Vindi Roadsters

[—atank—]

Russell, go fill up that empty garage!!!!!!!!!!!

[vindi49]

So empty garage ... time for a bit of a tidy up?


Well no car also means more free time, so I seemed to accidentally buy myself this ...



Which was soon collected and back at my house


It's a Mk2 RS, so 6 speed box, Torsen, lots of nice additions as well including a Maxim Works manifold, Auto Exe springs, the Enkei wheels (not my thing personally, but well made and light) etc ...

It's an insurance right off, but all because of a few minor things, the wing is damaged as is the windscreen. The bonnet and door have some marks, but nothing that matters to me ... and that's it. It also happens to be a 60,000 mile car and the condition reflects this.

So the screen was replaced

A wing was found in the right colour, and I booked it in for an MOT ... which meant going for a drive to the MOT station...



I'm not 100% sure as my sense of direction isn't great, but I may have found a route that wasn't the most direct one ... nice drive though, and it confirmed that the engine revved cleanly, pulled really well, stopped in a straight line etc etc. It failed the MOT on a few small things, but nothing that I hadn't expected, so all was good.

Then I got a good offer on the car and sold it, ooops!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Never mind, I'd found another one by then anyway ... a cheap Mk1...





So this one is a black S Special, with Mazdaspeed skirts, SSR Mesh wheels, Autoblaze mirrors, interesting style bar, Racing Beat exhaust and so on ... and it doesn't work ... honestly how I'm still married I have no idea!

Russell.

[—atank—]

Just stay away from the pubs and wild women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vindi49]

So anyway, back to the BRG one ... that's my "main car" if you remember (I don't half the time ...), the one that hasn't worked for ages ...

It was delivered back from the fabricators, a quick look inside confirmed the work was up to their usual brilliant standards, really happy again!




So the floor is now about 4 inches lower than it used to be, and the seat has been custom mounted nice and low as well ... so plenty of space for a full cage or whatever I plan next, while staying miles away from anyone's head!

Then was another mini disaster, the idiot delivering it forgot to secure the ramps onto the trailer properly, so as he rolled my car down the ramp it fell off the trailer and ended up with the front of the car smashing down onto the edge of the trailer ... don't worry, it's only a carbon Kevlar Ratsback lip!!



Not impressed at all ... this car is really fighting me at the moment! On reflection, I am amazed with the strength of the lip, it was dropped onto a vertical lip on the edge of the trailer, and supported the weight of the car while I quickly got a jack under the front and lifted the car up again. Meanwhile the delivery guy is just stood there muttering something about Yeah, that's why I usually put some pieces of wood under the end of the ramps, that happened a couple of times before ... very useful ...

Once I got the car off, the damage doesn't look too bad, the bumper and undertray is smashed but I have spares of those anyway. The lip has sprung back into place, a great piece of design and very, very well made ... what's happened to Ratsback these days anyway?

Russell.

[vindi49]

Little other bits and pieces that has been going on in the background ... made some Door bars. I had never really liked the idea of bars that attached in to the floor, it's a weak area and doesn't add half the strength it could do as the big gap where the door is has not been closed properly.





That's the first go, I've managed to work out how to make it a complete bolt in item so much simpler than getting the welder out. Obviously you could weld it in (as I will), but for a lot of people that changes the car too much. My idea is to put another piece in bracing back down to the lower seatbelt mount.

Russell.

[vindi49]

So I think that's me mostly up to date ... well there is a new addition to the fleet on the way hopefully, but that's not a sealed deal and is a long way off so I can't say much, ha ha!!

So what's the plans for the next few months? I'm hoping to get the black one back on the road and sold on ... or just sold on if I get a decent offer, it was destined for the scrappy which is a crime so I want to make sure it lives to fight another day. There is a piece of rust under the car, but the arches are all sound and it's quite a cool looking car so should do well for someone.

The green car is actually quite close to being a working car. I need to fabricate some kind of intake piping and add a filter, charge the battery and see if it will start! It won't get any attention for a bit though, I have sold the charger kit off it, and a few other items as well so I can pay for development work on the door bars, a new design of Roll Bar and a shorty console. At least I'm not bored!!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Me, a day off and Yahoo.jp auctions is a bad mix ... I'm now about £350 poorer and hoping like mad that when "this item may be prohibited for shipping abroad" popped up on the screen, they were mistaken ... fingers crossed ...

Russell.

[vindi49]

Bit more messing with the door bars, added a kink in the bar to see how much extra clearance it would give ... answer, a lot! Need to move the kink a bit further along to just onto the door, but otherwise it seems pretty good I think







Russell.

[vindi49]

The roller coaster continues, managed to scale things down a bit recently, so at the moment I have managed to reclaim most of my drive ...



So all I have at the moment is my BRG car in the garage, the Pitcrew on the drive (they will swap places soon!) and the Wataru in storage. I think I could fit about 6 more cars on the drive, so I'd better hit Ebay!!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Been working on my green car for a few days to try to get it back on the road ... not been too much fun as I've mostly been trying to get the diff sorted and cleaning up the underside of the car. Glad I did in a way though as I've found a big problem with my suspension. It's difficult to describe but the bottom of the shock, which is made from ally, has heavy corrosion and looks like it is literally crumbling away. From looking into it, a few others have had the same issues with this shock and the shock is no longer in production. Thing is, I really like the shocks so I'm left with either trying to find a replacement unit (possible as others have the same problem, so I may be able to buy a single shock off them) or maybe getting some parts machined.

The fast option to get the car on the road is to put the A'Pexi N1 Pro shocks off the pitcrew onto the green car. It probably makes more sense anyway as the green car will get more hard use, and the Pitcrew could be sat on almost anything as it's unlikely to get a serious workout .. well not straight away ...

Russell.

[vindi49]

Had a bit of a gathering at my house a week back, didn't get anything done on any of my cars but we did a suspension swap, a foamectomy, a rain rail replacement and a few other bits and pieces on other peoples cars ...

I didn't manage to take many pics, but here's a couple showing some of the cars that made it





It did manage to motivate me a bit, so I ordered some parts that won't help get my car on the road any faster ...and this arrived today ...



Russell.

[wannafbody]

Looks nice

[vindi49]

Forgot to say about some progress in the wheels department ... I had quite a few sets of wheels and somehow managed to sell them. They were all good sets, but were bought with specific use in mind, I had a daily set, a show set and a track set ... and a cheap set for just in case. With my new theme of slimming everything down to what I can get away with, I'd been looking at something 15 x 7, suitable for a 195 profile tyre (cheap and lots of options). I wanted it to be light but strong, nice looking but not in your face, not too expensive etc etc. I'd been looking at Flow Formed wheels as it just makes sense to me, cast is ok but not really that strong, and not really that light. Forged is nice, but silly money ... Enkei RPF1 are great, but at £1000 for a set you can't really take them on track. Well not if you want to push it anyway, which is kind of the point of going on track to me.

So I'd got it down to 2 options ... one I'd just sold (6ULs), and the other didn't seem to be readily available in the UK. Obviously if they are rare I want them even more, so I got a set of Traklite Gear in Matt Bronze.

Trying to keep it sensible / useable with the Kumho tyres


First try on the car ... colour is perfect on the BRG!!



Added a 25mm hubcentric spacer to see how they clear the new brakes ... loads of space, should be able to go down to a 15 / 20mm spacer.



Overall I couldn't be happier, I have one of the first sets in the country (ooooohhh, rare!!), they didn't cost me the earth, they are sub 5kgs for a 15 x 7 and the colour is so nice I'm going to get my Roll bar sprayed to match them!!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Got a turbo ordered today, nothing expensive to start with but enough to make me feel better about selling the MP62! It's a Garrett T28r off an S15, so will be capable enough to blow the engine apart ... best start looking for injectors, intercooler and some rods then!

Russell.