Marco polo' TOP GEAR CHALLENGE 2011
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The Idea….
Find JDM covered banger for peanuts somewhere in britain then get it back to your house all within a budget of under £450.Well today was the challenge day and what an eventfull day its been.
I found what turned out to be a Eunos presso 1.5l 4 cyl car in Noble Geen to match my Equipe on gumtree.
I made the seller an offer that he refused, he had so many tyre kickers in 2 weeks that I went back with an offer £100 LOWER than the original and he took it.
I bought 2 tickets for the train at £34 each for me + wifey from southampton to Sheffield, we were up at 5.10am took a rucksack full of food and a satnav and got a free lift to the station at 6am, took 6.10am bus due to work on lnes to eastleigh, get the 7am train easteigh to newcastle.
Take someones booked table seat then get really annoyed from birmngham new st by the fact that if you have a table seat that entitles women with children who think they are presenters on Cbeebee's can just sit next to you to play games and thomas stories even though every f*cking seat around you is empty :evil: :evil: :evil:Got to sheffield, met a car dealer called paul who picks us up to take us to the car, he explains it was a PX on a megane and will never take another one as he has had nothing but idiots offering £150 for it for over 3 mnths.
We get to the car, it is parked on a real dairy farm on the peak of a hill and go in and sit with his family for tea before we can do the deal, nice people but slightly uncomfortable to an unfriendly southerner not used to hospitalty.
Walk around on top of the montain where the farm is after seeing photos of the 4feet of snow recently and look over the car in 3" deep mud and cow sht.
Get it started after being shown how to disarm the incredibly difficult immobilser fitted to it.
Fill up with fuel, head to doncaster to surprise relatives and have some food and drink.
Hit the road 3hrs later and realise what a piece of sht a 1.5 eunos really is, the exhaust is stainless steel and sounds like its straight through, within 20 minutes we pull over to make earplugs from tissue to get rid of the loud drone at 70mph that is starting to hurt.
Find 2 added on switches that dont seem to do anything !!
No radio fitted just just the power of thought driving us in our own worlds with ours ears blocked off.
Too much salt on the roads and the wiper blades may well be made of bamboo they are that old.
Stop for food and £10 top up in the tank to guarantee getting home
Near end of M1 watch a guy in a black astra try running a mondeo off the road, looks like road rage. get closer when traffic builds up, the guy in the astra is asleep he floors it after knocking the mirror off the mondeo then suddenly every car he gets behind he gets to about 4-6ft away until the slow or brake to shake him, he swerves then does it to the next car, we follow this for 20 miles on M1 to heathrow, giving full commentry to the police, he has at least 15 near misses with other cars, scrapes a concrete barrier in the road works and puts his wipers on from the noise as we have hazards on to keep traffic back watching from the side.
On M25 he suddenly hits about 90 as the road is clear does same again to a vw polo for about 500 yards then swerves again across 2 lanes then side swipes the polo and floors it with hois wipers on again.
We get near heathrow with a trail of witnesses etc following all on their phones and the 999 woman says sorry its gone out of our area now, we cant do anything about it, keep following and we will get the next county to call you. My wife calls her a f*cking idiot and we are cut off.
The astra goes to heathrow termnal 5 and we give up as fuel is short.Get on M3 where there are no cameras and give the 1.5 engine a good licking to see what she can do and it was an impressive 71mph :roll:
Get to my yard at 7.30pm
That was 15hrs travelling and almost 900km in one day, thanks to the in laws for picking us up and doing a fry up at 8.30pm :D
All that just for some JDM goodies for my Equipe :shock:
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Now looking at it I have got some brucie bonus's
For the Equipe I have
Pair of electric folding mirrors with switch
Wraparound spoiler
JDM front lip
Stainless steel sill plates
High level brake light
Eunos badge on plinth :shock:
Stainless steel rear exhaust box - will be for sale + is very loudThe other thing I liked about that Eunos is the aircon but also the climate control was fanastic and never knew they ever had them fitted to them and wondered if they are transferable to a UK model :D
Otherwise she is the same, has the Mk2 323 interior but black seats with blue pinstripes that I have never seen before, it will be for sale again after the JDM parts removed + replaced but for a car on a farm for 3 months she got us back fine so engine is good but does eed a big service
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V jealous of the front lip. and electric mirrors, specially as some A$$hole tried to take mine off on a country lane the other day.
Guy in astra sounds nuts. glad i wasnt around for that.
Other than that sounds like a fun way to spend a day. stick some pics up of front seats if your getting rid. got some seat covers the other day but they fit like crap so would like something to replace but still a little bit different.
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Please tell us your not going to stick a Eunos badge on an Equip??
But damn nice find with them extras!
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That's some hoard of sexy JDM parts :o You must be well chuffed!
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lol @ hospitality comfort thing, me and a mate went to france cos he was looking to buy a house (he runs his own business) one of the houses we looked at we got invited in for pancakes and coffee, all with the best chinaware, i dont speak french, he speaks tourist french and the only one who speaks rough english is the agent, that was very uncomfortable. Hospitaloty is great an all, but not when you just wanna find out the deal with a car, pay and be on your way.
Not surprised at the police, happy to screw around driving patrol cars and sitting around on the side of a road, give them something to do and it wont happen, missus got pulled a fortnight back cos she pulled out of tesco underground carparking space without her lights on, turned them on when she went out from under the lights and realised she couldnt see the road, they followed her 2miles across 3 roundabouts,, then did the whole dont let it happen again, sod off and bother someone else, pillocks.
Well, you musta known this was coming…. stainless exhaust.....v6 compatible?
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Wel it certainly was a day out and was just as random as the fly to dublin to drive a car back weekend I had last year for the in laws whne they moved here again.
Could not believe the astra on the motorway it was carnage but the traffic police arent crime fighters they are just a part of the insurance process now.Loving the JDm parts now and they all seem to be in very good order even though the car isnt that great really but will sell due to its price and length of MOT.
Jesta - dont know about the exhaust I will check as it looks like a V6 box but the pipe from the box goes over the rear crossbar and is joined in front of the wheel with a U bolt and not behind with a flange + bolts.
Its certainly doesnt suit a 1.5 but I did rinse a saxo 1.4 with the same exhaust who wanted to have a go lol
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PICS :D :D
Not very good but you get the idea, it also has a seatbelt extender too, the fog light grills in pic 1 seem to be OEM too because there is no missing switch for the fogs
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Lush, thats some nice JDM right there :)
Same kick plates as me now then :)
I just need to fine new tape for mine as it's peeled off.
It's also got the tiltable seats :) bitch.
Are you still looking over it and taking images??
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@6e0cd393e7=Lori:
Lush, thats some nice JDM right there :)
Same kick plates as me now then :)
I just need to fine new tape for mine as it's peeled off.
It's also got the tiltable seats :) bitch.
Are you still looking over it and taking images??
Havent been near it after half a day in it yesterday so no more pics, japanese people are a bit more petit so dont need so much padding in the seats and those were rock hard but they are more comfortable tilted
As for tape for your kick plates I found some for £3 in japan just right for yours
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Beige-Checker-Japanese-Deco-Tape-Prime-Nakamura-/350356735518?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5192e3861e
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Aww thanks, Just need the baseball cap now then :(
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@1a186e6b84=Lori:
Aww thanks, Just need the baseball cap now then :(
Lmfao, thought you would like that one, get some made at a vinyl shop and then start selling it on ebay in america, could make a couple of punds or get yours for free
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Temped, might look at doing that tbh.. :)
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any good???
http://www.kateskates.co.uk/productdetails.html?x5=2147388961&x1=2060188475&x2=&x3=
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Custom-Yellow-Checkered-Scooter-Griptape/dp/B00474GBKI
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Too small bud, want it as close to OEM as possible, I'm getting a vinal place near me to make us some :)
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if its printed vinyl then that stuff can wear off really fast, ask them if they do a protective layer laminate
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As they are impossible to get, get the vinyl shop to make a whole sheet and sell them on fleabay especially for the eunos kickplates, they will sell well and you will get yours for free :wink:
Also as requested Lori heres a pic of the eunos in the daylight
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I do love the Eunos's, even teh dash is better tbh.
The Eunos badge on the bonnet, is that the Eunos badge you were talking about bud?
It as 100% clear side lights?.. Thats aftermarket isn't it.
OEM Eunos ones had 100% orange and UK has Orange inserts on the turn signals.
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Thanks for pointing them out :shock: :shock: I didnt realise, could be why they are hanging out lol
The eunos badge looks normal in the daylight, it looked like it had another layer under it but it does not LOL :oops:
I will also be removing the black grills from where the fog lights were as they seem to just clip to the rear of the hole :shock:
I will make a list this weekend of all the parts for sale and parts I have stripped then its up for sale again
Mirrors, front splitter (mine is broken) and the indicators will be going on mine saturday :D :D
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Nice, You can heat up the UK ones and remove the yellow inserts but it's some work.
I look forward to the list and your welcome :)
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Did it come with one of these :)
