Also, yes I've deleted Facebook. I haven't deleted you, I've deleted me. Just for the record.

i thought you'd been quiet.

Yeah, I thought it'd be easier to just duck out quietly and avoid the blah blah exit post, but everyone thinks I've unfriended them. Meh.

So, a few updates.

Put the car through a service and MOT a few weeks back, discovered I've done less miles this year than I've ever done before, which is a bit depressing.

I did a least make it to one show this summer, though. Over at Pembrey Circuit.

I'm down to the finer details of the car now, though. I've finally ditched that battered piece of tinfoil air feed and replaced it with something a bit neater.

And I've tidied a few loose ends. So I now have an uprated headlight loom again - which is one of the best cheap mods you can do. It means I can see at night, rather than squinting at the candlelight the headlights normally put out. I've also got a dimmer for the gauges, which means they're much nicer at night too:

http://youtu.be/YZkTDwX50AI

Oh yeah, and having worried that my thermostat was stuck open on my oil cooler, it turns out I've been over-cooling the engine. So I've downgraded from a 235mm, 13-row cooler to a 235mm, 7-row cooler and it's cured the problem.

There's quite a size difference!

Finally I've decided to soften the front end slightly, moving from 275lb, 7-inch springs to 225lb, 8-inch ones. They've settled slightly higher than before but it's made the car much easier to drive on normal roads, not only riding over bumps better but cutting bump steer too. As much as the old springs were perfect for battering around a track, I rarely have the time or money to do that at the moment so a more road-ready setup is what I want.

I'm chuffed though, it's nice to have tied up a few loose ends. The car feels really well sorted, there really isn't much else that I want or need now.

Alex, how come you think you've been over cooling the engine?

It wasn't getting over 60°C on the motorway, and was barely reaching 65 in town. Think Auto said the cooler is too big for the engine, suggested downsizing to this.

There's another one on CG40 running a 13 row cooler in Portugal and that's getting the same temperatures. It's too big.

Cool stuff man, you get about a lot and to try out some awesome cars too :)

Softening the front springs for road use is a good call, I'm even softer on the front, it's pretty good to be fair, may be a bit soggy on track but it doesn't exactly take long to swap them if you want to do a track day hey. Only issue is if you'd have used shorter soft ones to go lower, it's very easy to become coilbound etc, so the 8" is a good choice :)

Looking good as always! It always nice to get the little stuff done and just enjoy using the car. I was there with my old car. I'll get there again!

Keep it up

Thanks!

Yeah the latest thing to share a driveway with the Polo is this.

It's a Tesla Model S with the P85+ pack. So that's the 312-mile battery pack with the 416bhp electric motor. Reaches 62mph in 4.2 seconds, silently and with no gear changes, and it's packed full of clever tech. So the dashboard is like a big iPad, and everything is operated through that. In turn, this means it can be updated over the air and gain new features overnight, which is pretty cool. But I liked neat features built in, like it remembers where you jacked up the air suspension or lowered it a bit, and it replicates that every time you drive down that road. So if your driveway is steep, but it's just off an epic piece of country road where you drop the suspension, it'll remember your preferences every time you go down that stretch of road. Tip of the iceberg...

Anyway, it's not sharing the driveway with anything at the moment. So I've had some time to tinker with it today, which is long overdue.

The longer springs gave me a bit of reverse rake:

As basic a job as it is to tweak ride height on coilovers, it's not a job I've ever had to do before. They were set up when I had them fitted, and corner weighted two years ago, so I've left them as they were. Thankfully nothing had seized, so I've set the front slightly lower and the rears are up about 10mm. Back to having a bit of rake, but not as low as it was.

Annoyingly this isn't the best angle to see it from, but you get the idea.

Starting to crave a second project now. E21 3 Series with a 318iS drivetrain would be nice.

Edited 27 September, 201411 yr by Alex

I love Wales.

850 miles this week. Mostly cross country, largely work related. Might have to treat the car to a wash next weekend though...

Edited 19 October, 201411 yr by Alex

Mental month, ridiculously busy. No updates on the Polo but I did get access to something pretty exclusive through Volkswagen UK.

It's the Volkswagen XL1, which is the "one litre car" that's been under development since the turn of the Millennium. The one litre referring to one litre of fuel per 100km travelled. In other words, 282mpg. This actually achieved even higher than that - 313mpg on the combined cycle. More on that later though.

As you might have worked out, it's not exactly a mainstream model. This is one of 250 which are ever going to be made, and only around 30 of those will come to the UK. This very car is one of the 50 that will be retained by Volkswagen UK. The monocoque and most of the panels are made of carbon fibre reinforced polymer, and the drivetrain is a plug-in hybrid with a two-cylinder 0.8-litre TDI engine, in the back, powering the rear wheels through a seven-speed DSG gearbox. This lot weighs 795kg and total output is 75bhp with both working in tandem, and the build process is practically done by hand as the body requires an overnight curing process for the adhesives which hold most of it together.

Every single XL1 will be left-hand drive, and the seating position is staggered to give extra shoulder room. The seats are carbon fibre, the dashboard is recycled newspaper pulp covered in vinyl and there's no power steering or motors to drop the polycarbonate windows - all attempts at saving weight. So the entire interior weighs 80kg. But the driving position is excellent, with supportive seats and a tiny heavily dished steering wheel. It does take a while to get used to the mirrors, though. They're screens on the door cards, linked to cameras on the bodywork to make it more aerodynamic.

Lots of exposed carbon fibre weave under the rear decklid! The box in the back is the charger, which is usually an on-board unit on a plug-in. Having an off-board charger saves around 20kg, apparently, and it'll fully charge in a couple of hours giving a range of around 30 miles before the diesel engine kicks in with a unique flat growl. Like most plug-in hybrids you can select whether you want full power from both units, or to prioritise electric power only engaging the engine with the kick down switch.

What you can't see is the completely flat underside, with the diffuser at the back which channels air back up into the bay, or the very narrow, very lightweight staggered BBS wheels behind the firings and flat wheel covers. It's on coilovers and has carbon-ceramic brakes, but aimed at getting the ride height perfect for aerodynamics and reducing weight rather than for any performance gains.

But what's it like to drive? Well, surprisingly normal. There's a bit of an adjustment to make in that you sit quite a long way in from the exterior edges of the car, and obviously you can't see out of the back, but it's far from difficult to adjust to and feels sportier than you might expect because you're sat so low and wrapped into the cabin. It handles well despite being on 115 and 145 profile tyres, and comes into its own at high speeds where it can decouple the motor and engine and freewheel for miles using next to no energy. Bloody brilliant.

Of course, the downside is that it's almost £100,000 as it's basically a hand-made showcase of what Volkswagen can do with technology on its side. Plus like all plug-in hybrids the claimed 313mpg will depend how you use it. If you drive 30 miles to work, plug in when you get there and then drive 30 miles back, you'll see fuel efficiency far in advance of that figure. If you spend most of your time on the diesel engine then you'll still see impressive economy, but you're not really using it right. Having the diesel engine means you can go further, though, if you want.

Interesting car.

I know it's for the aero dynamics but I wouldn't mind having one if they cut the rear wheel arch so it was normal... Not that I have 100k to spend!

Like the XL Sport?

So much want.

Yes Give me XL Sport over the other one :) What's the spec on that? surely not the same diddy oil burner?

Nope. Ducati bike engine, 200bhp. But there's only one in the world, so it's even rarer than the XL1.

Better but I was hoping for a 800BHP 5 Litre V8 !!

Congrats on your award the other night :)

Thanks man! So pleased!

V8 would be half the car's weight though haha!

Well, I haven't uploaded this in a while. I guess because I've reached an odd point in the build where it's sort of done, and I'm just tying up loose ends. This doesn't make for very interesting reading, though.

Since I last put a post up, it's had a few new bits. It turned out my old oilstat was sticking, so that's been replaced. I've also had a new clutch (I've gone back to standard), with a rear engine mount, and replaced the wideband lambda probe which snuffed it on the way to North Wales last autumn. Less positive, someone smacked the driver's side front wing late last year while it was in the garage, and put a melon-sized dent above the wheel arch. Sorting that out has been a massive pain in the arse, but it's now done - and thankfully without requiring paint.

D'you know what? I don't feel the need to do much else to this now. It's pretty complete:

Genuinely very happy with how it's turned out. I definitely prefer the feel of a standard clutch and it's not struggling with the power - the Helix was always overkill in that department - and it's a very driveable car. Good solid power without smoking the front wheels, squeal-free cornering, reassuringly positive brakes and steering, comfortable seats, and the softer springs I fitted last year have really made a big difference. It's taken the edge off the ride quality without blunting the handling, basically it feels like the suspension can actually do what it's designed for, and I don't get any bonging noises when I'm manoeuvring into parking spaces.

When I started tinkering with it, years ago, I wanted to end up with a car which fits together like it came out of the factory like that, and that's where it is now. More power, more noise, more lows, they'd all ruin that.

The trouble is, driving this car is a solitary experience. Our car seat is ISOFIX only. So the miles I do are either just aimless driving, or for work. I've insured it for business use, which means I've been able to stand out like a sore thumb at press launches with the oldest car in the car park. It does seem to go down well with other journalists though.

This week I even had the chance to take it on a Volkswagen event, for the new Sharan. So it spent a day in the car park at the InFlite terminal at Stansted Airport - ordinarily home to the ground transport of people rich enough to get shuttled around on their own private jet. Hehe!

Volkswagen also won the 'cool as shit press kit' award for this solid aluminium memory stick:

Other than that, to be honest my most memorable drives this year have been in cars I doubt anyone else on here really cares about. This was very cool:

And I'll be driving a Polo GTI next week, which I'm really looking forward to. Generation gap performance Polo pictures to come, I'm sure. Unlikely to be appearing at the Polo Social, though.

I've also booked it in for something next Friday, which I never thought I'd do. But I'll explain all next week.

Edited 19 June, 201511 yr by Alex

Shame your not at Polo Social.. but glad you got it back and getting a bit of use :)

It's a logistical headache, the Polo Social. The only way I could do it is if I call in on the Sunday, on the way to the airport for a Monday morning flight. I don't want to be there in a press car, though, and I'm swapping cars in St Albans when I get back to the UK on Tuesday. So I'd have to go from Northampton to Cardiff on Sunday afternoon, swap cars, then drive back to Stansted. It's too much.

I'd actually considered holding the GTI back for a couple of months and taking the G40 to Billing, then on to the airport, but that's a bit mean this close to delivery. So yes, I'm thinking I'll be a no-show. I ought to spend some time at home anyway!

Well, I think I've reached the point where it's done. Easy to drive, fast, fairly comfortable. It works well, and I'm tempted to leave it as it is.

This position has taken me 15 years and four months to reach, but it's good, very good.

Hmm.

Nah, common as muck. :p

Get the side repeaters on and let's see.

Edited 9 August, 201510 yr by dougstar21

I wish I could find them! It's been 14 years since I last had amber indicators, the repeaters have vanished. I'm on the lookout for a cheap (or free) set. :-)

I'm starting to warm to amber indicators now too....you guys may be onto something....