Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i Fast Car

The Meguiar’s BBQ Club’s first event was way back in 2012. And apart from one year when it became the Breakfast Club, it has been a regular on the Meguiar’s calendar ever since. Held at their Daventry based head quarters, it’s an opportunity for Meguiar’s to give something back to their loyal customer base. Tom Clarke Senior Marketer said: “We go to around 50 shows a year and get to see some of the best cars in the UK: Ford, Jap, VW, modified and standard. At the shows, we realised that the top cars owners were so engrossed in ‘their car world’ that they rarely got time to see other cars. So simply, we try to bring these cars and owners together. It’s not about being the cleanest car or…

When Fiat’s Nuova 500 launched in 1957, it replaced the classic 500 ‘Topolino’ which had been kicking around since the mid-1930s. ‘Topolino’ translates as ‘little mouse’ (and, interestingly, is also what the Italians call Mickey Mouse), and the rodent DNA could be traced right through the new-for-1957 model – it was small, cheeky, able to squeeze into improbably tight spaces, and fuelled by stolen cheese. OK, maybe not the last one… The Nuova 500 was a cultural icon, so it was inevitable that Fiat would try to appropriate and cash in on some of its ingrained cuteness when the new-wave Fiat 500 launched in 2007. Critics were suspicious of the unashamed retro styling cues, although the massive sales figures suggest that, along with contemporary rival offerings from the MINI camp,…

JVC has long been one of the leading car audio manufacturers in the world. In 2018 they have seriously upped their game with a killer new line up. This is the latest product we’ve seen from their multimedia range and it’s a great looking piece of kit. The lovely people at JVC call this the KW-M745DBT Digital Media Receiver. New model numbers aside, this is a very slick looking doubleDIN system that you absolutely need if you want Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in your car for a very wallet friendly price. The 6.8-inch capacitive touch screen allows you to easily control the unit. As we type these words, iOS12 has been launched and this week sees Google Maps integration added to CarPlay. This is incredible news. Google maps is…

Lowriders – they’re all Impalas and Coupe De Villes, aren’t they? No, far from it… let Pete Blackhurst clear it up for you: “In lowriding, the margins between cool and bad taste are carefully managed by individuality and creativity,” he says, “so in effect it doesn’t really matter what people think, there’s no real prerequisites, your ride is an expression of you.” So is it cool to run a 1980s Honda Civic in the lowrider scene? Hell yeah, it is – particularly when we tell you that this particular Civic is owned by a cool-as-a-cucumber 10-year-old dude named Sol. Given that Sol’s running a very busy schedule of planning world domination and climbing trees and stuff, we’re talking to his old man Pete about the car, and it turns out…

Twenty two months after the build began, the sun is setting on Matt’s W202 story. With a baby on the way, the C240 is up for sale and the Hartle household has switched to a 2006 W211 E Class. ‘I wanted something that was modern but still a bit like VIP Style,’ he explains, ‘I couldn’t turn it down for the money… I just want something I can get in and drive.’ That doesn’t mean the new arrival will be staying standard, though. It’s already received a Stage 1 remap, tints, a straight-through exhaust, a Maxton Design front splitter and sideskirts and a set of 19-inch Rotiform IND-T rims.…

The majority of you won’t have a clue that these words are the lyrics of Right Said Fred’s 1992 hit Deeply Dippy. Unfortunately, for the team, we haven’t been able to leave this song where it belongs – in the past! Why? Because not only is our Midge a dead ringer for the lead singer but it’s also one of his favourite songs, so it often gets played in the office. Anyway, what the hell has Right Said Fred got to do with my BMW E91? Well, as you know from last month, I sent all the dull, grey interior trim off to Kent Custom Dipping for a much-needed new look. And my god, have the lads delivered. There are lots of preconceptions about hydro-dipping, the main one being that…

There’s a well-known saying in the music industry concerning an artist’s releases, namely that the third offering will invariably be a trickier thing to pull off to any successful degree than the first and second, or to give it its correct title, ‘difficult third album syndrome.’ The thinking behind it being that, despite their best efforts and intentions, bands, singers and artists have generally run out of inspiration or talent, or just plain can’t stand the sight of one another by the time it comes to record a third album. Why are we commencing a car feature in a specialist car magazine by banging on about the music industry? Well, partly as the maker of the Subaru BRZ you see here is none other than Pioneer UK, a company with…

ANDY’S SKODA OCTAVIA VRS & DAVID’S BMW M3 FC says : They say some things run in the family, and ‘building totally awesome cars’ is certainly a trait that is shared by David and his son Andy, if their latest creations are anything to go by! Let’s start with Andy’s most recent work of art: the Skoda Octavia vRS. It might look fairly understated from the outside, but under that red shell lies a fully-forged, 400bhp motor that boasts the likes of Wiseco pistons, H-beam con rods and titanium valve springs under its lid. It’s then been treated to a modern Garrett boost snail that ensures it’s good for 400bhp without even breaking a sweat. The gearbox has also been re-built and further enhanced with a Quaife LSD and billet…

Nope, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, the lovely guys and girls at 3M want to give one very lucky Fast Car reader a free vinyl vehicle wrap. And we don’t need to tell you how fappin’ cool that is. 3M will wrap one lucky winner’s vehicle, which includes an in-depth design consultation with one of the UK’s top vehicle wrappers. The consultation will see you and a 3M wrap expert work together to match the wrap to your vehicle, giving your car a unique look and design. Choose your favourite colour from the Wrap Film Series 1080 by 3M – you can browse the full range on www.wrapyourcurves.co.uk and can also choose a secondary colour for accents or details to bring your wrap to life. Then simply enter via the…

In science you’d get to burn and dissect stuff, in design technology you’d get to make desk-tidies out of MDF and acrylic, and in PE you’d get to play football. But one lesson that always sucked, was history. The classroom had a musky smell and the teacher a bad case of body odour – it was about as much fun as a double-detention on a Friday. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius and story of Pompeii is a very tragic one, but to be honest, I was more interested in blinding the teacher by reflecting the sun off my Casio calculator watch than learn about the Romans (although they did build straight roads, race chariots and have gladiators). But not all history is dull… Shelsley Walsh, for example, is the oldest…

We have a saying here at Fast Car: ‘Do as we say, but not necessarily always what we do… unless it’s something awesome, which it probably is, but tread carefully just in case’. It’s not the catchiest saying, granted, but it is quite appropriate for this particular scenario. You see, we’re about to dole out some advice on first cars – but our own collective history of first cars generally involved spending a couple of hundred quid on a shit old Nova, which then blew up after a month and left oil all over the M25. So, er, don’t do that. Learn from our stupid mistakes, and take our sage counsel now that we’re older and wiser. You see, whether you’re sixteen and champing at the bit to get your…

Bola FLA, from £995 Another Bola wheel in the very same pages? Yep, that’s how we roll! Besides there’s no denying that this design is another funky addition to their portfolio, only this time it’s a little reminiscent of various ‘twist’ wheels of yesteryear. Still, the totally modern bit comes with the fact that these are flow formed, which means that, even when they’re machined to their maximum offset (ET58), they only weigh in at 9.9kg. That clearly isn’t much for 19-inches of pure pleasure is it? Nice finishes too. www.bolawheels.co.uk Sizes: 8.5x19 PCD: Any 5x98 – 5x130 Offset: ET10-58 Finishes: Gloss gunmetal, gloss black, matt black, matt bronze Autostar Essen, from £540 (set) The face on these new Essen wheels seem to stick out for miles and this, combined…

Yep, there’s a distinct whiff of TRAX on the horizon, and that means that I need to stop messing about using this hairy-chested Japanese muscle car in a desperate bid to impress the local ladies… er, I mean, ‘thoroughly testing the new Japspeed exhaust and PB coilovers’. Instead I need to pull my finger out and get this car up to scratch for its new owner. Now, as we spent so much time and cash finding a high-spec UK model in black, we’ve always intended to keep the theme a little stealthy. Lairy graphics and wraps are all very well, but not everyone enjoys the prospect of blasting around town in a drift car, or looking like some sort of extra from the Fast and Furious franchise. So, with this…

Okay, so I’ve been a little lax on the Bug of late, but I assure you that my mind’s been working overtime trying to figure out how I’m going to get this car sorted (along with my TT) in time to hit the FC stand at TRAX. As I write this, it’s just a couple of weeks away but I’m doing my best to get organised. If there’s one thing I just can’t stand, it’s missing my own deadlines (well, that’s a porky if ever I’ve heard one – Jules). Still, this month I got the kick up the arris I needed when a load of huge boxes turned up at my workshop. I’m very pleased to say my seats are here, and it feels like Christmas, my birthday and…

Nope. We’re not going to offer you half the trade price for your car, like those websites. Instead we want to give you the chance to be featured in the best modified car mag on the planet! So, if you own a cool-as-a-cucumber car you think is worthy of Fast Car, we’d love to see it. Please send a selection of good quality images and a spec, to jules.truss@kelseymedia.co.uk with ‘Feature Car’ as the subject. If we like it, we’ll get back to you to arrange a photoshoot. Simples.…

As the golden leaves fall to the floor and we reach for our winter coats, summer is but a distant memory, but by god, did we have a relentless heatwave-infused few months. I’m not one of these people who complains about the cold in winter and the heat when the sun comes out, but I was close on a few occasions this summer, as the temperature didn’t seem to drop below 30-degrees for weeks on end. This kind of heat is lovely when you’re sitting next to a pool with a piña colada in hand and an inviting air-conditioned room at your disposal, but it’s not so great in offices and houses that have more insulation than an Eskimo’s underclangers! So when Meguiar’s booked their annual BBQ for one Sunday…

“While I was swapping the motor, I fitted a big single-turbo...” An army, as the old saying goes, marches on its stomach. Napoleon Bonaparte coined that phrase, and he knew a thing or two about sipping burgundy while watching his troops on the march. And while it’s all very well trying to be macho and following the ‘blood, sweat and beers’ ethos of certain tuners who’ll tell you that creativity flows forth from smashing back a few cans, those are the people who’ll turn up to a show one day with mysteriously singed hair or their fingertips missing. No, the true heroes of the scene are fuelled by good ol’ cups of tea, stirring it with an oily spanner and refusing to wash the mug so that the inside of…

Drink it in with an open perspective. What you’re looking at here, in essence, is the world. Sure, it may look like a Mk1 VW Golf, but it’s so, so much more than that. This is a project that neatly encapsulates the very nature of the Earth itself and reimagines it as an Ocean Blue vision of the macrocosm. You see, this Golf is characterised by two of the world’s most intriguing and exciting elements: carbon and gold. The former is the fourth most abundant element in the universe and, in this watercooled interpretation, you’ll find it everywhere. Gold, however, is rare and exquisite; the total amount of gold in existence makes up only 0.0000000003% of the Earth’s mass (and it took us a long time and a hell of…

What you’re looking at here may purport (oooh using those posh words again? – Jules) to be one of the Air Lift Performance manifolds you see on oodles of feature cars here in FC. That is until you see the price of course, and that’s because this little box of tricks is perhaps the most significant development in air ride hardware for quite a while. This is their brand new standalone 3S manifold – an entry-level item specifically developed to bring air to the masses! It’s a bloody clever idea too. Basically speaking, this puppy enables manual control of up to four bags, but with all the advantages and simplicity that comes with an integrated-valve manifold system. For starters that means you don’t need to mess around running loads of…

We might not all be fortunate enough to build a genuine LB Performance car, but that doesn’t mean we can’t represent our favourite Japanese enhancement brand. That’s right, it’s not just our cars that can get some serious LB street presence, but our bodies too, as Liberty Walk Europe have just launched their own clothing range… T–Shirts, from £30 Available in a host of colours and styles, from simple logo designs to limited edition runs, these new Ts from Liberty Walk will become your go to garment. Don’t worry about the dropping temperatures, you’ll still have plenty of opportunities to show-off your new T when your nan sets the thermostat to volcanic levels. Snapback, from £30 The sun might be disappearing for the next few months but your mum will…

Food-and-drink-related car events are always going to succeed; look at the massive popularity of the Cars ‘n’ Coffee phenomenon that’s been sweeping the UK for the past few years. Then there’s the Sunday Scramble in Bicester (which may or may not involve eggs, we’ll get back to you), and of course, Goodwood’s Breakfast Club, which is now so popular they have to restrict numbers. So it makes perfect sense for the scene legends at Car Audio Security to theme their annual get-together around a BBQ, sizzling sausages beside hot motors and flipping steaks like Tony Soprano. Cruise up in your modded ride, tuck into a burger, and make the most of the gloriously hot summer weather. (Remember that? Good, wasn’t it?) As we’d expect from these guys, there was a…

Skyscrapers punch out at the heavens; concrete strakes the scenery, weathered and angry. The morning strikes. Every pavement step, every traffic light tailback burns faster than the last: a greyscale heartbeat thumping against the city limits. Sliding along the tarmac, a lone Mercedes bristles into sight. Splitter centimetres from the ground and rolling on brash, five spoke alloys, this yakuza bruiser makes itself seen. The scene could be straight from an anime: one where dangerous men and big-eyed women are back dropped by gangland Tokyo, learning to fight or to feel in twenty minute instalments. It isn’t. Instead, it’s just another day in the industrial Midlands and Matthew Hartle is on the way to work in his 1998 Mercedes-Benz C240 Sport. It might be a small saloon but it’s big…

The 1990s were exciting times for impressionable young car fans. The supercar excess of the ’80s had brought us the angular insanity of the QV and Anniversary versions of the Lamborghini Countach, as well as the Ferrari F40, ensuring that Athena’s poster sales were consistently strong to starry-eyed boys and girls. But little did those kids know what was coming in the Britpop era: the McLaren F1, the Jaguar XJ220, the Ferrari F50, the Bugatti EB110, these were glory days for junior petrolheads, these monstrous machines all fighting it out for wall-space in bedrooms across the globe. And arguably the most supercar-ish of all the supercars was the outrageous Lamborghini Diablo – excessively wide, aggressively low, hilariously impractical, and more powerful than could ever be necessary. A particular favourite among…

As mentioned last month, we decided to dive into the deep end and agree to shakedown the Tesla-powered R32, that we have now dubbed the ER32, at Fueltopia’s Fomula G weekend. But before the fun could start, we had a lot to get buttoned up. First we cracked on with getting the dash all wired in, including the Feelworld 4k digital display. It will be the new focal point of the interior with all the vital information being relayed via the 4k screen. During the build process, we have solely concentrated on the mechanics and fabrication of getting the car working, and haven’t given a second thought to the aesthetics of the car, but as the Formula G is a public event we thought it would be a good idea…

You may remember that last month I dropped my TT off to Revamp Autoworks in Orpington for a spot of refreshing on my 5-year-old wrap. They were kind enough to fit my little Audi in between other jobs and Ben, their wrapping maestro, soon discovered he’d have his work cut out with both front wings, sills, the tailgate and the passenger side rear quarter to sort out. It’s nothing he couldn’t handle, though. In fact, he had it all done and dusted in record time, even if I had failed to mention that a bit of fettling may be required underneath when the old one came off. I have to admit that nothing amazes me more than the patience required for wrapping. God knows I love messing with motors but…

Comprehensive Car Culture Mad Mazda3 Awesome Arteon Pandem Civic Gorgeous Golf GTI Bonus Features Hot Sauce – The latest and greatest headunits Interior Designs – It’s what’s on the inside that counts Out ‘. n’ About Players North Weald – The original but is it still the best…? TRAX Silverstone – We went, we concurred and we got the t-shirt. Plus Product tests, Posters, Fast Projects, and loads more #402 On Sale Friday November 9th…