Really, a leaking exhaust?!?!

So, after a frankly ridiculous 5 weeks of not having a car. I finally hear back from the garage to say that it's all done and ready. No apologies for the tardiness of the repair time. But I suppose it's absolutely acceptable to take such a lengthy period of time to do what was essentially,  an MOT.  Anyway, I arrive at the garage to be informed that the car has a clean bill of health and it's sailed through its emissions test. After they fixed a hole in the exhaust. Sadly I had to pay to fix that. It's an aftermarket part and I'm not an unreasonable guy. However. It wasn't until I left the garage I remembered that  the car should have never got a clean bill of health as there was a whopping big flat spot I put on the steel wheel prior to going into the garage!  That's an advisory at least! However they failed to pick up on it. What a joke!  Thankfully yhe summer wheels are back on now and I don't need to worry about them for at least a couple of months....hopefully!

Shots of Loch Skene

New look on the Ibiza fr

So I have been toying with the idea of adding more red onto the car somehow. So I stole an idea from the Mercedes A-c lass and put a red highlight on the car. I found some red carbon fibre wrap online but it wasn't a  great success as the wrap is too thick and doesn't sit well on the car. So I am possibly going to redo it in a slightly darker matt red.  What do you think?

My first grown up car.

So, after the devastating loss of my ford ka. I used the insurance money to put a deposit down on a new car. When I say new i don't mean new to me, I mean brand new. 15 miles on the clock when I got it. And what was this new, new car? Why, it was a VW polo of course! A 1.4 polo match to be exact and it was possibly the most grown up thing I owned, exept maybe the 21 year bottle of scotch I got for my christening when I was 5 years old.

It was just such a sensible car. Great, please don't think it was a bad car because it really wasn't. But very sensible. The layout of the cabin was exactly as you would expect from a german car company. Very logical and well presented, and the outside was very serious but very modern. I loved it. I was split between the polo and the fiesta but I found the fiestas dash too fiddly. So I went with the adult car.

The polo was a world of difference to the hoot of the KA. Much more comfortable, much better built and way more refined in every way. I could cruise down to Glasgow without my ears bleeding and my palms sweating. I got to test it in every way over the 2 and a half years I had it. I got my first speeding ticket in it. I did the west coast and northern Ireland. My girlfriend did her first lessons in it. VW really did an amazing job with the polo.

However, I discovered I may have been a little hasty in my need to grow up. I found myself looking around at the dash in traffic, wishing there was just a little bit more fun around. Also when I was around town the engine just didn't quite have the grunt the KA did. It was still a strong puller but I had become used to the force of the little KA.

In an attempt to get a little more life of the engine I fitted an induction kit. And it worked, to a point. Certainly the engine sounded a better and the torque band was wider. However it still lacked the ungency I craved. So I decided to go for something a little more wild.