2002 Vauxhall Corsa Club 1.0
I've been on this site for a long time but only just got round to posting. I've been driving for 4 & 1/2 years, and my first car was a 2002 Vauxhall Corsa with the lowly Z10XE. It had already been in the family for about 6 years, having been driven by my parents. It had rarely gone wrong in that time, so I was very happy to have been given it as my first car. The earliest photo I have of it, though, is from 2016.
The exhaust was blowing slightly when I started driving the car, so I took it to Demand Engineering (google them, they're good) to have a new stainless steel cat-back system fabricated and fitted.
I also fitted some halo-ring headlights. The black rear lights in the first photo were also fitted by me. It used to have red lights.
Until the end of 2016, these were the only modifications I made to the car. Being my first car, I was pretty much going on the assumption that I'd crash it. Somehow, I didn't! So, I went wheel-shopping. The 14 inch steel wheels were looking pretty tired and the rear tyres (the size was 175/65/14) needed replacing anyway. I found some heavily curbed SXi 7-spoke alloy wheels off a scrapped learner car for ÂŁ50, and got some new tyres. The original tyres on the alloys were 185/55/15. I decided on 195/50/15, as the diameter is much the same as the old steel wheels+tyres, and the extra 10mm width was a bonus or (20mm extra per corner compared to the old steel wheels). Plus this size was actually cheaper!
I found some Toyo Proxes T1-R high-grip road tyres for ÂŁ30 each new. I was very pleased with the result!
For anyone considering these tyres, I would wholeheartedly recommend them. The difference over the old tyres was instantly noticeable. I'm not the sort to thrash my cars, I care too much about my safety and the cars themselves to be too brave on public roads, but you really can throw the car into a corner with these tyres. The most impressive part, though, is wet-weather performance. It feels no different in torrential rain that on a dry day. Compared to the old 175mm tyres on the steel wheels, I had slightly lost grip at the rear once or twice on colder days (not icy, mind) around bumpy corners. But these Toyo tyres, for ÂŁ30 each, are truly brilliant. It turned a 'nippy' car into a truly chuckable car on B-roads.
Now at this point, I needed a van more than I needed a car as I was ferrying car parts backwards and forwards for a different project. So, to make room, I removed all the rear plastic trim and back seats. And then the stereo stopped working, so I removed that too!
I imagine that shed somewhere in the region of about 50kg in weight, which made quite a few differences. For a start, the already harsh ride became utterly terrible (oh well). The upshot is the brakes are noticeable sharper, the steering is more direct, the car can actually climb hills and it feels overall faster. It's also noisier. Much noisier. And it gained about 5 miles to the gallon as well. So, after my stint transporting car parts was over, I left the seats out. But, coupled with those new tyres, this slow little 1 litre is fantastic in the corners. It's no racing car, but its handling makes up for its lack of power. Backroads are a must!
More recently in 2017 I fitted a K&N Panel Air Filter. It made a very small difference to power, and I mean very small, but it did make the car sound a little bit better as well. I also experimented with drilling holes in the bottom of a spare airbox for more noise, but it made little difference, so I put the untampered box back in.
I have done more since then, but I shall go over that in future posts here. Onto the next car.
2010 Vauxhall Combo 1.3CDTi
From late 2015 to early 2017, I worked at a local Peugeot dealership as an aftersales advisor. It was the worst year and a half of my life for reasons I'll explain at some later point. The long and the short of it was that I was treated like a dog. Still, from working 52 hours a week, I earned some decent money, and decided I needed a change. Having always enjoyed valeting, I went self-employed as a mobile car valeter in April 2017. I needed a van, and being a lover of the Corsa C, here's what I settled on.
I bought it with a 3 month warranty, a year's MOT and a full service, but having worked in the motor industry, I don't trust car dealerships one bit. So I had my trusted mechanic perform a safety check, only to find it needed a new rear coil spring. At a cost of ÂŁ30 I just decided to have him replace it, instead of driving 30 miles back to the place I bought it from. Beyond that, it needed a bloody good clean inside and some interior bulbs, because for whatever reason, they were missing. So, I found some LED bulbs.
Those white panels behind the seats were black when I started. How, I'll never know. After that, I clay-detailed the exterior and cleaned the engine.
I have also done a little more to this Combo since as well, but I'll leave this post here.
I've been on this site for a long time but only just got round to posting. I've been driving for 4 & 1/2 years, and my first car was a 2002 Vauxhall Corsa with the lowly Z10XE. It had already been in the family for about 6 years, having been driven by my parents. It had rarely gone wrong in that time, so I was very happy to have been given it as my first car. The earliest photo I have of it, though, is from 2016.
The exhaust was blowing slightly when I started driving the car, so I took it to Demand Engineering (google them, they're good) to have a new stainless steel cat-back system fabricated and fitted.
I also fitted some halo-ring headlights. The black rear lights in the first photo were also fitted by me. It used to have red lights.
Until the end of 2016, these were the only modifications I made to the car. Being my first car, I was pretty much going on the assumption that I'd crash it. Somehow, I didn't! So, I went wheel-shopping. The 14 inch steel wheels were looking pretty tired and the rear tyres (the size was 175/65/14) needed replacing anyway. I found some heavily curbed SXi 7-spoke alloy wheels off a scrapped learner car for ÂŁ50, and got some new tyres. The original tyres on the alloys were 185/55/15. I decided on 195/50/15, as the diameter is much the same as the old steel wheels+tyres, and the extra 10mm width was a bonus or (20mm extra per corner compared to the old steel wheels). Plus this size was actually cheaper!
I found some Toyo Proxes T1-R high-grip road tyres for ÂŁ30 each new. I was very pleased with the result!
For anyone considering these tyres, I would wholeheartedly recommend them. The difference over the old tyres was instantly noticeable. I'm not the sort to thrash my cars, I care too much about my safety and the cars themselves to be too brave on public roads, but you really can throw the car into a corner with these tyres. The most impressive part, though, is wet-weather performance. It feels no different in torrential rain that on a dry day. Compared to the old 175mm tyres on the steel wheels, I had slightly lost grip at the rear once or twice on colder days (not icy, mind) around bumpy corners. But these Toyo tyres, for ÂŁ30 each, are truly brilliant. It turned a 'nippy' car into a truly chuckable car on B-roads.
Now at this point, I needed a van more than I needed a car as I was ferrying car parts backwards and forwards for a different project. So, to make room, I removed all the rear plastic trim and back seats. And then the stereo stopped working, so I removed that too!
I imagine that shed somewhere in the region of about 50kg in weight, which made quite a few differences. For a start, the already harsh ride became utterly terrible (oh well). The upshot is the brakes are noticeable sharper, the steering is more direct, the car can actually climb hills and it feels overall faster. It's also noisier. Much noisier. And it gained about 5 miles to the gallon as well. So, after my stint transporting car parts was over, I left the seats out. But, coupled with those new tyres, this slow little 1 litre is fantastic in the corners. It's no racing car, but its handling makes up for its lack of power. Backroads are a must!
More recently in 2017 I fitted a K&N Panel Air Filter. It made a very small difference to power, and I mean very small, but it did make the car sound a little bit better as well. I also experimented with drilling holes in the bottom of a spare airbox for more noise, but it made little difference, so I put the untampered box back in.
I have done more since then, but I shall go over that in future posts here. Onto the next car.
2010 Vauxhall Combo 1.3CDTi
From late 2015 to early 2017, I worked at a local Peugeot dealership as an aftersales advisor. It was the worst year and a half of my life for reasons I'll explain at some later point. The long and the short of it was that I was treated like a dog. Still, from working 52 hours a week, I earned some decent money, and decided I needed a change. Having always enjoyed valeting, I went self-employed as a mobile car valeter in April 2017. I needed a van, and being a lover of the Corsa C, here's what I settled on.
I bought it with a 3 month warranty, a year's MOT and a full service, but having worked in the motor industry, I don't trust car dealerships one bit. So I had my trusted mechanic perform a safety check, only to find it needed a new rear coil spring. At a cost of ÂŁ30 I just decided to have him replace it, instead of driving 30 miles back to the place I bought it from. Beyond that, it needed a bloody good clean inside and some interior bulbs, because for whatever reason, they were missing. So, I found some LED bulbs.
Those white panels behind the seats were black when I started. How, I'll never know. After that, I clay-detailed the exterior and cleaned the engine.
I have also done a little more to this Combo since as well, but I'll leave this post here.