Innehållsförteckning för September 2015 från Fast Car

When I was a kid all I wanted to do was grow up so I could pass my driving test and get on the road. Then I was desperate to get older so I could build up my no claims bonus to lower my insurance premium, so I could buy a faster car. The problem is, before you know it, you’ve wished your youth away, passed your 30th birthday and getting older starts to suck. Your friends get married, have kids and forget you exist. The majority of your income goes on mortgages and council tax and your knees start to ache in the morning. Oh and don’t mention the hangovers! There are a few things that get better with age though. Wine is the classic example. Kylie Minogue is…

Once again from 22nd to 24th of May Peterborough was taken over by all sorts of modified metal. The Nationals is a combination of two shows. On one hand you’ve got the Hot Rod and Custom Show and on the other is Modified Nationals, making this show the most diverse of the year. The main hall saw a ton of new builds including Adam Robinson’s monstrous RX-7 and Ben Henderson’s juiced pink Fezzy. You lot have been busy over the winter months too, sorting your motors out with fresh new looks. Mike Fisher has once again re-invented his Saxo. We almost didn’t recognise it with the new custom dash and tasty engine bay. Will Smith took time out of filming Men In Black 4 to show off his Polo’s latest…

7TWENTY STYLE46 FROM £220 (EACH) There’s concave and then there’s fuuuuuuuuck me concave. And these hot-off-the-press hoops from 7Twenty are very much the latter. The brand is new to the UK and, apparently, they’re simply making good on a promise to hit the market with some of the freshest low-offset rims ever seen on our shores. They’re certainly going the right way about it with this first wheel too – what an absolute monster! One of their bigger diameter hoops (they’re launching some small, wide jobs soon too), this one’s called the Style46 and from the bonkers offsets you just can tell the feint-hearted need not apply. It’s not just that either – just check out the sizes too, how about 10.5 inches of girth eh? You can’t even get…

Anything that makes life a shed load easier is okay by us and, when it comes to car-cleaning, there’s a lot to be said for getting yourself a decent pressure washer. The truth is I don’t know any pro detailer or even amateur detailing buff that doesn’t use one. And, let’s face it, that’s probably because the initial washing phase can be back-breaking and isn’t all that interesting in the first place. The other thing about pressure washers is, once you’ve got one, you will use it all the time. The only people who don’t seem to see the advantage are those who have never had their mitts on one. It’s that’s simple. So, with more cleaning power and less than half the water consumption, what’s the downside? Usually the…

Not many things get better with age apart from our Initial G (ahh thanks – G) and the cars in this section! There’s just something endearing about old motors, whether it’s their nostalgic nod to ‘the good old days’, the velour interiors or that slightly musty smell that reminds you of your grandparent’s house. They just seem to have more character. This is especially the case when you take one and give it a new lease of life with some well-chosen modern day mods. Here’s some of our favourite old skool motors on the scene at the moment……

Ever wished you’d bought a car when you had the opportunity? It’s easy to forget just how fleeting a particular model can be. One minute it’s flavour of the month and its virtues are being shouted from the rooftops. The next it’s a common sight on every street corner, slowly becoming something of a banger, before painfully shuffling off to be a rarity. Some cars are guaranteed to become future classics and so have nothing to fear. But some (in fact, most) models must go through a protracted period of being distinctly undesirable before finally coming out the other end and benefiting from soaring values. All of this means that you have to act fast if you want to grab a bargain, certainly if the car in question is getting…

CARL ABLETT’S FOCUS FC Says : Carl’s feisty Ford has a spec longer than your arm, much more than we can fit in here. Still, it’s always nice to see a Mk1 Focus in FC because they have to be one of the most underrated hatches ever. We’re loving all the Yank bits Carl has managed to bolt on to this one. That’s one hell of a suitcase he must have taken on holiday to Americaland with him, eh? We never got the Focus SVT here in the UK, this motor makes us question why – we all would have bought ‘em and Uncle Henry would have been rich beyond his wildest dreams! Anyway that’s some seriously fine piece of work right there Carl. Nice job. TECHSPEC FORD FOCUS TOP…

There’s no denying the C5 RS6 was the original hyper estate car and when it first hit the streets in 2002 it’s safe to say the other German manufactures shit das brick. In fact, with 450bhp from its huge 4.2-litre, twin turbo V8 it seriously out-gunned both the 400bhp E39 M5 (which was only available as a saloon) and the 354bhp E55 AMG. In short, it’s an icon, an icon that happens to be a massive Autobahn bruiser that can do 0-60 in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 170mph (providing you take the 155mph electronic limiter off) with 5 people and all their luggage on board. It’s a monster, a genuine supercar slayer, they even used stock ones as Safety Cars for the BTCC, that’s just how fast…

If you’re into tuning your VAG motors, you’ll most likely recognise this world-famous SEAT as the ‘Forge Motorsport demo car’. Well, let’s get this out of the way right from the start. It’s not. You see, even though we’ve all seen this spectacular white-on-white Leon popping up in various advertising campaigns, appearing all over the web and on show at more than a couple of events. It is, and always has been, the personal car of our mate Kris Butler. Of course, as we can plainly observe, this storming Spaniard is packing more than its fair share of Forge gear. In fact, there’s just about everything they’ve ever manufactured for the Mk2 LEON and few extra one-offs, like flashy hoses and a custom catch can setup nestled under that bonnet.…

Company car schemes. They’re usually pretty boring aren’t they? If you’ve ever had a company car yourself, or know someone in your family who has, you’ll know you often have to choose from a fairly safe and mundane list of ‘sensible’ motors. Things are somewhat different in the tuning industry. Here, not only are the cars in question a little more exciting, but when the view from your office window is racks of choice tuning-parts, then it comes as little surprise to find one or two of them will work their way onto your chosen steed – all in the name of product demonstration and evaluation, of course! This is the Focus ST-2 of long-suffering TPC employee, Matt Wootton. As part of his role as general manager in this fine…

The BMW E30 is one of those cars that once littered the streets of the UK. It was a common sight and though undoubtedly a good looking and fine handling car, their sheer ubiquity meant that only the likes of the M3 and the larger capacity six-pot models really attracted much attention from the tuning fraternity. It was a similar story around the globe, with the cars steadily building up a hardline, intensely loyal following, something that’s only grown in size and fervour as the E30’s numbers have begun to dwindle. A rich motorsport history and a career spent kicking the stuffing out of all comers in touring car championships across the world helped as well. And that goes a long way towards explaining why the vast majority of tuned…

Have you ever stopped to think about Porsches and the people who buy them? Very few manufacturers inspire such a devoted following. So much so that the fervour of the Stuttgart faithful can be a little alarming and at times their levels of devotion can verge on cultish! It isn’t all that hard to see why Porsches command such a following though. Not when you consider both the quality of the cars they’ve knocked out and the fact the entire company has been built around the ethos of ‘evolution, not revolution’. This all means Porsches tend to hold their value very well indeed, meaning highly modified examples are few and far between. That makes this 964 Carrera 2, undoubtedly one of the prettiest 911s to ever emerge from the ‘Stuttgart…

CURRY NIGHT Our G isn’t a massive fan of spicy food and likes nothing better than describing, in great detail, what a chicken madras can do to his digestive system. Glenda tends to describe it better though – a picture is worth a thousand words and all that. Well, at least his Photoshop skills are getting better anyway. DOMESTIC GOD You’ll only get this pic if you know what our Midge’s real name is (hazard a guess for yourself though eh?). Still, according to the little fella, this is the closest he’s ever got to owning an appliance to clean his house. But he’s still holding out because only his mum calls him James. Obviously if we find one called Bellend in the meantime we’ll let him know. FC FANS…

There’s only one thing our illustrious Editor, Sir Slim Jules Esq, loves more than a well-fettled Beemer so, if you’re the kind of genius with the nous to call your event Bimmers and Burgers, it makes it almost inevitable it’s gonna end up here in Fast Car. (Hang on a minute you cheeky bastard – Jules). The big man’s legendary appetite for the cars of the Bavarian persuasion, along with perfectly grilled meat-products (obviously), was still only part of the reason we headed over to MStyle in Romford though. The real clincher was the fact we’ve been here before, so we knew it would be one of the coolest meets of the year. Last year’s gathering was an awesome spectacle to behold so it makes sense that this season, Bimmers…

The sign of true talent is when something is made to look easy through great skill. Take Lionel Messi for example. The way he effortlessly glides past opponents gives the impression football is simple. Then there’s F1. Surely it’s all about how good the cars are, so anyone can do it, right? Well, give it a go and see how far you get. This logic can also be applied to modifying cars. It’s easy to look at a finished project, spot the main mods and think, “Yeah, I could do that”. But most likely, you don’t realise what has gone on behind the scenes with the problems solved, custom parts, the trial and error process, the calculations to ensure things fit and the taste to ensure it all blends together…

At the risk of sounding almost comically cheesy, the best modified cars are the ones you’ve had to work for. That can take various forms of course. From a full-on, ground-up restoration, to pulling all-nighters and grabbing every last second of overtime your boss is willing to give you, all in an attempt bag your dream modified car. The world of tuned motors is stuffed with inspiring stories of individuals who’ve busted a gut in order to get their dream car, often forgoing luxuries and sacrificing pretty much everything in order to get there! If anything demonstrates what’s so special about the world of modified car culture, it’s this almost fanatical dedication to the cause. These cars aren’t simply a hobby or a pastime. They’re expressions of our personalities, and…

Features • 2.5 tonne capacity • Low profile with retracting wheels • Air/hydraulic pulse pump • Height adjustable saddles How cool is this beast from Sealey? Super frickin cool is the answer and even though it’s pretty damn obvious not everyone can afford one (or has the space to accommodate one for that matter), the simple fact is you want one just as much as I do – and that’s what this page is all about. Besides, we can all dream right? There’s no denying this really is something for the bloke who has everything… What makes it special? Workshop-style four or two-post ramps are usually the reserve of the trade professionals. It’s not just because of the initial expense either. They have to be bolted to the floor, so…

CASTLE COMBE PLAYS HOST TO THE FRENCH INVASION Along time ago I attended the first ever French Car Show in my trusty Citroën AX GT, back then it wasn’t much more than a few Peugeots in a field. Luckily, FCS has come a long way since those days and 2015 saw our favourite French show after Moulin Rouge celebrate its 15th anniversary. This year’s event showed the French car scene is stronger than ever, and that the UK is still top of the class when it comes to fettling with la voiture. As you’d expect Castle Combe was brimming with pretty much every Peugeot, Renault and Citroën you could imagine, with everything on display from the newer school DS3 and latest gen Clios to old school icons like the 205…

Recently the bods at Jaguar decided to hand-build six, brand-new, lightweight E-Types, with original (albeit unused) 1963 chassis numbers, then sell them to special customers at £1.2 million a pop. Jassi’s Mk2 Golf reminds me of those. You see, there’s a lot to be said for nostalgia. For one it captures the heart. They reckon there’s no school like the old skool and there’s plenty of truth in that. After all, if that wasn’t the case, you wouldn’t see so many new Fiat 500s and MINIs tooling around every city in Europe. The same goes for genuine classic cars, which have become infinitely more popular, not to mention sought after by all the cool kids over the past few years. What’s really interesting though, is that wonderful situation when old…

Renault were on a bit of a roll in the early ’80s, and their hugely powerful (and it must be said, hugely unreliable) F1 cars really were doing a great job of promoting forced induction as the engine technology of the period. Of course, the company sought to capitalise on this turbocharging expertise, and many of their cars from the 1980s have gone on to be cult performance classics. Even mundane models like the Phase 1 R5 got a dose of boost. Most famously the snorting, rear-wheel drive, Maxi turbo built to enable Renault to go Group B rallying. But also the more affordable front-wheel drive variants, badged through most of the model’s life as the Gordini Turbo. These cars were at the cutting edge of road-going turbo technology for…