My GT-G40

[SpikeyG40]

You are right, i was mistaken, i could have sworn my old polo had them but found a pic which shows she didn't! ah well.  A nice little mod there!

saw the car at inters, looks ace alex!

[Jake G 4 0]

Saw this at gti international on the weekend looked pretty nice.

[Alex]

Hmm. Just realised I haven't updated this in a while.

DC kicked off three weeks solid of shows - I went to GTI International a week later, and the interior got so hot that my glasses steamed up when I reached inside to grab some water.



Then the following week I had booked to go to BVF, but got invited to go to Goodwood Festival of Speed with Ford on the Friday so I went down in the Polo. We stopped off in Hook, Hants overnight to drive a few cars from Ford's heritage fleet, which was epic. Drove the last Capri ever made - a 280 Brooklands - which was a thug. I also got a chance to try a 1912 Model T.



Got up early the next day for a blast down some country lanes to Goodwood. The road to get in was a bit dusty to say the least!


Finished up at Goodwood at about 5.45, drove up to Hook to drop my mate off at his car and check my e-mails in the hotel internet lounge, then hot-footed it up to Malvern with a quick Subway stop en route. Pitched my tent at about half ten.



Epic weekend, 437 miles travelled without any issues and it's driving brilliantly.

Didn't do a great job of waxing it at BVF mind, there are a few thick patches of wax on the roof. One to sort out pre Polo Show!

[Alex]

I'd originally planned to hit Action (camping Friday and Saturday) and Edition this weekend, but work plans (albeit a trip to Korea, which is very cool) scuppered that. Popped into Edition yesterday though (I had a few people I needed to talk to), and got snapped by Si Gray, shooting for Acclr8. Love these





I'm getting married in three weeks, and with work commitments this is the end of the show season for me. Time for a major service, charger rebuild and some winter tweaks to start

[woody02]

Look awesome mate! Paint and wheels are mega

[Alex]

Confession time. Look at it:



Hardly moved since E38 - wants a service, covered in household dust (no car should ever be covered in household dust) and with the Korea trip, Frankfurt IAA, marriage/honeymoon and having a commute it's not really suited to (68 miles on the crowded A1) it's been a bit of an ornament recently. Sad times.

[Alex]

Bit of a catch-up!

I usually take whatever press car I've got that week to a launch - but a few weeks back I had a Renault driving day near Lutterworth so decided to take the G40 for a change. This happened to be after a night where I had two press cars, and because of our annoying one in, one out driveway the Polo got a night out on the road.

Oh yeah, because of our crappy one in, one out driveway, I left it out overnight the day before (parked where the Cayenne is in this pic):



Cayenne was collected first thing, and the Porsche delivery driver was loving the G40. Gotta be flattered when someone who spends their life collecting Porsches takes a shine to your 20 year old Polo

Later that day, it ended up as pretty much the only car in the car park that didn't have press fleet plates on. And I thought it looked cool reflecting the trees, so I took a pic:



Got a chance to give the Megane 265 Trophy a razz, and excellent though it is, this one's still my favourite.


Seriously - best hot hatch you can buy right now. This one's a Raider, special edition job, but the 200 Cup (no frills) is the one to have. Back seats out, cage in, yellow harnesses for the Recaros, ditch the crappy steering wheel and go enjoy it. Love it.

Then today I took it to kent - what a drive! Weather was pretty awful - hit patchy snow, sun reflecting off the soaking wet motorway and dealt with shite London driving standards too.

Got to the destination - only 100 miles - and the car had gone from near immaculate to this! (thanks to Rich @ Polo Driver for the pic!)



Drove brilliantly though, so much so that I took the long route home to put some more miles on it. Not ideal conditions with the roads being so greasy (even with the diff) but nice cold dry air makes for decent G-smiles. I nearly ran out of fuel on the way back though - whoops!

Taking it back to Cardiff after Christmas for a service, then up to the bodyshop after New Year. Then a charger rebuild in January. Busy times!

[breadman]

Stunning example.
Why does it need to go to the bodyshop in the new year Alex?

[Alex]

Last few finishing touches - couple of spots want undersealing on the underside, got to get the spoiler for the sunroof in and working (it keeps jamming on the arms, then the back lifts, I'm shitting myself about scratching the paint!) and the guys want to give the bonnet another mop. Not that it isn't immaculate as it is (click below for full size)...



As it's going to be off the road for a few weeks while I sort the charger, it makes sense if i can kill two birds with one stone then enjoy it for the rest of the year!

[Alex]

It's been a busy weekend!

Took the car to Eastcote Customs yesterday, whipped the charger off and left the rest of it with them. This meant getting a train in my workshop clothes, with a grubby and heavy box on my lap. As you do. It also meant paying £28 and £11 for a taxi for a three hour journey, recovering the distance I covered in 50 minutes in the G40. Cars 1, public transport 0.

Then today I took the charger up to Pete Mirfin's place near(ish) Sheffield for the rebuild. Always unnerving taking a charger apart but it seems to be in good shape:



Pete had a stock charger lying around, which gave me the opportunity to compare my Full Blend one to a G40 as VW intended. There's a lot of metal missing from mine - notice how much thinner the outlet vanes are, and how much has gone from the inlet (at the top).



Already looking forward to getting a shiny and fully serviced G40 back.

More news as and when...

[Alex]

So... I've been missing the car this weekend as I've not been doing much and the weather's been nice. Perfect weekend to go for a drive, but no G40 to go in. Ho hum.

Anyway, I'm thinking about wheels.

Not changing them, so much as altering them.

They've had a rebuild and refurb recently which is great, as it meant I could stick them on the car last year without feeling grumpy about kerb marks and so on against fresh paint. However, I don't really like the black centres, and I'm not so keen on the silver lips either, even though they've been done pretty well.

So the lips are getting either polished or chromed after UD. Question is what do you lot think about centre colours?

Silver?


Gold?


Grey?


Or am I wasting my time and should just get something else?

Just wondering what you think, that's all...

[AlexG40]

They look good as they are for me mate.

[SamG40]

Er something else for me Alex. Sorry! Would look good on some Compo's. :-)

[Alex]

Hehe, see I quite like the controversy.

You selling a set Sam? 

[SamG40]

Ha ha no not yet. In all fairness I'm not sure what to suggest to replace the ones you have. I know you want to do a bit of track work with it and its not just a show queen so don't want daft offsets or anything. These would be nice though....