Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i Fast Car

Don’t you just love that warm fuzzy feeling you get inside when you feel loved? Don’t worry, I’m not getting all Dear Deidre on your arse – I don’t have a clue about any of that relationship stuff. Nope, we’re talking about the warm fuzzy feeling you get after a great car show. And the other Monday morning, after our very own Car Culture Collection at TRAX, we nearly exploded with fuzziness. Once the aftersun had been applied to our foreheads and we fired up the computers, we were greeted by a torrent of emails thanking us for such a great day! It’s weird, because we didn’t expect it, mainly because we are the ones who feel we should be saying thank you to the car owners and punters for…

It’s almost impossible to fathom just how immaculate this A3 is. It really has to be seen, and seen with your own eyes, to be believed. The thing is though, here at FC, it’s our job to show you the world’s best motors exactly as they appear in real life. We use the finest photographers and art boys in the business to capture, in pain-staking detail, just how amazing these cars are and translate that onto the page. Every ride in FC should be as gob-smacking in the mag as it is on the street, no more, no less. That’s how it works. It may sound simple, but in this case it’s not. Now, you might be thinking this particular German cruiser looks unbelievable and the shoot is stunning and,…

JD Wraps We’ve featured a few motors that the lads at JD have worked on and it’s fair to say they’re one of the best in the business. There are plenty of wrapping companies about these days, but be warned – they aren’t all great. JD are though, so be sure to check them out on Facebook if you want your own car sorted out. Sometimes in life you’ve got to make a brave move to get noticed. Take Ben Henderson’s wicked slammed Fezzy for example. Some lads wouldn’t dream of rocking around in a bright pink motor. But not our mate Ben! He sticks two fingers up at the norm and does what he wants to make his Fiesta the talk of the town! After a fateful trip to…

It’s 7am. You’re just setting up at a show. The last thing you want to be doing is sweating away buffing off wax residue, right? So what do you do? There are many products on the market that claim to make life easy in the show and shine department. Some are great. Others are, well, a bit shit. Traditionally hard waxes are good for protection, but require serious effort. Quick detailers are just the job for light cleaning, but don’t offer any great protection. So, come show time, you’re probably looking to break out the spray wax. The trouble is spray waxes can be a bit hit and miss. Just to make a wax mist effectively takes some serious engineering, and that’s why plenty simply don’t work that well. At…

Hardcore bass heads know his name. Yet Steve Meade was stoked when we sent top snapper Connor Surdi through the sky to photograph the install that changed his life and made him a bigger YouTuber than Top Gear – for years. (He’s still in the YouTube global top 10, on his own, with no production company.) I met him two CESes ago and at last nailed him with an interview on camera about the legend that is The Most Famous Car Audio System The World Will Ever See. Nothing will ever catch up with this……

Don’t worry, we’ve not gone all Woman’s Own on your arses. We’re not about to suggest you rock up to the local Zumba class and start shaking your booty like a Polaroid picture. Heaven forbid. Nope, what we’re interested in is finding that perfect weight-loss programme for your motor, to improve handling and performance. Not something you’re gonna hear too much about at the next Slimming World meeting. It’s definitely an important part of optimising your engine’s tuning though, because, when you think about it, shedding excess pounds does exactly the same thing for your steed as adding horse power. And God knows we’ve all spent plenty of cash over the years trying to gain a bit of extra grunt on our projects. So obviously there’s nothing else for it.…

So we’ve sorted the stance with some tasty Rotas, super-sticky Toyo rubber and a rather substantial drop on BC racing coilovers. And I have to say, we’ve been enjoying running the Japfest Scooby around for the past month. There was one thing we needed, to make life a whole load better though, and that was to fit some decent audio. Now what’s hard, is remembering it’s not our car. Everyone is different and the new owner may not want us cramming loads of subs and amps in the boot. They may be looking for something a bit more lightweight and track inspired. One thing’s for sure though, the aging single DIN-headunit had to go and we had to address the disturbing lack of bass – after all, you just don’t…

TRAX has always been the end of show season event. It’s tradition. But because of some cock-up to do with men who wear leather, race bikes and polish their helmets, TRAXs had to be moved to July. This obviously caused a fair bit of upheaval at the time, but as the tyre dust settled over Silverstone and the aftersun was applied (you don’t get that in September), it became apparent that the date change hadn’t affected the show at all. It was a corker! TRAX started as a club meeting over 20 years ago and has grown into one of the largest performance car events in the UK. But the core of the show is still very much based around the thousands of dedicated club cars that fill every inch…

ALL THE LATEST GEAR FROM TRAX As you can see from the monster show report over on page 20, we had a wicked time at TRAX. In fact, the only trouble we had was fitting it all into one gloriously sunny Sunday. Half the fun for us, and we’re sure for plenty of you lot too, was perusing the ram-packed trade village where the cream of the UK industry were out in force showing off all their latest gear. So, with that in mind, we thought it only wise to dedicate this month’s product pages to showing you as many of our favourite bits and pieces as humanly possible. Normal service will be resumed next month folks, but in the meantime, just check out this lot… AEM WATER/METHANOL INJECTION, FROM…

Features • A2DP Bluetooth streaming • Auto Reconnect • 11M Bluetooth range Connectivity is one of those audio buzzwords that gives manufacturers, not to mention annoying journalists like myself, some interesting 21st century tech to bang on about. That’s doesn’t mean it’s not relevant though. Nowadays most of us keep our entire music library on our phone, so it’s a natural progression that we want access to all those downloaded files in our cars. Times have certainly changed and there’s no denying the prospect of choosing from an infinite number of songs is much better than listening to that same CD over and over again because we can’t be arsed to change it. Many of the latest headunits do connectivity very well, but it comes with the trade-off that the…

Ihaven’t physically bumped into Ashley in a good few years, five or six in fact. And in that time he’s not only gained more tats and a rather epic beard and moustache combo, but built this stonker of a drop-top Beemer too. Where does the time go eh? You see, back in the day, when Ash was about 20, I remember him knocking about Swansea (not to mention all the shows) in one super-smooth, DIY-built Citroën C2. At the time he was one of the first preaching a more traditional Euro-style outlook in deepest, darkest Wales, before it became such a universal scene staple. He said to me once that the whole smooth and subtle movement may be directly inspired by the past but it’s the future of modifying. It…

COLUM MCGRADY’S GLANZA FC Says : You’re more likely to fi nd a pile of hen’s teeth nestling in an even bigger pile of rocking horse shite than you are a Glanza rocking around the UK streets nowadays. Still, it’s not just the rarity value that makes Colum’s here special – it’s the ridiculously well-chosen selection of mods that pushes this one into the stratosphere! That said, the immaculate paintwork and slick hoops only tells one side of the modding story because under the bonnet there’s 170-raging horses baying to be let loose… and all that’s from Toyota’s keyring-sized 1.3-litre lump. Bonkers stuff. No doubt that HKS Screamer makes it sound exactly as mad as it looks too. That’s some seriously nice work right there! TECHSPEC TOYOTA GLANZA TOP MODS:…

WEDDING SNAPS As you get older you’ll find it seems like all your mates (and brothers – Midge) eventually all become adults and tie the knot. But not the FC crew. Nope, we’ve promised to never grow up. We still manage to amuse ourselves at all these weddings though. Midge likes to pretend he’s an expert by checking out the motors and, from this cheeky snap, it looks suspiciously like Jules and Glenda like to check out each other. Always the bridesmaids, never the brides those two. No idea why. FC CRIBS You know how on MTV’s Cribs they always seem to rifle through everyone’s fridges? Well we thought we’d take a sneaky peek into the homes of the FC crew. First up is the little fella who’s fridge, while…

Waking up at 6am on a mid-summer Sunday is not most people’s idea of fun. But when you’re getting up that early to head to Wilton House in Salisbury to see a collection of some of the world’s most exclusive and expensive supercars, then we’ll make an exception. With everything from the Back to The Future DeLorean to five Bugatti Veyrons and classic GT40s to a Le Mans Bentley LMP1, there was something for everyone to admire. The standard of cars was, as to be expected, exceptional. And to get up close and personal to a Pagani Huayra, Koenigsegg Agera One:1, Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari and McLaren P1 all parked together was just an absolute dream. Talk about a bit of posh! The journey home was spent trying to decide…

Very few cars command quite as much respect and adoration from their fans as the Honda Civic Type R. That last letter. A single, seemingly insignificant little letter. Makes all the difference. It’s what lifts an otherwise so-so, utterly worthy yet utterly dull hatchback, and turns it into one of the finest hot hatches to ever emerge from the land of the rising sun. (Well, that and a comprehensively re-worked chassis and a certain manic VTEC motor). Of course, we’ve long known about the charms of the Type R range. Indeed the UK fell for these cars and fell for them in a big way. So much so that Honda took the plunge and had them all built right here in Blighty! This all adds up to a potent mix.…

VIBE CVEN 12-INCH WOOFER, £225 As usual the bods from VIBE Audio laid on a unique eardrum destroying display at TRAX, including their famous Bass Tunnel Lorry and a whole load of bass-heavy demo cars. As for the top products on display though, one exciting new edition to their range is this brand-spanking CVEN 12-incher. Info is limited at the time of writing (we’ll bring you a full-on review when we’ve got our mitts on one), but there’s no denying it’s a properly mental bit of kit. The key to its undeniable awesomeness is that it’s a bona fide, reference-quality subwoofer. But it’ll also handle some serious SPL levels too – over 2,100watts of power to be exact. We’ve heard it in action and we can confirm the sound quality…

You don’t have to go very far back to find a time when SEATs weren’t exactly the most celebrated and coveted of cars. The Spanish concern carved itself a reputation for building cheap, utilitarian hatchbacks with Fiat mechanicals and distinctly odd styling. Chances are, the only time you saw them in any number was on a summer trip to the Costa Del Sol. You probably don’t need us to tell you those days are long gone and, thanks to a little help from VW, SEAT now produce a range of great cars and some of the best hot hatches of the past 10 years. Those same solid, dependable VAG mechanicals mean there’s a wealth of stuff out there for SEAT owners wishing to make their cars that bit faster or…

I’d like to say my Air Lift kit is nestled sweetly under the arches and I’ve spent the last month bouncing up and down like a pornstar’s botty. But if I said that I’d be lying. Yep, unfortunately life, work and silver Subarus have gotten in the way a bit over the past few weeks, so I’m nowhere near showing you anything meaningful on the install front. Don’t worry though, I’ve thoroughly slapped myself on the wrist and, as soon as it stops pissing down, I’ll be out there on the drive getting it sorted. That’s not to say it’s all bad news for the TT though. I did spend all of 15 minutes online ordering some new plates, not to mention another two minutes sticking ’em on. It’s pretty…

If you saw last month’s projects, you’ll know I was extremely excited to receive a big package from Italian brake gods Tarox. It contained my new 6-pot callipers and 284mm discs. Well this month was even better. Why? Well because I got to fit them to the AX down at Ramp It Up in Bristol. The kit I opted for is something Tarox call a ‘Sports Compact Kit’. This is a set up designed for smaller and lighter cars, like my little AX GT. You get solid alloy billet B280-6 6-pot callipers, suitable for road and racing use on light cars under 1050kg (my AX is a real lightweight at under 700kg). But the kit uses high-carbon, heat-treated, single piece discs from Tarox’s popular OEM range to keep the price…

Appearances can be deceptive. And nothing proves it quite so acutely as this 1958 Chevy Stepside. It’s easily one of the coolest things you’ll ever see on the UK streets, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s ‘low and slow’ all the way – nothing could be further from the truth. What’s extremely clever is how this one looks so hardcore in such an agricultural way. It’s Cabin Fever scary. You just wouldn’t mess with it even though nothing on the outside even hints at what’s under the hood. And believe me there’s plenty there too. What we have here is a genuine American muscle truck, a hot-rod with 6.3-litres of V8 powerplant and enough Holley and Edelbrock trimmings to lay on a sub six-second 0-60 party piece and wipe…

FEATURE CARS: 600bhp Focus RS LS-Powered RX-7 650bhp Twin Turbo 350Z Boosted Clio Epic Evo 160.1dB T5 Van SPECIAL FEATURES: TORQUE VS BHP We put an end to the argument for once and all, as we find out what’s more important! Don’t miss this one. BLOODHOUND We go behind the scenes as the 1000mph record attempt car hits the final build stage! 50,000 BHP INSIDE We head to the UK’s most powerful garage! SHOWS: SCOTTISH CAR SHOW A car show in Scotland, and a bloody good one it was too! JAPFEST2 We hit Rockingham for some Orimental action. PLUS: Product tests, Fast Projects, and loads more *Subject to change, because that’s how we roll. ** We’re definitely not wearing Lycra (except for Midge. Midge loves Lycra).…