd changer functionality

 

[welshname]

I wonder if the xcarlink will keep the cd changer functionality

Meant to post about that. Basically the CD changer is the headunit and the stereo is under the seat. Xcarlink plugs into the CD changer port so you lose all of the headunit controls. Going to have to find another way.

Want my xcarlink for a little less than new cost?